Persecution Update
Eritrea - Another three Christians die in military camps - Twenty-one Christians are known to have died while serving time for their faith. Two Christian women arrested during a home prayer meeting in 2009 were detained in a secret "dungeon-like" confinement. They endured physical, military torture, were denied medical care and died in October last year as a result of starvation and poor health at the Adersete Military Camp. Another prisoner who served two years in Adi Nefase Military Camp recently died after contracting severe malaria. He was denied medical treatment because of his written refusal to recant his Christian faith.India
Students forced to pay idol worship fee
Hindu extremists in West Bengal, who earlier last year, refused to admit five Christian orphans to a high school, have forced them to contribute funds for idol worship in order to gain admission. Extremists threatened the director of the society that runs the Gilgal Children’s Home because he opposed the collection.
Philippines
Local believer reverts to former religion
Muslim leaders stopped Jose* and his family from attending an Open Doors event for Believers from a Muslim Background in August last year in Zamboanga City. A short time later, Jose returned to his former religion because of threats made by Muslim clerics to expel him and his family from the village as punishment for their apostasy.
Iraq
Difficult lives of Christian children
Like other converts to Christianity, parents say that persecution is tolerable until it affects their children. Nuria’s parents became Christians seven years ago. Her dad, a carpenter in Kirkuk, seldom speaks openly about his faith because of the intolerance of his employers. In Erbil, a Kurdish convert to Christianity is fighting for his children’s right to not have "Muslim" written on their IDs. And a 9-year-old Iranian refugee to Iraq, Surush Bidookh, has been beaten and insulted for his faith. His sister Sevda, stopped attending kindergarten after her teacher said their family was going to "burn" for being Christians.
“I lost a quarter of my friends”
A Baghdad believer said that he lost a quarter of his closest friends and family since militants attacked the Syriac Orthodox Church in Baghdad last year. They either died in the attack or they moved out of Baghdad. "We lost our complete leadership team in the church and then there were the new attacks on churches… We depend on your prayers when we daily walk in this hazardous city of Baghdad."
*Pseudonym
SourceOpen Doors Newsletter January 2012