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She survived a death camp. Facing Biden DOJ charges, she is prepared to die in prison

(The Daily Signal) — Eva Edl turned 10 years old in a World War II-era death camp.

She believes she may die in a United States prison.

Charged by President Joe Biden’s Justice Department with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, Edl faces up to 11 years in prison and $350,000 fines. She is about to turn 89 years old.

“When I was indicted, I began to prepare to die there,” she said thoughtfully in a phone interview with The Daily Signal. “Right now, I am ambivalent. … I’m doing the best I can to get ready. Haven’t talked to a funeral director yet.”

“I’m just being sensible,” she added. “There’s no guarantee that I survive it.”

Drawing on her brutal experiences with communism in what was then Yugoslavia, she refuses to underestimate those who have the power to oppress her, recalling how her mother couldn’t believe they were in danger until it was too late.

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Pastor in Indonesia Accused of Blasphemy

Pastor Gilbert Lumoindong of Indonesia Bethel Church in Jakarta, Indonesia. (Screenshot from YouTube)

SURABAYA, Indonesia (Morning Star News) – Muslim leaders have filed complaints of blasphemy against a leading Christian pastor in Indonesia.

After Pastor Gilbert Lumoindong of the Indonesia Bethel Church (Gereja Bethel Indonesia, GBI) mentioned Islamic prayer and alms-giving in comparison with biblical tithing in a video of his comments from a Sunday sermon, attorney Farhat Abbas reportedly filed a complaint with Metro Jaya Police Headquarters in Jakarta on April 16 accusing him of disparaging Islam.

About 1,145 miles (1,842 kilometers) from Jakarta in eastern Indonesia, two attorneys under the leadership of South Sulawesi Arimathea Forum head Jumzar Rahman filed a complaint at South Celebes Regional Police Headquarters in Makasar, South Celebes, also claiming Pastor Gilbert blasphemed against Islam.

“The video hurts us – we Muslims feel offended,” Rahman said, flanked by the two Muslim attorneys, according to suarasulsel.id. “How can he make comments on this matter that seem to make fun of Islamic shariah [Islamic law], something we believe?”

Another complaint against Pastor Gilbert was filed at Metro Jaya Police Headquarters on Friday (April 19) by Sapto Wibowo on behalf of the Jakarta Capital Special Region (Daerah Khusus Ibukota, DKI) Youth Committee organization, according to suara.com.

Sapto termed Pastor Gilbert’s comments as “hate speech” under Article 28 of the Information Technology and Electronic Bill (Undang-undang Informasi Teknologi and Elektronik, UU ITE). Sapto said Pastor Gilbert’s apology was not enough, and that legal action was needed as a deterrent to future incidents.

“As a Muslim, I believe in forgiveness but also think that a deterrent effect on Gilbert Lumoindong could serve as a lesson for the public to be more careful when discussing religious matters,” he reportedly said.

Pastor Gilbert reportedly spoke in his sermon about the Islamic zakat, the 2.5 percent of income that Muslims who earn enough are required to contribute to charity. He has since apologized, saying he had no intention of insulting Muslims, and that Muslims edited the video in an irresponsible way to render his comments offensive.

Wira Satya Triputra of Metro Jaya Police Headquarters told media that following Abbas’s complaint, officers were questioning witnesses, according to Kompas.com. Wira said police must examine evidence in the media and check places of worship.

Following the complaints, Pastor Gilbert visited with former Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla, head of the Indonesian Mosque Council (Dewan Masjid Indonesia, DMI), a nationwide organization of mosque leaders, and apologized, suarasulsel.id reported.

“I humbly apologize for the commotion that occurred,” Pastor Gilbert told the press at Jusuf’s residence in Jakarta, on April 16.

He also visited the office of the Indonesian Ulema Council (Majelis Ulama Indonesia, MUI). Cholil Nafis of the MUI said his organization accepted his apology after hearing Pastor Gilbert’s explanation and heartfelt apology, according to the MUI official website, mui.or.id.

“Gilbert Lumoindong said that he had no intention of insulting Islamic teachings, let alone creating divisions,” Cholil said after the meeting with the pastor on April 16. “We as religious people certainly accept his apology. We all forgive as we ask that this incident be a lesson for him and all of us.”

Indonesia ranked 42^nd on Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.

If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit https://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.

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Mother, Baby among Christians Slain in Plateau State, Nigeria

Plateau state, Nigeria. (Uwe Dedering, Creative Commons)

ABUJA, Nigeria (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – A single bullet killed a young mother and the baby strapped to her back, two of the more than 30 Christians killed in Plateau state, Nigeria in the past two weeks, sources said.

In predominantly Christian Kopnanle village, Bokkos County, more than 50 Fulani herdsmen on April 12 attacked unarmed residents, said community leader Farmasum Fuddang.

“The victims include a 12-month-old girl, Peret Sylvanus, who was brutally killed by the same bullet that killed her mother, Mwanret Sylvanus,” Fuddang said in a press statement. “The bullet pierced through Mrs. Sylvanus’ stomach and hit little Peret, who was strapped to her back, killing both of them instantly.”

They were among 10 Christians killed in the village, he said. The assailants slaughtered about 20 other Christians in Mandung-Mushu and surrounding communities, said Fuddang, an attorney.

“Under the cover of darkness, more than 50 armed Fulani terrorists descended upon the villages of Mandung-Mushu and Kopnanle, targeting innocent, unarmed, and peaceful Christian residents as they slept,” he said.

After the April 12 assaults on Mandung-Mushu village and Kopnanle in Tangur District, the assailants attacked Kopyal village the following day, killing five Christians, Fuddang said.

“The herdsmen carried out these attacks against Christians unchallenged,” he said. “They also attacked Manduk and Njukudel Christian communities, where they injured one Christian, and then proceeded to attack Mandarken village before moving also to Nghahtigut village, where they killed two Christians.”

The attacks also extended to the predominantly Christian communities of Josho village in Daffo District, he said.

“The herdsmen set fire to homes and a place of worship, a church worship building, mercilessly gunning down fleeing Christians while nearby soldiers failed to intervene effectively,” Fuddang said. “These brazen attacks, which predominantly targeted Christians, including women and children, appear to be part of a calculated effort to instill fear and perpetrate further displacement within our communities.”

Fuddang added that in spite of Nigerian authorities “acknowledging that the Fulani were responsible for the six-day attack that claimed the lives of over 300 Christians last Christmas Eve, no effort has been made by Nigeria government to curtail these attacks.”

On Thursday (April 18) in Chikam, another predominantly Christian village, gunmen killed several people, including Christian second-year university student Dading James Jordan, said Yakubu Ayuba, registrar at Plateau State University, Bokkos, in a press statement.

“Gunmen on the night of Thursday, April 18, attacked Chikam, a neighboring Christian community to Plateau State University, Bokkos, killing one of our students, Dading Jordan, a 200-level student and a Christian,” Ayuba said. “In view of this sad development, management has declared a two-day mourning, from Friday, April 19, to Saturday, April 20.”

Ayuba urged officials to increase security around the university in order to secure staff members and students.

Regarding the April 12 attacks, area resident Isaac Makut also stated that “Fulani Muslim militias” killed about 30 Christians in the villages.

In February also in Bokkos County, Fulani herdsmen killed a Christian and kidnapped his wife, said Mai Katako village resident Kefas Mallau. Sule Gwamnati was slain on Feb. 16, and his wife Blessing Gwamnati was kidnapped from Mai Katako.

“In the early hours of Friday, Feb. 16, a Christian by the name of Sule Gwamnati of Mai Katako village was shot twice by armed herdsmen, who also kidnapped his wife, Blessing Sule,” said Mallau, a community leader, in a text message to Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “The victim, Sule Gwamnati, later died at the Jos University Teaching Hospital after treatment had commenced.”

Luther Dafwang, brother of Blessing Gwamnati, said the couple were members of the Assembly of God Church.

“Sule Gwamnati died, but we can’t trace the whereabouts of his wife,” Dafwang said. “Please, help us pray.”

Nigeria was also the third highest country in number of attacks on churches and other Christian buildings such as hospitals, schools, and cemeteries, with 750, according to the report.

In the 2024 WWL of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Nigeria was ranked No. 6, as it was in the previous year.

Numbering in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not hold extremist views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted in a 2020 report.

“They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity,” the APPG report states.

Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to forcefully take over Christians’ lands and impose Islam as desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their herds.

If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit https://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.

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Court in Pakistan Orders Change in Legal Marriage Age

Lahore High Court. (MariyamAftab, Creative Commons)

LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – A high court in Pakistan last week ordered a provincial government to remove gender-based age distinction in its child marriage law, a move aimed at deterring forced conversions and forced marriages of girls, sources said.

Lahore High Court Justice Shahid Karim on April 15 declared as “discriminatory” Punjab Province’s Child Marriage Act of 1929, which fixed 18 and 16 years as legal ages for marriage for boys and girls respectively.

The verdict arose from petitioner Azka Wahid seeking amendments to the Child Marriage Act to avert harmful gender distinctions in accordance with the Constitution of Pakistan’s guarantee of equal rights for men and women.

Justice Karim wrote in his five-page verdict that the different ages for marriage for male and females, “being unconstitutional, are held to be without lawful authority and of no legal effect. They are struck down.”

He directed the government of Punjab Province to “issue the revised version of 1929 Act (based on this judgment) within the next 15 days and shall also upload that version on its website for information.”

Though the aforementioned law has been replaced by the Punjab Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act, 2015 to criminalize child marriage in Punjab, girls and women in Pakistan are often forced to marry against their will, in some cases even before reaching the legal age for marriage. This is especially true for minorities such as Christians and Hindus.

Christian and Hindu women and girls are particularly vulnerable as they belong to marginalized minority groups and are routinely targeted for sexual exploitation in the guise of forced marriages and forced religious conversions, activists say.

The judge observed there was a need to take effective steps against child marriages as Pakistan’s marriage laws were meant to primarily keep in view the “social, economic and educational factors rather than religious.”

Referring to Article 25 of the constitution, the judge stated that all citizens were equal before the law and were entitled to equal legal protection.

“The definition of ‘child’ in the 1929 Act while making a distinction on the basis of age, is not based on an intelligible criteria,” Justice Karim ruled. “The definition is indeed a special provision for the protection of women, but in the process it tends to afford greater protection to males by keeping their age of marriage higher than females.”

The judge noted that a brief filed by the Punjab advocate general’s office made a reference to Islamic jurisprudence regarding the age of puberty as the traditional interpretative toolkit. The report by the advocate general stated several factors behind the legislation, saying that in Pakistan, many children are victims of child marriage, and the burden of child marriage is disproportionately borne by girls as opposed to boys.

The report says that early marriage excludes children from education and makes them vulnerable to various health complications. It points out that as many as 21 percent of girls in Pakistan are married before the age of 18, and 3 percent before reaching 15, according to Unicef database 2016, based on Demographic Health Survey of Pakistan 2012-2013.

The report also quotes the recent Demographic Health Survey of Pakistan (2017-2018), which shows on average an increase in the age of girls marrying, but also that child marriage at the age of 15 years has increased from 1.6 to 1.8 percent. Justice Karim observed that this made a compelling case to take effective measures to counter the debilitating effects of child marriage.

“We, as a nation, woefully lag behind in all major indicators, and half of our population cannot be lost to child-bearing at an early age while its potential remains untapped,” the judge lamented.

He maintained that equal opportunities for females means equal restraint on marriage as for males. The judge further said the 1929 Act and its amendments help fulfill state duties under Article 35, which provides that it shall protect marriage, family, mother and child.

‘Right Direction’

Church leaders and rights activists welcomed the high court’s judgment, saying it had resolved the age difference issue and would help in achieving a deterrent against forced faith conversions and forced marriages of underage minority girls, including Christians.

Church of Pakistan President Bishop Azad Marshall lauded the verdict, saying the Punjab government must amend the Child Marriage Restraint Act through the Punjab Assembly to enforce the ruling.

“This verdict is the first step towards recognition of the severity of the issues related to child marriages, especially those belonging to the minority Christian and Hindu communities,” Marshall told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.

He said the church had been demanding the enforcement of a uniform minimum age for marriage for both boys and girls to be set at 18 years across Pakistan as a deterrent against forced conversions of underage Christian girls in guise of Islamic marriage.

Punjab Provincial Assembly’s Christian member Ejaz Alam Augustine said it was unlikely that the Punjab government would appeal against the court’s decision.

“I don’t think the provincial government will challenge this decision as the amended Act will provide protection to all women and girls irrespective of their faith affiliations,” he said.

U.N. human rights experts on April 11 called on Pakistan to make legal changes in light of continued vulnerability of women and girls of minority faiths to forced marriages and religious conversions. The U.N. special rapporteurs called on Pakistan to raise the legal age for girls to marry to 18 as a deterrent against exploitation in the 96-percent Muslim country.

“The exposure of young women and girls belonging to religious minority communities to such heinous human rights violations, and the impunity of such crimes, can no longer be tolerated or justified,” they said in a statement issued in Geneva.

The experts stressed that child, early and forced marriages could not be justified on religious or cultural grounds. They underscored that, under international law, consent was irrelevant when the victim was a child under the age of 18.

At present Sindh Province is the only one in Pakistan where the legal marriage age for both girls and boys is 18 years, while in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, the minimum for girls is still 16 years.

Pakistan ranked seventh on Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian, as it was the previous year.

If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit https://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.

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Vietnamese Churches Demand Investigation of Christian’s Death

Police and other officials intrude into home of Y Krot Bya during worship in Buon Don District, Dak Lak Province, Vietnam on Nov. 15, 2023. (Morning Star News)

(Morning Star News) – Relatives of Y Bum Bya, a member of the Evangelical Church of Christ of the Western Highlands (ECCWH), on March 8 found his battered body hanging from a tree with a rope around his neck.

Police, saying they were coming to return a cell phone that they had confiscated from him, had ordered him to be at home that morning to meet him. At the appointed time, however, officers sent word that he should meet them at another location about half a kilometer away.

He set out for the place but never returned. Relatives searching for him found his lifeless body hours later in a nearby stand of trees.

Police had first arrested and badly beaten Y Bum Bya in August 2023, and then publicly humiliated him before forcibly assembled fellow villagers. Officers charged him with trying to “destroy the great national unity,” under Article 116 of the criminal code. Merely expressing a controversial idea in Vietnam can trigger this charge.

In April 2023, a pastor of his congregation, Y Krec Bya, was also arrested and held a year for investigation before his trial on March 28. He also was accused of “destroying the great national unity.” On the flimsiest evidence he was sentenced to an outrageous 13 years in prison to be followed by five years of house arrest.

In a bold and unusual move, the ECCWH recruited 31 congregations to sign a petition demanding a full and transparent government investigation of the murder of Y Bum Bya, given its proximity to the site of the police summons. They also demand a review of the preposterous sentence for Pastor Y Krec Bya.

These churches show great courage in presenting the petition, providing full information about their identities and locations. The preparer of the petition also bravely provided his name, location, phone number and email.

The ECCWH is an independent denomination of E-De ethnic minority churches in Dak Lak Province. The other signatories represent two additional mostly E-De denominations and some independent congregations.

What these churches have in common is the temerity to publicly appeal to the international covenants promising religious freedom to which Vietnam is signatory, and to appeal to Vietnam’s own law that ostensibly provides some religious freedom. This takes courage. Any appeal or even mention of natural human rights, and Vietnam’s having signed international conventions such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, can be turned into criminal offenses.

These churches are told they must be registered with the government to operate, but at the same time they are deemed ineligible to register.

Morning Star News has also received a 22-page document detailing 13 cases of police oppression and harassment of E-De Christians in 2023. Each case records exactly what took place and identifies the offending police officers and other government officials involved and also provides names the victims.

Common to the cases is acute pressure to leave the ECCWH and join the largest registered church, the Evangelical Church of Vietnam-South. Working sessions with the police or other officials last many hours and include threats and sometimes brutality.

A goal of the government appears to be the dissolution of the ECCWH. The authorities decide which evangelical groups are eligible for Vietnam’s version of religious freedom and which are not. Officials can then use any objections to violations of human rights to file charges for crimes such as “destroying the great national unity.”

Such government practices and incidents have contributed to the United States placing Vietnam on its Special Watch List (SWL) of violators of religious liberty for the last two years – a major irritant in U.S.-Vietnam relations. Such ongoing oppression of Christians will make it difficult for Vietnam to get off the SWL.

Harassment, threats, and some severe brutality have also spread an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear over Vietnam’s estimated 400,000 ethnic minority Christians, collectively called Montagnards, in the Central Highlands. And these practices starkly belie the progress Vietnam claims it is making toward religious freedom.

If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit https://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.

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Christian Leaders Are Attacked with Swords in Northern India

Gurdeep Singh, attacked along with his brother, Pastor Gurjeet Singh, in Amritsar District, Punjab state, India on April 18, 2024. (Morning Star News)

NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – A group belonging to a Sikh warrior order last week attacked a pastor and another Christian with swords and knives in northern India’s Punjab state for leading church worship in their village.

Four Nihang Sikhs, who as members of the traditional warrior group are permitted to carry such weapons, attacked Pastor Gurjeet Singh, alias Gurjeet Rinku, and his younger brother Gurdeep Singh on Thursday (April 18) in Sultanwind village, Amritsar District, a relative said.

The assailants first told Gurdeep Singh, and later Pastor Singh, “We have warned you earlier as well to not conduct church and not convert people, but you have not paid heed,” according to Daljit Kaur, the pastor’s wife and an eyewitness.

The four Nihang Sikhs found Gurdeep Singh standing outside the house where the worship service is held at about 9 a.m.

“Finding him alone, these men pounced on him and struck him with swords and knives,” Kaur told Morning Star News.

Hearing the commotion, she and Pastor Singh rushed outside, and the pastor rushed to rescue his brother. The mob swiftly turned to the pastor and struck him with several blows of the sword, Kaur said.

“They were targeting his head,” she said. “To protect his head, Gurjeet shielded every blow with his hand and thus sustained severe cuts on both his hands, his arm, his palm and they almost chopped off his thumb.”

Gurdeep Singh, shielding his head with his hands, sustained deep cuts on his head, hands and one wrist.

The assailants constantly used abusive and coarse language as they stuck the brothers, Kaur said. They accused the two Christians of conducting church services and luring villagers and others from nearby areas to convert. They also told Gurdeep Singh that the brothers had failed to cease worship after they had given the pastor enough warnings, she said.

“My husband was threatened twice by the Nihang Sikhs earlier, but he did not tell me anything about the threat – he knew I would begin to worry,” Kaur said.

She rushed the brothers to the private Amandeep Hospital in Amritsar after two other hospitals refused to treat them because of the severity of their injuries, Kaur said. Pastor Singh received one unit of blood.

“They somehow managed to stop the bleeding temporarily and asked me to deposit money first before they would start the actual treatment,” she said.

Soon Kaur arranged for an ambulance to rush them to Christian Medical College & Hospital in Ludhiana, 90 miles from Amritsar.

“I did not have money to treat them in Amritsar,” Kaur said.

The same night, the doctors conducted an MRI scan of Gurdeep Singh’s head and stitched his cut, she said. Both Christians underwent surgery the next morning for wounds on their hands.

“Both Gurdeep and Gurjeet’s hand cuts are deep, and thus the doctors said that they had to be operated on,” Kaur said, her voice wavering.

The Christians have yet to file a police complaint.

“A lot of local media and police arrived, but the police did not offer to register a complaint,” Kaur said. “We will do that once pastor is fit to do so.”

The Singh brothers were born and brought up in Sultanwind village and lived together in a joint family with Pastor Singh and Kaur’s two sons, ages 8 and 2, and the three children of Gurdeep Singh and his wife, ages 8, 11 and 18.

Pastor Vishnu Dev, also a local leader in Ludhiana, said the brothers need much prayer.

“I am very disturbed at the brutal attack on the brothers,” Pastor Dev told Morning Star News. “If the police do not conduct fair investigation and just action, we will gather together and protest against the authorities and demand justice.”

Pastor Singh has led the house church for 10 years, with his brother assisting.

India ranked 11th on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. The country was 31st in 2013, but its position worsened after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power.

The hostile tone of the National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), against non-Hindus, has emboldened Hindu extremists in several parts of the country to attack Christians since Modi took power in May 2014, religious rights advocates say.

If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit https://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.

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Christian Refugee Mother from Sudan Attacked for Her Faith

Juba, South Sudan. (Umar sheriff habibullah, Creative Commons)

JUBA, South Sudan (Morning Star News) – Among the 8 million people who have fled military conflict in Sudan is a mother who lost two babies to illness and was beaten for putting her faith in Christ.

Fatima Adam, 41, said she still has pain in the joints and bones of the leg that her Muslim husband struck with a metal rod two months ago at a refugee camp in South Sudan, where they had arrived after fleeing Khartoum in June 2023.

Adam was asleep at a makeshift shelter of the Gorom refugee camp outside of Juba when he attacked her, she said.

“Didn’t I order you to renounce your new faith and come back to Islam?” he told her, having learned that she had continued attending worship services inside the camp, she told Morning Star News.

The beating required her to be rushed to a hospital, where she was under medication and other treatment for a week, she said.

Adam had accepted Christ at an evangelistic event a few weeks after her arrival at the refugee camp in June. She said her husband, noting she no longer recited Muslim prayers five times daily, learned of her new faith in January and began threatening her.

“I will kill you if you continue to follow this Jesus of yours – do not go the church again, and stop taking my kids to the church,” he told her.

The refugee camp lacked adequate food, safe drinking water and sufficient primary health care for the swelling refugee population, and soon after arriving Adam lost two babies in succession, one 6 months old and the other 1 year old. They died due to insufficient medical care, she said.

Adam has two other children, one of them a 22-year-old son who as a civilian went missing in Khartoum after fighting broke out between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) a year ago.

“Pray for my son to be found, because he went missing due to the war in Sudan,” she said.

Fighting between the RSF and the SAF, which had shared military rule in Sudan following an October 2021 coup, has terrorized civilians in Khartoum and elsewhere, leaving more than 14,600 people dead and displacing an estimated 8 million others inside and outside the country.

Christian sites have been targeted since the conflict began.

The SAF’s Gen. Abdelfattah al-Burhan and his then-vice president, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, were in power when civilian parties in March 2023 agreed on a framework to re-establish a democratic transition the next month, but disagreements over military structure torpedoed final approval.

Burhan sought to place the RSF – a paramilitary outfit with roots in the Janjaweed militias that had helped former strongman Omar al-Bashir put down rebels – under the regular army’s control within two years, while Dagolo would accept integration within nothing fewer than 10 years. The conflict burst into military fighting on April 15, 2023.

Both military leaders have Islamist backgrounds while trying to portray themselves to the international community as pro-democracy advocates of religious freedom.

In Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Sudan was ranked No. 8, up from No. 10 the previous year, as attacks by non-state actors continued and religious freedom reforms at the national level were not enacted locally.

Sudan had dropped out of the top 10 for the first time in six years when it first ranked No. 13 in the 2021 World Watch List.

Following two years of advances in religious freedom in Sudan after the end of the Islamist dictatorship under Bashir in 2019, the specter of state-sponsored persecution returned with the military coup of Oct. 25, 2021.

After Bashir was ousted from 30 years of power in April 2019, the transitional civilian-military government had managed to undo some sharia (Islamic law) provisions. It outlawed the labeling of any religious group “infidels” and thus effectively rescinded apostasy laws that made leaving Islam punishable by death.

With the Oct. 25, 2021 coup, Christians in Sudan feared the return of the most repressive and harsh aspects of Islamic law. Abdalla Hamdok, who had led a transitional government as prime minister starting in September 2019, was detained under house arrest for nearly a month before he was released and reinstated in a tenuous power-sharing agreement in November 2021.

Hamdock had been faced with rooting out longstanding corruption and an Islamist “deep state” from Bashir’s regime – the same deep state that is suspected of rooting out the transitional government in the Oct. 25, 2021 coup.

The U.S. State Department in 2019 removed Sudan from the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) that engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom” and upgraded it to a watch list. Sudan had previously been designated as a CPC from 1999 to 2018.

In December 2020, the State Department removed Sudan from its Special Watch List.

The Christian population of Sudan is estimated at 2 million, or 4.5 percent of the total population of more than 43 million.

If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit https://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.

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Muslim Suspected of Killing His Christian Mother, Relative Says

Sulaina Nabirye died on April 10, 2024 in Kamuli, Uganda. (Morning Star News)

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – A Muslim in eastern Uganda is suspected of killing his mother last week by putting pesticide in her food for refusing to leave her Christian faith, a relative said.

Sulaina Nabirye, 50, of Kamuli, Kamuli District, put her faith in Christ on Feb. 10, and since then her 31-year-old son had tried to persuade her to return to Islam, said the relative, whose name is withheld for security reasons.

“During the month of Ramadan, she complained of her son pressuring her to stop attending church and revert back to Islam, since he was studying to become an imam at Bugembe Mosque,” the relative said. “When she refused to convert back to Islam, he stopped visiting her at her house and threatened to chase or even kill her.”

Nabirye’s fears led the source to make frequent visits, praying with and encouraging her to withstand the threats.

“She had peace and joy and was encouraged by the sermons from the pastor,” the source said.

The threats from Nabirye’s son, Arajabu Mukiibi, intensified during Ramadan, and the source was present when Mukiibi visited on April 9 to tell Nabirye that his wife would prepare dinner for them.

“At 7 p.m. he came with food, which he gave to us, and he left,” the relative said. “I was praying and fasting, so I did not eat the food. Shortly after eating the food, Sulaina started vomiting, and then followed diarrhea. I tried what I could, but things were worsening, I called a nearby clinic officer who came with medication. He tried to put her on drip, but all was in vain.”

Nabirye died that night at 2 a.m., April 10. The relative’s bitter weeping and wailing at Nabirye’s death alerted neighbors, who arrived to learn of the tragedy.

The source had the food tested at a medical clinic and discovered that it contained Methanol, a toxic alcohol used as an industrial solvent and pesticide.

“Her son did not come to help his mum,” the relative said. “He and his wife who were living close by did not show up. This made me conclude that he is the one who planned the poisoning.”

Area people have condemned Mukiibi for allegedly taking his mother’s life for becoming Christian and have vowed to take revenge, the source said. Relatives planned to file a report with police.

Nabirye, whose husband died in an auto accident in 2019, is also survived by a second adult child.

Nabirye attended church services every Sunday after putting her faith in Christ, the source said.

“On Feb. 9, I shared with her the Christian faith, and the following day we attended an open-air preaching,” the relative said. “After the preaching, she requested the pastor to prayer for her salvation. She was prayed for and received Jesus as Lord and Savior.”

The killing was the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented.

Uganda’s constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate one’s faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims make up no more than 12 percent of Uganda’s population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country.

If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit https://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.

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The post Muslim Suspected of Killing His Christian Mother, Relative Says appeared first on Morningstar News.

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Militants Detain Church Leader in Sudan, Demand Ransom

Shendi town in relation to Khartoum, Sudan. (Map data © Google 2024)

JUBA, South Sudan (Morning Star News) – The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Friday (April 12) intercepted a church leader in Sudan as he was traveling out of Omdurman and temporarily jailed him, area sources said.

The Rev. Antar Abbas Abu Hidia, general secretary of the Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC), was traveling to Shendi, 150 kilometers (93 miles) northeast of Khartoum, to attend an annual denomination assembly when he was apprehended on his way out of Omdurman, said attorney Motawakil Ibrahim Kambil, chair of SCOC’s Advisory Board.

The RSF, which has been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) since April 15, 2023, detained the pastor, incarcerated him in Khartoum’s Soba Prison and demanded he pay a ransom for his release, sources said.

The RSF gave no reason for his detention. The Sudanese church condemned the incident, calling for his immediate release, and Hidia was released over the weekend, though no ransom was paid.

Hidia proceeded to Shendi to attend the meeting, said the Rev. Almin Musa, chairman of SCOC.

“Rev. Antar has been released, and he is now in Shendi,” Musa said.

Christians appear to have been targeted amid the military fighting, and a year after war broke between the RSF and the SAF, there is no sign of resolution.

Christian sites have been targeted since the conflict began.

Both military leaders have Islamist backgrounds while trying to portray themselves to the international community as pro-democracy advocates of religious freedom.

Sudan had dropped out of the top 10 for the first time in six years when it first ranked No. 13 in the 2021 World Watch List.

In December 2020, the State Department removed Sudan from its Special Watch List.

The Christian population of Sudan is estimated at 2 million, or 4.5 percent of the total population of more than 43 million.

If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit https://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.

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