World in Brief

On 5 June, Sunil Gomez, a Christian grocer, was murdered inside his shop in a Christian neighbourhood in the district of Natore.

On 7 June, Ananda Gopal Ganuli, a Hindu religious leader, was killed in Jhenaidah after performing his regular religious rites in a temple in the Naldanga area, where he served as a priest. Attacks on religious minorities by extremist groups in Bangladesh have escalated rapidly in recent months. Responsibility for the murders has reportedly been claimed by Daesh (Islamic State).

A ceasefire and an end to hostilities between the Government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was announced on 23 June.

The agreement also sets in place a plan for the demobilisation of members of the FARC, the country’s largest illegal armed group. Previous agreements made as part of the ongoing peace process include provisions that those responsible for human rights violations fully confess to those acts in order to benefit from the possibility of reduced sentences.

Cuban Christianity has ‘grown in the shadows of culture for many years’, it was reported at the end of June.

With help from Christian organisations, such as the Luis Palau Bible Institute and the International Bible Society, that growth is continuing. These groups are distributing Bibles and holding gospel-training sessions. In November, Cuba will offer on-site ministry training to local pastors for free. Previously, the Luis Palau Bible Institute had been working with about 40 pastors, while the on-site courses will reach more than 200 pastors.

An attack by unknown armed men early on Tuesday morning (5 July) has claimed the lives of at least nine Christians in the volatile eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Local sources said the assailants stormed the Tenambo, Nzanza and Mamiki communities near an army base on the outskirts of the town of Oicha, between 4am and 6am.

Angry crowds protesting at rumours that a house under construction was being turned into a church attacked homes and property belonging to the Coptic community of Qarayat al Bayda village near Alexandria on 17 June.

Local Copt Ramy Kashwaa stated: ‘Had it not been for the intervention of our sane Muslim brothers, the pastor could have died.’ Instead of protecting the Copts and their property, the police allowed the violence and looting to continue. They then arrested six Copts along with six Muslims. While the Muslims were freed shortly afterwards, the Copts were not released until dawn on 18 June and charged.

A noted Coptic human rights activist, arrested in May and accused of belonging to a terrorist organisation, was released from prison on 21 June after posting bail.

A judge in the Al-Wayly Court of Appeals on 18 June set a 10,000 Egyptian pound (£850) bail for Mina Thabet (26), director of the Minority and Religious Groups Department at the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF). Processing of Thabet’s release paperwork delayed his release until the 21st.

An EU agreement with Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and other Internet companies, announced on 31 May, commits IT companies to work with ‘civil society organisations’ to flag and remove comments deemed offensive within 24 hours.

The origin of the policy was an EU Colloquium on Fundamental Rights set up in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks. The role of the colloquium was to protect free speech. It has been criticised for focussing instead on combating Islamophobia.

A fact-finding mission to the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh on 8–11 June, undertaken by a team of eight representatives of the All India People’s Forum (AIPF), catalogued a series of anti-Christian abuses, including hate crimes, discrimination and violations of religious freedoms.

In certain instances this is directed at making living conditions for Christians in the villages concerned intolerable. The AIPF report, released on 12 June, also highlighted the incident of a 14-year-old girl raped throughout the night of 8 June by an assistant constable. That incident is currently under investigation by the police.

Three Christians were severely beaten by a mob of 50–60 men, led by a group of Hindu extremists, on 19 June in Jabalpur, in Madhya Pradesh.

Following the attack, the three victims were forcibly taken to the local police station, beaten along the way, and a case was registered against them for attempts to forcibly convert Hindus to Christianity.

Maryam Naghash Zargaran returned to the women’s ward of Evin prison on 27 June.

The prosecutor’s office had refused to extend her medical leave and, when they threatened to seize the family home (in payment of a bond given to secure her temporary release), Maryam returned to prison. She had been released from Evin on temporary medical furlough on 6 June, following a hunger strike begun on 26 May. Maryam was able to receive medical care and spend valuable time at home and her health had improved when she returned to prison. She has a year remaining of her four-year sentence.

At the age of 89, former Soviet-era Baptist prisoner of conscience Yegor Prokopenko has again been fined for leading a meeting for worship, it was reported in June.

He is believed to be the oldest victim of Kazakhstan's policy of fining those who exercise the right to freedom of religion or belief without state permission. Two Protestants in the same city were fined for drinking tea in a cafe after a Sunday meeting for worship.

Eight Christians in the Dolakha district, including one woman, were released from prison on 17 June, nine days after being arrested on charges of distributing Christian literature to children at two schools with the intention to convert them.

News of their release was greeted with thanksgiving across the Nepalese Christian community. However, the charges have not been dropped and there remain calls for the group to be punished.

The Nigerian Army reported in an emailed statement on 26 June that it raided 15 villages in the remote northeast of the country as part of its continuing operation to defeat Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

In the process, the army freed 5,000 people held hostage by the insurgents. In the last year, Nigeria’s armed forces, sometimes supported by troops from neighbouring countries, have recaptured most of the territory that the Islamists had claimed.

Muslims in the village of Gojra in Pakistan's Punjab province are assisting local Christians with a new church building, it was reported in early June.

The Muslim-majority village is home to eight Christian families. The new building will be the first-ever church in the village. Muslim villagers are contributing finance as well as assisting with the actual construction work. Ijaz Farooq, a Muslim villager, said: ‘Our mosque stands here from times past, but our Christian brothers also have the right to worship in their church.’ He added: ‘We have a place to worship, but Christians do not have one.’

On 20 June, a Christian brick-kiln worker was brutally beaten after confronting the brick kiln’s Muslim owner about being underpaid.

Nadeem Masih (19) had worked for over 12 months at the brick kiln in Chuniyaan district in the city of Kasur. When Masih went to the local police after his beating, they informed him that Christian slaves had no right to seek justice against their Muslim masters and returned him to his tormentors, who gave him another beating.

A Christian father of ten living in the village of Bugri, Kasur district of Punjab province, was severely beaten and shot at by a Muslim mob on 16 June.

Jhoora Masih survived a gunshot that injured his hand, but he and his family sustained several other injuries. The attackers even attempted to burn his daughters alive, but were prevented from doing so by the family’s Christian and Muslim neighbours.

In June, an anti-terrorism court sentenced a Christian man to death for committing blasphemy against the prophet of Islam.

Anjum Sandhu (60) had initially sought police protection in May 2015, after alleging he was the victim of blackmail and extortion, but was instead charged with blasphemy by the police, after the men he had accused levelled charges against him. On 27 June 2016, Sandhu was sentenced to death and fined. Javed Naz and Jafar Ali, the two he had accused, were also sentenced to death, but must first serve 35 years in jail.

Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II, together with accompanying senior leaders of the Syriac Orthodox Church, survived an assassination attempt on Sunday 19 June.

A suicide bomber disguised as a priest tried to infiltrate a church service in the small Syrian town of Qamishli, where Christians had gathered to commemorate the Assyrian genocide, which they call Seyfo (meaning ‘sword’).

Yokannah Zirinkuma (50) of Kasasira village, Kibuku District, was found dead in a pool of blood on 4 June in nearby Kadama village.

Well known in the area for evangelistic preaching in a marketplace by which several Muslims came to faith in Christ, Zirinkuma had two weeks earlier engaged Muslims in Kasasira village in open debate that became heated. He later received a threatening letter from unknown Muslims. A Muslim man has been charged with murder and has been remanded in jail for one year awaiting trial.

Evangelist Franklin Graham drew a huge crowd in Olympia, Washington, on 29 June, as part of his 50-state Decision America tour.

It was reported that at least 5,000 people attended the hour-long rally that included prayers for the United States and its leadership.

James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, said in late June that presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump recently came to faith in Christ.

Dobson knows the person who led him to Christ and believes he really made a commitment, but said ‘he’s a baby Christian’. Dobson went on to say: ‘I think there's hope for him. And I think there’s hope for us.