Convert from Islam stabbed to death in Bangladesh

Report: Bibles for Mideast

March 22, 2016 (Dhaka, Bangladesh):  Islamic militants stabbed and killed 68-year-old Hossain Ali, a Christian convert from Islam, in Kurigram of North Dhaka this morning.

Arriving by motorbike as Ali took his morning walk, the attackers fled immediately afterwards, detonating crude bombs as they left to create panic, says Tobarak Ullah, Kurigram’s police chief.

“The pattern of killing bears the hallmarks of recent attacks by Islamist militants,” the chief added.

A freedom fighter and former inspector of family planning, Ali converted from Islam in 1999. Police have picked up three men for questioning.

Over the last few months, Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the killings of two foreigners, attacks on members of minority Muslim sects and other religious groups, but police say domestic militant group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen is behind the attacks.

A Hindu head priest was hacked to death on February 21 by gun-and-cleaver-wielding Islamists at a temple in northern Panchagarh district’s Debiganj Upazila.

In September last year, Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella was murdered by unidentified assailants in Dhaka, and within five days of that incident, Japanese farmer Kunio Hoshi was killed. IS-affiliated militants claimed responsibility for both attacks.

Progressive book publisher Faisal Arefin Dipon and two Sufi men were also recently murdered, while two Christian pastors, one an Italian doctor, narrowly escaped attacks.

Bibles for Mideast is now holding five days of prayer of fasting for God’s mighty protection of persecuted Christians; all Christian ministries around the globe and the teams of Bibles for Mideast. We pray for God’s protection and provision for spreading HIs Word, establishing new churches, for new believers and seekers, and for the salvation of the Muslim world. We welcome all children of God, all prayer warriors, to join with us in prayer.

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."