INDIA
In February 1998, the BJP rode to power in India on a platform of hard-line Hindu nationalism. The BJP became synonymous with anti-conversion laws, ‘re-conversion’ ceremonies, ‘saffronising’ (rewriting) Indian history textbooks, the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat, and systematically persecuting Christians nationwide. To the great surprise of all observers, the BJP has now been voted out of power, thanks to the prayers of millions of Christians worldwide who care for India, and millions of Indian Christians whose leaders gathered in their thousands around the nation to fast and pray. In Tamil Nadu, the responses of Chief Minister Jayalalitha, a Hindu
hardliner and BJP ally, included increased aid for the poor and the immediate axing of the Tamil Nadu anti-conversion law.
The world’s second most-populated nation has a new PM in Manmohan Singh, who is known to be the architect of India’s economic reforms and a respected consensus builder. Continue to pray for India, for its new PM and for the new government, thanking God for his marvellous intervention and mercy.
IRAQ
Christians are increasingly threatened in Iraq. Fallujah, now fully under Iraqi control, has turned into an Islamic mini-state. Taliban-style religious police monitor the streets, ensuring that women are correctly veiled and men keep their hair according to Islamic regulations, and punishing un-Islamic practices with lashings and humiliation. Foreign militants from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Syria and Tunisia have infiltrated Fallujah and continue to fight. They are committed to jihad and are suspected of having links to Al-Qaeda. In Baghdad meanwhile, Christians and Mandaeans (who follow the teachings of John the Baptist) have had letters threatening them with torture, kidnapping and death if they don’t support the Mujahideen and follow Islamic rules.
Pray that Christians in Iraq will draw close to God and depend on Him for everything; for unity among Iraq’s Christians, overlooking ethnicity (Assyrian, Turkman, Kurd, Arab) and denomination (Protestant, Catholic, evangelical (ancient or new); God will watch over Iraq, to comfort and preserve his people, and empower the spread of His saving, transforming gospel.
PAKISTAN
On May 29, Sharee Komal, a seven-year-old Christian girl who lives with her mother in a hut near a Christian graveyard, was brutally raped by a Muslim neighbour. She told her mother that Abid Ali, who lives nearby, had kidnapped her, luring her away with a promise of buying her toys. He then tortured and raped her, threatening to kill her if she revealed his identity. The rape of Christian women by Muslim men is an ongoing travesty. Perpetrators are rarely arrested and almost never convicted.
Pray for God’s comfort on Sharee and other victims like her, for physical and emotional healing. Pray also for agencies that are involved in helping such victims. One agency is Centre for Legal Aid and Assistance (CLASS) which provides shelter and legal aid to Christian women kidnapped or forced into marriage with men of other religions and who are abused after marriage. Pray for men like Abid Ali to be arrested, tried and convicted. Pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to move the hearts of such men to honour and respect all women.
NIGERIA
Religious violence has continued to plague the country despite the declaration of a state of emergency. Police authorities say the situation has become difficult to contain because Muslim militants employ guerrilla tactics to attack Christian towns and villages. Religious conflict between Muslims and Christians has become endemic in Nigeria in recent years, following the implementation of Islamic laws in 12 northern states.
In the past three years, 17 local government areas of the state have been engulfed in religious violence. Rev Yakabu Pam, chairman of the Plateau state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, said over 30,000 Christians have been displaced as a result of incessant attacks. Meanwhile, hundreds of Christians and Muslims in Nigeria are dying and losing loved ones. The National Emergency Management Agency recently reported that a total of 69,000 people in the states of Bauchi, Taraba, Nasarawa and Plateau are living as displaced refugees. In the northern Zamfara state the governor has just ordered the demolition of all churches as part of his ‘Syariah Phase 2’ programme.
Pray for wisdom and strength for the Nigerian government to make just decisions on issues concerning religious liberty and security; protection of the churches and other religious sites from violence, and for Spirit-empowered evan-gelism to transform the lives of nominal, ethnic Christians and break the cycle of violence.
Pray for Christians now facing the escalation of Islamic oppression and persecution; for spiritual wisdom and faithfulness, courage and the knowledge of God’s abiding love.
ALBANIA
ETHNIC Albanian Muslims in Kosovo have been pursuing what a NATO commander recently called “orchestrated and well-planned ethnic cleansing” against minority Christian Serbs. In mid-March, Kosovo Albanian mobs destroyed 30 churches in two days. Some of these churches had been places of Christian worship since the 14th century, jewels of medieval architecture treasured by art historians worldwide. Thousands of their former parishioners are now refugees; some are dead. The anti-Serb, anti-Christian pogroms (organised massacres) have taken place on the watch of 20,000 NATO “peacekeepers” who’ve proved unable or unwilling to protect the shrinking Serb minority.
Pray that the Serbian Christians will see themselves as more than a persecuted minority but as witnesses of Jesus Christ. Pray that God will strengthen them to witness His love to their Muslim neighbours. |
