Christian Persecution Worse Than Any Time in History

[Berean]

CP CURRENT PAGE: WORLD | FRIDAY, JULY 26, 2019

Nigeria: Terrorists release video of 6 kidnapped Christian aid workers begging for lives


By Leah MarieAnn Klett, Christian Post Reporter | Friday, July 26, 2019




Charity group Action Against Hunger confirmed on 25 July 2019 that six aid workers had been kidnapped in northeast Nigeria. | amkareto/Twitter.


Islamist insurgents in Nigeria have released a video of six Christian aid workers begging for their lives after being kidnapped by a jihadist group in a raid last week.



In the three-minute video, a woman who identifies herself as Grace, sits alongside five men, who she describes as her colleagues from the humanitarian group Action Against Hunger, which provides food aid to poor communities around the world.



“I beg Nigeria and our organization Action Against Hunger to please do something and see that we are released,” she says. “All six of us are staff. We have families, some of us have children. Please do something to release us. I am begging on behalf of all of us here, Nigeria should not allow [us to be killed.]”



The Paris-based charity confirmed on Twitter that a staff member, two drivers and three health workers working for a local ACF program were seen in the video.



In a statement, the group said it "demands the liberation of its staff member and her colleagues.”



"These are humanitarian workers who chose to devote their lives to helping the most vulnerable communities in Nigeria and they are only motivated by the values of solidarity, humanity and neutrality," it added. “Their abduction fully contradicts International Humanitarian Law and internationally recognized standards for the protection of humanitarian workers and organizations.”



The six aid workers went missing after a July 19 attack on a convoy near the town of Damasak in the northeastern state of Borno in which one driver was killed. Boko Haram, the Islamic State’s West Africa branch, is believed to be responsible for the attacks. The hostages are believed to be held in the ISWAP enclave on the shores of Lake Chad in the far north of Nigeria.



“We are deeply saddened by this tragic incident as these are colleagues dedicated to providing life-saving assistance to individuals and families affected by the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the northeast of Nigeria. We are very concerned and want to ensure that they are safe and can be reunited with their families," Action Against Hunger said.



In the video, Grace cites the plight of Leah Sharibu; the Christian schoolgirl kidnapped by Boko Haram; and Alice Ngaddah, a Christian mother-of-two kidnapped in a separate attack.



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“Nigeria cannot do anything about them, [Boko Haram] will not release but will also kill,” she says.



More than 27,000 people have been killed in northeast Nigeria since Boko Haram's insurgency began in 2009, and nearly 2 million others have been forced to flee their homes.



The latest attack comes nine months after Boko Haram militants executed a Red Cross aid worker who was kidnapped from another town in northeastern Nigeria in March 2018.



In April 2014, the group kidnapped about 276 schoolgirls from the mostly Christian town of Chibok, Nigeria. While over 100 of the Chibok schoolgirls have been released, about 112 others are still missing.



Nigeria ranks as the 12th worst nation in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to the Open Doors 2019 World Watch List.


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[Berean]

Christian Relatives of North Korean Defector Killed for Sharing Gospel


07/27/2019 North Korea (International Christian Concern) – At the State Department’s religious freedom ministerial last week, a North Korean defector shared what it’s like to live as a Christian in North Korea, telling President Donald Trump and about the execution of his cousin’s family for sharing the Gospel.



Illyong Ju was one of the nearly 30 survivors of religious persecution who met with the president at the White House last Wednesday. They got to share their testimonies and stories at the government-sponsored annual event.



Ju’s parents decided to defect to South Korea in order for them to freely practice their belief. For a period of several years in the 2000s, one by one, his family members were able to escape the totalitarian state and settle in Seoul.



His Christian relatives, on the other hand, were not as fortunate. His aunt’s entire family was thrown into a political prison camp just because her aunt’s father-in-law was a Christian.



“It was my cousin’s family, they were all executed for sharing the Gospel,” Ju added.



Three leaders of the church who were responsible for spreading gospel in North Korea were also sent to the notorious political prison camps.



Despite being imprisoned and tortured for their faith, Ju said Christian activities are still happening inside prison camps. His defector coworker once told him how she kept her faith going and evangelized several others when she was imprisoned in North Korea.



For the last 18 years, North Korea has topped the list as the worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA’s World Watch List.


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[Berean]

Christians being ‘harassed’ in over 100 countries, major report confirms

1 day ago Religious LibertyWorld





A new report into religious restrictions around the world confirms that Christians are being harassed in dozens of countries worldwide.



US think-tank Pew Research Center corroborated similar reports on persecution, finding that Christians face challenges and threats for their beliefs in 143 nations. The suffering covered by “harassment” ranged from verbal abuse to physical violence and killings.



Release International, which specifically supports persecuted Christians, welcomed the report but added that the current situation is even worse in China and North Korea than indicated by the report.



Beaten

Pew found that in 2017, sources in 187 countries reported harassment against all religious groups. The most harassed group after Christians were Muslims, followed by Jews.



The overall figure remained unchanged from 2016, when the figures were at their highest since the study began in 2007.



Considering examples from the previous ten years, it highlighted that in Uganda “Christians were beaten and three were killed for religious reasons in Muslim-majority areas in 2015”.



“The same year, three children were kidnapped because of their father’s conversion from Islam to Christianity. And in 2016, several incidents of violence against converts were reported, including a woman whose husband strangled her to death for leaving Islam.”



‘Behind the times’

Release, which supports Christians around the world, said the breadth of the US report meant it was now “behind the times”.



“From our own findings, we would say that insufficient emphasis is placed on the growing restrictions in China and the severe persecution of Christians in North Korea.”



Paul Robinson, CEO of the group, added that the year after the research stopped, “China imposed even tougher new restrictions to clamp down on Christians in their country. As a consequence, the persecution levels in China are even higher than this research reveals.”



Boris Johnson

Robinson has called on new Prime Minister Boris Johnson to stand by Theresa May’s Government’s commitment on Christian persecution.



He said Release was “encouraged by this pledge to take the protection of Christians into the very heart of government policy”.



Robinson added: “We were also delighted by your own recent pledge to ‘prioritise protecting religious freedoms and stand up for those facing persecution’.”



In the House of Commons on Thursday, Mr Johnson agreed that he would fight Christian persecution worldwide. He was responding to a question from Eddie Hughes, the Conservative MP for Walsall North.




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[J.J.Gibbs]

Christians in Colombia Seen by Gangs, Drug Cartels as ‘Enemy to Be Eradicated’

By Evangelical Focus on August 2, 2019





(Evangelical Focus) — Colombia celebrated its independence on July 20. However, freedom remains a distant dream for many Colombian Christians.



This year alone, Christians in Buenaventura, Colombia have seen eight violent attacks against Christians, two churches shattered, one murder and multiple cases of threats, extortion and abuse.



Due to its strategic position as a port with easy access to forests and fertile lands, Buenaventura has become one of the most desirable territories for paramilitary groups, guerrilla groups, criminal gangs and human trafficking leaders. …



Pastor Harold Arias, leader of the Salvation Door Church, confirmed to Latin American news website Evangelico Digital that armed groups, guerrillas, militiamen, criminal gangs and drug cartels “see the church as an enemy to be eradicated, because, due to the preaching and courageous action of pastors, many youth have renounced armed conflict and illegal operations.”


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[J.J.Gibbs]

Young Christian Boy Beaten to Death by Muslim Employer

08/01/2019 Pakistan (International Christian Concern) – Badil, a ten-year-old Christian Pakistani boy, was working at factory to care for his mother and two brothers, was raped and tortured by his Muslim employers before he finally died on July 10, 2019.



His employers, Mohammed Akram and Irfan, were arrested in Sargodha after being charged with his murder on 14th July, 2019 in Rasheedabad, Faisalabad.



Badil’s father, Shahzad Masih, is a drug addict who drained the family financially trying to feed his addiction. His mother, Sharifa Bibi, works as a maid earning only 3500 Pak rupees every month – a very meager salary. Badil, being the oldest of three children, recognized the hardship at home and decided to find a job. As such, as soon as his school, United Presbyterian School in Essa Nagri, ended, he found the job with Akram. He worked for Mr. Akram, as a scrap metal dealership for 100 Pakistan rupees a day – less than one dollar. He had barely worked for Mr. Akram for ten days before the incident happened.



Getting to work and the work requirements were definitely difficult for a ten-year-old boy. He had to walk half a kilometer to work, and work from 9am to about 7pm before he returned home.



Two days before the murder, he came home extremely late with only half of what he was required to be paid. His mother instructed him to stop going to work because he was being cheated, but he persisted, knowing that his meager income could go a long way to help the family.



On the morning of the incident on July 9, 2019, he went to work with his brother, Moon, who was willing to assist him with some of his tasks. By the end of the day, Badil informed his employers that he will not be coming to work the next day because he was not being paid well. In what seemed like a wild-goose chase to Moon, who narrated the story to Pakistani Christian Post, Badil was finally caught and beaten up by Akram and Irfan for saying he was not no longer coming to work.



His almost lifeless body was left at his house and even though by the time Sharifa his mum saw him that evening, he was still alive, he passed away at the Intensive Care Unit at dawn – too battered to recover.



Please join ICC as we pray for Badil’s family, their recovery and the Christian community.

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[maybetoday]

Horror as ISIS kills 250 Christian children by KNEADING them to death in bread machine

By FireSideChat
THANKS TO NY POST FOR HAVING THE DECENCY TO POST WHAT EVERYONE ELSE IGNORES.



“Whoever denies me before men, I will also deny them before heaven” -Last words of George Assaf before he was murdered by ISIS for the crime of being a Christian.



According to one ISIS survivor in Syria, Christian children were kneaded to death in bread machines, the rotating machines breaking their bones and crushing their young bodies for no crime except being Christian.



This story has been told by Alice Assaf whose son was beaten then shot by ISIS because he refused to change his first name from the Christian “George.”



Assaf told a reporter how ISIS turned a bakery into a death shop of horrors, putting children into machines for kneading dough and turning them on to crush the hapless kids inside. Men were baked to death inside ovens.




“We heard that the militants grabbed six strong men working at the bakery and burned them inside the oven. We knew them,” Assaf told Dr. Yvette Isaac, who works for the advocacy group, according to the UK Mirror.



“After that, they caught some 250 kids and kneaded them like dough in the bakery dough machine,” Assaf said, according to media reports. “They were put in the dough mixer, they were kneaded. The oldest one of them was four-years-old.”



ISIS transported hundreds of girls to the city of Douma, which has been at the center of the Syrian civil war, to be slaughtered. ISIS has been systematically killing non-Muslims, and the majority of its victims at the time were Christian.



Their crime was merely Christianity and it echoes other horrific stories told across the rest of Syria and Iraq. The terrorists remain notorious for their brutality, for it is not enough to merely kill people, the killings must be performed in the most horrific manner so as to terrorize others.



Two years ago, ISIS terrorists took over Assaf’s town in Syria. Alice Assaf told her son George to hide and arranged for him to be hidden by friendly Muslims. However, the family betrayed George and he was captured. His mother had pleaded with him to change



FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE CLICK link

[Honoria]

Boko Haram Executes Two Christian Aid Workers in Nigeria

Morning Star News Nigeria Correspondent | Morning Star News | Monday, September 30, 2019

Boko Haram Executes Two Christian Aid Workers in Nigeria



#Nigeria #Boko Haram #world #top headlines #christian persecution

JOS, Nigeria, September 30, 2019 (Morning Star News) – Islamic extremist group Boko Haram released a video last week showing the execution of two Christian aid workers in Nigeria, sources said.



Lawrence Duna Dacighir and Godfrey Ali Shikagham, both members of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) in Plateau state, are shown kneeling while three masked, armed men stand behind them in a video posted Sept. 22 on Boko Haram's Amaq news agency site. The two young men, who had gone to Maiduguri to help build shelters for people displaced by Islamic extremist violence, are then shot from behind.



Speaking in the Hausa language, the middle one of the three terrorists says in the video that they have vowed to kill every Christian they capture in revenge for Muslims killed in past religious conflicts in Nigeria. Dacighir and Shikagham, originally from Plateau state’s Mangu County, were captured by Boko Haram, now called the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), as they carried out their work in displaced persons camps.



Ethnic and religious tensions resulted in large-scale clashes between Muslims and Christians in Jos in 2001 and 2008.



It is not clear from the video, temporarily posted on YouTube, when the two men were executed. Their identities were confirmed by a relative, the Rev. John Pofi, a COCIN pastor.



Pastor Pofi, a cousin of the two executed Christians, told Morning Star News in a text message statement also shared with others that the two Plateau state natives had gone to Maiduguri from Abuja.



“Lawrence and Godfrey left Abuja for Maiduguri in search of opportunities to utilize their skills for the betterment of humanity and paid with their lives,” Pofi said. “We will never get their corpses to bury. The community will have to make do with a makeshift memorial to these young lives cut short so horrifically.”



If the federal government had created economic opportunities for those tempted to join extremist groups and had returned security to the country, his cousins would not be dead now, Pastor Pofi said.



“We must ask ourselves if this is the kind of country we want where young men who are earning an honest living are brutally killed while those who abduct and kill others are invited to dialogue with government and paid handsomely,” he said.



In a letter last week to the United Nations secretary general, attorney Emmanuel Ogebe of the U.S.-Nigeria Law Group, a legal consulting firm with an emphasis on human rights, expressed concern that the Nigerian government did not condemn the killing of the two men even though they were helping to provide shelter for displaced Nigerians.



“Lawrence and Godfrey ... were using their skills to provide a basic human need of shelter to others when they were killed,” Ogebe stated. “Your excellency, we wish to draw your urgent attention to the fact that taken together with the execution of aid worker Hauwa Liman (ICRC) this time last year, the recorded number of aid workers slaughtered by terrorists in Nigeria over the past decade is now in excess of 40.”


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[schwartzie]

October 19, 2019

Minnesota persecutes Christian couple

By Scot Wolf

Carl and Angel Larsen live in St. Cloud, Minnesota. They are an openly Christian couple who operate Telescope Media Group, a video production company. Their website proclaims: "Telescope Media Group exists to glorify God through top-quality media production. As much as it depends on us, we aim to make God look more like He really is through our lives, business, and actions. We want to magnify Christ like a telescope."





Carl and Angel Larsen



They want to expand into making wedding videos and movies. In keeping with their mission statement, they want to glorify God by focusing only on God-pleasing marriages. Since God defines homosexual acts as sinful in the Bible, these relationships cannot be God-pleasing. The Larsens should have the freedom to choose their clients in a way that fulfills their business plan. (Note: The Larsens are making no attempts to get homosexual relationships banned or force their religious views on others.)



Minnesota disagrees and is using the power of the state to persecute the Larsens and other Christians.



Minnesota's Democrat attorney general, Keith Ellison, has interpreted the state's Human Rights Act to mandate that the Larsens also make films celebrating homosexual same-sex "marriages." Penalties include payment of a civil penalty to the state, triple compensatory damages, punitive damages of up to $25,000, a criminal penalty of up to $1,000, and even up to 90 days in jail. No exemptions for religious freedom.



The Larsens sued Minnesota in federal court for this violation of their constitutional rights. Minnesota eagerly accepted the legal challenge.



Court records reveal the zeal Minnesota has used to force homosexual "weddings" on the citizenry — even setting up sting operations against Christians. "It has even employed 'testers' to target noncompliant businesses, and it has already pursued a successful enforcement action against a wedding vendor who refused to rent a venue for a same-sex wedding [sic]." (The large Somali Muslim community has not been targeted by Ellison to date. Ellison is a Muslim.)



Minnesota won the first round. Minneapolis U.S. district judge John Tunheim (appointed by Clinton) ruled against the Larsens.



The Larsens won round two. On appeal, a three-judge panel on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Larsens. Judges David Stras (Trump appointee) and Bobby E. Shepherd (W. Bush appointee) ruled for the Larsens; Judge Jane Kelly (Obama appointee) ruled against the Larsens.



Rather than accept this loss, or appealing to the Supreme Court, A.G. Keith Ellison has filed a new case in federal court against the Larsens. This begins to look like lawfare, with Ellison using the massive resources of a state government to force a small business to either surrender or be bankrupted with legal costs. The Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the Larsens to help reduce the massive legal costs.



Notice that every Democrat-appointed judge ruled to create a constitutional compulsion to force video artists to create content they do not believe in, while every Republican-appointed judge ruled in favor of religious freedom. (The Constitution is silent on sexual orientation.)



The Larsens' case offers insight with respect to the positions taken by the national political parties.



The current Minnesota government is hostile to religious freedom for Christians and freedom in general.



Numerous Republican-led states filed court briefs in support of the Larsens. Numerous states with Democrat governments filed court briefs supporting Minnesota.



Did Minnesotans realize they were electing an attorney general who would spend tax dollars seeking out and targeting Christian businesses who did not want to participate in homosexual "weddings"?



If Minnesota's government can force a Christian couple to participate in homosexual ceremonies against their will, can it force pastors to perform the homosexual "weddings"? This is a grave danger to religious freedom.


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[PurplePuppy]

Chinese authorities raided church, forcibly removed members, moments before demolition

Caleb ParkeBy Caleb Parke | Fox News




NBA-China controversy is 'disturbing' lesson on Chinese leverage, FCC chair warns

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai warns China can use its leverage on a much larger scale to threaten global security.



Authorities in China forcibly removed Christians and arrested several faith leaders gathered at a state-recognized church that suddenly was deemed "illegal" by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), moments before it was demolished, according to a Chinese persecution watchdog.



Around 1,000 Chinese personnel, including police officers, carried out a raid at the True Jesus Church in the province of Henan, forcibly removing congregants -- including two elderly members who were injured in the incident and had to be taken to the hospital -- before excavators began demolishing the church worth roughly $1.4 million, Bitter Winter, a religious liberty magazine focused on China, reported.

Full story with pictures and video at link.

[PurplePuppy]

This is a different one.


China destroys 3,000-seat church, detains pastors




By Michael Gryboski, Christian Post Reporter| Monday, October 21, 2019Facebook Twitter Email Print Menu Comment



Chinese government officials tear down a 3,000-seat church located in Anhui province in October 2019, according to the human rights group ChinaAid. | Facebook/China Aid

The People’s Republic of China destroyed a church that reportedly could seat 3,000 people and detained its pastors, according to a human rights organization.



China Aid, an international nonprofit Christian human rights group based in Texas, reported the incident in a statement released Saturday. According to the group, Chinese authorities provided no legal papers to justify the demolition.



The church was located in Funan, Anhui province. Its pastors, Geng Yimin and Sun Yongyao, were detained under suspicion of “gathering a crowd to disturb social order.”



China Aid President Bob Fu said in a statement that the incident was “yet another clear example showing the escalation of religious persecution today by the Chinese Communist regime.”



“The total disregard of religious freedom's protection as enshrined in the Communist Party's own Constitution tells the whole world President Xi is determined to continue his war against the peaceful Christian faithful. This campaign will surely fail in the end,” he continued.



While China’s persecution of religious groups has existed for many years, recently under President Xi Jinping a wave of crackdowns on religious practices in China has taken place.



The Communist government has destroyed or damaged several churches, reflecting concerns about the increasing Christian population of the country.



In the summer, True Jesus Church in Henan province was razed to the ground, according to persecution watchdog Bitter Winter. Police officers reportedly dragged out all believers from the church before they demolished the property.



Bitter Winter also reported last month that the Ten Commandments have been removed from nearly every Three-Self church and meeting venue in a county of Luoyang city and replaced with the President Xi Jinping’s quotes as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to “sinicize” Christianity.



In addition to cracking down on its Christian minority, China has engaged in violent persecution of its Uighur Muslim and Falun Gong communities.



The China Tribunal, a human rights group, told the United Nations Human Rights Council last month that the Chinese government is harvesting organs from religious minorities, with possibly hundreds of thousands of victims.



“Forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience, including the religious minorities of Falun Gong and Uighurs, has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale, and that it continues today. This involves hundreds of thousands of victims,” explained China Tribunal lawyer Hamid Sabi to the UNHRC.



“Victim for victim and death for death, cutting out the hearts and other organs from living, blameless, harmless, peaceable people constitutes one of the worst mass atrocities of this century."


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[bloodbought]

Cameroon: Bible translator murdered in his home as civil war rages on

By Samuel Smith, CP Reporter| Thursday, October 24, 2019Facebook Twitter Email Print Menu Comment



Bible translator Benjamin Tem was killed in October 2019 in his home in the Wum area of Cameroon. | Aghem Bible Translation Project

A second Bible translator has been killed by suspected Fulani extremists in the civil war-ridden Anglophone region in southern Cameroon this week, a ministry source has confirmed.



Bible translator Benjamin Tem was murdered in his home in the Wum region Sunday night, reports Efi Tembon, a Cameroonian activist who heads a ministry called Oasis Network for Community Transformation.



According to Tembon, who met the victim while working on a translation project in 2013, Tem served as a Scripture engagement facilitator for the Aghem Bible Translation Project, which completed a New Testament translation in the Aghem language in 2016.



Tem, 48, was also a promoter of Bible listening groups in the Wum area. He was buried on Monday and leaves behind five children.



No one has claimed responsibility Tem’s murder. However, Tembon told The Christian Post that locals have blamed Fulani radicals, saying they have been encouraged by government actors to carry out attacks against separatist-supporting farming communities in southern Cameroon.



Fulani herders in Africa have long butted heads with farmers over land rights to graze cattle.



“He was attacked last night by people suspected to be pro-government Fulani herdsmen,” Tembon told friends on Facebook. “They butchered him and cut his throat.”



Tem’s death comes two months after fellow translator Angus Fung, who also served in the Aghem Bible Translation Project in Wum, was killed in a similar fashion in his home.



According to Tembon, Fulani attackers have killed at least two dozen people and burned several houses in the Wum area alone.



“I think our authorities have actually been working with the Fulanis,” said Tembon, who regularly travels to world capitals to urge the international community to push for an end to the bloodshed and human rights abuses in Cameroon.



“There is a war of independence going on in the area and so the local population supports independence for southern Cameroon. And these attacks toward the local population is not just by Fulanis, the military is also attacking and burning homes. So the military is working hand-in-hand with the Fulanis. They have actually armed some Fulanis to help them fight the local population.”



Tembon accused the government of trying to “inject a religious aspect to the conflict.”



“[T]hey know that the Fulanis are Muslim and the local population tends to be Christians,” he said. “And so trying to create a conflict will create chaos in the area.”



According to the Joshua Project, the Aghem community in Wum is 75 percent Christian.



Since Tem’s death, residents have fled the area, much like other local populations that have come under attack. Tembon assured that “attacks are taking place far and wide” in Southern Cameroon.



“All the areas where attacks have been carried out have been deserted,” Tembon stressed. “Now the Fulanis will graze and try to take advantage of the chaos and take over the land.”



According to the United Nations, at least 700,000 people have been internally displaced in Cameroon amid the violence over the past two years.



Many in the Aghem area have either fled their villages into other bigger towns or fled out of Cameroon into Nigeria.



“In Wum, the military has killed more than the Fulanis,” Tembon said. “They have killed hundreds of people.”



In August, Fung, a 60-year-old Bible translator, was hacked to death by suspected Fulani radicals in Wum, where he and his wife were attacked in their home at night. While Fung was killed, his wife, Eveline, had her hand chopped off.



According to Tembon, Mrs. Fung left the hospital earlier this month.



“We are trying to get her to another hospital for just a checkup,” he said. “We also got some contributions, which I'm trying to send to her so she can move. We're going to move her to a safe location after she goes for a checkup in this other hospital.”



In the spring, Tembon reported that Pastor Elijah Koh, a graduate of Cameroon Baptist Theological Seminary in Ndu, was killed during a military invasion in the Mfumte area.



The Anglophone conflict, also known as the Ambazonia War, began in 2016 when separatists demanded autonomy because they felt underrepresented by the majority-French-speaking central government. In 2017, Anglophone territories in the Northwest and Southwest declared their independence. Since then, fighting has spread across the Anglophone regions.



Church leaders in Cameroon have called for the release of Catholic humanitarian leader Paul Njokikang who was arrested on Sunday and reportedly sent to a torture camp near Bamenda.



Njokikang addressed the United Nations Security Council in April, where he detailed the horrifying humanitarian conditions amid Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis and human rights abuses carried out by the government and separatist fighters.



“Father Paul represents a moderate Anglophone voice in an increasingly polarized conflict. The international community must demand his unconditional release,” United Kingdom Parliament member David Alton said in a statement, according to Crux.



“There can be no constructive dialogue while the Biya regime undermines the work of impartial charities. The U.K. should use its influence at the U.N. and in the Commonwealth to press the Cameroon authorities to hold genuine and inclusive negotiations.”



Late last month, Muslim separatist activist Abdul Karim was arrested after he met with the Swiss Embassy. He has been charged with terrorism, financing terrorism, and secession.



However, Karim’s lawyers have filed a habeas corpus request to the Yaoundé High Court on grounds his arrest was unlawful, according to Human Rights Watch.



As for Tembon, he has not returned to his native Cameroon since he testified before U.S. Congress in 2018 about the human rights abuses being committed by the Biya government.


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[maybetoday]

Gunmen storm Sunday church service in Burkina Faso, kill at least 14 including pastor, children

By Leah MarieAnn Klett, Christian Post Reporter| Monday, December 02, 2019






A church in Burkina Faso. Sunday’s massacre follows a series of attacks by radical Islamist insurgents against Christians in the embattled West African country. The country of 19 million is about two-thirds Muslim, with a Christian minority. | (Photo: Khym54 via Flickr)


Suspected Muslim extremists launched an attack on a church in eastern Burkina Faso on Sunday morning, killing at least 14 people and wounding several others, the government said.



The attack took place in the village of Hantoukoura near the border with Niger in the East region, according to a report from the AFP news agency. After spraying bullets into the congregation during the Sunday service, the assailants fled on motorbikes.



A security source told the outlet that armed individuals carried out the attack, "executing the faithful including the pastor and children.”



On Sunday, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore announced the news on Twitter and condemned “the barbaric attack” in the town of Hantoukoura. He said several people also were wounded.



Kabore offered his “deepest condolences to the bereaved families and wish a speedy recovery to the wounded.”



Burkina Faso’s armed forces were caring for the wounded and searching the area, the government also said in a statement.



While no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, fighters linked to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda have carried out attacks on police stations, military posts, and civilian targets in Burkina Faso since 2015, according to Human Rights Watch. While jihadists have launched attacks across the country’s north for years, they recently have struck in the east as well.



According to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, such attacks have quadrupled over the last two years in Burkina Faso and left dozens dead this year alone. Additionally, an estimated 500,000 people have been forced from their homes amid the unrest, according to the United Nations.



Sunday’s massacre follows a series of attacks by radical Islamist insurgents against Christians in the embattled West African country. The country of 19 million is about two-thirds Muslim, with a Christian minority.



In June, gunmen stormed a village in northern Burkina Faso and ordered people who had been chatting outside to lie down. The armed assailants then executed four Christians found to be wearing crucifixes around their necks.



In May, a Catholic church was attacked in the northern town of Dablo, where gunmen also killed a pastor and five churchgoers, some of whom were church elders.



Also in May, four Catholics were killed during a procession with a statue of the Virgin Mary in the northern municipality of Zimtenga in the country’s Bam province.



In April, a pastor and five churchgoers were killed in the town of Silgadji in the northern part of the country. At the time it was believed that the Silgadji church attack was the first to target a church in Burkina Faso, a nation where Muslims and Christians largely have coexisted.



In February, a 72-year-old priest was murdered by jihadists on the border at Nohao. That same month, a 54-year-old pastor was killed on the road between Tasmakatt and Gorom-Gorom.



In September, the Catholic Charity Aid to the Church in Need reported that Islamic extremists issued an ultimatum to Christian villagers in Loroum villages of Hitté and Rounga.



The villagers were reportedly ordered to leave their homes within three days or convert to Islam. As a result, over 2,000 people have fled from those two villages alone.



“They are by no means the only ones facing this situation,” the source was quoted as saying at the time. “[R]ather, they are just part of a program by the jihadists who are deliberately sowing terror, assassinating members of the Christian communities and forcing the remaining Christians to flee after warning them that they will return in three days’ time — and that they do not wish to find any Christians or catechumens still there.”



Chrysogone Zougmore, president of the Burkinabe Movement for Human and Peoples’ Rights, a victim advocacy group in the country’s capital, Ouagadougou, told The Washington Post that attacks on Christians are a strategy to stoke religious tensions in a country known for its peaceful coexistence between different religious and ethnic groups.



“They are planting seeds of a religious conflict,” Zougmore said. “They want to create hate. They want to create differences between us.”


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[schwartzie]

UN Officials are Blocking Christian Refugees in the Middle East from Getting Help while Thousands of Muslims Flood the West
Published 4 hours ago on Dec 6, 2019By Jose Nino


According to CBN News, Muslim UN officials in Jordan blocked Christian Syrian refugees from getting aid from the United Nations Refugee Agency, the UNHCR.



Hasan, one of the refugees interviewed, told CBN News that Muslim UN camp officials “knew that we were Muslims and became Christians and they dealt with us with persecution and mockery. They didn’t let us into the office. They ignored our request.”



Hasan is a Syrian convert to Christianity. Him and his family are currently in hiding, afraid of the Jordanian police potentially arresting them or even facing the prospect of death because of their religion.



Trending: Jeffrey Epstein’s Long-Time Banker Found Dead From Hanging, Immediately Ruled a ‘Suicide’



In Jordan, converting to Christianity is a serious crime.


There is a clear pattern of discrimination on the United Nations refugee agency’s part against Christians in Jordan. It’s arguably one reason why small numbers of Christian refugees from Syria are settled in the United States and Britain, while tens of thousands of Syrian Muslim war refugees are settled in the West.



The two governments that have the power to embrace the Christian refugees — the US and Britain — have done little to help them.



Lord George Carey is suing Britain’s home office for its allegedly “politically correct” behavior and its “institutional bias” against Christian refugees. Additionally, he wants to know why out of the 60,000 thousand Syrian war refugees that the United States and Britain accepted in 2014, almost none of them were Christians.



Paul Diamond, Lord Carey’s attorney, explained the case:



“You have this absurd situation where the scheme is set up to help Syrian refugees and the people most in need, Christians who have been “genocided,” they can’t even get into the U.N. camps to get the food. If you enter and say I am a Christian or convert, the Muslim U.N. guards will block you [from] getting in and laugh at you and mock you and even threaten you.



Another Syrian refugee, Timothy, recounted how Muslin UN officials blocked him from entering a refugee camp.



“All of the United Nations officials, most of them, 99 percent, they are Muslims,” Timothy commented, “and they were treating us as enemies.”



Diamond claims, “Sunni Muslim officials have blocked the way. They’ve laughed at them, threatened them, said ‘You shouldn’t have converted. You’re an idiot for converting. You get what you get,’ words to that effect.”



Carey argues that by not taking Christians in, Western governments are complicit in what he believes is “the steady crucifixion of Middle East Christians.”



“And no simple measures are taken by both the British and the American government,’ Diamond said, “It would be simple just to open up a refugee camp for religious minorities, for Christians, Yazidis, whatever they are, and they’d be safe. But no one does that.”



Organizations like the U.N. are marked by political correctness and promote policies that undermine Western Christian nations, while championing Third World causes at the West’s expense.



Sane countries would be wise to stop contributing to the U.N. and eventually leave it.


link

[OmegaMan]

Islamic State BEHEADS 11 Christians In New VIDEO, “Message To Christians All Over The World”

By Pamela Geller - on December 27, 2019




‘I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike [them] upon the necks.'(Quran 8:12) ISIS is inspired by by Islamic texts and teachings just as Hamas, Al Qaeda, al Shabaab, Boko Haram et al and all Islamic groups.


The Islamic State is inspired by by Islamic texts and teachings just as Hamas, Al Qaeda, al Shabaab, Boko Haram et al and all islamic groups.







ISLAMIC STATE FILMS GRUESOME BEHEADINGS IN “MESSAGE TO CHRISTIANS ALL OVER THE WORLD”

By Tyler Durden, Business Insider, December 27, 2019:



The Islamic State has released a video which purportedly shows the brutal execution of 11 blindfolded Christians in Nigeria, the day after Christmas, in revenge for the killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and IS spokesman Abdul-Hasan al-Muhajir, accordign to Ahmad Salkida – a journalist who was first sent the video.



“This is a message to Christians all over the world,” says a masked man from the Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP), in the 56-second clip released the Amaq news agency, a platform for Islamic State propaganda.



“We killed them as revenge for the killing of our leaders, including Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and [IS spokesman] Abul-Hasan al-Muhajir.”



The footage, filmed in an unidentified outdoor area, shows one captive who is shot dead while the other 10 are pushed to the ground and beheaded, according to the BBC.



Here is a clip of the video which cuts off before the reported executions.

On Sunday, the jihadists killed six people and abducted five others including two aid workers when they intercepted vehicles on a highway on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the Borno state capital. In a similar attack on December 5, ISWAP fighters disguised as Nigerian soldiers stopped and searched vehicles at a checkpoint near Maiduguri.



The group claimed in a statement that six soldiers and eight civilians, including two Red Cross workers, were among those abducted in that attack. Last week the group released a video showing 11 alleged hostages. –MSN



One of the hostages in the video who identified himself as a school teacher said that he and the other hostages appealed to the Nigerian government and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to help secure their release, according to the report.


link

[Shoshanna]

Church in Northern India Shut Down After Attack by Radicals


01/08/2020 India (International Christian Concern) – On Sunday, January 5, a mob of radical Hindu nationalists attacked and disrupted a house church in India’s Uttar Pradesh state. According to local reports, the mob disrupted the Sunday worship service and made threats against the pastor and other Christians participating in the service. As a result, local police closed down the church.



According to Pastor Veerendra Kumar, head pastor of Viswavani Church in Kalwanakara village, 15 members of the Hindu Yuva Vahini group attacked the worship service at around 12 noon. Approximately 40 Christians were in attendance when the mob attacked.



“They asked me to come out of the church and started to use abusive language,” Pastor Kumar told International Christian Concern (ICC). “They threatened me and said they would break my hands and legs if I continued to lead prayers.”



According to Pastor Kumar, the radicals went on to accuse him of forcefully converting poor Hindus to Christianity by alluring them with benefits and physical wellness. This false accusation is often used by radicals to harass Christian leaders in India.



As the radicals continued to harass Pastor Kumar, local police arrived on the scene. These officers told Pastor Kumar that he needed official permission to run the church and shut the church down.



In December 2019, Viswavani Church constructed a new building that was intended to be used for church activities. During the construction, Pastor Kumar was threatened multiple times and told not to conduct Christian prayers in Kalwanakara.


link

[Berean]

Boko Haram murders kidnapped Church leader in Nigeria

21 January 2020

Boko Haram has announced that it has killed Pastor Lawan Andimi, a leading Church figure, kidnapped in north-east Nigeria by the Islamist terrorist group on 2 January.



A video announcing the pastor’s murder, which took place on 20 January, was released today by Boko Haram via its regular journalist contact, Ahmad Salkida. It is not known how Pastor Andimi, who leaves behind a wife and seven children, was killed.



In his final message to his family and colleagues, Pastor Lawan Andimi urged them not to cry or worry about him but to “thank God for everything”

Pastor Andimi, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), was abducted in Adamawa State during a series of Boko Haram attacks in the region.



In a video released by his captors on 5 January, the pastor had called on senior CAN colleagues to ask the State governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, to intercede for his release. It is thought that the church was involved in negotiations with the captors when Pastor Andimi was killed.



In his poignant statement, Pastor Andimi had told his family and colleagues not to cry or worry about him but to “thank God for everything”.



“I have never been discouraged because all conditions that one finds himself is in the hands of God. By the grace of God, I will be together with my wife, my children and my colleagues. If the opportunity has not been granted, maybe it is the will of God,” he said.



A regional analyst in contact with Barnabas has warned that there are indications that Boko Haram is extending its territory in north-east Nigeria. At least four murderous Islamist attacks have taken place in the region in less than a month, including the beheading of ten Christian men and shooting of an eleventh by Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP). The past year has also seen a significant increase in Boko Haram activity in neighbouring Far North Cameroon. The expert raised concerns that the group may be progressively combining forces with other terrorist militia including ISWAP, Fulani herdsmen and Al Shabaab.


link

[schwartzie]

ISIS child soldier executes Nigerian Christian student, declares 'we will not stop'

ISIS child soldier executes Nigerian Christian student, declares 'we will not stop'

By Samuel Smith, CP Reporter| Friday, January 24, 2020Facebook Twitter Email Print Menu Comment



A child militant affiliated with the Islamic State's West Africa Province kills Ropvil Daciya Dalep in a video released by the Islamic State's media arm in January 2020. | Amaq News Agency


The Nigerian man who was executed by a child militant in a video released by a Boko Haram offshoot group aligned with the Islamic State days ago has been identified as a 22-year-old Christian college student.



Ropvil Daciya Dalep hailed from the Pankshin Local Government Area of the Plateau state and attended the University of Maiduguri in Borno state. His execution video gained media attention this week.



Dalep was a biology major who was returning to school from Christmas break when he was abducted on Jan. 9 allegedly by the Islamic State West Africa Province, according to the United Kingdom-based NGO Christian Solidarity Worldwide.



Dalep was taken along with fellow Plateau state native and 20-year-old zoology major Lilian Daniel Gyang and another person who was later released.



According to Solomon Maren, a federal legislator from the Plateau state, Gyang is still in captivity. In a statement released by his media team, Maren stated that extremists have made it known that they are targeting “Plateau people” as they also executed two carpenters from the state last year.



“The terrorists clearly stated why they are targeting Plateau people when the citizens of Plateau have long resolved their differences and are leaving peacefully together,” Maren said. “I call on the federal government and security agencies to brace up to their obligation to prevent further [loss] of lives which cannot be tolerated.”



According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, the video of Dalep’s execution shows the kneeling victim being shot in the head by the masked child who speaks in both Arabic and Hausa.



In the video released by the Islamic State-affiliated Amaq News Agency, the child reportedly claims that Dalep’s killing was revenge for the “bloodshed” committed by Christians.



“In particular, this is one among the Christians from Plateau State,” the child is reported to have said in the video. “We are saying to Christians, we have not forgotten what you have done to our parents and ancestors and we are telling all Christians around the world, we have not forgotten and will not stop. We must avenge the bloodshed that has been done like this one…”



According to Director Rita Katz of the SITE Intelligence Group, the child militant in the video is approximately 8 years old.



“There is NO end to #ISIS' immorality,” Katz wrote in a tweet about the video.



Katz sees parallels between the Dalep execution video and the execution videos released in previous years during the Islamic State’s reign in Iraq and Syria.



“The video is not just another piece to #isis’ honed-in targeting of #Christians of recent years, but also a throwback to its older propaganda from Iraq & Syria of brainwashed children carrying grisly executions. This new vid from ISWAP shows a repeat of the same indoctrination.”



Dalep’s execution came days before the Borno-based Islamic terror group Boko Haram executed pastor Rev. Lawan Andimi, the chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria’s chapter in the Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State.



The Dalep video follows another video released by Amaq in December showing the execution of 11 Christian aid workers in Nigeria allegedly in response to the killing of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.



ISWAP, which declared its allegiance to the Islamic State in 2016, split from Boko Haram after Baghdadi tried to replace Boko Haram’s leader with one of his choosing.



The Islamic State has risen to prominence in Africa as it also has active cells in nearby countries like Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and Mali.



According to a 2018 report from the Combatting Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, estimates suggest there could be as many as 6,000 Islamic State-aligned militants spread over nine different cells in Africa.



In Nigeria alone, thousands upon thousands have reportedly been killed in recent years due to the rise of radical Islamic extremism and the radicalization of Fulani herdsmen.



Activists have criticized the Nigerian government’s inability to thwart attacks by Boko Haram, ISWAP and Fulani militants.



Following the death of Andimi, the Christian Association of Nigeria released a statement criticizing the lackadaisical response by President Muhammadu Buhari and his administration to the rise in violence.



“It is reprehensible and saddening that each time the government comes out to claim the defeat of the insurgency, more killings of our people are committed,” the CAN statement reads.



“Maintenance of security is the least responsibility of any government that knows its worth. We are once again calling on President Buhari to purge himself of the allegations of nepotism and religious favoritism by reconstituting the leadership of security outfits.”



Nigeria ranks as the 12th worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA’s 2020 World Watch List. In December, Nigeria was placed for the first time on the U.S. State Department’s Special Watch List for countries in which severe religious freedom violations are tolerated.



“The great tragedy of Nigeria’s ineffectual response to Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen is now parts of Cameroon and those other areas like Burkina Faso are greatly affected,” said Open Doors CEO David Curry at a World Watch List launch event last week.


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[maybetoday]

Gunmen Kill Pastor and 23 Others Before Burning Church

By David Rufful - February 18, 2020




A church in Burkina Faso was the target of gunmen as they killed 24 civilians, including a church pastor, injured 18 and kidnapped three others.



Sihanri Osangola Brigadie, the mayor of Boundore commune, said that the church was in Pansi, in the village of Yagha.



The attack was on a church of Christian denominational Protestants was the latest attacked in the unstable West African nation.



From Western Journalism:



The roughly 20 attackers separated men from women close to a Protestant church.



At least 18 other people were injured.



“It hurt me when I saw the people,” Brigadie said after visiting some of the victims in the hospital in Dori town, 180 kilometers (110 miles) from the attack.



The gunmen looted oil and rice from shops and forced the three youth they kidnapped to help transport it on their motorbikes, he said.






link

[Shoshanna]

In coronavirus fight, China hasn't stopped persecuting Christians: watchdog

Caleb ParkeBy Caleb Parke | Fox News



The coronavirus pandemic that began in China and spread worldwide hasn't stopped the Chinese Communist Party from persecuting religious minorities, according to Christian watchdog groups.



The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), a nonprofit that aids persecuted Christians around the world, reports Chinese officials cracking down during the coronavirus lockdown.


"China is now holding itself up as a model for fighting the coronavirus," Todd Nettleton, VOM spokesman, told Fox News. "But fighting the pandemic hasn't stopped communist officials from persecuting Christians."

Full article with tweets at link

[Berean]

Looks like soft persecution has started in the US.


Google Bans Church’s Streaming Because the Preaching is ‘Insensitive’ During Pandemic

BY NEWS DIVISION · APRIL 14, 2020





I warned Christians last week that the endless “helpful suggestions” from government officials to churches was, if anything, a trap. I can’t help but choke on a bit of vomit every time I hear a pro-choice pagan magisterium poobah offer worship advice to churches, but it happens literally every day. Modern-day Caesars are extolling the virtues of “virtual church” (hint: there is no such thing) to Christians who all-too-often nod their head in naive compliance, as though it’s a tyrant’s place to give the church of Jesus worship advice.





Puke.



But beyond the nauseousness of it, it’s downright dangerous to believe that the Internet is a safer place for Christians than our own church sanctuaries.





To be clear, we own our pulpits. We can preach whatever we want there, political correctness be damned. We don’t have to give two shakes what people want to hear because we’re far more convinced we should preach what they need to hear. So long as the people still come, we can still say whatever we want the Lord lays on our heart from the Scripture.



Imagine then, the idiocy required to move our worship to the Internet and think that somehow it doesn’t amount to at least a potential problem for our freedom of speech. We don’t own the Internet. Zuckerberg (or somebody) does. A court decision just this year determined that social media platforms aren’t public utilities and can censor anybody they want for any reason.



Perhaps I saw this coming because Facebook is always throttling PNP News, sending out their bevy of Soros-funded “fact-checkers” to take exception with our tone (I kid you not) and informing us they’re muting us with a political correctness muzzle. I just shook my head in disbelief that churches were trading their real pulpits for vulnerable ones.



Well, sure enough, some Christians are finding out that tech giants are censoring their sermons and church service streaming because they are (ostensibly) “criminal.” Some pastors have reported Facebook claimed they were “soliciting illegal goods or services” by posting sermons during a lock-down.



The website, CaldroonPool.com, says the following regarding Doug Wilson and the boys over at Christ Church…



On Friday, Google suspended Christ Church’s app from the Google Play store after accusing the pastors of a lack of sensitivity and/or capitalizing on the current coronavirus pandemic.



The church received a notice from the platform, stating: “We don’t allow apps that lack reasonable sensitivity towards or capitalize on a natural disaster, atrocity, conflict, death, or other tragic event.



“Your app has been suspended and removed due to this policy issue,” the notice added.



Christ Church associate pastor, Toby Sumpter, did a segment on a Biblical response to plagues. Other videos were posted calling the nation to repent of various sins. But to Google, that was “capitalizing on…a tragic event.”



Listen, meatheads…this is what happens when you preach exactly where Caesar tells you to. You’re going to end up in a corner somewhere.



link

[shalom]

Seven Nigerian Christians burnt to death among 19 dead as Fulani militants attack during Covid-19 (coronavirus) lockdown

14 April 2020

Seven vulnerable older Christians, unable to flee as hundreds Fulani militants attacked their village in Plateau State, Nigeria, during the national Covid-19 lockdown, were burnt to death in their homes.



More than 300 gunmen descended on the Christian village of Hukke, near Jos, in the early hours of 2 April, setting fire to at least 23 homes. The youngest of those killed was aged 67 and the oldest 90.



A Barnabas contact reported that the villagers were staying at home because of government Covid-19 restrictions when the attack came. He added that villages were left “very vulnerable” after the few security forces stationed in the area were pulled out late last month as national focus turned to combatting coronavirus.



A pastor in Hukke described the limited response of local police. "While the attack lasted, for over two hours, a security force came comprising of some policemen. They simply stopped at a distance and kept firing in the air and eventually left,” he said.



The merciless attack in Hukke came only 24 hours after a murderous onslaught by Islamist militants on the neighbouring Christian village of Ancha, on 1 April. Two men and a woman were killed in a late night attack that lasted for three hours and left 17 homes burnt out.



Also on 1 April, Nkeidoro village was razed to the ground and left “desolate” in a separate militant attack that forced families to abandon the village. The Barnabas contact said at least six Christian men from Nkeidoro had been killed during the previous weeks in various attacks, including some by Fulani “scouts” armed with AK-47 assault rifles.



Armed attackers shot 50-year-old Abah Yoki in the leg before killing his two children and a local pastor in Nsah village, on 6 April. The distraught father described the attack to Barnabas, “I just came out of my house that night about 7:00 p.m. when I saw movements in the dark, I asked ‘who are those?’ Then I heard the gunshots. I turned and fled and was hit by a bullet and fell. There were about ten of them on the footpath that leads to the river. I could not make out any of their faces, but I heard an order given in Fulfulde [Fulani language]. I was first to be shot. They then went into the house they shot and killed two of my children. Duh who was 30 years old and Ishaku who was eleven. They then moved to the pastor’s house and shot him.”


Our contact warned that the numbers of Christian deaths caused by Islamist violence in Nigeria may be underestimated as incidents are not always reported. He relayed the words of a local Christian leader, “We are tired and we do not want to bother others about our tragedies. We seem always to be reporting deaths and attacks and people are weary of our reports.”



link

[maybetoday]

China: Police arrest Christians participating in Zoom Easter worship service


By Leah MarieAnn Klett, Christian Post Reporter| Friday, April 17, 2020Facebook Twitter Email Print Menu Comment



Several members of China’s heavily persecuted Early Rain Covenant Church were arrested by communist authorities for participating in an online Easter worship service on Zoom and ordered to cease all religious activity.



Persecution watchdog group International Christian Concern reports that the Christians were participating in a Zoom worship service from their homes on Easter Sunday when six leaders were arrested and detained by the Public Security Bureau.



The 5,000-member Sichuan house church, led by pastor Wang Yi, has not been able to gather in person since the communist regime shut down the church in 2018 and arrested their pastor and other leaders. Since then, it has opted to gather online.



A member of ERCC told ICC, “At that time I was also in the Zoom call, but there was a long period of time where I did not hear a thing. I thought it’s the network connection issue at first, but I soon heard a quarrel erupt. Our co-worker Wang Jun was questioning some people, [saying], ‘Who are you to do this [to us]?’”



She added that in addition to Wang, other key church leaders including Guo Haigang, Wu Wuqing, Jia Xuewei, Zhang Jianqing and Zhang Xudong were also taken away. One member’s home had its electricity cut off, while others received phone calls that “police [were] coming to visit them soon.”



A supporter of ERCC also shared on Twitter, “Since 8:30 a.m., some security officials have entered these Christian families’ homes and pretended to be chatting with them casually. At 9:30 a.m., the worship began, and they were also invited to participate. Once they realized that the sermon was from ERCC’s imprisoned pastor Wang Yi, they immediately shut it down.”



Her account was corroborated by Zhang Jiangqing, who was warned by the police at his house, saying, “Don’t participate in already banned [religious] activities anymore! Don’t listen to pastor [Wang]’s sermons anymore! If you do this again, we will deal with it seriously and take you away!”



The six Christians have since been released, and their electricity was restored in the afternoon.



Early Rain Covenant Church was first raided during a Sunday evening service in December 2018 after authorities claimed it violated religious regulations because it was not registered with the government. Wang was detained along with his wife, Jiang Rong, and more than 100 members of his congregation.



Pastor Wang was later sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of subversion of power and illegal business operations.



Gina Goh, ICC’s regional manager for Southeast Asia, condemned the government’s actions, pointing out that local authorities have continued to monitor and harass ERCC members since 2018 “with the hope that the church will disperse itself.”



“In a time when the Chinese people are suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, the heartless regime chose to inflict more trouble on its citizens,” she said. “The U.N. should immediately suspend China’s appointment to the Human Rights Council for its lack of respect for human rights.”



In China, where the novel coronavirus originated, isolating in place has presented an opportunity for communist authorities to ramp up its campaign against Christianity.



On Ester Sunday, the state-sanctioned Donghu Church in China’s Qinghai province was demolished. According to China Aid, a team from the Xining City Chengxi District Urban and Rural Construction Bureau demolished the church in just two hours, labeling it as illegal while citing “safety concerns.”



On April 2, Bethel Church pastor Zhao Huaiguo was arrested after being criminally detained since March 14 for “inciting subversion of state power.”



According to China Aid, a local Christian shared that the authorities have been hostile toward pastor Zhao since his church refused to join the state-sanctioned church and rejected government officials’ intervention.



“He was accused of proselytizing and distributing Gospel tracts, which were considered illegal acts. After the Lunar New Year last year, the religious bureau forced the church to disperse, to which it refused. The official ban arrived last April,” said the local Christian.



Religious liberty magazine Bitter Winter reported that in mid-March, crosses were removed from multiple churches in the eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Anhui and in the neighboring Shandong, the prefecture-level city of Linyi.



In February, officials removed a cross from a government-approved Three-Self church in Hexi village. The church was built in 2007 and has complied with state regulations, implementing the four requirements of the government’s religion “sinicization” campaign. Additionally, it had stopped all gatherings during the coronavirus epidemic. Nevertheless, it was not spared in the crackdown.



“The government does not provide enough help during the epidemic but instead demolishes crosses,” a local believer said.



China is ranked o Open Doors USA’s World Watch List as one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to the persecution of Christians.



China has also been labeled by the U.S. State Department as a “country of particular concern” for “continuing to engage in particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”


link

[maybetoday]

Jihadi terrorists killing Christians in Mozambique seek to establish ‘government rule from 'Allah'


By Samuel Smith, CP Reporter| Thursday, April 16, 2020

Radical Islamic militants in the majority-Christian country of Mozambique have their eyes set on instituting Sharia law and have killed hundreds and displaced thousands in Southeast Africa.



Over the last two years, over 100,000 people have been displaced from their homes and farms in the northern province of Cabo Delgado due to increased massacres carried by terrorists.



According to the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, hundreds of villages have been burned or are now completely abandoned after jihadists carried out an “indiscriminate campaign of terror.”



Voice of America News reports that in recent weeks, jihadists seized government buildings, robbed banks, blocked roads and raised their black-and-white flags over towns and villages across the province.



The U.S. news outlet reports that the militants also released a propaganda video after a recent attack in which a jihadi is seen telling fearful residents “we want everyone here to apply Islamic law.”



In the recently released video, the jihadists don’t cover their faces.



"We don't want a government from unbelievers, we want a government from Allah," a militant was quoted as saying in the video in the local Kimwani language.



The video gives the world a glimpse at the militants' identities that have largely remained secretive and hidden. They are believed to be members of a group called Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jammeh. The group is known locally by the name al-Shabaab but is not believed to have any affiliation with the extremist faction active in Somalia and Kenya that goes by the same name.



“The hidden enemy has no face, no proposal, no interlocutor with whom one can talk,” Bishop Luiz Fernando Lisboa of the Diocese of Pemba, told Vatican News.



The video appeared to have been filmed in the port town Mocimboa da Praia, where the militants launched an attack in late March. The town is also where the militants staged their first attack in 2017 on police and military bases. The area is rich with gas projects worth billions.



International Christian Concern, an advocacy group based in the U.S., warned that the militants appear to share the goal of “full Sharia law to guide the government” in the region.



According to the nonprofit, this is the first time the militants in Mozambique are “claiming a political agenda.”



“This would be bad for Christians who would definitely be made lower class citizens and would likely be persecuted for their faith,” ICC warned in an April 14 report.



It is not clear whether the militants are working with any other larger terrorist organizations.



However, ICC notes that the Islamic State has recently formed an Islamic State Central African Province that has claimed responsibility for several attacks.



If the Al-Shabaab group has support from a much larger terror network, ICC stresses it could be devastating for the local population.



Affiliated Islamic State groups have wreaked havoc in sub-Saharan Africa, the Sinai, Libya, as well as Iraq and Syria.



Bishop Lisboa said there are young disillusioned residents in the area impacted by poverty who are being led to join violent groups.



Lisboa said that some gangs that operate in the region also have links to Islamic extremist groups. He added that other gangs are said to have connections to mercenaries of the troubled Democratic Republic of Congo.



As a result of the attacks, residents have fled in various directions, including small islands with nowhere to stay and limited access to clean water, according to the ECHO.



The majority of the IDPs have taken refuge with family and friends.



According to Amnesty International, al-Shabaab’s takeover of Mocimboa da Praia is the “culmination of a tragic failure by the Mozambican government to protect the people in this volatile area.”



“For almost three years, armed groups have been attacking villagers around Cabo Delgado, causing untold human suffering without being held accountable,” Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for East and Southern Africa, Muleya Mwananyanda, said in a statement. “These continued attacks are compounded by the fact that the Mozambican government is prohibiting journalists, researchers and foreign observers from accessing the area to assess the situation.”



link

[schwartzie]

Religious persecution is skyrocketing during coronavirus pandemic

By David Curry, Op-Ed Contributor| Saturday, April 25, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has escalated religious persecution against Christians and other minority groups abroad.



Before the coronavirus became a global health crisis, more than 60 countries were already rife with mass surveillance, forced marriages, and violent attacks targeting religious minorities. But while much of the world grinds to a halt during stay-at-home orders, religious persecution is escalating at an alarming pace. The coronavirus is becoming a catalyst for faith-based discrimination internationally.



Days before COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, China; I was in that region on a fact-finding mission where I witnessed firsthand the outsized efforts of the Chinese regime to curtail the spread of religious ideas they deem threatening. Mass surveillance placed a target on the backs of minorities, including Christians and Uighur Muslims, by reducing their access to education and employment as punishment for their perceived disloyalty.



Christians in China were worshipping under government cameras long before the pandemic began, but now their resilience is tested further. One Wuhan pastor reports they are rising to the challenge of worship and community service under quarantine. “A virus can’t stop us,” he said to Open Doors USA.



My research mission is one of many conducted by Open Doors USA to track religious persecution worldwide. The findings in China are consistent with those in North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan, where Christians are consistently treated as second-class citizens, traitors, and infidels. Now, as the coronavirus ravages the health and livelihoods of all people, Christians and other religious minorities in Asia are facing a new punishment: discriminatory distribution of emergency relief and medical care.



Asia isn’t the only offending region. In another hostile country where our organization operates covertly due to religious violence, Christian nurses — who are seen as more expendable — are being assigned to the riskiest coronavirus cases.



“We are dispensable,” one Christian relief worker told Open Doors. “It is very painful to see people neglected and ignored because of their faith.” She goes on to explain how she is classified as one of “the filthy people” because she wears a cross necklace. Health care employees considered loyal to the state-sponsored religion, on the other hand, are assigned the less contagious patients in her facility.



In Somalia, an Islamic extremist group al-Shabaab said, as reported by the BBC, that COVID-19 spreads “by the crusader forces who have invaded the country and the disbelieving countries that support them.” Their message – that religious minorities are somehow responsible for the outbreak – incites violence toward anyone suspected of disbelief in Islam, in Somalia and surrounding countries.



Open Doors reports that economic discrimination is the second-most prevalent form of persecution toward men in the Middle East and North Africa. As a result, many Christians in the region are forced into low-paid jobs due to religious discrimination. Additionally, those who convert to Christianity from other faiths are often disowned by their families, leaving them without a financial safety net or support system.



Christians in India are under similar pressure. Many were day laborers before the 21-day lockdown, but now they are struggling to even feed their families. The coronavirus crisis has caused significant job loss, leaving many of them without income. The result is a large number of people in urgent need of food, shelter, and medical care.



In total, 25 of the countries currently reporting cases of COVID-19 are on Open Doors’ 2020 World Watch List, an annual ranking of the world’s worst persecutors of Christians. In each of these contexts, religious minorities face additional barriers — from health care discrimination to reduced access to social services — in battling COVID-19.



There’s no gentle way to say this: Religious persecution is multiplying exponentially in the wake of coronavirus. Yet it’s critically important to distinguish between religiously-motivated discrimination and the U.S. governmental restrictions to contain the virus.



While this unprecedented suspension of civil rights has businesses, religious leaders, and human rights advocates rightfully wary, the stay-at-home orders appear to be equally shared across all parts of society. For churches and Christians in the U.S., coronavirus isolation is an opportunity to look to persecuted people of faith as a model of how to respond.



The religious minorities that our organization seeks to protect rarely respond defensively, but rather strive to show compassion. They treat the sick, shelter those at risk, provide food to their neighbors, and offer spiritual encouragement to each other – in secret and from a distance – as they have always done.



Perhaps the faith-infused response is for American Christians to use this period of quarantine to remember the more than 200 million Christians worldwide who worship in isolation – before and after the coronavirus. To listen to their cries and learn from their stories. And most of all, to resolve support and advocacy for the beautiful souls who are doubly vulnerable in times of crisis and scarcity.



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[schwartzie]

China Conducts Violent Raid on Christian Church, Drags Worshipers Out of Service

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JOHN HAYWARD8 May 2020


4:13

ChinaAid, a religious freedom watchdog group, published a smartphone video this week that showed Chinese officials conducting a violent raid on a church in Fujian province.



The invaders assaulted congregants, stole their phones to prevent them from documenting the raid, and dragged people out of the service. Eyewitnesses said police did not present a warrant for the raid.







Another clip posted to YouTube on Tuesday captured the aggressive raid from above.







The raid was conducted against Xingguang Church in the southeastern city of Xiamen. The venue is one of the famed “house churches” in China, with services held at a private residence.



ChinaAid described the raid, which was evidently captured on a phone the authorities were unable to confiscate or uploaded before they could take the phone away:



In a video taken at the scene, officers and attendees of Xingguang Church shout as they engage in a physical altercation. As they block the entrance, officials drag a Christian to the door, with other congregants fighting along with him.



The Christian men guarding the door were beaten and pinned down. Officers confiscated phones and used brutal force against some Christian women as well.



Xingguang Church’s meeting place is located in a private residence, and neighbors of the location where the service was being held filmed the encounter. Police broke down barriers and dragged brought three people out.



During the proceedings, the officers did not show any warrants. The church was later banned.



At least one of the beaten Christians had to seek medical treatment. He also filed a police report.



Fox News noted that a pastor in Hunan province was arrested for “subversion” last month after his home was raided, and there have been numerous other examples of Chinese officials using bureaucratic excuses to destroy churches and confiscate religious materials.



According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), “hundreds of police” were involved in the raid, and “an estimated nine people were detained” without clear charges.



Another watchdog group, International Christian Concern (ICC), identified the invaders caught on video as “dozens of security guards and officers from the local Ethnic and Religious Bureau” and noted they can be heard ordering church members and curious onlookers to “stop filming” the raid. ICC said six people were detained during the raid and held until 9:00 p.m. that evening when they were “welcomed with applause and hugs as they stepped out of the police station.”



Pastor Yang Xibo said he believes his church was targeted because it refused to join China’s state-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Association. According to ICC, the same church was raided on April 19 by a coordinated force from five different government departments and has been told it will face “administrative punishment” for “violating several articles of the religious regulations,” possibly including forced dissolution of the church.



Both Pastor Yang and another eyewitness said the forces that raided the church did not display a warrant or any form of official identification, although they collected copious amounts of identification from the churchgoers, and they played rough:



The state security police came banging at the door, then they kicked it down and dragged those in the way outside the doorway, dragging them to the ground,” Yang said in an interview on Monday.



“One person’s ribs were cracked, and they are now in a lot of pain, and a lot of the [female church members] have bruises on their arms and legs,” he said. “We went to the hospital with them, so we could record the evidence.”



An eyewitness said the church members had no warning.



“They didn’t say anything, nor show any documentation, but they just broke in,” he said. “They pinned a man and a woman to the floor, pinning them down by chest and legs using their knees.”



Other church members noted the service was a “gathering of mostly friends and relatives” held in a private residence, and the Chinese government technically has no legal justification for raiding an “unlicensed” church.



“We would like the whole of society to pay attention to this violent behavior,” one church member told RFA. “They are lawless and indiscriminate.”


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