Indonesia has officially changed a decades-old state policy of referring to Christian holidays by their Islamic names, such as Isa Messiah for Jesus Christ. President Joko Widodo signed a Presidential Decree to mark this shift to accommodate the Christian population in the country, which has the world’s largest Muslim population.
A judge sentenced a Christian to life in prison under Pakistan’s blasphemy statutes for a social media message that relatives say was posted on a phone stolen from him, sources said.
A formerly Muslim couple in eastern Uganda, parents of four young children, were slashed to death on Feb. 2, two months after putting their faith in Christ, sources said.
In a rare move in Pakistan, police discharged a 72-year-old Christian from a blasphemy case after the complainant admitted she had falsely accused him, sources said.
Muslims fired gunshots and threw fuel bombs at the homes of Christians in a village in Pakistan at 2 a.m. on Monday (Feb. 12) for supporting an opposing political party in last week’s elections, sources said.
The past year has seen a marked rise in persecution incidents in parts of Latin America, most notably Nicaragua, which some Christian leaders in the region have been following with growing concern. Under the authoritarian leadership of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, an increasing number of Catholic clergy has been subject to various forms of discrimination and persecution, including being exiled from the country.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday (Feb. 13) reprimanded the Punjab Province government over its progress report on anti-Christian attacks in Jaranwala, terming it “worthy of being thrown into the dustbin.”
Among the estimated 2,000 displaced Sudanese who are converts from Islam is a mother of seven children whose husband beat her upon learning of her Christian faith, sources said.
A 72-year-old Christian in Pakistan was arrested and charged with blasphemy on Saturday (Feb. 10) based on a false accusation filed in retaliation over a property dispute, sources said.
Muslim villagers in eastern Uganda on Jan. 30 beat a Christian unconscious upon seeing him prepare a site for an evangelistic event, and they later set his house ablaze, sources said.
Chinese families are coming under pressure to keep the Christian faith from their children. Chinese partners of Release International, an organisation supporting persecuted Christians worldwide, said that schoolchildren are being made to declare whether they are Christians. Those who state that they are must then sign a declaration promising to renounce Christianity.
A pastor and his family have gone into hiding after a Muslim neighbor who raped his 14-year-old daughter tried to kidnap her and force her to convert to Islam and marry her, he said.
