Got you curious who will be featured here?
Almost certainly not the ones you might expect, I suspect. 🙂
IRAN: Two released; one missing
| Two of the Christians who were held in custody have been released on bail and guarantee but there is no news of whereabouts of the third.
The Farsi Christian News Network reports that after the arrest of the 3 Christians by the security forces in Tehran on 21st January, and the general concern on their safety, Mrs. Nadere Javadi was released after 2 weeks of imprisonment in Evin Prison . there was no charge and no explanation as to the reason of her arrest by the security forces. She was released on bail, having left house documents as guarantee. Also, Hamik Khachiki, another Christian leader from the Central Assemblies of God church in Tehran, who was also arrested on 21st January, was released after one week of being in custody. Another member of church leadership had to guarantee for him. For the last two weeks, despite all efforts and enquiry, there has been no success in finding out the location and the condition of Jamal Ghalishourani, a Farsi speaking Christian, who was also arrested on the same date as the above. |
SUDAN: US Aid Group Expelled Over Bibles
| A United States aid group has been thrown out of Sudan’s Darfur region after officials found thousands of Arabic-language bibles stacked in its office, state media reported on Saturday.
Sudanese authorities told the state Suna news agency they found 3,400 copies of Christianity’s sacred book in the office run by water charity Thirst No More in North Darfur, a region that is almost entirely Muslim. |
CHINA: Christians May Face Increased Controls
| Concerned by the growth of unregistered house church groups in an uncertain political and social climate, the Chinese government has ramped up efforts both to identify Christians and to portray Christianity as a subversive foreign force. Sources told Compass that authorities in recent months have been quietly gathering data on church growth, with surveys at universities and workplaces pointedly asking whether respondents were Christians. At the same time, Communist Party officials have called meetings at various institutions in the capital to discuss supposed dangers of foreign religious influence. China’s leaders have warned that 2009 will be marked by increased unrest and demonstrations as public anger mounts against increasing unemployment and corruption, and in response they have begun to increase political and social control. Christian leaders told Compass they did not feel a huge crackdown was necessarily imminent, but they said the overall political climate had become more tense and that this would almost certainly affect unregistered house church Christians. |
BANGLADESH: Muslim Pilgrims Beat Bible Student
| Pilgrims to a massive Islamic conference near this capital city on Sunday (Feb. 1) beat and threatened to kill a Bible school student as he distributed Christian literature. Rajen Murmo, 20, a student at Believers’ Church Bible College, was distributing the 32-page books among Muslims near the school along with 25 other students in Uttara town in northern Dhaka, just a few kilometers from the banks of a river in Tongi, where the government claimed 4 million Muslim pilgrims had gathered. |