Today’s Headlines:

ANOTHER STATE IN INDIA ENACTS ANTI-CONVERSION LEGISLATION

2 FEMALE CHRISTIANS DISAPPEAR AFTER MUSLIM ASSAULT IN NIGERIA

Today’s Top Stories:

ANOTHER STATE IN INDIA ENACTS ANTI-CONVERSION LEGISLATION

On Friday, April 7, the government of Rajasthan in northwestern India became the sixth state in the country to enact an anti-conversion law. The law will be implemented as soon as its rules have been framed. Christian, Dalit and civil rights groups plan to challenge the law in India’s Supreme Court as soon as this happens.

The Rajasthan Dharma Swatantraya (Freedom of Religion) Act outlaws any attempt to convert a person from one religion to another “by use of force or by allurement or by fraudulent means.” The punishments specified by the law are a prison term of “not less than two years’ or a fine of up to 50,000 rupees (US$1,118).

The law is intended to “maintain harmony amongst persons of various religions.” However, it is feared the opposite will take place. In other Indian states with anti-conversion legislation, Christians have been the targets of widespread attacks from Hindu extremists. These extremists often accuse Christians of converting people “by force or fraud.”

Laws such as this, which give credence to this rhetoric, make the Christians more vulnerable to accusations and attacks. Critics fear that the law will seriously threaten the activities of religious minorities. (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)

For the second time in as many weeks, a bail request for Hopegivers International co-founder Dr. Samuel Thomas was denied by local authorities in Rajasthan, India, Monday, April 10. The news comes as a disappointment to thousands across India and around the world who have been praying and working for his release. Thomas is being held along with the head of the Emmanuel Hope Home orphanage in Kota and other local Christians. He has been jailed since Thursday, March 16, in an effort to force the closing of 13 orphanages, a hospital and 65 schools in Rajasthan. He must now wait until Monday, April 24, for his next bail hearing. The Christian humanitarians are being held by local radical Hindu officials on the dubious charge of “causing communal disharmony.” (Evangelical News/Hopegivers International)

2 FEMALE CHRISTIANS DISAPPEAR AFTER MUSLIM ASSAULT IN NIGERIA

Two female Christian students remain missing after seven Muslims — also young student women — attacked them on Saturday, March 18, at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria’s Kaduna state. The two students were about to bathe at the women’s residence when the Muslim women emerged from a mosque and attacked, beating them until they were unconscious. The women, identified only as Joy and Priscilla, were treated at the university health clinic but were not seen before the university closed for a break shortly thereafter; nor have they been seen since it reopened on March 28. Their disappearance has raised religious tensions on campus. James Kagbu, the university’s Joint Chapel Council secretary, said “Muslim students under the auspices of the Muslim Students’ Society have been terrorizing Christians in the university without provocation.” (Compass Direct)