Persecution

SUDAN (BP) – War crimes are evidenced among harrowing human rights violations including gender-based violence in the Sudan war, an independent United Nations Fact-Finding Mission found, while the war has forced as many as 165 churches to close.

HIDALGO STATE, Mexico – More than 30 Baptist families who were forced from their homes in Mexico’s Hidalgo State in April have been allowed to return home, a human rights organization focused on international freedom of religion reported.

When their church no longer felt safe, deacon Francisco Alvicio and his congregation made a plan. Cautiously, discreetly, they took their worship to their homes.

Religious freedom no longer exists in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, where religious leaders have been abducted and sometimes tortured, several Ukrainian journalists said during a recent visit to the United States.

Today, following months of antisemitic and anti-Zionist protests and barricades on several college campuses in the U.S., religious liberty attorney Mark Rienzi cited the Ku Klux Klan Act in calling for Congress to ensure enforcement of federal laws protecting Jews from religious and ethnic persecution.

WASHINGTON (BP) -- Millions continue to suffer religious persecution globally, with wars and civil conflicts exacerbating already existing ills in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, the U.S. State Department documented in its 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom.

HIDALGO, Mexico (BP) – More than 150 Baptists forced from their homes because of their faith are protesting a local government plan to let them return home if they pay their persecutors $9,026, CSW (formerly Christian Solidarity Worldwide) said May 16.

BENUE, Nigeria (BP) – Neary 50 Christians have been killed in a series of militant attacks on villages in Benue, Plateau and Kaduna states in late April through early May, with dozens more wounded and displaced, according to news reports.

HIDALGO, Mexico (BP) – Nearly 150 Baptists have fled their homes in Mexico after village leaders persecuted them because of their faith, cutting essential services and blocking entry, CSW reported April 30.

KACHIN, Myanmar (BP) – A Baptist pastor and religious freedom advocate in war-torn Myanmar was rearrested by junta leaders April 17 after mere hours of freedom, the Associated Press reported April 18.