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        <title>Christian Daily International | Asia</title>
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        <description><![CDATA[Asia news from Christian Daily International providing biblical, factual and personal news, stories and perspectives from every region, focusing on religious freedom, integrated gospel and other issues that are relevant for the global Church today. ]]></description>
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                <title><![CDATA[Mozhda TV goes on air as first Afghan Christian TV channel in historic launch]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/mozhda-tv-goes-on-air-as-first-afghan-christian-tv-channel-in-historic-launch</link>
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                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[CDI Staff]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[Mozhda TV, described by its founders as the first Afghan Christian television channel, began broadcasting Saturday, Oct. 24.]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Mozhda TV, described by its founders as the first Afghan Christian television channel, began broadcasting Saturday, Oct. 24. ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Sat, 24 Oct 2026 12:45:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[Mozhda TV, which its founders describe as the first Afghan Christian television channel, began broadcasting Saturday, Oct. 24, as church leaders, mission partners and Afghan believers gathered to mark its launch.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
Mozhda TV, which its founders describe as the first Afghan Christian television channel, began broadcasting Saturday, Oct. 24, as church leaders, mission partners and Afghan believers gathered to mark its launch.
The satellite channel will carry Christian programming to Afghanistan in the country’s languages. Speakers at the event presented it as the product of decades of prayer and a coalition of mission organizations and Afghan Christian leaders.
Christian programs for Afghan audiences have aired for many years, but there has been no channel dedicated to them. Organizers said Mozhda TV is the first television channel to go live as an Afghan Christian channel.
“This day, for the first time in history, the first Afghan Christian satellite channel will start its broadcasting to Afghanistan and around the world,” said Shoaib Ebadi, executive director of the Afghanistan Bible Society, in a recorded video message.
‘Sheep without a shepherd’
Masoud Ghorbani, Mozhda TV’s executive director, delivered the main sermon minutes after the channel went on air. He preached from Mark 6:34, in which Jesus sees a crowd and has compassion on them “because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” Ghorbani asked the audience what they see when they look at Afghanistan, then asked what Jesus would see.
Afghans have endured years of suffering, he said. He pointed to separated families, persecution and discrimination against women, mothers who see no future for their children and young people struggling with despair.
The deepest tragedy for a nation, Ghorbani said, may be not its suffering but that it does not know its true shepherd. He told listeners that millions of Afghans now have an opportunity to hear the gospel.
“Jesus Christ is the good shepherd of Afghanistan,” he said, citing John 10:11.
Ghorbani also commented that the channel could reach many different audiences. “We don’t know who is watching our program for the first time right now, perhaps even the Taliban,” he said. “We need to pray for them.”
'Almost everyone has a television and a satellite dish'
In an earlier Finnish-language interview, Ghorbani and producer Mikael Tunér explained why the team chose satellite television.
After the Taliban took power in 2021 nearly all Christian workers were removed from Afghanistan and Christian materials were banned and destroyed. Internet access has also been cut at times.
“Almost everyone has a television and a satellite dish at home,” Ghorbani told Sansa. “The Taliban control the country, but they cannot control the satellites.”
Tunér, a senior technical specialist and producer who previously spent nearly 20 years at the Persian-language Christian channel SAT-7 PARS, said it matters that Afghans see Christians from their own nation. He told the Finnish outlet that although the Taliban claim there are no Christians in the country, underground churches exist and several thousand Christians live there.
The channel airs programs in Dari and Pashto and plans to add other Afghan languages, including Hazaragi, Uzbek, Turkmen and Baluchi. “Our strategy is to make at least some program in every language, so that every viewer could find something to watch in their own heart language,” Tunér said in the interview.
Programs for women are a central focus. The channel is producing series that women can watch privately at home, including health programs and content that could help them continue their studies.
“We want to tell them that the Lord loves them and that ‘this is not the end; hold on to hope,’” Ghorbani said. Since March, the team has been recording new series.
From gramophones to satellite
At the launch, a former Christian worker who arrived in Kabul with his family in the 1970s traced how gospel outreach in Afghanistan has changed over five decades.
He recalled co-workers returning from mountain villages with records from Gospel Recordings, which had recorded New Testament stories in about 50 of Afghanistan’s languages. Villagers played them on gramophones made of thick cardboard, turning the records by hand with a pen.
In the 1980s, he said, he and a colleague built a cabinet on wheels holding a television and video player. They loaded it into a car, along with a generator, and showed a film on the life of Jesus based on the Gospel of Luke in Afghan homes.
With the new channel, he said, the message will reach “not only one village, not only one home, but the whole of Afghanistan.” He cited Psalm 147, which describes God’s word running swiftly across the earth.
An answer to a prayer from 1986
Harun Ibrahim, the founder of Al Hayat Ministries who was born to a Muslim family in Jerusalem and became a Christian in Finland in 1985, said the vision dates to a youth camp near Tampere in 1986. Participants prayed for a number of countries there, he said, and Afghanistan was among them.
“It was just like this time, the fall, and after 40 years, we have it,” Ibrahim said.
He said Mozhda TV brought together mission organizations from different denominations, which united to launch the channel. He praised the channel’s staff for learning media production within a year and said he expects the channel to not only reach Afghanistan but also its neighboring countries.
The event included worship in Farsi and Dari and a prayer of blessing over the Mozhda TV team.
Mozhda TV is now available online at mozhda.tv.]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Court in Pakistan adjourns hearing on Christians’ abducted daughter]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/court-in-pakistan-adjourns-hearing-on-christians-abducted-daughter</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiandaily.com/news/court-in-pakistan-adjourns-hearing-on-christians-abducted-daughter</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Christian Daily International / Morning Star News]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[Christian rights activists and parents of Maria Shahbaz after Oct. 21, 2026 hearing at Federal Constitutional Court.]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Christian Daily International-Morning Star News ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Christian rights activists and parents of Maria Shahbaz after Oct. 21, 2026 hearing at Federal Constitutional Court. ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Thu, 22 Oct 2026 11:20:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[Pakistan’s top constitutional court on Wednesday (Oct. 21) adjourned a hearing on a Christian couple’s petition seeking recovery of their daughter after learning that the Muslim accused of abducting her had not been served a summons because of an “incomplete residential address.”]]></description>
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Pakistan’s top constitutional court on Wednesday (Oct. 21) adjourned a hearing on a Christian couple’s petition seeking recovery of their daughter after learning that the Muslim accused of abducting her had not been served a summons because of an “incomplete residential address.”
The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) reissued the notice to Sheharyar Ahmad, accused of abducting 13-year-old Maria Shahbaz in July 2025, forcibly converting her to Islam and coercing her into marrying him. The adjournment dashed the parents’ hopes of progress in their year-long legal battle to recover their daughter.
Christian rights activists criticized police over failure to serve the summons and called for action to recover Maria.
“We were very hopeful of progress in the case in today’s hearing and were not expecting such a hasty adjournment,” said Safdar Choudhry, chairman of the Raah-e-Nijaat ministry, which is assisting the Masih family in the legal battle with support from legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom International. “The claim of the accused’s residential address being incomplete appears to be yet another mala fide act by the police, as the accused has appeared in the same court on notices in previous hearings.”
Choudhry also criticized the police for failing to arrest Ahmad despite the restoration of the First Information Report (FIR), saying he continued to move freely in his neighborhood.
Samson Salamat, chairman of Rwadari Tehreek (Movement for Equality), also questioned the police explanation, saying Ahmad was reportedly living at the same address for years.
“The police must stop creating hindrances in the recovery of Maria Shahbaz,” Salamat told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “Her poor family has been struggling for their child’s recovery for over a year, yet justice continues to elude them despite clear evidence that her marriage was a sham.”
Asher Safaraz, chief executive of Christians’ True Spirit, whose organization is among five groups seeking to be joined as parties to the main review petition, said the abrupt adjournment had left them disappointed.
“We were hoping that the bench would also consider our petitions today, but our counsels were not given a chance to plead our case,” Safaraz told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “We all want the constitutional court to address the police and judicial weaknesses in the implementation of child marriage laws, which are clearly reflected in Maria Shahbaz’s case. This matter is not limited to the recovery of one minor child only. It will impact the lives and protection of all minority underage girls who continue to be targeted by sexual predators.”
The case concerns a review petition filed by Maria’s father, Shahbaz Masih, asking the court to reconsider its Feb. 3 judgment upholding a decision that allowed Ahmad to retain custody of the girl based on their purported marriage. The FCC admitted the review petition for hearing on July 24 and ordered notices to be issued to Ahmad, the Punjab advocate general and the attorney general of Pakistan.
The matter was not taken up until Wednesday (Oct. 21), however, when a two-judge bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Karim Khan Agha heard preliminary arguments. A court official informed the bench that the summons to Ahmad could not be served because his residential address was incomplete. The court consequently reissued the notice and adjourned the hearing.
During the brief proceedings, Agha said that, because the matter was a review petition, the petitioner’s counsel needed to identify an error in the original judgment.
Muhammad Saqib Jillani, the lawyer representing Maria’s family, argued that the judicial precedents relied upon in the FCC’s detailed judgment had lost their legal force following a landmark 2023 Federal Shariat Court (FSC) judgment in the Ali Azhar case. He said courts were bound to consider child marriage cases in light of the FSC ruling, which rejected physical puberty as the sole criterion for determining whether a person could marry under Islamic law.
Acting Chief Justice Rizvi responded that the FCC had issued its judgment in an appeal against a Lahore High Court decision concerning Maria’s alleged illegal confinement. He said the matter before the court was not directly about the girl’s age but concerned the high court’s ruling, adding that objections regarding her age should have been raised before a family court.
The acting chief justice also noted that Maria and Ahmad had appeared before the court, and that she had stated she was an adult. He said her age had not been raised before the relevant legal forums and questioned the timing of the documents presented to establish it, observing that her birth certificate had been obtained 10 years after her birth and a National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) certificate eight years afterward.
According to Maria’s family, however, official records and NADRA documents establish her date of birth as Oct. 7, 2012. She was therefore 12 years, nine months and 20 days old when the alleged abduction and marriage occurred in July 2025. The family maintains that Maria was legally a minor and lacked the capacity to enter into a marriage contract independently.
The investigation into the case has also raised questions about the validity of the purported marriage documents. The investigating officer relied on Maria’s statement recorded under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and a Nikahnama, or Islamic marriage certificate, to recommend closing the case. The secretary of the relevant union council, however, told a Lahore sessions court that he did not acknowledge the registration or authenticity of the marriage document.
On Oct. 1, Lahore High Court Justice Abher Gul Khan ordered the restoration of the police case against Ahmad, accepting the family’s plea that a magistrate had approved a police cancellation report on March 7 without hearing Maria’s family or their lawyer.
The family’s petition alleged that the investigating officer had withheld material findings from a subsequent police investigation that had restored the FIR and added charges relating to alleged forgery and fraud involving the marriage and conversion documents.
Maria’s case has drawn international attention amid wider concerns over the abduction, religious conversion and marriage of underage girls from religious minority communities in Pakistan. On July 9, the European Parliament adopted a resolution highlighting Maria’s case and urging Pakistan to establish a national mechanism for receiving complaints from families of abducted or forcibly converted girls belonging to religious minority communities.
Open Doors, a Christian support organization, ranked Pakistan eighth on its 2026 World Watch List of 50 countries where Christians face the most severe persecution, citing systemic discrimination, mob violence, forced conversions, bonded labor and gender-based violence. It warned that weak law enforcement and widespread impunity have allowed perpetrators of anti-Christian violence to evade accountability.]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[AI cannot become conscious, Indian theologian Vinay Samuel argues, warns of revived urge to ‘play God’]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/ai-cannot-become-conscious-indian-theologian-vinay-samuel-argues-warns-of-revived-urge-to-play-god</link>
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                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[CDI Staff]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, brain, conscious]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ iStock / BlackJack3D ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Indian theologian Canon Dr. Vinay Samuel argues that AI, as an information-processing machine, cannot become conscious like the humans who created it. ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Thu, 22 Oct 2026 07:43:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[Artificial intelligence cannot become conscious in the way humans are, Indian theologian Canon Dr. Vinay Samuel said. He also warned that AI-driven technology has revived an ancient human urge "to play God."]]></description>
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Artificial intelligence cannot become conscious in the way humans are, Indian theologian Canon Dr. Vinay Samuel said. He also warned that AI-driven technology has revived an ancient human urge "to play God."
Samuel, a founder of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, presented the theological paper Oct. 16 at an online national webinar hosted by the Theological Commission of the Evangelical Fellowship of India. The event was titled "AI, Human Dignity and the Future of the Church." Samuel's paper was titled "Humanity in an AI Age: Towards a Christian Theology of Technology."
He argued that tool-making has been part of God's design for humanity since creation. Technology is now in danger of ruling the people it was meant to serve, he said. He also linked reports of AI systems acting outside their designers' rules to the biblical account of human disobedience.
A second presenter, an AI specialist working in the corporate sector, spoke on AI's impact and its practical use in research and ministry.
In opening remarks, Rev. Vijayesh Lal, general secretary of EFI and author of a recent op-ed in Christian Daily International on sin being incorporated in AI, said the church cannot treat AI as a neutral instrument. "Tools are rarely neutral and this is not neutral at all," Lal said. He noted that the church used print effectively, but "not so successfully with television and digital media."
Lal said even AI's builders do not fully understand how the neural networks behind it learn. "We could build all of this, but should we?" he asked. He said he hoped the webinar would open a wider conversation on what AI means for human dignity, the church and mission.
Samuel, who is based in Bengaluru and studied theology at Cambridge University, told participants he is in his 85th year. He said he wrote his paper by hand and chose not to run it through AI tools. "I still believe that to keep my mind sharp, I need to really read and write myself," he said.
Samuel described the paper as biblical theology rather than a technical study. Theology is always done in context, he said, and the present context is what he called "a completely different world" that AI has opened.
He began with Genesis. According to Samuel, humans were made in God's image to act as God's regents and co-creators, caring for the material world and making it a source of livelihood and beauty. God gave Adam and Eve no tools in the garden, he said. Instead, tool-making developed as part of human identity as people worked with creation.
"Tools have been part of our identity as human beings from the very beginning," Samuel said.
He said the possibility of sin was present even in Eden. It came from human personhood, not from contact with the material world. The knowledge represented by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he said, carried the risk of pride and a desire for independence from God.
"Technology even in the garden had the potential to change human personhood away from a relationship with God to one of independence from him," he said.
Blessing and curse
Samuel traced technology's development through the early chapters of Genesis. Abel became a shepherd who did no violence to the land, he said. Cain became a farmer who had to master the land by force.
Citing Old Testament scholar Gerhard von Rad, Samuel said the fall continued through Cain's violence against his brother and through the spreading wickedness of Noah's generation. It reached a peak at Babel, where humans tried to reach the heavens and govern themselves apart from God. In those chapters, Samuel said, technology helped humanity grow but also became a means of violence and autonomy from God.
He also called technology a blessing that expresses the creativity given to people made in God's image. He traced it from Stone Age tools through water wheels and mills, the industrial revolution, electrification and assembly lines, to computers and robotics. Through that history, he said, technology served humanity.
"The danger we face is it is rapidly becoming the master of humanity and that is where the curse lies," Samuel said.
Samuel said Christian reflection on technology is not new. The medieval church treated technology as a useful tool, and Benedictine communities developed new technologies, he said. Conflict emerged in the 19th century, when industrial machines began displacing workers.
He cited Pope Leo XIII's 1891 warning that capital would use technology to undermine the dignity of labor and the rights of workers. Samuel noted that the current pope, Leo XIV, sees himself as a successor to Leo XIII. He also pointed to the 1965 Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes, which he said placed human dignity, the image of God and human community at the center of Christian thought about the modern world.
Samuel referred as well to thinkers including Jacques Ellul, Martin Heidegger and Neil Postman. He cited historian David Noble's 1997 book "The Religion of Technology," which, he said, shows how technology has taken over goals once held by religion, such as healing and the promise of a better future.
Samuel said he was troubled by Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei's description of machines of "loving grace." "I was shocked reading that," he said. "The spirit behind technology now mimics the gifts and actions of the Holy Spirit."
A crisis of identity
Samuel placed his argument within what he called an "anthropological crisis" that began after World War II. After two wars fought between powers that considered themselves Christian, he said, people became uncertain about what it means to be human.
He said French thinkers including Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan promoted a reductionist view of the person. The idea of a universal human nature was discarded, and humanity came to be seen as a construct, he said.
"The anthropological crisis continues unabated today, fueled very much by AI," Samuel said.
He listed signs of that crisis: individualism emptying community of substance, consumerism defining identity and constant self-curation replacing a stable sense of self. People are also losing a shared moral framework, he said. "We become more like machines," he said, adding that transhumanist and post-human visions are now offered as possible futures.
Samuel said AI developers aim to build machines with all human capabilities that, through recursive self-learning, would surpass people and make them redundant. He described this as an "existential threat" and said it is the setting in which Christians must now think about humanity and technology.
Creation and personhood
Samuel contrasted the biblical account of creation with a mechanistic view of matter that he said now dominates. Citing philosopher David Bentley Hart, he said that view reduces the human mind to a "bodiless thinking machine."
Against it, Samuel set the Apostle Paul's teaching in Colossians 1:15-20. There, he said, creation is ordered by God, with Christ at its center holding it together. "Creation is not a random, happy accident, but the context in which Christ's supremacy is exercised," he said.
Drawing on Romans 8, he said all of creation waits for redemption. Human transformation comes first, and the renewal of the rest of creation accompanies it. The Church, he said, is called to experience and display a "resurrection order" in society.
On personhood, Samuel pointed to the Council of Chalcedon in 451, which affirmed that Christ was fully human but without sin. Human personhood that reflects Christ's humanity, he said, has "agency, freedom, reason, will, self-consciousness, and personal and social identity."
He cited Jewish philosopher Martin Buber's distinction between "I-It" experience and "I-Thou" relationship. Personhood has relational and transcendent dimensions that are not possible for something purely physical, Samuel said. He also drew on sociologist Christian Smith and philosopher Charles Taylor, who links identity to morality.
In Samuel’s view, being made in God's image means serving as God's agents and stewards on earth. Co-creation, stewardship and community must not be pushed to the margins, he said.
A spiritual battle
Samuel said thinking about the technological future tends to split into utopian and dystopian visions. Utopians expect healing, security and gene therapy, and even wars fought without humans. The dystopian view sees power passing from governments to "a few individuals accountable to no one" and technology amplifying violence, bias and war.
The Christian response, he said, is the promise of a new heaven and a new earth under the reign of Christ. Until then, Samuel said, Christians face a spiritual battle. He cited Ephesians 2:2 and 6:12, where Paul says the struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of evil.
Samuel then turned to AI agents that have shown some degree of independent behavior. He said such cases are now well known. Christian Daily International reported about one such incident in July.
"Autonomy and disobedience to rule set by the creator appears to be at the center of this rogue behavior, indicating that fallenness has also entered that world," Samuel said.
He said the cultures AI appears to produce rest on human confidence in the ability to create and direct the future. Paul identified spiritual forces behind cultures, sometimes called "the spirit of the age," Samuel said, and the Christian contest is with those forces.
"Christ provides us the tools for the battle," he said. The church must expose such powers and resist them through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, he said. He named worship and the Lord's Supper as the church's "weapons in spiritual warfare."
'The impulse to play God'
Samuel said life extension, and even the prospect of immortality, are "no longer science fiction" but goals of science and technology. Nanotechnology can be used to change nature itself, he said.
"Contemporary technology driven by AI has resurrected the ancient human impulse to play God," Samuel said.
Christian theology sees that drive as an echo of humanity's original rebellion against God, he said. It calls people to remain within the limits God has set for creation.
Mind and machine
Samuel ended his paper with the question of consciousness. He cited philosopher Thomas Nagel, who describes consciousness as subjective, first-person experience. He also cited philosopher David Chalmers, who distinguishes the mind's subjective dimension from its information-processing dimension.
AI belongs to the second category, according to Samuel. It organizes and analyzes information.
"As an information machine, AI cannot become conscious like its human creator," he said. "There is a radical discontinuity with human consciousness and the machine's process of dealing with information."
"The human mind is unique and a gift from God," Samuel said, adding that this is why Paul could write that believers have "the mind of Christ."
He concluded that Christians should be well informed about new technologies. That knowledge, he said, would let them give the machines that play a growing role in daily life "the necessary connections and directions."
Questions on dignity and Scripture
In the question-and-answer session, a participant asked whether artificial general intelligence is possible. The participant also asked what it would mean for human dignity if machines could replicate people.
Samuel first cautioned against an "instrumentalist" approach to the Bible in a world shaped by data and machines. In his Anglican tradition, he said, Scripture is God's sacred word. It must be read with prayer, in the Spirit and in a community of people who love Jesus.
Information technologies are useful tools, he said. But if they ever replace that way of approaching God's word, "then I think we are on dangerous ground."
On dignity, Samuel said the deeper question is how human identity, as people made in God's image, will be protected. "I believe that it doesn't need to be protected because God is there," he said.
Samuel said he does not believe human identity is fully under threat. It is tied to the persons of the Trinity and to the promise of a new heaven and a new earth, he said. "And therefore, I tend to be less worried about instruments, human things, human situations ever undermining that," he said.
He acknowledged that Western thought since the war has tried to undermine the value of the human. Even so, he said, people still hunger for identity, authenticity and substance. The church must keep preaching and helping people connect with the One who provides "the foundation of their very identity," Samuel said.]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Veteran missions leader Daniel Bianchi to lead Arise Latin America]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/veteran-missions-leader-daniel-bianchi-to-lead-arise-latin-america</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiandaily.com/news/veteran-missions-leader-daniel-bianchi-to-lead-arise-latin-america</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[CDI Staff]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[Daniel Bianchi, left, and Rev. Dr. David Ro in a photo Ro shared Oct. 20 announcing Bianchi as director of Arise Latin America.]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ David Ro / Facebook ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Daniel Bianchi, left, and Rev. Dr. David Ro in a photo Ro shared Oct. 20 announcing Bianchi as director of Arise Latin America. ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Wed, 21 Oct 2026 06:43:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[Daniel Bianchi, who has served as the Lausanne Movement's regional director for Latin America since 2017, has been appointed director of Arise Latin America, carrying into the region a youth missions movement that held its largest congress to date in Manila, Philippines, in July.]]></description>
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Daniel Bianchi, who has served as the Lausanne Movement's regional director for Latin America since 2017, has been appointed director of Arise Latin America, carrying into the region a youth missions movement that held its largest congress to date in Manila, Philippines, in July.
Rev. Dr. David Ro, co-founder and executive director of Arise Asia, announced in a social media post on Oct. 20 that Bianchi had accepted the position. Bianchi will carry into Latin America the work Arise has done across Asia, where it has mobilized young Christians to serve as cross-cultural missionaries.
The appointment follows plans Ro outlined to Christian Daily International after the Arise Asia 2026 Congress.
At the time, he said the movement intended to expand into Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and Central Asia, and that talks with local leaders in those regions were already underway.
Decades in Latin American missions
Bianchi's background spans several of the region's main missions networks. He became a Christian in Buenos Aires in the late 1970s and later joined Operation Mobilization, known as OM International, serving with its ship Doulos in Europe. Ro's post says he went on to direct OM's work in Argentina.
He later led the missions department of the Argentine Baptist Convention and founded the Agencia Misionera Internacional, a mission sending agency. He also served as a vice president of COMIBAM International, a cooperative network of missions bodies across Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries.
In 2014, Bianchi founded Conexión Oriental, which Ro described as linking Latin American churches with persecuted Christians and mission partners in the Middle East and East Asia. He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from a theological school in Londrina, Brazil.
Ro and Bianchi served at the same time as Lausanne regional directors for eight years, Ro for East Asia and Bianchi for Latin America. Both worked on preparations for the Fourth Lausanne Congress, held in South Korea in 2024.
From mission field to mission force
Bianchi takes up the role in a region that has spent decades building its own sending movement. At COMIBAM's first continental congress, held in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1987, participants adopted the motto "from a mission field to a mission force," COMIBAM associate director Allan Matamoros told CDI in 2025.
The network now links training centers, mission agencies and local churches in 25 countries, CDI reported. An estimated 30,000 Ibero-American missionaries serve cross-culturally in more than 200 countries and territories.
Matamoros, a Costa Rican who served for more than two decades in the Muslim world, said Latin American missionaries often connect well in Muslim communities and in India, where extended family and close community carry weight. He said they may have less money than Western counterparts but "bring trust, joy, and a way of living" that fits many of the cultures they serve.
Focus on younger generations
Arise Latin America will focus on Generation Z and Generation Alpha, the age groups born from roughly the late 1990s onward, Ro wrote. He said he and Bianchi believe God can raise up a new generation of missionaries from among them.
Its mission, he said, is to challenge young people to "go where there is no gospel," a phrase drawn from Romans 15:20. Its motivation comes from Hebrews 12:1–2, the passage behind the "For the Joy" theme of the Manila congress, and its aim from Acts 20:24, in which the Apostle Paul speaks of finishing the task given to him.
Ro wrote that he hopes to see young people "willing to live sacrificially," crossing cultures so that people who have never heard of Jesus can hear the gospel.
Challenging places will bring forth future missionaries
The Arise Asia 2026 Congress met July 27–31 at Christ's Commission Fellowship Central in Manila. CDI reported that more than 4,000 young leaders from 64 countries attended and that 341 people came forward to commit to long-term cross-cultural mission.
Speaking to CDI after the closing session, Ro said he expects a growing share of future missionaries to come from places marked by conflict, poverty and persecution.
"Those challenging places will actually raise up people to go to challenging places," he said.
Ro also said the next Asia-wide Arise gathering is planned in three years. ]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[U.S. lawmakers told of Pakistan’s religious rights violations]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/us-lawmakers-told-of-pakistans-religious-rights-violations</link>
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                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[CDI Staff]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[Hulda Fahmi of Jubilee Campaign speaks on forced conversions in Pakistan earlier in 2026.]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Screenshot from GHRTV World News ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Hulda Fahmi of Jubilee Campaign speaks on forced conversions in Pakistan earlier in 2026. ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Mon, 19 Oct 2026 16:39:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[Religious freedom advocates have urged U.S. lawmakers to push Pakistan to end the abduction, forced religious conversion and marriage of minority girls, warning that weak law enforcement and judicial failures leave Christian and other religious minority children vulnerable to abuse.]]></description>
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Religious freedom advocates have urged U.S. lawmakers to push Pakistan to end the abduction, forced religious conversion and marriage of minority girls, warning that weak law enforcement and judicial failures leave Christian and other religious minority children vulnerable to abuse.
The concerns were raised during a congressional staff briefing organized by Christian rights organization Jubilee Campaign in collaboration with Ex-Muslims of North America (EXMNA) in Washington D.C. on Oct. 13. Besides the issue of forced faith conversions/marriages, the speakers also highlighted extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention on blasphemy accusations and restrictions on freedom of religion and expression, according to a press statement released by Jubilee Campaign.
The briefing brought together staff representatives from the congressional offices of Reps. Young Kim, Bill Huizenga, Marlin Stutzman, Pramila Jayapal and Chris Smith. Huizenga chairs the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia.
Joseph Janssen, chairperson of Voices for Justice and advocacy officer at Jubilee Campaign Netherlands, presented findings from the updated “Stolen Girls” report, which documented 210 cases of abduction, coerced religious conversion and forced marriage involving Christian girls in Pakistan between January 2019 and December 2025.
The report updates an earlier study released in 2022. Its findings have also informed discussions about the failure to protect minority girls in Pakistan, including in a report by the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) titled “Drivers of Forced Conversion Through Marriage in Pakistan.”
Janssen told the gathering that families seeking justice frequently encounter resistance from police, discrimination within the justice system and institutions that accept allegedly falsified documents or statements made by girls under coercion without adequately investigating the circumstances.
“Protecting a child is a duty of the state,” he said. “Religious claims cannot excuse an abduction, and a marriage certificate cannot erase a child’s age.”
He cited the cases of Maria Shahbaz, Amber Nadeem, Sataish Mariam and other Christian girls whose families continue to seek their daughters’ return and protection. Maria, 13, was abducted from Lahore in July 2025. Her case has drawn particular concern over allegations of forced conversion and marriage and the difficulties her family has faced in pursuing legal remedies.
Janssen urged U.S. lawmakers to use diplomatic pressure to help secure the girls’ release and hold Pakistani authorities accountable for failures to protect them.
“Freedom of religion means freedom to choose. It cannot be built on threats, isolation or captivity,” he said. “No girl should be prevented from returning to her family or practicing her faith because someone threatens her with consequences for leaving a religion she was pressured to adopt.”
Miuse of Blasphemy Laws
Aysha Khan, project manager at EXMNA, highlighted Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which prescribe severe penalties, including death, for certain offenses and have been associated with mob violence, arbitrary arrests and the targeting of religious minorities and dissenters.
Khan challenged the argument that the central problem lies only in the misuse of the laws, saying their restrictions themselves violate fundamental freedoms.
“This is not simply a problem of laws being misused,” she said. “It is also a problem with what the laws prohibit.”
She emphasized that freedom of religion and belief must protect the right to change one’s religion, reject religious beliefs and criticize religious ideas without fear of prosecution or violence.
Pakistan has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which protects freedom of thought, conscience, religion and expression. The country’s blasphemy laws, however, continue to restrict criticism of religious ideas, sometimes with potentially fatal consequences for those accused of crossing the boundaries they establish, Khan said.
She cited the 2011 assassination of former Punjab Province Gov. Salman Taseer, who was killed by his bodyguard after publicly criticizing the country’s blasphemy laws, as an example of the violence surrounding efforts to challenge them.
Khan also raised concerns about online censorship. In 2025, Pakistan’s telecommunications regulator reported blocking more than 100,000 URLs classified as blasphemous, according to her presentation. Authorities have also pressured social media platforms to remove content considered offensive to Islam.
EXMNA’s own online resources have been affected, she said, noting that WikiIslam, a platform examining Islamic texts, teachings and history from a critical perspective, has been blocked in Pakistan.
Although Khan welcomed a reduction in blasphemy-related prosecutions following Pakistan’s 2025 crackdown on the hardline Islamist group Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), she warned that arrests alone would not address the underlying problem.
“Religious extremism cannot be defeated simply by arresting extremists,” she said, adding that institutions must protect people who challenge ideas that sustain intolerance.
Khan called on the U.S. Congress to make religious freedom, freedom of conscience and freedom of expression consistent elements of Washington’s diplomatic and economic engagement with Islamabad. She also pointed to Pakistan’s concerns about maintaining preferential access to European markets as a factor in its efforts to curb blasphemy-related mob violence and arrests.
Hulda Fahmi of Jubilee Campaign, who moderated the briefing, read remarks from U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Chair Asif Mahmood supporting stronger U.S. action on religious freedom in Pakistan. Mahmood welcomed the U.S. State Department’s designation of Pakistan as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) in December 2023 but urged the administration to make the designation effective by lifting the national security waiver.
USCIRF has recommended that Pakistan be designated a CPC since 2002, citing its blasphemy laws and the government’s failure to prevent forced religious conversions and child marriages involving Hindu, Sikh and Christian girls and women. A CPC designation is intended to identify governments responsible for tolerating or causing particularly severe violations of religious freedom and can provide a basis for U.S. policy measures. A waiver, however, can limit the practical consequences of such a designation.
Shagufta Kausar, a Pakistani Christian woman who spent more than seven years in prison after being sentenced to death on blasphemy charges, also addressed the briefing. Her case became a prominent example of the risks faced by people accused under Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws.
Kausar recounted how women in prison pressured her to convert to Islam, telling her that reciting the Islamic declaration of faith could bring better prison conditions and eventual release. She refused to abandon her Christian faith, she said. Kausar was eventually freed following sustained international advocacy.
Her case drew attention in Europe, including through a European Parliament resolution calling for her release and debate over Pakistan’s preferential trade arrangements with the European Union.
The activists also called for congressional action through existing legislative initiatives addressing religious freedom and human rights in Pakistan. They highlighted the proposed “Pakistan Freedom and Accountability Act” (H.R. 5271), which calls for stronger U.S. engagement with Pakistan to uphold democracy, human rights and the rule of law. They also cited House Resolution 594, concerning the persecution of Christians in Muslim-majority countries, which identifies Pakistan among the countries where Christians face blasphemy accusations, mob violence and the threat of capital punishment, while Christian girls face abduction and forced marriage and conversion.
They further urged lawmakers to ensure that Pakistan receives explicit attention in House Resolution 738, which expresses concern over severe restrictions on religious freedom abroad. 
(Corrected on Oct. 21, 2026 to clarify that USCIRF was not a hearing organizer.)]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Michigan church discloses misconduct allegations against founding pastor Seth Kim]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/michigan-church-discloses-misconduct-allegations-against-founding-pastor-seth-kim</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiandaily.com/news/michigan-church-discloses-misconduct-allegations-against-founding-pastor-seth-kim</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[CDI Staff]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[Seth Sung Kim in 2025.]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ File photo: Christian Daily International ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Seth Sung Kim in 2025. ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Mon, 19 Oct 2026 07:36:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[Harvest Mission Community Church of Ann Arbor has disclosed allegations of sexual misconduct against its founding pastor, Seth Sung Kim, involving two women under his spiritual care. The church said it believes the allegations are true and that Kim has permanently disqualified himself from pastoral ministry.]]></description>
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Harvest Mission Community Church of Ann Arbor has disclosed allegations of sexual misconduct against its founding pastor, Seth Sung Kim, involving two women under his spiritual care. The church said it believes the allegations are true and that Kim has permanently disqualified himself from pastoral ministry.
In a statement posted on its website Oct. 11 and updated Oct. 15, the church said both women came forward through attorneys. According to the statement, they described being groomed and manipulated by Kim in private meetings presented as discipleship, with the alleged misconduct occurring in Asia and, separately, in Ann Arbor.
Kim has not commented publicly on the allegations. The statement does not refer to any criminal complaint or police investigation.
The church's lead pastor, the Rev. Pete Dahlem, read the statement aloud during the congregation's Sunday service Oct. 11, and a video of the service is posted with the statement on the church's website. He said church leaders had first told members in general terms of "a serious accusation" against Kim at a congregational meeting in February, when they knew only of the alleged misconduct in Asia.
Dahlem said the statement was written together with both survivors after months of exchanges involving lawyers. Details of times, places and events were left out to protect the women's confidentiality, he said.
Two accounts
Kim led the Ann Arbor congregation from its founding in 1996 until 2015, apart from a period in 2009-10 when he helped start a church in Indonesia, the statement says. In 2015 he led a team that planted HMCC of Hong Kong, where he served as lead pastor until January 2026.
Dahlem, who became lead pastor in Ann Arbor when Kim left for Hong Kong, told the congregation the news affected him personally. "Seth was the person who baptized me. He mentored me. He ordained me. He officiated my wedding," he said. He said Kim last visited the Ann Arbor church in 2017.
On Dec. 30, 2025, the Ann Arbor church received a letter from a law firm representing a woman it refers to as Survivor A. The letter alleged that Kim used his pastoral position to arrange private meetings and initiate unwanted sexual contact with her in Asia over a long period, according to the statement.
The church said it then contacted the pastor of HMCC of Austin, which remained organizationally linked to the Hong Kong congregation after the HMCC churches separated in 2024, and asked that Kim be removed. Kim stepped down from the Hong Kong pulpit in early January, the church said. It added that it had confirmed his resignation from ministry leadership roles with several other organizations, which it did not name.
Over the following months, the Ann Arbor church said it sought legal counsel and took part in formal mediation, where the parties agreed to work together on a public statement.
A second letter arrived "in recent months" from attorneys for a woman identified as Survivor B. She described similar experiences in Ann Arbor while Kim was lead pastor there, according to the statement. The church said Survivor B has remained anonymous even to its leaders but that it takes her report seriously.
"On the basis of these two victims' reports of misconduct occurring over many years, as well as supporting evidence we have seen, we believe these accusations against Seth are true," the statement says.
Church response
Citing passages including 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1 and 1 Peter 5, the church said Kim should not hold any position of Christian leadership, spiritual authority or mentorship. It said that, to its knowledge, Kim has not cooperated with efforts to hold him accountable. It advised Christians to apply Matthew 18:15-17, a passage on confronting a fellow believer over wrongdoing, in any dealings with him.
In his sermon, Dahlem cited 1 Timothy 5:19-20 and said the elders had agreed from the start to make the matter public. "The scope of public correction should match the scope of that person's public ministry," he said. He said repentance and restoration remain possible, but that in such cases "restoration is restoration to fellowship with the church, not restoration to a pastoral role."
Quoting counselors and victim advocates, the statement says the power imbalance in clergy sexual misconduct makes genuine consent impossible. It says both women want it known that they did not initiate or want the contact.
The church acknowledged that it had policies and reporting channels in place but said policies alone cannot prevent misconduct. It apologized to both women and said it grieves that the community did not uncover the conduct sooner.
Dahlem outlined changes the church has made in recent years. They include an anonymous way to report concerns to elders through its website and a shift from a single-authority leadership model to an elder-led one. He also listed security cameras at church facilities and accountability meetings among pastors every other week. People with concerns about serious misconduct need not raise them directly with the person involved first, he said.
The Ann Arbor congregation has invited anyone with relevant information to contact its elders through an online form. It also offered pastoral support and referrals to professional counseling.]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Forced conversions, blasphemy law afflict religious minorities in Pakistan]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/forced-conversions-blasphemy-law-afflict-religious-minorities-in-pakistan</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiandaily.com/news/forced-conversions-blasphemy-law-afflict-religious-minorities-in-pakistan</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[CDI Staff]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[Freedom of religion and belief report by Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ HRCP ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Freedom of religion and belief report by Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Fri, 16 Oct 2026 12:20:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Thursday (Oct. 15) asserted that religious minorities in Pakistan, including Christians, continue to face forced faith conversions and marriages, blasphemy accusations and mob violence despite recent legislation intended to protect their rights.]]></description>
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The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Thursday (Oct. 15) asserted that religious minorities in Pakistan, including Christians, continue to face forced faith conversions and marriages, blasphemy accusations and mob violence despite recent legislation intended to protect their rights.
In its seventh annual report on freedom of religion or belief titled, “Sanctuary Denied: Freedom of Religion or Belief in 2025/26,” the independent rights watchdog warned that the government’s failure to implement protective laws and hold perpetrators accountable was leaving vulnerable communities exposed to violence and persecution. It also noted religious minorities face institutional discrimination.
The report, covering the period from July 1, 2025, to June 30, documented attacks on Christians, Hindus and minority Ahmadi Muslims, as well as the continued misuse of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Hundreds of people accused of blasphemy remained imprisoned or caught in prolonged legal proceedings, while alleged perpetrators of an organized network accused of entrapping people in fabricated blasphemy cases had yet to be investigated.
“The state’s approach to religious minorities is becoming increasingly exclusionary,” HRCP Director Farah Zia warned at the report’s launch.
The HRCP welcomed the passage of the National Commission for Minorities Act 2025 and legislation raising the minimum marriageable age to 18 in Punjab and Balochistan provinces. It noted, however, that the minorities commission has still not been constituted about seven months after the law’s enactment, raising concerns about the government’s commitment to implementing its promises.
Forced Conversions/Marriages
Girls from Christian and Hindu communities continued to face abduction, forced religious conversion and marriage, often involving older Muslim men, the report said. Poverty, inadequate police responses and the failure to protect underage girls compounded the suffering of victims and their families, it added.
The report cited United Nations experts who said that in 2025, approximately 75 percent of victims of forced conversion through marriage were Hindu and 25 percent Christian. About 80 percent of reported incidents occurred in Sindh Province, with adolescent girls between 14 and 18 particularly vulnerable, although younger girls were also targeted.
According to figures provided to the HRCP by Hindu rights activist Faqir Shiva Kachhi, 36 underage Hindu girls, mostly from scheduled castes, were abducted in 2025. Another 32 cases were recorded in the first seven months of 2026. Kachhi cautioned that the figures represented only cases known to him and that many others might have gone unreported.
He also described difficulties obtaining police action, saying families and activists sometimes had to stage sit-ins outside police stations and senior police officers’ offices merely to have a first information report (FIR) registered.
The report said the recurring pattern involved minority parents reporting their daughters’ disappearances or abductions, only to learn days later that they had converted to Islam and married Muslims. Human rights organizations have raised concerns that forced religious conversion and marriage are used together to legitimize relationships involving underage girls and undermine protections against child marriage.
The HRCP also highlighted the case of Maria Shahbaz, a 13-year-old Christian girl whose father, Shahbaz Masih, reported her missing in Lahore on July 29, 2025, after she left home for a nearby shop. Maria appeared before a magistrate two days later saying she had converted to Islam and married a 30-year-old Muslim man, Sheharyar Ahmad.
Police closed the abduction case following her statement and the submission of a marriage certificate. A subsequent police reinvestigation led by a senior officer concluded that the marriage certificate submitted by the accused was forged, according to the report, citing human rights defender Safdar Chaudhry. Government-issued records, including her National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) registration document, also indicated that she was a minor, he said.
The Federal Constitutional Court ruled in March that Maria was of mature age and that her conversion and marriage were lawful, dismissing official age records as unreliable, according to the HRCP report. Her case illustrates the legal and institutional obstacles confronting families seeking the recovery of girls they say have been abducted and forcibly converted.
The HRCP urged authorities to monitor seminaries linked to forced conversions and underage marriages and recommended that religious conversions take place in court or in the presence of a government official.
False Blasphemy Accusations
The HRCP said blasphemy accusations continued to be used for personal vendettas, extortion and other malicious purposes, with inadequate investigations and social pressure contributing to the prosecution of people on questionable evidence.
According to data published by the Punjab Prisons Department, 559 people accused of blasphemy were in custody on June 28. Five were women and one was a juvenile. Seven prisoners were listed as condemned prisoners, while 491 were awaiting trial, including four women.
The figures cover Punjab Province’s prisons and should not be interpreted as a national total. The report said comparable data for other provinces was not readily accessible through official websites.
The HRCP noted that the overwhelming majority of those held in Punjab were under trial, leaving them vulnerable to prolonged imprisonment without conviction. Security fears also resulted in accused people being housed together, further restricting their living space, the report stated.
The commission also revisited allegations involving an organized network accused of entrapping hundreds of young people, including Christians, in fabricated online blasphemy cases for extortion. An Islamabad High Court order directing an investigation into the allegations was overturned on review in July 2025, leaving the alleged victims and their families awaiting accountability.
Around 50 accused people had reportedly secured release through bail or acquittal by the end of the period covered by the report. The alleged perpetrators of the network, however, had yet to be investigated.
One victim was Nadeem Masih, a visually impaired Christian who was the sole breadwinner for his family, the report noted. Arrested in August 2025, he was accused of blasphemy after an alleged dispute with a park contractor who reportedly attempted to extort money from him. A Lahore additional sessions judge ordered his release on June 23, after finding that the prosecution had failed to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt on reliable and legally admissible evidence.
At the report launch, HRCP Vice-Chair in Punjab Raja Ashraf said blasphemy accusations had become a “means of exploiting and endangering vulnerable people.”
Arafat Mazhar, director of research and advocacy collective Shehri Pakistan, urged the public to consult lawyers representing people accused of blasphemy and allow courts to determine the appropriate legal procedures, rather than turning defendants into symbols of the broader debate over the laws.
The report also highlighted the case of Kamran Gill Masih, a Christian medical practitioner from Sheikhupura whose dispensary was set ablaze by a Muslim mob on Oct. 9 following allegations that he had shared blasphemous content on social media. Minority rights defender Nabila Feroz Bhatti raised the case at the launch, underscoring the danger allegations can pose even before guilt is determined in court.
The HRCP called for investigations into cases registered under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which carries the death penalty, to be conducted by senior officials. It also urged the government to investigate alleged entrapment schemes and improve public awareness of sensitive laws and digital methods used to fabricate accusations.
Ahmadis Targeted, Minorities Excluded 
The report also documented two shootings in Chenab Nagar, the headquarters of Pakistan’s minority Ahmadiyya community, during the review period.
On Oct. 10, 2025, six security guards were injured when an armed attacker opened fire outside an Ahmadi place of worship. On June 6, three Ahmadi community members were wounded in another shooting outside a place of worship in the city.
The HRCP said data provided by the Ahmadiyya community showed that nine of its places of worship were attacked and damaged during the reporting period. In five cases, law enforcement agencies carried out demolitions. The commission raised concerns about demolitions allegedly undertaken without proper notice or formal orders.
Ahmadis also faced growing social exclusion, including refusals of service by shops and businesses. The report cited an incident in which a courier company allegedly refused to deliver a parcel to Chenab Nagar because of its Ahmadi population.
Community representative Amir Mahmood, speaking at the launch, described severe restrictions on Ahmadis’ freedom of expression and assembly, recalling that the community’s last public gathering had taken place more than 40 years ago.
The HRCP further warned that hate speech against religious minorities had become increasingly normalized, creating an environment conducive to intimidation and violence. It cited derogatory remarks about Christian churches by a religious leader in Islamabad and campaigns against Ahmadis, including objections to a senior government official receiving a civil award.
Discrimination also extended to employment and education. Despite a 5 percent quota for minorities in government services, many Christians and lower-caste Hindus remained concentrated in hazardous sanitation work. The report documented deaths of sanitation workers in Karachi and Bahawalpur during the review period and cited evidence that religious identity influenced recruitment practices.
The commission also criticized school curricula for promoting religious uniformity rather than pluralism and said mainstream media increasingly marginalized minority concerns.
Former HRCP chairperson Hina Jilani highlighted the institutional nature of discrimination, saying, “Democracy should have no concept of ‘minority’ and ‘majority.’”
The HRCP urged the federal government to constitute the National Commission for Minorities, frame its rules and appoint its chairperson and members without further delay. It called on federal and provincial governments to publish annual, disaggregated data on blasphemy cases, mob violence, forced conversion complaints and prison conditions, enabling independent scrutiny of official responses.
The commission also urged Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to legislate a minimum marriageable age of 18 for both men and women, bringing the province into line with Punjab and Balochistan.
Other recommendations included mandatory freedom of religion or belief training for police and investigative agencies, stronger protection for human rights defenders and lawyers, prosecution of those inciting violence, and measures to prevent religious groups and bar associations from pressuring authorities to act against particular communities.
The HRCP further called for full implementation of the Supreme Court’s 2014 judgment on religious freedoms, protection of minority places of worship, and prosecution of those who vandalize religious sites.
While acknowledging recent legislative progress, the report warned that legal protections would remain ineffective without implementation, transparent data and accountability for abuses.
For Pakistan’s religious minorities, the HRCP said, the challenge remains ensuring that constitutional guarantees of religious freedom and equal citizenship are upheld in practice, rather than merely recognized in law.]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Loneliness weighs on Christians serving refugees in South Asia, consultation finds]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/loneliness-weighs-on-christians-serving-refugees-in-south-asia-consultation-finds</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiandaily.com/news/loneliness-weighs-on-christians-serving-refugees-in-south-asia-consultation-finds</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[CDI Staff]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[Participants listen as a speaker presents during the South Asia Consultation on Forced Displacement, Protection, and Durable Solutions in Colombo, Sri Lanka, held Sept. 14-16, 2026.]]></media:title>
                                                            <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">
                                    <![CDATA[ Philoi Global ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Participants listen as a speaker presents during the South Asia Consultation on Forced Displacement, Protection, and Durable Solutions in Colombo, Sri Lanka, held Sept. 14-16, 2026. ]]>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[Participants pray together during the South Asia Consultation on Forced Displacement, Protection, and Durable Solutions in Colombo, Sri Lanka, held Sept. 14-16, 2026.]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Philoi Global ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Participants pray together during the South Asia Consultation on Forced Displacement, Protection, and Durable Solutions in Colombo, Sri Lanka, held Sept. 14-16, 2026. Attendees described isolation and personal risk in their work with refugees and displaced people, according to the organizer, Philoi Global. ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Fri, 16 Oct 2026 07:05:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[Christian leaders and practitioners who work with refugees and other displaced people in South Asia say the work leaves many of them isolated and exposed to personal risk, according to a recent report by Philoi Global.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
Christian leaders and practitioners who work with refugees and other displaced people in South Asia say the work leaves many of them isolated and exposed to personal risk, according to a recent report by Philoi Global, a Christian humanitarian organization that organized a regional consultation on the issue in Sri Lanka.
The gathering, held Sept. 14-16 in Colombo, drew participants from India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Although the agenda centered on theology, law and policy, the issue of loneliness among those doing the work came up repeatedly, organizers said.
"The church and authorities often do not see the plight of displaced people," a participant from Pakistan said, according to the report. "Anyone who chooses to support refugees does so with a significant amount of personal risk."
Philoi did not name the participants it quoted due to security concerns.
Several attendees described feeling misunderstood and unsupported by both church and government institutions. They highlighted personal, financial, social and political risks that come with working alongside forcibly displaced people.
Some said the wider church seldom treats forced displacement as a significant concern for its mission. Others said governments tend to view refugee ministry mainly as a security matter, which has made engagement with officials harder.
Participants from India said regulatory restrictions had affected a number of Christian organizations serving displaced people in the country, limiting their response to growing needs.
Formally titled the South Asia Consultation on Forced Displacement, Protection, and Durable Solutions, the meeting covered three main topics. Participants discussed a theology of suffering, ways to support refugees' return and reintegration, and complementary migration pathways, which are legal routes for refugees outside traditional resettlement programs.
Members of the global leadership team of the Refugee Highway Partnership, a Christian network that serves forcibly displaced people, also took part. Invited representatives from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar were unable to attend because of travel restrictions, Philoi said.

At the Colombo meeting, participants agreed that responders need a supportive community and prayer in addition to funding and training.
One participant from Sri Lanka said they had worked with displaced communities for 10 to 12 years, mostly independently, and that the consultation had renewed their motivation.
"It reminded me that I am not alone in this work," the participant said.]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Christian’s death sentence upheld under blasphemy law in Pakistan]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/christians-death-sentence-upheld-under-blasphemy-law-in-pakistan</link>
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                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Christian Daily International / Morning Star News]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[Blasphemy laws were among oppressive measures opposed in protest in Faisalabad, Pakistan on National Minorities Day on Aug. 11, 2026.]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Minorities Alliance Pakistan ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Blasphemy laws were among oppressive measures opposed in protest in Faisalabad, Pakistan on National Minorities Day on Aug. 11, 2026. ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Mon, 12 Oct 2026 12:06:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday (Oct. 7) upheld the death sentence of a Christian convicted under blasphemy laws while acquitting his brother, with rights advocates questioning the contrasting outcomes after years of legal proceedings, sources said.]]></description>
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Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday (Oct. 7) announced that it had upheld the death sentence of a Christian convicted under blasphemy laws while acquitting his brother, with rights advocates questioning the contrasting outcomes after years of legal proceedings, sources said.
A three-member Supreme Court bench dismissed Qaiser Ayub’s appeal, upholding his death sentence under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which criminalizes derogatory remarks about Muhammad, the prophet of Islam; Ayub was accused of publishing blasphemous material online.
Headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi and comprising Justices Shakeel Ahmad and Ishtiaq Ibrahim, the bench set aside the conviction and death sentence of his brother, Amoon Ayub, ruling that the prosecution had failed to establish his personal involvement in the alleged offense.
The brothers, residents of Lahore, were sentenced to death by a trial court in 2018. The Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi Bench upheld their convictions in 2022.
The case arose from allegations that blasphemous material had been published on a website registered in Qaiser Ayub’s name.
Qaiser Ayub, 49, a computer science graduate, has maintained that he shut down the website in 2009, but that Muslim friends later revived it while retaining Qaiser Ayub’s name in the copyright information. After the allegations surfaced, the brothers left Pakistan for Singapore and later Thailand. Qaiser Ayub was arrested after returning to Lahore in 2014, while Amoon Ayub, 46, was arrested in 2015.
In its nine-page judgment, the Supreme Court distinguished between the digital and documentary evidence it considered sufficient to uphold Qaiser Ayub’s conviction and the circumstantial evidence it found inadequate to establish Amoon Qayub’s guilt.
The court rejected Qaiser Ayub’s assertion that he had no connection with the WordPress blog, which displayed his name, email addresses, office address and telephone numbers. Domain registration records recovered from Qaiser’s laptop included documents dated June 2, 2009, which the court said showed that he had purchased and registered the primary domain. The use of the domain’s official email credentials to create the WordPress blog further connected him to the publishing platform, the court reasoned.
Investigators recovered a desktop computer and a laptop following Qaiser’s arrest. The court said forensic examinations found images, articles and other material corresponding to content published on the blog. It rejected the defense allegation that the incriminating files had been planted, citing correspondence between the material on the devices and the online publications.
The court also rejected objections to the complainant’s credibility and the delay in registering the First Information Report (FIR). Muhammad Saeed initially reported the matter in August 2010, but the FIR was registered on June 9, 2011. The court attributed the delay to uncertainty over jurisdiction in internet-related offenses and preliminary investigations by the Federal Investigation Agency. It noted that Saeed and the accused were strangers and found no evidence of an established history of enmity that would explain a false accusation.
Having considered the digital, documentary and testimonial evidence, the Supreme Court found no legal infirmity in the lower courts’ findings against Qaiser Ayub and upheld his conviction and death sentence.
The court reached a different conclusion regarding Amoon Ayub. Prosecutors had relied partly on a landline connection registered in his name and the tenancy of office premises held in his name. The court said these arrangements did not conclusively establish that he had created or uploaded the material, noting that telephone connections, internet subscriptions and rental agreements could be registered in one family member’s name while being used by others.
Finding insufficient evidence of Amoon Ayub’s personal knowledge or participation in the alleged offense, the court extended the benefit of doubt to him, set aside his conviction and sentence, and ordered his release.
The American Center for Law and Justice’s (ACLJ) international legal team and its Pakistani affiliate, the Organization for Legal Aid (OLA), represented the brothers in their legal battle.
“Since 2025, our attorneys have appeared before Pakistan’s Supreme Court to argue the brothers’ appeal,” Shaheryar Gill, senior counsel and head of the ACLJ, told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “The court scheduled the case for argument 13 times, but each hearing was postponed. Finally, on July 6, the court heard the arguments and reserved its judgment, which was announced on Oct. 7.”
He said the legal team was overjoyed by Amoon Ayub’s acquittal but heartbroken for his brother. Gill recounted that when he called Amoon Ayub’s wife, Huma, to congratulate her, she broke down in tears and thanked God.
“For 11 years, Huma has visited her husband in prison every week,” Gill said. “Now, after more than a decade of separation, they will finally be together again.”
ACLJ/OLA will file a revision petition asking the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision to uphold Qaiser Ayub’s death sentence, he said, describing the ruling as deeply troubling and setting a dangerous precedent in Pakistan’s blasphemy cases.
Rao Abdur Raheem, purported leader of the so-called “blasphemy business group” accused of entrapping people in false blasphemy cases, described the ruling as a milestone in enforcing the country’s blasphemy laws. In a video circulating on social media, Raheem is seen wearing garlands outside the court alongside Saeed, the complainant.
“This is the first time the barrier of the Supreme Court has been crossed in 40 years in the history of Pakistan since Section 295-C was added to the blasphemy law,” Raheem said, describing the decision as the culmination of a long legal struggle.
The Voice of the Victims of Blasphemy Business Group, which supports families victimized by blasphemy cases, questioned the human cost of Amoon Ayub’s years in detention and under prosecution.
“If Amoon Ayub has been acquitted after such a prolonged legal ordeal, who will answer for the 16 years taken from his life?” the group asked in an Oct. 8 statement on its Facebook page, calling for accountability for wrongful implication.
“Justice cannot be measured only by the final verdict. It must also consider the human cost of prolonged incarceration, the consequences of wrongful implication, the suffering of families, and the years of life that can never be returned,” it stated.
Pakistan’s blasphemy laws have long drawn criticism from human rights organizations and legal experts. Besides blatantly violating freedom of speech, they warn that the provisions can be misused in personal disputes and have disproportionately affected religious minorities. Although the country has yet to carry out a state execution for blasphemy, accusations have repeatedly triggered mob violence and extrajudicial killings, while suspects can spend years in detention awaiting trial.
In the latest incident, a Muslim mob set fire to a Christian’s house and shop in Gharial Kalan village in Sheikhupura District, Punjab Province, on Friday (Oct. 9) after he was accused of sharing blasphemous content on Facebook, forcing more than 35 Christian families to flee their homes amid fears of further violence.
Police arrested Kamran Masih, 40, a father of three who ran a small pharmacy, on Oct. 8. He was accused of sharing a video posted by a U.S.-based, ex-Muslim Pakistani and charged under provisions concerning alleged disrespect toward the family and companions of Islam’s prophet and hurting religious sentiments.
“As word of Masih’s arrest spread, his family and other Christians started fleeing the village, fearing a mob attack,” a source told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News on condition of anonymity. Dozens of Muslims gathered outside the shop and adjacent residence on Friday (Oct. 9), and some set both buildings on fire, the source said.
Open Doors, a Christian support organization, ranked Pakistan eighth on its 2026 World Watch List of 50 countries where Christians face the most severe persecution, citing systemic discrimination, mob violence, forced conversions, bonded labor and gender-based violence. It warned that weak law enforcement and widespread impunity have allowed perpetrators of anti-Christian violence to evade accountability.]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[India locks down capital, detains Gen Z protest leaders over voter roll dispute]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/india-locks-down-capital-detains-gen-z-protest-leaders-over-voter-roll-dispute</link>
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                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Surinder Kaur]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[Police officers detain a protester during a demonstration on October 10, 2026 in New Delhi, India.]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Ritesh Shukla/Getty Images ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ NEW DELHI, INDIA - OCTOBER 10: Police officers detain a protester during a demonstration on October 10, 2026 in New Delhi, India. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has called a mass protest to demand the resignation of India's Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, over what they say are alleged irregularities in electoral processes and the revision of voter rolls. ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Sat, 10 Oct 2026 18:15:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[Delhi Police detained the founder and two senior leaders of a Gen Z protest movement aboard their plane Saturday, Oct. 10, as authorities shut dozens of metro stations, canceled more than 250 trains and deployed tens of thousands of officers to keep protesters away from the capital’s designated protest ground.]]></description>
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Delhi Police detained the founder and two senior leaders of a Gen Z protest movement aboard their plane Saturday, Oct. 10, as authorities shut dozens of metro stations, canceled more than 250 trains and deployed tens of thousands of officers to keep protesters away from the capital’s designated protest ground.
The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) is demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over a nationwide revision of India’s voter rolls. Reports put the number of names removed or flagged at about 130 million. In India, the world’s largest democracy, a name missing from the roll means no ballot.
Opposition parties allege that eligible voters are dropping off the rolls, particularly religious minorities and women. The commission and the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have denied any wrongdoing or political bias.
Police broke up flash protests across Delhi and held hundreds of the movement’s supporters in a stadium. Reported counts of those detained rose from about 1,000 to more than 7,000 during the day. Opposition leaders, including four former chief ministers, were among those held.
The Supreme Court had warned Friday that the transport restrictions appeared to be “overreaching.” The CJP says it will try again Sunday at 10 a.m.
Church leaders are watching. The Rev. Vijayesh Lal, general secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India, wrote on his personal blog that the day was “unprecedented and shameful.”
Reporting is current as of 2:30 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 11, India time. Figures come from different sources and are attributed accordingly.
What the fight is about
The Election Commission is the constitutional body that runs India’s elections and keeps the voter rolls. Its Special Intensive Revision began in the state of Bihar in June 2025 and now covers much of the country.
The 130 million figure, or 13 crore (one crore equals 10 million), covers names removed or flagged. The commission says most are draft-stage markings of dead, duplicate or relocated voters, not final deletions.
The Indian Express, a national newspaper, reported on Sept. 23 that the two other election commissioners had formally objected at least 14 times in 10 months to decisions made during the revision. On Oct. 5, the Supreme Court declined to suspend Kumar but ordered the commission to respond within a week.
The movement began as online satire, as CDI reported in June. “Janta” means “people” in Hindi, and the name mocks the BJP. It also echoes a May remark by Chief Justice Surya Kant about youth “like cockroaches,” which he later said targeted people with fake degrees.
The movement first took on leaks of NEET, India’s national medical school entrance exam. After hunger strikes and a police crackdown in July, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned on July 25. On Sept. 25, the movement turned to the Election Commission.
A capital under lock
Delhi Police, which reports to the national government’s Home Ministry and not to Delhi’s elected government, refused permission for the rally at Jantar Mantar, an 18th-century observatory near Parliament that serves as the capital’s designated protest site.
Joint Commissioner of Police Nupur Prasad said the CJP applied on Oct. 7, though guidelines require 10 days’ notice. “This time the permission is rejected; it is not approved,” she said.
The CJP disputes that it needed permission. Spokesperson Saurav Das said the party notified Parliament Street police station instead: “Who is Delhi Police to give us permission?”
Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, India’s new criminal procedure code, was in force. The section lets authorities ban assemblies. Special Commissioner of Police Devesh Srivastava told the media that “no permission for such protest is granted” and that police had appealed to citizens to stay away.
Reports said 35,000 police and paramilitary personnel were on duty, and authorities suspended mobile internet near the central government district.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation announced the closure of 57 stations from 9 p.m. Friday. After the Supreme Court intervened, it said Saturday evening that 45 stations would stay shut until 10 p.m., a closure of 25 hours. Indian Railways canceled more than 250 long-distance trains.
Protesters detained on the way to Delhi
Authorities also tried to stop protesters before they reached Delhi. In one widely reported case, railway police removed 14 students from the Goa Express at Itarsi station in Madhya Pradesh state on the night of Oct. 8. Student leader Shravani Bua said the police “manhandled, dragged and forced the students out of the train.”
Delhi Police also detained CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and party leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das aboard their Mumbai-to-Delhi flight after it landed.
Dipke had expected it. In a video recorded Friday night but posted later, he said: “If you are watching this video, it means Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das, and I have been taken into custody. The movement does not end here.”
Ajinkya Shinde, named to lead the protest in their absence, spoke at a joint news conference of the CJP and allied student groups. “We will march to Jantar Mantar again tomorrow and stay there until all our demands are met,” he said.
A CJP member, Gaurav Bharti, has asked the Supreme Court to order authorities to produce Dipke, Das and Ranka and to disclose where they are held. His habeas corpus petition — a request that a court make the state justify a person’s detention — argues that refusing permission for a protest cannot justify indiscriminate detention. It also asks the court to preserve airport CCTV footage.
Flash protests across the city
As police kept nearly every protester out of Jantar Mantar all day, small groups demonstrated wherever they could. By evening, officers had taken in about 200 people at Dilli Haat, a crafts market.
At Sansad Marg, near Parliament, members of the Students’ Federation of India broke through a barricade. Police charged with batons and held about 30. Hundreds more were held at Chhatrasal Stadium, one of 15 designated detention sites.
Some protesters had spent the night at Bangla Sahib Gurdwara, a Sikh house of worship, and returned there after barricades blocked Jantar Mantar. Media reported that at about 1 p.m., police came “from behind the gurudwara walls” and detained people at the entrance. The CJP alleged that officers entered the premises. Videos shared on social media show police inside the compound; CDI could not independently verify them.
Opposition leaders were also among those held. Officers detained former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal outside his home. A chief minister is the elected head of a state government, similar to a U.S. governor. Former Chief Ministers Mamata Banerjee, Manik Sarkar and Pinarayi Vijayan were also detained.
In Mumbai, police held about 600 people at August Kranti Maidan (Ground), among them Tushar Gandhi, a great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.
Who was taken, and how many
No reliable national count exists. Figures in media reports rose through the day. Police sources put the number at about 1,000 by afternoon. Officials then said more than 3,000 by evening and more than 7,000 by 8 p.m. The CJP claims that more than 15,000 people nationwide faced detention or police action. None of these figures has been independently verified.
Shortly after midnight, most detainees had been released, except the CJP’s top leaders and YouTuber Dhruv Rathee.
On Saturday, the United Nations human rights office said it was “concerned by reports of mass detentions in India of demonstrators, protest leaders, members of civil society organisations, lawyers and journalists.” It added: “All those arbitrarily detained must be immediately and unconditionally released.”
Economist Jean Dreze, who was also detained, told The Indian Express that officers held 30 to 35 working-class and minority people who had no connection to the protest and took their phones.
Mayur Malkhede, a CJP activist from Ballarpur in Maharashtra state who had received a preventive police notice before the protest, was in Connaught Place, the central shopping district. “Almost all our CJP members were detained,” he told CDI. He said some were released at about 9 or 10 p.m. after being taken to a stadium.
Near RML Hospital, he said, police chased protesters, including women and children, and some ran inside the hospital to escape. He also said officers forcibly took away journalists and content creators.
In a message to CDI after midnight, Malkhede said police were following CJP members who had been released. Officers were also singling out CJP volunteers and other young people who had come to Delhi from other parts of the country, questioning them in their hotels, he said. Lawyers made a similar claim in the Supreme Court on Friday.
The court’s warning
On Friday, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant heard petitions from M.A. Baby, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and others. The order said: “It appears that the notifications are overreaching, as they impose a complete ban upon essential public transportation.” The court clarified that “there shall be no outright prohibition on the movement of Metro trains.”
The chief justice said “a large group of ordinary people” were commuting and “have an equal right to movement as there is right to protest.” Precautions are fine, he said, but “that does not mean you should use a hammer to kill a fly.” Justice Joymalya Bagchi cautioned that a protest held without permission is open to prosecution.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal asked: “What is happening in my country? Can we not protest peacefully anymore?” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the government’s second-highest law officer, answered: “It is our country.” He rejected the claim that the city was paralyzed.
The bench said it would not rule on the police refusal because no organizer was in court. It did not examine lawyers’ claims that police were going “mosque to mosque” to intimidate people and that hotels had been told not to register new guests. The court also asked the government to find a better-equipped protest site. Mehta agreed to consider it.
Sunday and beyond
The CJP has called supporters to Jantar Mantar at 10 a.m. Sunday. “Wherever the Delhi Police stops you, make that place your Jantar Mantar,” Shinde said. Delhi Police said the deployment would stay the same and that more metro and train measures could follow.
The Supreme Court will hold special hearings at 10:30 a.m. on a contempt petition against Home Secretary Govind Mohan, the Delhi Police commissioner and the Delhi Metro chairperson. It will also hear a plea by Trinamool Congress member of Parliament and senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy against the preventive custody of opposition politicians, including four former chief ministers. Petitioners have also asked that a habeas corpus petition seeking the CJP leaders’ release be heard at the same time.
Churches weigh in
Lal, speaking as general secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India, linked the protests to a wider question of trust. “The issues are different, but the underlying question is the same: whether citizens can trust the institutions that shape their lives and their democracy,” he told CDI. “For minorities especially, the integrity of the electoral roll and confidence in the Election Commission matter because equal citizenship begins with an equal and protected right to vote.”
“When Christians face violence or discrimination, their security depends greatly on whether they believe constitutional institutions, the police, administration and courts will act impartially and according to law,” he said. He urged Christians to “check their names on the electoral rolls, correct errors where necessary and participate responsibly in the democratic process.”
On the ground, Christians describe a city closed in. A young Christian man who asked not to be named told CDI he tried to reach Jantar Mantar on Saturday but turned back because no route was open. He sounded angry as he described it.
A Christian leader who lives in central Delhi and asked not to be named described a tense day and an unusual quiet. Police blocked the streets around her home, so no one could come or go, she said. Officers were also watching her church and home, which kept her family from joining the protest, she said.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India said on Oct. 7: “Disenfranchisement must never become the ‘new normal.’” It urged a free, fair and transparent revision and expressed solidarity with those “peacefully protesting,” while asking them to refrain strictly from violence.
Another Christian leader sees the community as too quiet. A.C. Michael, national coordinator of the United Christian Forum, a Christian activist group, told CDI that Christians are staying away from the public demand that the government answer allegations of “voter roll manipulation.”
Lal’s “unprecedented and shameful” remark comes from a Substack post, “Perhaps We Will Remember This Time,” which he published in his personal capacity, not for the fellowship. “I do not remember Delhi being so fortified, movement so compromised, just so citizens could be denied their right to peacefully protest,” he wrote.
Lal wrote that “non-state actors” as well as police committed excesses against peaceful protesters. If reports prove true that police entered Bangla Sahib Gurdwara, he wrote, it showed no regard “for the sanctity of the place.” Violence by any protesters, he added, “too would be shameful.”
Indians have set aside Kandhamal, the 2008 anti-Christian violence in the state of Odisha, and Manipur, where ethnic conflict has displaced tens of thousands since 2023, he wrote. They may forget this day too. “We specialise in forgetting,” he wrote, yet added: “Perhaps the hope is that some of us will refuse to forget.”]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Muslims burn home, shop of Christian in Pakistan]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/muslims-burn-home-shop-of-christian-in-pakistan</link>
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                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Christian Daily International / Morning Star News]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[Muslim mob set fire to shop of Kamran Masih in Gharial Kalan village, Pakistan on Oct. 9, 2026.]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Screenshot from Facebook video ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Muslim mob set fire to shop of Kamran Masih in Gharial Kalan village, Pakistan on Oct. 9, 2026. ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Fri, 09 Oct 2026 15:52:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[A Muslim mob in Pakistan set fire to a Christian’s house and shop on Friday (Oct. 9) after he was accused of blasphemy, forcing more than 35 Christian families to flee their homes amid fears of further violence, sources said.]]></description>
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A Muslim mob in Pakistan set fire to a Christian’s house and shop on Friday (Oct. 9) after he was accused of blasphemy, forcing more than 35 Christian families to flee their homes amid fears of further violence, sources said.
Police arrested Kamran Masih, a 40-year-old father of three who ran a small pharmacy in Gharial Kalan village, Narang Mandi, Sheikhupura District, Punjab Province at about 9:30 p.m. on Thursday (Oct. 8) after local Muslims accused him of sharing a blasphemous video in WhatsApp groups, a source said.
“As word of Masih’s arrest spread, his family and other Christians started fleeing the village, fearing a mob attack,” the source told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News on condition of anonymity.
Dozens of Muslims gathered outside Masih’s shop and adjacent residence on Friday (Oct. 9), to protest, and some set both buildings on fire, the source said.
“Fortunately, the mob could not damage other Christian properties due to timely intervention by the police,” the source said.
It remained unclear which provisions of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws have been invoked against Masih, his relative and other sources said. An official at the Sheikhupura District police chief’s office said a large contingent of police had been deployed in the village to protect Christian residents and their homes, adding that an investigation was underway.
“I’m not permitted to share more information due to the sensitivity of the situation,” the official told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “However, I can assure you that the situation is under control now, and the law will take its course against all those involved in violence.”
Ejaz Alam Augustine, a Christian member of the Punjab Assembly, said he and other Christian lawmakers had remained in contact with police and district authorities throughout the day to ensure residents’ safety.
“The police’s timely action of taking Masih into custody helped in containing the situation; otherwise, things could have gone out of hand,” Augustine told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “Senior police officials have assured me that the incident would be investigated on merit. Police have arrested more than 15 protesters who set Masih’s shop and house on fire.”
Masih’s relative described the violence as unprecedented in the village, where Christians and Muslims had historically lived peacefully alongside one another.
“We have very cordial terms with our Muslim neighbors, and I’m still unable to comprehend how these events unfolded,” he said. “Masih enjoys a very good reputation in the village and is a sensible man. We have no clue how or why he has been accused of such a nefarious act.”
Pakistan’s blasphemy laws have long drawn criticism from human rights organizations and legal experts, who warn that the provisions are vulnerable to misuse in personal disputes and other conflicts and have disproportionately affected religious minorities.
Although Pakistan has not carried out a state execution for blasphemy, accusations have repeatedly triggered mob violence, extrajudicial killings and prolonged detention of suspects awaiting trial.
On July 9, a violent protest erupted in Karachi, Sindh Province, after unidentified people allegedly mailed a desecrated page of the Quran to a Muslim shopkeeper, along with photographs of a Christian man and his mother. Asif Bastian, a Karachi-based activist, said the envelope was delivered to Waleed General Store in Qazafi Colony, Baldia Town. It contained a burnt page of the Quran, photographs of 40-year-old Catholic Azeem Javaid and his mother, and an image of her national identity card.
“As news of the alleged desecration spread, several hundred Muslims, including activists from religious parties, gathered outside the street where Javaid’s home is located and began protesting,” Bastian told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “Around 10 to 15 Christian families live on that street, and they were effectively trapped inside their homes.”
Protesters threw stones at police vehicles after officers arrived, forcing an initial withdrawal, Bastian said. The Sindh provincial government subsequently deployed paramilitary Rangers alongside additional police to restore order.
The Karachi incident came just days after more than two dozen Christian families fled their homes in Punjab Province amid fears of mob violence following blasphemy allegations against a pastor living in the United States.
Joseph Nayyar, a human rights advocate based in Hafizabad, said tensions escalated in Jhulan village in Gujranwala Division on July 3 after announcements over mosque loudspeakers accused Pastor Sajeel Robin, a native of the village now residing in the United States, of posting social media videos deemed offensive to Islam and Muhammad, prophet of Islam.
Police from Kot Ladha station subsequently advised Christian residents to leave their homes temporarily as a precaution against possible attacks, Nayyar said.
“Most Christian families fled with only the belongings they could carry,” he said.
Police also took the pastor’s father, Robin Masih, and his maternal uncle, Shamaun Masih, into protective custody, while his brother, Nabeel Robin, went into hiding to avoid arrest, Nayyar added.
He credited local police and some Muslim residents with helping prevent violence through negotiations with local clerics.
“The situation could easily have escalated had the police and local Muslim community not intervened,” he said. “They urged the protesting clerics not to target innocent Christians and assured them that any legal action would be directed only at those found responsible.”
Christian support group Open Doors ranked Pakistan eighth on its 2026 World Watch List of 50 countries where Christians face the most severe persecution. It cited systemic discrimination, mob violence, forced conversions, bonded labor and gender-based violence, warning that weak law enforcement and widespread impunity have allowed perpetrators of anti-Christian violence to evade accountability.]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[UN report says North Korea's human rights situation has deteriorated over past decade]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/un-report-says-north-korea-s-human-rights-situation-has-deteriorated-over-past-decade</link>
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                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Christian Daily Korea]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly at U.N. Headquarters on September 22, 2026 in New York City.]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 22: United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly at U.N. Headquarters on September 22, 2026 in New York City. ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Tue, 06 Oct 2026 11:54:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the human rights situation in North Korea has deteriorated in many respects over the past decade and called for those responsible for human rights violations to be investigated and punished.]]></description>
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UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the human rights situation in North Korea has deteriorated in many respects over the past decade and called for those responsible for human rights violations to be investigated and punished.
In a new report, he called for political prison camps to be dismantled and forced labor to end. He also raised concerns about the surveillance of residents using advanced technology and about restrictions on access to food.
The report, "Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," was released Oct. 1, Voice of America (VOA) Korea reported. It covers developments in North Korea from June 1, 2025, to May 31, 2026, and was submitted to the 81st session of the UN General Assembly.
The General Assembly has adopted a resolution on North Korean human rights at the end of each year, condemning the North's systematic and widespread human rights violations and calling for accountability. A resolution is expected to be adopted again this year.
Guterres said North Korean authorities must investigate and prosecute perpetrators of human rights violations and bring them to justice in accordance with international law, including international human rights law. He said accountability must also cover acts that may amount to international crimes.
He also said victims and their families have a right to the truth. He urged the authorities to "ensure that victims and their families are able to know the truth about the crimes and human rights violations that have been committed."
13 recommendations, including closing political prison camps and ending forced labor
The report sets out 13 recommendations for North Korean authorities, including the punishment of perpetrators. Among them are demands to dismantle all political prison camps and to stop arbitrarily arresting residents for their political opinions or family background, known as songbun.
The report also recommended a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty as soon as possible, and an immediate end to torture and ill-treatment.
Citing the "youth shock brigades" mobilized to work in coal mines and on construction sites, as well as the dispatch of workers overseas, the report said all forms of forced labor prohibited under international law must end.
The recommendations also include allowing separated families to contact one another by telephone, video call and letter. The report urged authorities to immediately confirm the fate and whereabouts of abductees and victims of enforced disappearance and to repatriate their remains.
In assessing the human rights situation, the report cited a report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released September 2025. That report examined the 10 years since the 2014 report of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It concluded that "despite some extremely limited improvements, the overall human rights situation has deteriorated in many respects over the past 10 years."
Expanded AI and facial-recognition surveillance; military-first priorities criticized
The report identified tighter legal and institutional controls and the use of advanced surveillance technology as major concerns. It said the spread of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, could increase the state's capacity for surveillance and monitoring, with a serious impact on residents' human rights.
According to the report, North Korean authorities are installing high-performance surveillance cameras with facial-recognition capabilities in various locations, including workplaces. It also cited reports of extensive monitoring of mobile phone use, including through regular screen captures, and expressed concern about possible violations of privacy.
The report criticized the allocation of resources to defense and nuclear programs. It noted that at the Ninth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea in February, North Korea formally designated South Korea a "hostile state" and its "immutable principal enemy," and reaffirmed the priority of its defense and nuclear programs.
With state resources concentrated on the military, the report said, residents' rights to basic needs — including health, food and education — are being seriously violated.
On food, the report distinguished between how much is produced and how much residents can actually obtain. Citing data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, it said favorable weather last year produced good harvests of major grains, but food shortages continued.
The report attributed this to the sharp fall in the value of the North Korean won, soaring food prices and strict controls on private economic activity. It said the state's total control over food distribution also limits ordinary residents' practical access to food.
Trafficking of North Korean women; call to uphold non-refoulement
The report said that since North Korea's border closure in 2020, about 200 North Korean defectors a year have entered South Korea — roughly 20% of pre-COVID-19 levels.
Of the 170 defectors who arrived in South Korea between July 2025 and March 2026, 151 were women who had been subjected to human trafficking or forced marriage in China, the report said.
It said defectors arrested in China or other transit countries and sent back to North Korea face a high risk of torture and arbitrary detention. It urged all UN member states to strictly uphold the principle of non-refoulement.
Original reporting by Christian Daily Korea.]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Machete-wielding Muslim disrupts Christian worship in Indonesia]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/machete-wielding-muslim-disrupts-christian-worship-in-indonesia</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiandaily.com/news/machete-wielding-muslim-disrupts-christian-worship-in-indonesia</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Morning Star News]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[Muslim reportedly identified as Aji Cahyono Putra threatens violence at GKPI church in Mekarsari village, Banten Province, Indonesia, on Sept. 20, 2026.]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Screenshot from Tribune Network, YouTube ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Muslim reportedly identified as Aji Cahyono Putra threatens violence at GKPI church in Mekarsari village, Banten Province, Indonesia, on Sept. 20, 2026. ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Tue, 06 Oct 2026 11:32:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[Christians are pursuing prosecution of a machete-wielding Muslim who threatened bloodshed if a congregation on Java Island, Indonesia continued worshipping.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
Christians are pursuing prosecution of a machete-wielding Muslim who threatened bloodshed if a congregation on Java Island, Indonesia continued worshipping.
Following the disruption of the service on Sept. 20, the Muslim later apologized at a meeting to resolve the issue in Mekarsari village, Rajeg District, Tangerang Regency, Banten Province, but officials later closed the church site, and plaintiffs say the aggressor must still be held accountable under the law.
“If that case is not resolved legally, the perpetrators would consider themselves immune to the law because of their claim of representing the majority – its impact is huge; various intolerant groups will do the same,” Bonar Tigor Naipospos of the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace told Morning Star News. “Imagine, someone threatens to kill you, then apologizes with promises and crocodile tears due to mass pressure, then walks away freely.”
The true test of Indonesia’s commitment to religious freedom under its revised criminal code will lie in consistent and impartial enforcement – whether the world is watching or not, said Bonar, senior researcher and deputy chair at Setara.
Four Muslims disrupted the worship service of the Indonesian Protestant Christian Church (GKPI), with video showing one of them, later identified as 29-year-old Aji Cahyono Putra, 29, brandishing a machete and threatening Christians at the prayer house entrance when church leaders confronted him.
“Never again [worship here]. Do not repeat this,” Aji shouts at a congregant who met him at the door, the video shows. “I don’t care. Close it now and forever.”
With several young men accompanying him as dozens of witnesses look on, the video shows Aji telling church members, “With whom are you coordinating? Which neighborhood head coordinated this? I apologize,” he says sarcastically, “but rather than there being bloodshed with me today – I am not afraid to die – if you don’t close it, bloodshed will occur inside. Yes, I am not afraid to die...For Allah, I am not afraid to die.”
The disruption, which prompted the 40 congregants to leave immediately, included nearby voices heard on the video saying, “Mushollas [prayer rooms] without permits, we have never heard of...Hey, we are the majority.”
Article 303 of the Criminal Code (KUHP), enacted and effective since Jan. 2, states: “Any person who uses violence or threats of violence to disturb, obstruct, or disperse lawful worship or religious ceremonies shall be punished by imprisonment for up to two years.” Heavier sanctions, up to five years in prison, may be imposed if the act is accompanied by serious violence, an attack on a place of worship, or elements of religion-based hostility/hatred.
Article 300 of the KUHP states: “Any person who publicly expresses hatred or incites discrimination and violence against another religion or belief shall be punished by imprisonment for up to three years.”
Mediation 
The demand to close the place of worship continued in a mediation meeting that same evening (Sept. 20) at the Rajeg District Office, in Mekarsari.
The parties reached an undisclosed agreement that was said to achieve “peace,” but 11 hours later Tangerang Regent Maesyal Rasyid reportedly decided to officially close the house of prayer, claiming it was too small for the congregation.
Special Staff of the Ministry of Religious Affairs for Harmony Gugun Gumilar and Tangerang Regent Maesyal Rasyid were present at the mediation meeting. Officials from the regency, district, Tangerang Ministry of Religious Affairs office, administrators of the Forum for Interfaith Harmony, community leaders, religious leaders, and other relevant parties, also reportedly attended.
Aji apologized at the meeting for the disruption he caused with the sharp weapon, claiming he was carrying the machete because he had just returned from cutting grass for his livestock and had attended a cultural Islamic event.
“On behalf of myself, Cahyono Putra, I offer my deepest apologies to the Christians for the disturbance that occurred this afternoon in the field due to my mistake after returning from a commemorative event and cutting grass, thus carrying a sharp weapon. I offer my deepest apologies,” a video shows him saying.
GKPI representative Hadi Sucipto stated that he accepted the settlement and would not pursue the matter further. At that time, both sides reportedly agreed to take no legal action.
“We accept the apology, and it has been resolved through deliberation and mediation,” Hadi said.
The agreement collapsed, however, when Tangerang Regent Maesyal Rasyid decided to officially close the house of prayer, according to Kabarterdepan.com.
“The regent’s reason was that the house of prayer was too small and inadequate for the congregation,” church elder Surya Sarjono Lumban Gaol reportedly said, adding that the congregation was forced to hold their Sept. 27 service in member homes.
Gugun of the ministry of religious affairs expressed regret over the incident on Metro TV’s Sept. 22 Primetime News program. He said the prayer house had been operating for four years and possessed a Registration Certificate Letter (SKTL) from the Ministry of Religious Affairs office.
“Please worship there again, because no one is allowed to prohibit it,” Gugun said. “We deeply regret the anarchic actions of residents carrying sharp weapons. Disturbing people’s worship is a criminal act regulated in the KUHP.”
Concern and criticism also came from various democracy, human rights and peace institutions such as Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights, Amnesty International Indonesia, and Setara, according to Kompas.com. While expressing appreciation for the mediation efforts, they stated that such settlements are too shallow to provide security for aggrieved parties.
National Commission on Human Rights Chairwoman Anis Hidayah said the Muslims’ actions violated citizens’ rights guaranteed by the constitution.
“Such actions fall into the category of persecution that cannot be justified, because the right to worship is guaranteed in the constitution,” Anis said. “Of course, violence for any reason cannot be justified and cannot be tolerated, including permit issues – those are administrative matters. Therefore, they cannot become justification for violence and persecution.”
Amnesty International Indonesia Deputy Director Wirya Adiwena urged police to continue criminal legal proceedings against those who disrupted the worship service, especially the wielder of the machete.
“Mediation without legal process sends a misleading message to the wider community that disrupting worship activities guaranteed by the Constitution can be resolved through deliberation without legal accountability,” Wirya stated on the Amnesty website.
With criticisms and condemnations circulating, several parties filed criminal charges. Ismail Tinambunan, a Christian university student and member of the Indonesian Christian Student Movement (GMKI), filed criminal charges with police on Sept. 22, calling on the public to support the legal action.
On behalf of the Mekarsari village GKPI congregation, attorneys Tulus Pardosi, Edi Sianipar and Rehan Pangestu on Sept. 21 reportedly filed criminal charges with the Tangerang Resort Police for disruption of worship and threats.
“Peaceful processes in society have occurred, that’s good,” Tulus reportedly said. “But criminal responsibility must not be nullified.”
Attorney Muhamad Rehan Pangestu also filed criminal charges at the Tangerang City Police station on Sept. 21, according to Tempo.co.
Police questioned at least eight witnesses, according to various sources.
The Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI) called for legal action.
“We strongly condemn the forced dispersal of GKPI worship in Rajeg, Tangerang,” said the PGI’s Jacky F. Manuputty, according to Tirto.id. “Authorities must take legal action against those who provoked the act, especially residents carrying machetes, brandishing them and threatening bloodshed there.”
Prayer houses, unlike church buildings, do not require a permit, rights advocates say.
The incident was condemned widely on social media by Christians and Muslims.]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[500 million Christians worldwide face Bible access restrictions, report finds]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/500-million-christians-worldwide-face-bible-access-restrictions-report-finds</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiandaily.com/news/500-million-christians-worldwide-face-bible-access-restrictions-report-finds</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Christian Today]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[bible, Gospel of John, John]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ (Photo: Unsplash/Tim Wildsmith) ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Tue, 06 Oct 2026 08:45:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[More than 500 million  Christians worldwide face restrictions on obtaining or using a Bible, with government controls, extremist violence and pressure from families and communities making access difficult or dangerous, according to a new report.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
More than 500 million Christians worldwide face restrictions on obtaining or using a Bible, with government controls, extremist violence and pressure from families and communities making access difficult or dangerous, according to a new report.
The Bible Access List 2026 estimates that more than 250 million of these Christians face very difficult or severe restrictions, with believers in some countries risking imprisonment or death for possessing Scripture.
Published by the Bible Access Initiative, a partnership of Bible agencies and ministries, the assessment covers 106 countries and examines both barriers to access and shortages among Christians who want a Bible.
Afghanistan ranks top of the Bible Restrictions List, followed by Yemen, Somalia, North Korea and Eritrea. Also in the top 10 are Mauritania, Turkmenistan, Libya, Sudan and Iran.
“In Afghanistan, God's Word is the most dangerous book any Afghan can possess, and discovery can cost them their life,” the report says.
In North Korea, even keeping a copy at home can carry severe consequences.
“In North Korea, every dimension of Bible access is prohibited. Christians are treated as enemies of the state, and a Bible discovered in a routine house search can mean execution or a life sentence in a forced labor camp,” the report says.
It continues: “Believers rely on memorized Scripture, because a physical Bible is too dangerous to keep. Here the question is not how many Bibles are needed, but how one can be kept at all.”
Restrictions affect every stage of supplying Scripture. Printing is prohibited or severely restricted in 39 countries, as is distribution, while importing faces comparable restrictions in 38 countries. Storing Scripture is prohibited or severely restricted in 37 countries, and personal ownership in 34.
Even digital editions cannot guarantee safe access, with an estimated 277 million Christians in 48 countries facing an online environment that is unsafe, restricted or monitored. Barriers include surveillance and the blocking of Christian websites.
“In Eritrea, phones are inspected at checkpoints, and the state monitors Christian content online,” the report says.
“In Ethiopia, Christian websites are intermittently blocked. In China, foreign Christian websites are blocked, Bible apps have been removed from app stores, and a new online ID system makes digital activity increasingly traceable.”
In Somalia, Scripture is available online but accessing it is dangerous.
“The full Bible exists in a major national language and digitally, yet government monitoring makes online access dangerous, and extremist groups watch for Bible use and distribution. The translation exists. The digital Bible exists. Safe access does not,” the report says.
A companion paper identifies several countries where conditions have worsened since 2025. These include Mali, Burkina Faso and Syria, where expanding extremist control and worsening insecurity have intensified restrictions on Bible access. Venezuela rose 17 places on the restrictions list due to increased restrictions on importing and printing Bibles.
By contrast, countries such as Uganda and Mozambique saw improvements in Bible access due to reduced violence.
For millions of Christians, access is limited by factors such as poverty, poor infrastructure, illiteracy, physical remoteness and limited internet access. They may be legally free to own Scripture but unable to obtain or use a copy.Christian Magazine Subscription
Across the different barriers to access, the report estimates that more than 125 million Christians in 81 countries want a Bible but do not have one.
“A Bible that exists somewhere is not necessarily accessible to the person who wants it,” the report says.
The largest estimated shortages are in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Nigeria and India, each with more than 10 million Christians who want a Bible but lack one.
In the DRC, fewer than one in three believers owns a Bible despite there being no legal restrictions on access.
Of the 33 countries facing the most severe socioeconomic barriers, 15 also have significant persecution-related restrictions. In the other 18, persecution-related restrictions are minimal or absent, pointing to opportunities for affordable or free distribution.
Online publishing cannot fully bridge the gap, as more than 400 million Christians across 42 countries are estimated to lack internet access. There are further obstacles to be found in covering the cost of devices and internet connection.
Some smaller language communities also lack printed copies even though translations were completed decades ago. This is because a small print run makes it expensive to produce more copies.
The estimated global shortage is higher than the figure of more than 100 million reported in 2025. However, the companion paper says the higher figure reflects the inclusion of more countries this year and improvements in gathering evidence, rather than simply an increase in the number of Christians needing a Bible.
The main report believes that creating stronger delivery networks and safer ways for believers to access Scripture could go some way to addressing the challenges.
“The Bible Access List is more than a picture of the problem; it helps show where action is possible,” it says.
“An estimated 54 million Bibles are needed in 18 countries where persecution-related restrictions are minimal or absent and socioeconomic barriers are the primary obstacle. Elsewhere, the challenges are more complex, but the need is no less urgent.”
It adds: “Country by country, the findings provide a clearer roadmap for prayer and action.”
Originally published by Christian Today.]]></content:encoded>
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