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From Horror in Nigeria to North Korea: Report Exposes Global Terror Against Believers
A persecution watchdog has released a new report that aims to fill a “gap” when it comes to fully reporting on the Christian persecution raging across the globe.
“We found was there needed to be a report that was based entirely on well verified, carefully reviewed sources,” Isaac Six, senior director of advocacy for Global Christian Relief (GCF), told CBN News. “These are public sources that are included in a database we’ve commissioned called the Violent Incidents Database, and the report is built on that database.”
One of the issues with some of the other reports in this realm, Six said, is that they are relatively qualitative in nature, relying on interviews and available numbers to essentially “make an estimate.” While this is valid and helpful, he said GCF’s new “Red List” works a bit differently.
“Our report numbers can seem a little lower than some of those, but that’s because we’re only using numbers we can absolutely verify are true,” he said, noting the “Red List” provides data over a two-year period that is heavily verified and “irrefutable.”
The methodology even enabled the researchers to confirm a few hundred of the arrests that have unfolded in North Korea, a reclusive nation known for being the worst persecutor of Christians across the globe — and that’s not all.
“We were able to confirm that Afghanistan, since the takeover of the Taliban, is almost a closed box,” Six said. “Everything is underground. We do have networks there, but it’s very difficult to get any public verified reporting of persecution.”
And while there are many types of persecution and pressures placed on believers, Six said violence is the “primary method through which persecutors are trying to drive out the church.”
“This isn’t just random, sporadic acts of anger or violence towards Christians,” he said. “In a lot of these cases, this is well-organized, systematic, long-term, and the overarching goal here is to crush the church and extinguish it. It’s an existential crisis for a lot of these communities that we’re talking about in this report.”
One of the unique facets of the “Red List” is that nations are ranked not just by overall persecution metrics but by categories. Killings are just one such category, with Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Ethiopia, and Russia serving as the top five on the list.
As CBN News has reported, Nigeria is consistently found by watchdogs to be the most deadly nation for believers. The “Red List” is no exception, with the numbers found in the report quite staggering.
“We documented almost 10,000 killings of Christians, mostly in the north and middle part of that country,” Six said. “And, again, that is systematic violence being perpetrated and led by groups like Boko Haram, and Islamic State West Africa Province, and then other armed groups.”
Ultimately, Isaac said Christians in America need to understand the extent of the terror.
“The church in America really has to hear how horrific some of these stories are,” he said. “It’s not just violence. It’s not just killings. It is brutal atrocities. And, frankly, the church has to wake up to some of this. Only a fraction of believers in America are even aware of what’s happening.”
Six also addressed Russia’s placement in the top five for killings.
“Russia … appears twice on a report, both for killings and also for arrests,” Six said. “Now, the killings are primarily happening in an area called Dagestan, which is in the North Caucasus region of Russia. It borders Georgia and Azerbaijan, the Caspian Sea.”
He continued, “And, in Dagestan, you have an Islamist militancy that’s …targeting Orthodox Russian Christians; it will target priests and churches. So that’s where most of those killings are happening.”
Six said some of the killings are also happening in occupied areas of Eastern Ukraine, as the Russia-Ukraine war continues to rage.
“Many parts of the church are going underground in Eastern Ukraine,” he said.
Six is hoping the “Red List” is a valuable resource – one that helps people navigate and understand these persistent issues of persecution.
“When I looked over the report and finally saw the numbers [I thought], ‘There is so much here for us to do,’” he said. “We’ve been working in this area and we get very focused on some areas where there’s great need and that’s good. … But I looked at it and thought, ‘We need a wave of support and prayer coming out of the American church and the global church for the areas where the body of Christ is just being attacked in the worst possible ways.’”
With those areas now identified in the “Red List,” prayer and action can more readily be taken — and with more spiritual and practical precision.
Sources:faithwire
China — In statements on social media and state-owned media platforms, China is celebrating an increase in government persecution of religious minorities in 2024.
The Chinese government views religious freedom as a threat to the exclusive loyalty it believes is owed to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules the country, and broadly labels non-state religious groups as cults regardless of their actual beliefs.
“China’s public security authorities intensified efforts to dismantle cult organizations in 2024,” the Global Times, a media outlet run by the CCP, reported last month. “They have worked to curb the growth and spread of cult organizations, mitigating potential threats to national political security and maintaining social stability.”
The word rendered as “cult” in the Global Times report is xie jiao, an amorphous term apparently dating back to the Ming Dynasty. It was used to designate movements or beliefs deemed anti-government or that failed to comply with the strict principles of the CCP.
In a statement on the Chinese messaging app and social media platform WeChat, China’s Ministry of Public Security boasted of increased spending on technology and manpower to combat independent religious organizations in a repressive campaign that has included crackdowns on the independent Christian house church movement.
China is known to have forced abortions on its citizens, sterilized women without their consent, and murdered religious minorities to sell their organs on the black market. Christian home churches are an attempt to escape government scrutiny, but even they are often raided and their members arrested on charges of working against the interests of the state.
China is a world leader in the use of technology to surveil and repress its citizens. While the full extent of its surveillance apparatus is unknown, research has shown that it operates a system that aims to track every citizen’s movement to gain insight into their loyalty to the CCP. From mundane details like what a person wears to larger observations like who they associate with, the system works to track and understand the loyalty of each citizen.
Chinese government officials use the data captured by this system to track and control those it deems a danger to the state. Notably, this includes anybody associated with the unregistered house church movement and anyone else who might desire to practice religion outside the confines of the state-run institutions.
Sources:persecution
നൈജീരിയയിലെ ഔച്ചി കത്തോലിക്കാ രൂപതയിലെ ഇടവക റെക്ടറിയിൽ നിന്ന് ഫാ. ഫിലിപ്പ് എക്വേലിയെയും ഒരു വൈദികാർഥിയെയും അക്രമികൾ തട്ടിക്കൊണ്ടുപോയി. “എഡോ സ്റ്റേറ്റിലെ എറ്റ്സാക്കോ ഈസ്റ്റ് എൽ ജി എ യിലെ ഇവിയുഖുവ-അജെനെബോഡിലുള്ള സെന്റ് പീറ്റർ കത്തോലിക്കാ പള്ളിയിലെ വൈദികരുടെ റെക്ടറിയും പള്ളിയും തോക്കുധാരികൾ ആക്രമിച്ചു” – മാർച്ച് നാലിന് പുറത്തിറക്കിയ ഒരു പ്രസ്താവനയിൽ നൈജീരിയൻ രൂപതയുടെ കമ്മ്യൂണിക്കേഷൻ ഡയറക്ടർ ഫാ. പീറ്റർ എഗിലെവ പറയുന്നു.
“റെക്ടറിയിലെയും പള്ളിയിലെയും വാതിലുകളും ജനലുകളും അക്രമികൾ വെടിവച്ച് തകർത്തു. തുടർന്ന് ഫാ. ഫിലിപ്പ് എക്വേലിയെയും മേജർ സെമിനാരി വിദ്യാർഥിയെയും തട്ടിക്കൊണ്ടുപോകുകയായിരുന്നു. അക്രമികൾ ആയുധങ്ങൾ കാട്ടി ഭീഷണിപ്പെടുത്തിയാണ് അവരെ വനത്തിലേക്ക് കൊണ്ടുപോയത്” – ഫാ. എഗിലെവ വിവരിക്കുന്നു. തട്ടിക്കൊണ്ടുപോകപ്പെട്ടവരുമായി ഇതുവരെ യാതൊരു ആശയവിനിമയവും നടന്നിട്ടില്ലെന്ന് ഫാ. എഗിലെവ പറയുന്നു. തട്ടിക്കൊണ്ടുപോകപ്പെട്ടവർ പരിക്കേൽക്കാതെ മോചിതരാകുന്നതിനായി എല്ലാവരും പ്രാർഥിക്കണമെന്നും അദ്ദേഹം അഭ്യർഥിച്ചു.
2003 ഫെബ്രുവരി 22-ന് ഉദ്ഘാടനം ചെയ്യപ്പെട്ട ഔച്ചി കത്തോലിക്കാ രൂപത, അതിന്റെ ഉദ്ഘാടനത്തിന്റെ ഇരുപത്തിരണ്ടാം വാർഷികം ആഘോഷിച്ചത് അടുത്തിടെയാണ്. കഴിഞ്ഞ 5 വർഷത്തിനുള്ളിൽ, ഈ രൂപതയിലെ എട്ടിലധികം വൈദികരെ തട്ടിക്കൊണ്ടുപോയിട്ടുണ്ട്. 2022-ൽ ഒരാൾ ക്രൂരമായി കൊല്ലപ്പെടുകയും ചെയ്തെന്നു ഫാ. എഗിലെവ കൂട്ടിച്ചേർത്തു.
Sources:azchavattomonline.com
The Edo State Police Command has confirmed the abduction of Rev. Fr. Philip Ekweli and Seminarian Peter Andrew by suspected herders at St. Peter Catholic Church, Ivukwa community, Etsako East Local Government Area.
The command’s spokesperson, Moses Yamu, in a statement on Tuesday, said operatives killed one of the suspected kidnappers while four others were arrested.
Yamu said, “On March 3, 2025, at about 11:30 pm, the command received a distress call from a concerned citizen that armed men, suspected to be herdsmen, stormed St. Peter Catholic Church in Ivukwa, Etsako East LGA, and abducted Rev. Fr. Philip Ekweli and Seminarian Peter Andrew.”
He added that the police, in collaboration with vigilantes and hunters, swiftly moved to the scene and engaged the attackers in a gun duel, leading to the death of one suspect.
“One of the suspects, whose name remains unknown, was neutralised, and his corpse has been deposited at the General Hospital, Agenebode,” he said.
According to the police, items recovered from the suspect include two pairs of rubber shoes, a button phone with two SIM cards, a power bank, a dagger jacket, a bag containing biscuits and Nescafé beverage, and N168,850 in cash.
The four arrested suspects were identified as Murtala Ibrahim (32), Joshua Joseph (31), Sadiq Sheidu (35), and Sunday Bulus (28).
Yamu stated that the Commissioner of Police, Betty Otimenyin, had deployed additional anti-kidnapping operatives and Police Mobile Force personnel to work alongside the military in securing the victims’ release and apprehending the abductors.
Meanwhile, the Bishop of Auchi Diocese, Most Rev. Dr. Gabriel Dunia, has decried the rising cases of attacks on Catholic priests, urging the government to address the worsening security situation in Edo North.
In a statement issued by the diocese’s Director of Communications, Rev. Fr. Peter Egielewa, the bishop lamented that Edo North, once peaceful, had become a hotbed for kidnappers.
The statement read, “The Diocese of Auchi announces with sadness that at about 9:30 pm on Monday, March 3, 2025, gunmen violently attacked the rectory and church of St. Peter Catholic Church, Iviukhua-Agenebode, Etsako East LGA.
“Doors and windows in both the rectory and church were pulled down amid heavy gunfire. Local vigilantes engaged the kidnappers, but due to the superior weapons of the attackers, the parish priest, Rev. Fr. Philip Ekweli, and a major seminarian serving in the parish were abducted and taken into the surrounding forest.”
The diocese urged Nigerians to join in prayers for the safe release of the abducted priest and seminarian.
As of press time, there had been no contact with the kidnappers.
ഇന്ത്യാ പെന്തക്കോസ്ത് ദൈവസഭയിലെ എഴുത്തുകാരുടെയും മാധ്യമ പ്രവർത്തകരുടെയും ആഗോള കൂട്ടായ്മയായ ഐപിസി ഗ്ലോബൽ മീഡിയ അസോസിയേഷൻ യുഎഇ ചാപ്റ്റർ ഭാരവാഹികളായി പാസ്റ്റർ വിൽസൺ ജോസഫ് (രക്ഷാധികാരി), ലാൽ മാത്യു (പ്രസിഡന്റ്), ഡോ. റോയ് ബി. കുരുവിള (വൈസ് പ്രസിഡന്റ് ), കൊച്ചുമോൻ ആന്താര്യത്ത് (സെക്രട്ടറി) , വിനോദ് എബ്രഹാം (ജോയിൻ്റ് സെക്രട്ടറി), നെവിൻ മങ്ങാട്ട് ( ട്രഷറർ ), പി. സി. ഗ്ലെന്നി (ജനറൽ കൗൺസിൽ അംഗം), പാസ്റ്റർ ജോൺ വർഗീസ്, ആന്റോ അലക്സ് (കമ്മിറ്റി അംഗങ്ങൾ) എന്നിവരെ തിരെഞ്ഞെടുത്തു.
ഐപിസി ഗ്ലോബൽ മീഡിയ അസോസിയേഷൻ അന്തർ ദേശീയ ഭാരവാഹികളായ സജി മത്തായി കാതേട്ട് , ഷിബു മുള്ളംകാട്ടിൽ എന്നിവർ തിരഞ്ഞെടുപ്പിന് നേതൃത്വം നൽകി. ഐപിസി യുഎഇ റീജിയൻ പ്രസിഡന്റ് പാസ്റ്റർ വിൽസൺ ജോസഫ് അനുഗ്രഹ പ്രാർത്ഥന നടത്തി. എഴുത്തുകാരനും പി വൈ പി എ കേരള സ്റ്റേറ്റ് ജോയിൻ്റ് സെക്രട്ടറിയുമായ സന്ദീപ് വിളമ്പുകണ്ടം പ്രസംഗിച്ചു.
Sources:christiansworldnews
The IPC Global Media Association, a global association of writers and media workers of the Indian Pentecostal Church of God, has elected Pastor Wilson Joseph (Patron), Lal Mathew (President), Dr. Roy B. Kuruvilla (Vice President), Kochumon Antaryath (Secretary), Vinod Abraham (Joint Secretary), Nevin Mangat (Treasurer), P. C. Glennie (General Council Member), Pastor John Varghese and Anto Alex (Committee Members) as the office bearers of the UAE Chapter of the IPC Global Media Association.
The election was led by IPC Global Media Association International Office Bearers Saji Mathai Kathet and Shibu Mullamkattil. IPC UAE Region President Pastor Wilson Joseph offered the blessing prayer. Sandeep Vilampukandam, writer and PYPA Kerala State Joint Secretary, delivered the speech.
http://theendtimeradio.com
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നൈജീരിയയിൽ വൈദികനെയും വൈദികാർഥിയെയും തട്ടിക്കൊണ്ടുപോയി
നൈജീരിയയിലെ ഔച്ചി കത്തോലിക്കാ രൂപതയിലെ ഇടവക റെക്ടറിയിൽ നിന്ന് ഫാ. ഫിലിപ്പ് എക്വേലിയെയും ഒരു വൈദികാർഥിയെയും അക്രമികൾ തട്ടിക്കൊണ്ടുപോയി. “എഡോ സ്റ്റേറ്റിലെ എറ്റ്സാക്കോ ഈസ്റ്റ് എൽ ജി...
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