World in Brief

Christians in Algeria were forced out of a tent they were worshipping in by police on 28 January after their church building was sealed by authorities.

The tent, set up in the grounds of Azaghar Church, enabled the 300-strong congregation to continue worshipping following the forced closure of their church building for spurious ‘health and safety’ reasons. The church lost the use of its building in October 2018, despite the congregation responding to requests to install fire exits and fire extinguishers.

The Bulgarian Parliament agreed not to pass into law prohibitive amendments to the nation’s Religious Denominations Act, after thousands of Christians protested against a crackdown on the religious activity of minority religions in December.

Christians had gathered in Sofia to protest against oppressive amendments that would have placed limitations on evangelising, banned worship outside officially-recognised buildings and restricted church leadership training. Religious groups would also have needed 300 members before being officially recognised.

Large numbers of suspected Boko Haram militants attacked the predominantly Christian villages of Gochi and Toufou in north Cameroon, on 24 January.

The raids came in the middle of the night, overwhelming the soldiers on guard, forcing them to flee and causing appalling damage. 190 houses were destroyed in the villages. Four churches were ransacked, with valuables stolen and livestock killed. A Christian hospital was set on fire, dozens of motorbikes destroyed and essential household items such as mattresses vandalised or looted.

A police officer was arrested, dismissed and forced to move to another part of the country after he told colleagues about his Christian faith, it was reported in early February.

The 25-year-old was talking about his faith while in uniform. One of his colleagues filed a complaint against him. Investigators were greatly surprised to discover that within his tribe there was a Christian. The man was told to return to Islam and was arrested after he refused.

Pakistani Christian Haroon Masih, a former imam who sought asylum, is continuing to receive death threats from his family, it was reported in January.

Haroon, 34, left Pakistan following an attack by members of his community after they learned of his conversion to Christianity. He was stabbed by four Urdu-speaking men while out jogging. When the church he had formed was discovered he was forced to flee the country, after being beaten ‘half dead’ by a mob of 30-40 Muslims and receiving death threats.

On 9 January, a church building was torn down because it was built on the west side of a village, which Hindus said violated Hindu principles of placement and positioning.

The Vastu Shastra architectural and planning principles, a Hindu version of Feng Shui, were said to oppose the construction. The church pastor couldn’t make a meeting which had been called about the church positioning, so the village leader ordered men to demolish the church. Tribal and upper-caste Hindus who strongly believe in Vastu Shastra collected more than 100 signatures expressing their objection to Christian worship in the location.

Six Christians were seriously injured in a planned ambush by Hindu militants on a prayer meeting in a private home in Uttar Pradesh on 7 February.

The prayer meeting took place at the home of a church leader called Pastor Ranjit and was attended by about 40 Christians. The meeting was interrupted by 25 Hindu militants, who subjected the Christians to verbal abuse and physical assault, resulting in six people requiring urgent medical attention. Bibles and other church property were also damaged in the onslaught.

Police in Uttar Pradesh state on 28 January arrested 40-year-old pastor Dharmendra Singh on a charge of ‘alluring to convert’ and outraging religious feelings and promoting enmity.

He was released on bail two days later. The complainant later denied allegations against the church leader. Pastor Singh denied all charges against him, saying members of the Hindu extremist Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal fabricated a story and pressured the new Christian, Ramesh Gautam, to file a false complaint against him.

On 13 January, a protest was held against a house that was allegedly converted into a place of worship.

In a video, residents surrounded Pastor Jans Fransman Saragih’s home as Sunday service was about to commence. They pushed and shouted at church members, before demanding them to shut down. A member of the church said: ‘We didn’t do things that were prohibited. Where is justice in this country? Where is our religious tolerance? God is with us.’

On February 1, Pastor Tun Nu, who was kidnapped at gunpoint in January, died.

According to the mission organisation Pastor Tun is a part of, the 41-year-old pastor was killed along with several others who had been kidnapped by a rebel army in the Rakhine state of Myanmar, an area affected by the Rohingya conflict. He leaves behind his wife, three young children, and a church of more than 50 believers.

The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from a former Washington state high school football coach who was fired for praying after football games, it was reported in January.

However, they did criticise the court which rejected the teacher’s request for an injunction to stop him being fired. That court’s ruling opened the door to a school stopping a teacher doing anything within working hours that could be spotted by students with which the school disagreed, and could therefore undermine the free speech rights of a teacher.

A Washington DC restaurant was fined $7,000 by the city in January after it tried to stop a biological male customer who identifies as female from using the women’s restroom.

In addition to the fine, the restaurant must now post a sign declaring that ‘all individuals are allowed to use the restroom that corresponds to their gender identity or expression’.

Primary-age students in California’s state schools will be taught to reject ‘gender stereotypes’ in clothing, colours and toys and to accept transgenderism as normative if proposed health guidelines are approved, it was reported in January.

There would be no opt-out option for parents. One recommended book teaches students that there are at least 15 genders. The same book also tells children it’s impossible to know if a baby is a boy or a girl. It states: ‘Babies can’t talk, so grown-ups make a guess by looking at their bodies’.

Police searched a woman’s flat in Bukhara to seize a New Testament that had been given to her, it was reported in February.

A court fined Safarov, the giver of the Bible, and ordered the book destroyed. The government’s Religious Affairs Committee claimed that using the New Testament for ‘missionary purposes’ is illegal.