Four Bible translators murdered in Middle East

March 20, 2016: Just two days ago, Four Wycliffe Bible translators were brutally murdered by militants in a raid on a translation office in the Middle East. Several others sustained injuries.

Militants shot and destroyed all the equipment in the Middle East office of Wycliffe Associates and burned all books and other translation materials in the office.

Two workers died of gunshot wounds while another two died of wounds from the beatings. These last two managed to protect and save the lead translator by lying on top of him while the militants beat them with their now-empty weapons.

However, Wycliffe says the militants could not find the “computer hard drives containing translation work for eight language projects.” So those hard drives are safe. Remaining translation teams decided to re-double their efforts to translate, publish, and print God’s Word for these eight language communities.

Wycliffe is now seeking a safer location for their Middle East office.

Letter from US Lawmakers to the Prime Minister of India on intolerance

In a letter dated 25 February and released to the media by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, 34 US lawmakers said that their strong support for the US-India partnership has encouraged them “to relay our grave concerns about the increasing intolerance and violence members of India's religious minority communities experience.”

“We urge your government to take immediate steps to ensure the fundamental rights of religious minorities are protected and the perpetrators of violence are held to account,” the leaders wrote.

“Of particular concern is the treatment of India's Christian, Muslim and Sikh communities. On June 17, 2014, more than 50 village councils in the Bastar district of Chhattisgarh adopted a resolution banning 'all non-Hindu religious propaganda, prayers and speeches' in their communities,” they stated. The ban thus “effectively has criminalised” the practice of Christianity by around 300 families in the region a day after a mob, including members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal, attacked and injured six Christians at the village of Sireiguda.

“Since the ban was implemented, Christians in the Bastar district reportedly have been subjected to physical assaults, denial of government services, extortion, threats of forced expulsion, denial of access to food and water, and pressure to convert to Hinduism,” they allege.

Christians protesting persecution in India

Stating that they were also concerned about the “nearly country-wide beef ban,” the lawmakers referred to the killing of Mohammad Hasmat Ali in Manipur in November for stealing a cow and the murder of Mohammad Saif in Uttar Pradesh in September.

The letter also called for recognition of Sikhism as a distinct religion as not doing so prevented practitioners of the religion “from accessing social services and employment and educational preferences available to other religious communities”.

“Mr Prime Minister, we applaud India as a pluralistic society with a long-standing commitment to inclusion and tolerance,” they assured Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“We also applaud your statements about religious freedom and communal harmony, including your promise in February 2014 that your government would 'ensure that there is complete freedom of faith ... and not allow any religious group, belonging to the majority or minority, to incite hatred against others.' We urge you to turn these words into action by publicly condemning the ban on non-Hindu faiths in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh, and the violent assaults and other forms of harassment against religious minorities throughout India,” it stated, adding that steps should be taken against activities of groups such as the RSS.

The letter was signed by Senators Roy Blunt, Amy Klobuchar, James Alankford, Al Franken, Tim Scott, Ben Sasse, John Boozman and Steve Daines and 26 members of the House of Representatives, including Joseph R. Pitts, Keith Ellison, Brad Wenstrup, Jim Costa, Trent Franks, Ted Poe and Mark Walker.

External affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup put out a statement calling the letter unfortunate.  Swarup reiterated that the Indian government was “fully committed to the constitutional principles which underpin the nation of 1.25 billion people as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society.”

India: Pentecostal Christians seek protection

March 2, 2016 (Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India):  Pentecostal Church affiliates in India have protested against “steadily increasing attacks on Christians,” and asked the government to intervene and shield them from violence.

The Tirunelveli District Pentecostal Churches Federation in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu said they were being attacked by Hindu fundamentalists who want them to stop preaching Christianity, even though the country mandates freedom of religion. The attacks have led them to question their belief that they lived in a democratic and tolerant country.

“Though we’re being targeted, we’ve never retaliated and done anything that would undermine the tranquility of society as Christianity is all about love, compassion and brotherhood,” Pastor Babu Paul Dinakaran, district secretary of the federation, told Bibles for Mideast.

He also asserted that they practice their faith without encroaching on others’ religious rights. “However, heads of a few Hindutva outfits are encouraging their cadres to orchestrate attacks against us,” he added.

Churches in India under attack

They noted that even those distributing the pamphlets and praying in the prayer halls were being attacked. The federation urged the government to take lawful action against the perpetrators, and take down billboards that carry inflammatory messages against religions.

"Not only Pentecostals, but Christians in general are being attacked widely all over India,” says Pastor Paul of Bibles for Mideast. “We need to live and work peacefully according to our faith and for that we seek protection from persecution.”

The Catholic Secular Forum in India released a report identifying Tamil Nadu among the top five states with the highest numbers of anti-Christian attacks, with the state of Madhya Pradesh leading the list.

Formerly Muslim doctor now evangelizes, plants churches AND treats patients

Living in one of the most unreached places in the world, devout Muslim Sanjay's whole life changed when he was healed from cancer.

Growing up as a devout Muslim, Sanjay gave his life to Jesus and now, despite persecution, shares the gospel with everyone he meets. Since his conversion, Sanjay has led hundreds to faith in Jesus and planted 50 small house churches for believers with Muslim backgrounds.

Sanjay's journey to faith started when he was in hospital in Kolkata, India, having chemotherapy.

"I was crying, and the one name that I did not want to believe in came back to me again and again – the name of Jesus," he says. "I was so weak and so sick. So I prayed to the Lord Jesus and said, 'will you heal me?'"

Slowly, Sanjay began to feel better. Knowing that something had changed, he returned to the hospital for tests and discovered the cancer was gone. He was healed. "I saw that only Jesus can save my life," he says, "nobody else can." Realising that it was Jesus who restored his health, Sanjay gave his life to Christ and got baptised.

West Bengal, where Sanjay lives, is one of the least evangelised places on the planet. When he discovered Jesus was real, Sanjay started preaching the gospel in his Muslim village and telling everyone he could about Christ. It was not well received.

"My family threw me out. They said, 'we want nothing to do with you. Since you have Jesus you can just go away.'" Other people began plotting against him. "They decided to break into my doctor's office where patients used to come and see me," he says.

Sanjay was afraid, and he prayed to God for protection. God acted, leading Sanjay's mother to have compassion on him and to let him come back home.

For years, Sanjay has been persecuted by many in his community for sharing the gospel. But he just won't stop. As well as working as a doctor, Sanjay has dedicated his life to serve as an evangelist and a church planter.

He has found a way to forgive those who persecuted him, as God forgave him. And now, miraculously, those who once attacked him come to him for medical care.

"People who persecuted me for many years got tired. They said, 'the more we tell him not to speak, the more he goes out and preaches'," says Sanjay. "People who wanted to throw me out, now they bring their patients to me and say, 'we're so sorry'."

Having already planted 50 churches for Muslim background believers, Sanjay shows no signs of slowing down – he is keen to press on with his ministry.

"Apart from Jesus there is no life," he says. "I am even more excited to tell others what Jesus has done. Every day I want to live for my Lord and keep on doing what I'm doing. Please pray that I can do more in the days to come."

Muslims converting to Christianity in Nigeria, despite brutal persecution

A church burned down by Boko Haram in Damascus on March 24, 2015 (Reuters)

Muslims are converting to Christianity in northern Nigeria amid rapidly rising levels of Christian persecution, which has seen more than 10,000 Christians killed in five years, Christian Today reports..

While much media attention has been focussed on Islamic State and the plight of persecuted minorities in the Middle East, close to 11,500 Christians in northern Nigeria were killed between 2006 and 2014, and 13,000 churches destroyed, forcing 1.3 million Christians to flee to safer areas of the country.

In 2014, Boko Haram, an Islamist militant group active mainly in northern Nigeria, was named the world's deadliest terror organisation by the Global Terrorism Index.

In 2015, the number of Christians violently killed in the country increased by 62 per cent to 4,028 people, and 198 churches were attacked according to persecution charity Open Doors' 2016 World Watch List.

A new report, Crushed but not defeated, the impact of persistent violence on the Church in Northern Nigeria by Open Doors and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) reveals a horrific degree of violence against Christians, but also glimmers of hope from a Church that is determined to remain strong.

CAN, Nigeria's largest confederation of churches, has committed to revive the Church in northern Nigeria, both by grass roots action and by advocacy. It is calling on the UN and other international bodies to engage with the plight of Christians who feel long abandoned.

Marginalisation, discrimination and targeted violence

While Nigeria is technically a secular federal state with religious freedom enshrined in its constitution, "the reality in Northern Nigeria is radically different," said Lisa Pearce, chief executive of Open Doors UK and Ireland.

"For decades, Christians in the region have suffered marginalisation and discrimination as well as targeted violence. This is happening not only in the Sharia states of the Far North where the pressure of Islam is hard felt, but also in the non-Sharia Middle Belt states where Sharia has not been formally implemented."

Crucial to understanding this situation is that there are three distinct perpetrators of persistent violence against Christians in northern Nigeria, united around one cause: "defending northern Muslims' interests, Muslim identity and the position of Islam," the report says.

These perpetrators are not only proponents of radical Islam, such as Boko Haram, but the northern Muslim political and religious elite and the Muslim Hausa-Fulani herdsmen are also major perpetrators of religious violence against Christians.

This has lead to a diaspora of Christians from certain areas, the Christian presence becoming "virtually extinct or substantially diminished", and a break down in social cohesian between Muslims and Christians.

"Mutual trust has disappeared and Muslims and Christians have become increasingly separate groups, clustering together in town suburbs and distinguished rural areas," the report says.

This three-pronged attack against Christianity has left Christians in the north without refuge, unable to conduct themselves in public life or exert public influence.

"Many Christians say they face harassment, hatred, marginalization, intimidation and violence," the report says. "They have very limited freedom to worship and to build churches. They have no real voice in public media, have hardly any access to government positions for employment and are barely represented in local politics. Young Christians feel discrimination at school."

Three quarters of the 122 church leaders Open Doors interviewed said the outlook is bleak.

Renewed faith

But while the report highlights that the Church is hard pressed in northern Nigeria, it remains present.

Many churches are emptying as congregants flee violence and persecution, but those who leave are not abandoning their faith; instead getting involved in church in slightly safer contexts. Although those living in northern Nigeria are unable to participate in politics and are struggling even to provide a livelihood, there has been an increase in Christian political engagement with politics in the Middle Belt states of the country.

Those who are choosing to stay are experiencing a renewed fervour in their faith, according to the report, and some Christians reported that their churches in the north are growing as Muslims convert to Christianity. The report cited reasons including many Muslims having dreams of Jesus.

"Many among the Muslims want to become Christians, but they are afraid of being killed or pressured by fellow Muslims," the report quoted one interviewee as saying.

While there are glimmers of hope on the ground, a response is required from those with higher political power, such as Nigeria's government, the UN and other Western governing bodies.

"Policy makers in churches, governments and society in Nigeria and in the international community should become aware of the scope and impact of the violence," the report recommended.

"There needs to be a united and proper response to end the violence and restore a situation in Northern Nigeria where Muslims and Christians alike can live together, exercise their human rights and have equal access to education, work and property and will have the freedom to worship."