In a major speech in 2016, President Xi Jinping called for the ‘sinicization of religion’. For the Chinese Communist Party, the rise of religion, especially Christianity and Islam, represents an existential threat to its political health.

The place of worship in the city of Boghni was used by two Protestant communities. Around 380 members are affected.

The US President presents a plan that includes the creation of “a coalition of businesses for the protection of religious freedom”.

Boko Haram has killed an estimated 35,000 civilians. The insurgency that began in Maiduguri, Borno state increasingly struck Christian educational institutions, health facilities and worship sites.

Hindu extremist threats have driven a pastor in Nepal into hiding following a leak onto social media of a restricted audience-interview he gave on his journey to Christ.

The extremists demanded that at least one of the Christian organizers should be beaten to death, to teach them a lesson.

Police officials assured church leaders that they were aware of Hindu extremist opposition to Christianity, but they gave no indication of investigating and putting an end to it.

August 22 is the International Day commemorating the victims of acts of violence based on religion or belief. More than 4000 Christians were killed in 2018 because of their faith.

Local authorities in the state of Hidalgo “prohibit the entry of Protestants”. Those who refuse to fund Catholic festivities are threatened with big fines and water cuts.

“The number of violent attacks against Christians has alarmingly increased in the three years of President Rodrigo Duterte’s government”, Christian organisations in the Philippines say.

“Armed groups, guerrillas, militamen, criminal gangs and drug cartels see the church as an enemy to be eradicated”, a pastor says.

Pastor John Cao was accused and imprisoned in 2017, for “organizing illegal border crossings”, while providing humanitarian aid to the Wa people in Myanmar .

Christians were dragged to the village leaders and forced to sit and bow to the goddess idol. Police decline to act, sources say.

The only thing the Kim family has done, says Eunman Jeon, the son of North Korean Christians, is to “change the name of God and put his own. That is the system of government of the country”.

Systemic persecution and its implications.

The Foreign Affairs Office releases the long-awaited Independent Review on Persecuted Christians. It was commissioned by Jeremy Hunt, who could become the next Prime Minister.

Christians in these rural areas often find themselves in the middle of two armed groups fighting each other for territory and for corridors through which to traffic their illicit goods.

The Iranian government “prefers to be destroyed dragging the people with them before giving in”, says a Christian source in the country. “Pray for an integral transformation of the nation”.

Rev. Iftikhar Indryas, founder of the New Covenant Christian School, explains the issues the educational project is facing. He calls to pray for the “spiritual, physical and intellectual well-being” of Pakistani Christians.

In the Chhattisgarh state, villagers attacked the homes of three Christian families, leaving 25 people homeless. Death threats are followed by reconversion rituals.

Far East Broadcasting Company radio signal will be “unblockable by North Korean regime and reach the entire country with the message of Jesus Christ”.

Suspected Fulani herdsmen killed several Christians, kidnapped 19 and burned at least 12 houses throughout Nigeria in May.

The Chelsea striker, along with other players, sponsored an Open Doors event in London. “We have to talk about it [...] I do it to serve Jesus”, he said.

Citing a law that requires authorization for non-Muslim places of worship, authorities in North-central Algeria ordered the closure of the church and its Bible school.

The release of Asia Bibi is “extraordinarily good news”, but blasphemy laws “should be repealed once and for all” to protect faith minorities.