
Christian apologists in Indonesia flee ‘blasphemy’ prosecution
A rash of complaints to police in Indonesia accusing Christians of blasphemy on social media has driven several of them abroad to seek refuge, sources said.
A rash of complaints to police in Indonesia accusing Christians of blasphemy on social media has driven several of them abroad to seek refuge, sources said.
Christians in India suffered high levels of violence and discrimination in 2024, with 640 cases marking a continued increase over prior years, according to the Evangelical Fellowship of India’s Religious Liberty Commission (EFIRLC).
A Christian couple in India convicted of forcible conversion despite lack of evidence and sentenced to five years in prison has won bail while they appeal, sources said.
Hardline Muslims in eastern Uganda on Feb. 15 beat and stabbed an evangelist after he and his team led a Muslim widow to Christ during open-air gospel preaching, sources said.
A church active in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi Province for two years began facing unexpected opposition to proposed construction of a larger worship building this month, sources said.
A Dalit Christian in northern India is unable to return home after Hindu nationalists who beat, tonsured and paraded him on Dec. 27 threatened to kill him and filed charges of insulting them, sources said.
Two Christian converts from Islam who were locked in an Egyptian prison and held for three years without trial have been released, religious rights advocates said.
Hundreds of Muslims from various Islamic groups last week protested the presence of two evangelists at a major gospel event in Indonesia’s Central Sulewesi Province, according to local reports.
A Christian convert from Islam in Somalia has lost his speech after his Muslim wife hit him with a heavy metallic object for practicing his faith, sources said.
A court in Sudan has sentenced seven Christians to prison terms of five and seven years on false charges of theft, sources said.
Intelligence agents of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) on Jan. 14 arrested and tortured at least seven Christians in Shendi, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) northeast of Khartoum, sources said.
Bent on suppressing Christianity in Iran, Islamic courts handed down six times more prison time to persecuted Christians in 2024 than the previous year, according to advocacy group Article 18.