Tag: BJP

Risk of persecution going digital with rise of surveillance state

January 15, 2020 Global News -- No Particular Country BJP, China, India, Surveillance

Senior lady looking at Dongguang Church in Shenyang, northeastern China. (Photo: Open Doors International)

A case can be made that today there are more Christians in China than members of the Communist Party. China comes no. 23 in the Open Doors World Watch List of the top 50 countries in which it’s most difficult to live as a Christian which was published today. Last . . . Read More

From sub-Saharan Africa to China, Christians experience ‘high’ levels of persecution

January 15, 2020 Global News -- No Particular Country BJP, Boko Haram, Churches, Islamic extremism, Middle East, Minorities, Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, World Watch List

Poster memorials and crosses for Christians who died in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Easter Sunday, 2019

• In Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday more than 250 people, 45 of them children, were killed in attacks on three churches and hotels; more than 500 people were injured. • Bombs killed 20 at a Catholic church in Jolo in the southern Philippines. • In China, state-sanctioned and ‘underground’ . . . Read More

India: Supreme Court orders seven Kandhamal Christians freed on bail after 9 years in prison

December 13, 2019 India BJP, Hindu nationalism, Human rights, India, Kandhamal, Minorities

Eleven years ago today, 13 December 2008, an Indian man was arrested. Initially, he suspected it would be quickly resolved – he was active in local politics and assumed it was for something minor connected to that. But it was to be over ten years before he would get his . . . Read More

India: Christian convert killed and left on the road, beheaded

February 22, 2019 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Converts, Hindutva, India, Narendra Modi, Odisha

A street in a village in India. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

An Indian man who had become a Christian last year was killed and beheaded in eastern India earlier this month, reports Persecution Relief. On 11 February, Anant Ram Gand, 40, was taken from his home in the village of Raigarh Tehsil, in the district of Nabarangapur, Odisha, by three men . . . Read More

‘Situation for India’s religious minorities is at tipping point’ – report

February 12, 2019 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Chhattisgarh, Hindutva, India, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Minorities, Narendra Modi, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh

The report shows that since Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014, the number of violent acts against India's religious minorities have increased (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A report by a religious freedom watchdog shows a dramatic increase in the number of attacks on Christians and Muslims in India in the last four years and “the situation … is at a tipping point”. The number of reported incidents in the first three months of 2018 was greater . . . Read More

Key trends show in 2019 List of countries where it’s most difficult to live as a Christian

January 16, 2019 Global News -- No Particular Country BJP, Blasphemy, Boko Haram, China, Egypt, Hindu nationalism, India, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Middle East, Minorities, Nigeria, Religious freedom, World Watch List

WWL 2019 key trends, gender, China, woman (photo: VPA)

In its 2019 World Watch List, Open Doors International reports that 11 countries score highly enough to fit into the ‘extreme’ category for the level of persecution of Christians. It was the same last year, but five years ago, only North Korea was in that category. From roughly 2006, and accelerating from 2012, the NGO says the . . . Read More

Indian Christians heave sighs of relief as Hindu nationalists lose elections in key states

December 12, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Chhattisgarh, Christmas, Delhi, Elections, Hindu nationalism, India, Madhya Pradesh, Minorities, Police, Rajasthan

Christians can heave sighs of relief as the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP has been thrown out of power in three key states in central India that have reported dozens of incidents of anti-Christian violence and harassment. The BJP, which had enjoyed unstinted power in two of the states – Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh – for 15 . . . Read More

India: Christians’ names missing from electoral lists

November 30, 2018 India Bangalore, Bhopal, BJP, Hindu nationalism, India, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Narendra Modi

Hundreds of Christians in India’s Madhya Pradesh state found their names missing from the lists of voters in elections for the State Assembly on 28 November, AsiaNews reports. One of them was the Bishop of Bhopal, Leo Cornelio, who told AsiaNews that after waiting at the polling station for 45 . . . Read More

Indian Christian forum demands withdrawal of ‘bogus’ charges of forced conversions

November 13, 2018 India BJP, Chhattisgarh, Hindu nationalism, India, Karnataka, Narendra Modi, Pentecostals, Punjab, Religious freedom, Uttar Pradesh

The Christian Forum of Chhattisgarh state in India called on its political parties to commit to ensuring freedom of religion, as elections for the state’s legislative house took place yesterday (12 November), Catholic news agency UCAN reported. Meanwhile, several attacks on Christians were reported in the first week of this . . . Read More

Record anti-Christian violence in India’s most populous state

October 31, 2018 India BJP, Catholics, Chennai, Hindu nationalism, Jharkhand, Manipur, Narendra Modi, Protestants, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh

India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, saw a “record level” of anti-Christian violence last month, according to a survey by Violence Monitor, a monthly magazine that reports incidents of violence against minorities, as reported by AsiaNews. The magazine revealed that out of 25 cases of religious intolerance reported in the . . . Read More

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