RELIGION HEADLINES

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(SRN NEWS) – Persecution of Christians continues in India under increasingly restrictive anti-conversion laws.  Eighteen believers were arrested this month on charges that they were spreading the gospel.  The vast majority of India is Hindu and the government has set out to keep it that way.  Christians are subject to violent persecution throughout the country despite a constitution that guarantees some form of religious freedom.  Anti-conversion laws have been spreading in the various states over the past decade and they are being used to jail Christians on any pretense.  India’s small Muslim community is also being targeted.

The Biden administration has decided to send 68.5 million dollars in aid to Somalia, ignoring the violent persecution of Christians there by the mostly Muslim government.  Somalia also supports the Muslim terrorist group Hamas and government officials have made anti-Semitic statements.  International Christian Concern warns that the Biden administration is making a mistake in funding Somalia, saying “The decision to provide tens of millions of dollars to a nation engaging in widespread persecution of Christians and public support of Hamas is questionable at best.”  Christians make up about one percent of the population in Somalia.

A new report on Eritrea by International Christian Concern calls it the North Korea of Africa for its persecution of believers.  The ICC study finds that “Baptists and Pentecostals experience the harshest treatment. They are subject to arrest and forced indefinite and brutal military conscription or labor. There is no due process, and some are imprisoned for years without being sentenced for a crime.”  Open Doors USA has ranked Eritrea fourth on its annual list of nations where persecution of Christians is the most severe, behind North Korea, Somalia and Libya.  There are many Christians in Eritrea, making up 47 percent of the population.

Vandals have defaced an Italian mural depicting a survivor of last year’s October 7th Hamas attack on Israel.  The Antisemitism Observatory in Milan says the incident is an example of rising anti-Semitism in Italy. Researchers say the number of anti-Semitic incidents has risen to about 90 a week in the last year, from about 30 a week before. They also point out that hostility toward Jews has moved from the internet into the real world and has become more “socially acceptable” as a protest against Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

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