Displaying items by tag: Asia

On 1 September, new rules came into force to limit all religious activities to official venues only and forbid displaying any religious symbols outdoors. All religious activity must be supervised by the state so that places of worship support the leadership of China’s Communist Party. Release International’s Paul Robinson says the new rules are tantamount to a complete ban on Christianity, but in fact Christianity in China is growing. The number of Christians in China has long surpassed the membership of the Communist Party. ChinaAid said they have not seen the Communist Party as bold as they have been this summer in playing God and twisting how the Gospel is taught. The only correct perspective in the eyes of the Communist government is worship of the state and placing faith in Xi Jinping.

Kim Jong Un will visit Vladimir Putin in September; the USA is concerned they will discuss North Korea providing Moscow with weapons to use in Ukraine. An arms deal makes transactional sense. Moscow needs ammunition and artillery shells. Pyongyang has plenty of both. Sanction-starved North Korea needs money and food after three years of border closures. Also, the breakdown of talks with the USA has left North Korea more isolated than ever. The US has warned of an arms deal between the two countries for some time: now, a leader-level meeting between Kim and Putin catapults this into the next realm. Russia’s desperate situation means Mr Kim will be able to extract a high price. On 4 September, South Korea's intelligence service briefed that Russia's defence minister has suggested that Russia, China and North Korea hold joint naval drills, like those carried out by the USA, South Korea and Japan, which Kim Jong Un so detests.

Attacks on two churches in Nepal over the weekend were just the latest in a string of recent violence against Christians. The churches are in the province of Lumbini, which borders India. Photos and videos reviewed by International Christian Concern (ICC) showed broken windows and other signs of violence around the properties, including damage to fences and a broken motorbike. Another photo shared on social media showed two men, identified as pastors, being assaulted on the street. Locals smeared the pastors’ faces with a sticky black substance in a cultural sign of hatred and disrespect. The Lumbini attacks are the sixth and seventh such attacks against churches in Nepal in two weeks. ‘It’s spreading like wildfire’, a Nepalese civil society leader has told ICC. ‘Perpetrators, seeing little to no response from the authorities in recent weeks, are encouraged to act more.’

India's space agency is the first to walk on the moon's south pole. Chandrayaan-3's rover walk means that India has joined America, the former Soviet Union and China’s elite club. The rover is roaming the rocks and craters at 1 cm per second, gathering data and images to send to earth for analysis. It landed on the start of a lunar day, which equals a little over four earth weeks. The lander and rover will use these days of sunlight to charge their batteries. A major goal is to hunt for water. The craters, permanently in shadow, hold ice which could support human habitation on the Moon in future. It could also be used for supplying propellant for spacecraft headed to Mars and other distant destinations. Narendra Modi said India wants to open its space sector to foreign investment as it targets a five-fold increase in its share of the global launch market within the next decade.

73 years ago an armistice was signed to divide North and South Korea. Now, millions of Koreans are praying for the reunification of the country. Each night for the past 17 years, from 10:00 pm to 3:00 am, South Korean intercessors with the Esther Prayer Movement gather to pray for the liberation of North Korea. The movement’s president said that North Korea has one of the world's worst qualities of life, the worst democracy, economic freedom, and freedom of speech; the most slavery, bribery and corruption. It is the worst persecutor of Christians. People in North Korea have no chance to listen to the Gospel, and they must idolise their dictator: ‘So we should make them free from their bondage. We pray for them.’ The North Korean underground church has 400,000 believers. South Koreans seek to spread the Gospel by floating across the water bottles filled with rice, money, and USB drives containing the Bible or Christian videos.

Asmaryan eats potatoes for every meal. He lives with 120,000 other ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave in Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus. They are cut off from Armenia by the Azerbaijani blockade of the Lachin Corridor, the only road in or out of Nagorno-Karabakh. They are under siege, with little food, essential medicines, hygiene products, baby formula, or fuel. Residents believe Azerbaijan wants to starve them into submission so that if or when the road reopens, they leave. It is a slow-motion genocide, with hunger the weapon. Asmaryan said outsiders don’t care about Karabakh as they have no natural resources: ‘They talk about human rights but do nothing.’ However, the Archbishop of London’s Coptic Orthodox Church, the Primate of the Armenian Church of the UK, the Bishop of Southwark, and other church leaders have written an open letter to Rishi Sunak urging immediate action to open the Lachin Corridor and prevent genocide. Also, Armenians will demonstrate in Yerevan on 2 September to express unity with Nagorno-Karabakh.

30 August was the two-year anniversary of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Despite promises of a more moderate rule, Taliban leaders have imposed harsh measures. ‘It’s not a very good time in Afghanistan because of the hopelessness, the fear. People are tired of Islam,’ says Mina, an Afghan Christian working with Global Catalytic Ministries. ‘At first, I was feeling sorry for myself. I cried for three weeks. Then God’s grace opened my eyes.’ In June, Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada described Afghanistan’s conditions as comfortable for women according to the Islamic Shariah: ‘The status of women as a free and dignified human being has been restored, and all institutions have been obliged to help women in securing marriage, inheritance and other rights.’ However the Taliban removed girls from school, barred women from public spaces, and cracked down on media freedoms. Earlier this year, officials banned women like Mina from the workplace.

There are 4.9 million Christians in Kazakhstan in the mostly Muslim population. Since 2011, religious freedom has been restricted as government surveillance and control increases. When somebody becomes a Christian, they risk being locked up by their families, kept from other Christians, verbally and physically abused or cut off from family, community and financial support. The authorities monitor and raid meetings of Christian converts and may arrest and imprison their church leaders. The risk of being forcibly married to a Muslim remains an ongoing risk for women who become Christians|: in rural areas, they are sometimes kidnapped for this purpose. Christian men are pressured by the state, and in the army, a highly controlled environment. It is difficult for Christians to earn a living; authorities can demand bribes from Christian business owners, and some keep their faith a secret. Converts and church leaders particularly risk losing employment.

Tens of thousands of Israelis continue with weekly protests over the justice system and as many as one in three are considering leaving Israel. A leading radiologist, Professor Hoffmann, is in the process of moving to a UK hospital and is trying to persuade other members of his family, who all have European passports, to consider leaving too. He is going to London for a sabbatical, to see if he can live outside Israel, where the situation is worsening daily. Protesters believe that government changes endanger democracy, while Israel's coalition argues that it fixes a judicial system where elected politicians are too easily overruled. Demonstrators hope to overturn new laws, but many admit that emigrating is something they, or those close to them, have considered. One demonstrator said, ‘It would be heart-breaking but I will not raise my children in a country which is not democratic. If I’m not sure that my daughter's rights as a young woman are guaranteed, we will not stay here.’

Over 100 people were arrested in Jaranwala after thousands of Muslims burned churches and vandalised homes. The unrest was sparked by claims that two Christian men tore pages from the Quran. The historic Salvation Army Church was still smouldering on 17 August, one day after the riot. The ruins are surrounded with barbed wire, The situation remains tense. Public gatherings have been restricted for seven days. The men accused of damaging the Quran have been charged with blasphemy, punishable by death. An accusation of blasphemy can result in widespread riots, lynchings and killings. Yassir Bhatti, a 31-year-old Christian, was one of those forced to flee their homes. ‘They broke the windows, doors and took out fridges, sofas, chairs and other household items to pile them up in front of the church to be burnt. They also burnt and desecrated Bibles, they were ruthless.’ Videos on social media show protesters destroying Christian buildings while police appear to look on.