Violence against Christians is increasing in Vietnam, yet the Church is growing among ethnic minorities. Christians who come from a Buddhist or animist background experience the strongest pressure, both from their communities and the authorities. Christian ethnic minorities, such as the Montagnards, also face fierce opposition. All Christian groups are monitored by the government, registering churches is difficult, and a new law on religion and belief limits religious groups by controlling meetings.
New report slams Vietnam’s human-rights record
A new report paints an abysmal picture of Vietnam’s human-rights record, documenting “one of the worst crack-downs in recent years against rights defenders, bloggers and religious followers”. Published by the Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR), the report says “arrests and harsh convictions of dissidents are multiplying with frightening […]
Vietnam: Catholic activist’s harsh sentence condemned by US
Two Catholic environmental activists have been jailed in Vietnam for helping hundreds of fishermen to sue a Taiwanese steel plant for polluting coastal waters, reports UCA News. The US State Department has condemned the sentences of 14 years for Hoang Duc Binh, 35, and two years for fellow activist Nguyen […]
Vietnam town bans Catholic Mass under new religion law
A local authority in Vietnam has used the country’s new religion law to declare a Catholic Mass illegal, reports Asia News. The ruling was made by the People’s Committee of Quỳnh Ngọc, a municipality in the north-central province of Nghệ An, after a Catholic priest failed to register the Mass ahead […]
Christian teenager ‘at risk of state persecution’ if deported to Vietnam
More than 55,000 people have signed a petition to allow a teenage victim of human trafficking to stay in the UK. The young man, known by the pseudonym of ‘Stephen’, will appeal to the UK government on 5 February to have his rejected asylum application overturned. Stephen was trafficked from […]
Court upholds Vietnamese Christian blogger’s 5-year jail sentence
A Vietnamese provincial court on Tuesday upheld the five-year jail sentence of Christian blogger and activist Nguyen Van Oai. Van Oai was sentenced at the People’s Court in the town Hoàng Mai in September to a five-year jail term and four years’ house arrest for resisting a public official and […]
Vietnam: Catholic blogger’s 9-year prison sentence upheld
Catholic rights activist and blogger Maria Tran Thi Nga has had her nine-year prison sentence upheld following an appeal hearing at the Supreme Court in the capital city, Hanoi, reports Asia News. Only three of Nga’s lawyers were able to attend the hearing. Her husband and family members were detained […]
Vietnam: Church told to take down Christmas nativity scene
One of the highlights at this time of year for the citizens of Communist Vietnam is to go to see often highly elaborate temporary ‘constructions’ showing the Nativity scene of Christ’s birth which local Christians build onto their churches or homes. There are, for instance, whole streets of such scenes […]
Vietnam: Catholic blogger loses appeal against 10-year sentence for ‘anti-state reports’
A Vietnamese Catholic blogger has failed in her attempt to overturn a 10-year prison sentence for writing “anti-state reports”. Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 38, better known as ‘Me Nam’ (Mother Mushroom), is a member of the US-based activist group Viet Tan, which funded one of her environmental campaigns. Her blogging […]
Vietnam’s religion policy and practice – contradictions continue
Optimists are hard to find ahead of Vietnam’s impending introduction of its new Law on Belief and Religion, scheduled to come into effect on 1 January, 2018. Vietnam’s Catholic and Evangelical leaders, as well as Buddhists and Caodaists, say the main benefit of the law, two years in the making, […]
The ‘remarkable religious transformation’ of Vietnam’s Hmong
Christianity started spreading among the Hmong in the highlands of northwest and central Vietnam in the late 1980s through a Hmong-language Christian radio program broadcast from Manila and has led to “a remarkable religious transformation … in the past three decades”, according to academic Seb Rumsby, writing for The Diplomat. Among […]