It is illegal to be anything other than a Muslim in Afghanistan, a tribal society where leaving Islam is seen as a betrayal of the tribe. Christians who are discovered may be sent to a psychiatric hospital, on the grounds that no sane person would leave Islam. Baptism is a crime punishable by death. Radical Islamic militants, such as the Islamic State group (new on the scene) or the Taliban, are expanding their control and rule over more than 40% of the country already.

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Afghanistan overtakes N Korea as most dangerous place to live as a Christian

Afghan-women-face-highly restricted lives under the Taliban

After the August 2021 takeover by the Taliban of Afghanistan, the country has overtaken North Korea as the most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian, according to the annual World Watch List of the NGO Open Doors International, out today. After 20 years at the top*, North […]

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EU ‘wilfully blind’ to risks of deporting Christian converts back to Afghanistan

EU ‘wilfully blind’ to risks of deporting Christian converts back to Afghanistan

European countries and the EU are “wilfully blind” to the risks facing Afghans who fail in their asylum claims and are sent home, according to a new report by Amnesty International. “All returnees face a real risk of serious human rights violations,” says Amnesty, but some, such as religious minorities […]

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Priest held by Taliban gives first interview

Indian priest Father Prem Kumar, who was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan last year and spent the next eight months in captivity, has given his first interview. Speaking from the Vatican having just met the Pope, he told BBC World Service that his captors were “innocent” people who were […]

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Death sentence for killers of Afghan woman

Four Afghan men have been sentenced to death for the mob killing of a woman falsely accused of burning a copy of the Qu’ran. The 28-year-old woman, called Farkhunda, got into an argument with a man selling amulets outside Kabul’s Shah-Du-Shamshaira shrine when the accusation was made. The amulet seller […]

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Taliban murder four humanitarian aid workers in Kabul

Taliban murder four humanitarian aid workers in Kabul

Werner and Hannelie Groenewald, October 2014INcontext   Three armed Taliban insurgents swept into a Kabul guesthouse on Nov. 29, murdering three South Africans and two Afghans in the compound of an international aid agency in the Afghan capital. Werner Groenewald and his two teenage children were murdered in the guesthouse […]

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