
Relatives of Muslim pressure Christian family to drop rape charges
Relatives of a Muslim in Pakistan who raped a 14-year-old Christian girl are threatening her family to compel them to drop charges, sources said.
Relatives of a Muslim in Pakistan who raped a 14-year-old Christian girl are threatening her family to compel them to drop charges, sources said.
For decades the global missions community has talked about deeper collaboration with local ministry leaders as partners. But self-perception can misread reality. The post-COVID political shifts in China are a reality check, according to a long-term expatriate living through changes that are shattering the illusion that he knew better than the locals about how to advance the gospel in a foreign context. It is a new era for missions, demanding a new depth of humility.
The rise of Artificial General Intelligence is now unstoppable. It is not an overstatement to say that it is transforming life on earth as humans know it. No sphere of human interaction is immune, least of all the religious sector. Now, more than ever, we need to be spiritually discerning about AI/AGI use in our faith walk. Let us take care not put our trust in something that has neither heart nor soul.
India’s famed Emperor Ashoka was an ancient convert from Hinduism to Buddhism. He demonstrated that a person is NOT forced by others to convert from one religion to another. Today, “religious conversions are forced,” is the flawed premise of all anti-conversion laws of India. Who could have forced mighty Emperor Ashoka to change his religion? The Emperor’s famous religious conversion was his choice.
In a perfect world, where legal systems hold political power to account and protect minorities against human rights abuses we might expect an end to persecution. But we do not live in a perfect world. People with power continue to act with impunity against those who think and live differently to them. Christians have a way to cope with this reality and a real and living hope for a future free of persecution.
Despite an agreement Christians in Indonesia signed to refrain from taking legal action against a Muslim group that attacked their retreat site, the West Java governor has urged legal action against the assailants, sources said.
A court on Tuesday (July 8) acquitted two Christian youths of a false blasphemy charge rooted in a minor dispute, their lawyer said.
In a significant development, a court in Pakistan refused to hand custody of a Catholic girl to a Muslim who abducted and forcibly converted/married her, noting that as a minor she could not go with him even if she said she was willing to do so, sources said.
Pakistani Christian female athletes are gaining recognition for their achievements in various sports, including a recent victory by 12-year-old Aiyana Noel Arthur at the South Asian Karate Championship held in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She won gold in the under-12, 40+ kg Kumite category.
Hindu extremists in central India on June 8 ransacked a church’s worship building, burned Bibles and assaulted every member, causing one to lose consciousness, sources said.
Relatives of ethnic Rohingya Christian refugees cast into the sea by India’s navy have yet to hear from them nearly two months after the cast-offs swam ashore to their native Myanmar (Burma).