Quotes from a working document on Islam from the Lausanne Global Consultation state - Every individual church fellowship and denomination throughout the world needs to find ways of enabling Christians to be awake to the challenges of Islam and for opportunities to witness to Muslims. Where Christians are held back by fear, they need to be encouraged to build genuine, natural relationships with their Muslim neighbours, by practising hospitality and taking bold initiatives. Where they are held back by ignorance, they need to learn more about Muslims and Islam and to explore prayerfully some of the new opportunities that have opened up in recent years for communicating the gospel. Where they are held back by prejudice, they need to be reminded of the ways in which Jesus enabled his disciples to overcome their racial and religious prejudices.

Rohingya pastor, Taher, and his 14-year-old daughter were abducted from Bangladesh Cox’s Bazar a refugee camp after 59 men attacked 22 Christian families, beating residents, vandalising homes, and looting property. At least 12 Christian refugees were injured and hospitalised and a makeshift Christian church and school were smashed. Families were relocated to a UN transit centre and filed a police case against the armed ethnic group, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. Taher’s wife, Roshida, fears her husband is dead and that her daughter has been forced to convert to Islam. She said, ‘No one can give me clear information.’ Approximately 1,500 Rohingya Christians are among 700,000 predominantly Muslim Rohingya refugees who fled ‘ethnic cleansing’ in 2017. Authorities described the attack as a ‘law and order incident’ - not Christian persecution. They do little to protect Christians. One said, ‘if victims wanted safety they should ‘go to the moon.’

Unrelenting violence consumes northeast Delhi as roving mobs with iron rods, sledgehammers and guns rampaged through the streets, committing arson, vandalism and terrifying residents since 22 February. On 27 February police said that WhatsApp was used by the gangs who indiscriminately injured children and the elderly. They vandalised and burnt schools, homes, cars and businesses leaving 35+ dead and 200+ injured because a new citizenship law allows 'persecuted minorities’ (Muslims Christians, Parsees, Sikhs, Buddhist etc.) citizenship status after six years of residency. From the start Hindus were considered ‘natural citizens’ of India and reject the new law. Police seized 50 mobile phones used by rioters to organise themselves by directing hired thugs from Uttar Pradesh and whipping up frenzied violence. Delhi Police and the Home Ministry said that the situation is under control, but the violence has not abated and the death toll has climbed steadily since the first day.

Please call on the Lord for his intervention in the swarms of locusts that are growing and devouring farms in Africa, now spreading to the Middle East and China. (See). Pray for the hundreds of thousands forced to evacuate their homes after unusual flooding has devastated Australia, Southern USA, Bolivia, Peru, Indonesia and parts of the UK. (See) Over the past two months seismic activity has been rising. Last week a 7.7 quake struck off the coast of Jamaica shaking people as far away as Miami and Mount Merapi in Indonesia erupted launching lava and ash 2,000 metres into the sky, forcing residents to flee to a 1.8 mile designated no-go zone. (See) Pray for peace of mind for those living near seismic activity. Coronavirus infections continue to rise but less media coverage has been given to the highly contagious H1N1 virus that claimed 13 lives in one week in Taiwan (See)

After months of unrelenting demonstrations led to the fall of President Omar al-Bashir last year, Sudan entered a three-year transition towards democracy with a new cabinet in September. Hope accompanies this situation as people look for a fresh approach that will respond to their needs. Many believe only time will show whether this hope will stand. Pray that the preliminary peace deal with the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement will stand and end 9 years of fighting in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan areas. Meanwhile, efforts to conclude a peace agreement with rebels in Darfur and Eastern Sudan are also under way. Important progress was made this month when Sudan announced that it was willing in principle to hand over ousted President Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes and genocide in these areas.

The government wanted to install facial recognition cameras in Pastor Xiang En’s church sanctuary. When he refused they did it anyway and gathered the private data of church members so that they could target them. They will intimidate them with their jobs, their housing, and their children’s education to prevent them from going to church. Pastor Xiang said, ‘Hundreds of policemen raided our church, smashed our building, put the pastors on surveillance, and shut down the church.’ After his church was shut down the first sermon he preached was from Revelation 3:7-8: ‘I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.’ Pastor Xiang remains hopeful, despite the opposition his congregation faces. Many prominent mainstream churches and house churches in China continue to be shut down.

A court in Copenhagen has sent a social worker to prison for 6 years 5 months after she was found guilty of embezzling welfare money for decades, approximately $17 million. Britta Nielsen was extradited from South Africa, where she had fled after becoming a suspect in what is considered the worst corruption scandal of its kind. The case shocked Denmark. The Nordic nation is still trying to track down billions of dollars lost through a combination of tax evasion and a botched handling of foreign claims on dividend taxes. Meanwhile, Denmark’s biggest lender, Danske Bank A/S, is at the centre of an historic money-laundering scandal.

Montenegro has introduced a new law on religion which is causing great tension. A faith community must be able to prove that it owned its property before 1918 but many - especially the Serbian Orthodox Church – cannot do so. This is a provocative move in a country divided by ethnic & national identity. There have been huge protests in both Montenegro and Serbia. There is a real risk of ongoing instability, even violence. 30% of Montenegro’s population are ethnic Serbs. The argument is not about religion but about identity. Milan Knežević, an MP from Montenegro organised an event at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg about this legal situation. However, his passport was removed and he could not attend. Two members of his family were also arrested. (See) This is a pretty shocking level of intimidation. Please pray for peace in Montenegro. Ethnic and nationalistic identity divides the nation but it would be a tragedy if the situation escalates into violence.

Ministers and health officials are working to contain any UK coronavirus outbreaks. Public Health England began ‘Early Warning’ (See) coronavirus tests on patients with coughs, fevers or shortness of breath at 100 GP surgeries and 8 hospitals. The tests are employed (regardless of patients not having travelled to infected areas) to give early warnings of a more widespread infection developing. One employee of Chevron Oil was tested for the virus and 300 London staff were advised to work from home, Crossrail and media firm OMD staff are also working from home as a precaution. May calmness replace any anxiety in communities as pre-emptive moves are made to contain infection. Several schools have closed after pupils returned from half-term skiing trips in Italy. Pray for a peaceful atmosphere to cover homes of families who are self-isolating. May all awaiting test results experience calmness. Pray also for waves of common sense to flow through the nation as the media give daily virus updates. See also A pastor calls for calm

Ministers pledged urgent action after it emerged that tens of millions of British foreign aid cash is funding schools in Gaza and the West Bank where textbooks on martyrdom and radical Islamism are used in school lessons. The money goes via a UN agency that some other nations have stopped financing because of concerns. The textbooks include a reading exercise for six-year-olds with the words 'martyr' and 'attack', poems for eight-year-olds include phrases such as 'sacrifice my blood' to 'eliminate the usurper from my country' and 'annihilate the remnants of the foreigners'. Teaching on Newton’s Second law for eleven-year-olds uses pictures of a boy with a slingshot targeting Israeli soldiers during the Palestinian uprising and nine-year-olds learn maths by adding the number of martyrs in Palestinian uprisings in textbooks illustrated with pictures of their funerals. Ten-year-olds learn that the most important thing is giving their life for 'sacrifice, fight, jihad, and struggle'.