Persecution

“Following Russia’s ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses, evangelical Protestants have become the most-punished group under the country’s controversial “anti-missionary laws.” - Christianity Today

“In all, 59 Jews were physically assaulted because of their religion in 2018, up from 21 in 2017. By comparison, there were 1,066 cases of harassment, an increase of 5% from 2017” - RNS

“The Sri Lankan government accused a local militant Islamist group, the National Thowheed Jamaath, of carrying out nine April 22 bombings, according to media reports. The government also said a foreign network likely was involved in the attacks.” - BPNews

“Shouwang and Early Rain are two high-profile examples of China’s renewed crackdown on unregistered churches, just one part of the Chinese government’s campaign to ‘sinicize’ religion, which means to reshape religion so that it supports the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).” - World

“The government, now nationalist rather than Communist, treats the Orthodox Church as a de facto state church.” - National Review

“Shouwang Church, which famously kept meeting outdoors after losing its pastor and worship space, is the fourth major unregistered congregation to be forcibly closed in recent months.” - Christianity Today

“Latest example of immigration officials deploying Scripture to keep former Muslims out of UK comes as Church of England adds an official Farsi liturgy due to demand.” - Christianity Today

“Nearly 50 more members, including 11 kids, of a Chinese megachurch closed down by the communist government in December were arrested at two different venues last Sunday, a watchdog group has reported.” - Christian Post

“Last fall, missionary John Miller sat in the back row of an unregistered church in Sichuan province, worshipping as he had every Sunday morning for the past year and a half. Then eight police officers walked in.” - WORLD

“The number of Christians suffering high to extremely high persecution is 14 percent more in 2019, Open Doors reported, counting 245 million individuals globally.” - BPNews