VIOLENT ATTACKS AGAINST CHRISTIANS ESCALATE IN SRI LANKA

CHRISTIAN LECTURER IN NIGERIA DISAPPEARS AFTER DEATH THREAT

VISA DENIAL PROMPTS KAZAKHSTAN CHURCHES TO CANCEL CONFERENCE

OFFICIAL IN SAUDI ARABIA DENIES PERSECUTING CHRISTIANS

SEVERE DROUGHT IN MOZAMBIQUE OPENS DOORS FOR MINISTRY

Today’s News Stories:

VIOLENT ATTACKS AGAINST CHRISTIANS ESCALATE IN SRI LANKA Attacks on Christian churches in Sri Lanka have “increased dramatically in the last month,” reported the National Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL) in a press release. On Sunday, May 29, 10 Christians had gathered to pray at the Kithu Sevana Church in Kaluvilapothane, Ambanpola, when a mob of about 100, including a local Buddhist monk, disrupted the meeting and threatened the congregation. Because of fears of another attack, the church canceled the next Sunday’s prayer meeting. In another incident on Thursday, June 2, arsonists damaged the home of a family that had donated land for a Christian leadership training center being built in the Batticaloa district. The family escaped without injury and extinguished the flames before the house was destroyed. The training center is being built by the NCEASL in partnership with Voice of the Martyrs in Canada. Three months earlier the building where construction workers were staying was burned down. On the night of Sunday, June 5, unidentified persons smashed the windows of the new building for the Assembly of God Church in Ambalangoda in the Galle district. The next morning a mob surrounded the building and hurled threats at the Christians. By mid-afternoon the threats turned to violence as the crowd invaded the building and attacked two parishioners and the pastor. All three required medical treatment, and one is reportedly in serious condition. The mob also damaged the church and the pastor’s van and stole his wallet, identification papers and cell phone. (Voice of the Martyrs)

CHRISTIAN LECTURER IN NIGERIA DISAPPEARS AFTER DEATH THREAT Andrew Akume, a Christian lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria City in northern Nigeria’s Kaduna state, has disappeared after receiving a death threat from a militant Muslim group at the school. The group “issued a death sentence” on him in recent weeks, claiming he had blasphemed Mohammed, the prophet of Islam. The threats came after Akume asked a Muslim female student not to wear the hijab (head-to-toe covering) because it didn’t conform to the Council for Legal Education’s dress code for law students. Meanwhile, Christians in Kano state are being held to Islamic law in the way they dress. On Monday, May 16, Gov. Malam Ibrahim Shekarau ordered all Christians in the state to dress in accordance with Islamic tenets. The order was sent to Christian churches and institutions in the state and implemented immediately in schools. Rev. Zakka Nyam, the Anglican Bishop of Kano, has accused the state government of persecuting Christians. (Compass)

VISA DENIAL PROMPTS KAZAKHSTAN CHURCHES TO CANCEL CONFERENCE Organizers decided to cancel a conference that had been planned for Almaty, Kazakhstan, Sunday, June 12, after authorities refused to issue a visa for the keynote speaker, Aleksei Ledyayev, chief pastor of New Generation Pentecostal church in Latvia. Viktor Ovsyannikov, pastor of the Almaty New Generation church, had invited Ledyayev to be the featured speaker at the conference which was to have included church members from at least six of the 14 countries where the New Generation church has congregations. Of all the church representatives invited to the conference, only Ledyayev was denied a visa. Ledyayev said that the Kazakh consulate told him he was on a “blacklist” and that his presence in the country was “not desirable.” Officials gave no further details. “The conference won’t take place without Pastor Aleksei,” said Ovsyannikov. “It would have been a great blessing for the church and the city.” (Forum 18 News Service)

OFFICIAL IN SAUDI ARABIA DENIES PERSECUTING CHRISTIANS A Saudi official has denied allegations that the kingdom has arrested and tortured Christians, saying such actions run counter to Islamic tolerance. The remarks to the official Saudi Press Agency came in response to reports in Iranian papers of recent arrests. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the allegations “don’t go with the principals and values of the kingdom and above all our tolerant Islamic belief which guarantees the rights of Muslims and residents of different religions and ethnicities alike.” Saudi officials rarely speak on the record. Members of other religions in Saudi Arabia generally are allowed to practice their beliefs in private but are prohibited from seeking converts or holding organized religious gatherings. The U.S. State Department listed Saudi Arabia as a “country of particular concern” in a report last September on the state of religious freedom in more than 190 countries. Countries so designated can be subject to sanctions. The Washington-based watchdog group International Christian Concern reported last week that Saudi security and religious police have engaged in a major crackdown against Christians, saying it had received reports of 46 confirmed arrests of Christians following reports of the desecration of the Koran at the military prison camp in Guantanamo, Cuba. (WorldWide Religious News/Associated Press)

SEVERE DROUGHT IN MOZAMBIQUE OPENS DOORS FOR MINISTRY Mozambique has had no rain since mid-January, sparking fears of a famine. Because much of the food aid went to the black market during the previous famine, mission groups such as OMS International have learned to counter. Vaughn Telfer of OMS says the situation may actually help the ministry. “We need to get the funds into the people’s hands that we know are going to bless those who are hungry instead of just trying to make money for themselves,” he said. “That’s why we urge people to give through mission organizations. God really blessed us and he just opened doors for many new churches to be planted.” Due to the suffering, the spiritual crisis is at a peak. OMS missionaries have planted churches in two provinces, including an active one in Zambezia where many people have come to Christ by viewing the “Jesus” film and reading Bibles in their own language. “They’re taking the gospel to their own people,” Vaughn said. “We’ve only sent one of our young seminarians up there, and the gospel is spreading so quickly.” (Mission Network News)

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