Christian Persecution Mar/Apr 2021
Uganda—The Muslim husband of a 38-year-old mother of three beat his wife unconscious and forced her to drink pesticide after he found two Bibles in her suitcase and she told him she had embraced Christianity.
“My husband began reading verses in the Koran that allowed men to beat their wives if they disobey them, and after that he started beating me with slaps and sticks,” said Zubeda Nabirye. He also “forced me to take Dithane M-45,” a toxic pesticide, she said.
Neighbors found her outside under banana plants, covered in blood and vomit. Her husband likely dragged her there, expecting her to die. She was discharged from a medical clinic on December 2 and has been staying with a Christian family at an undisclosed location. However, she is worried about her children, ages 16, 13, and 9.
Democratic Republic of Congo
Suspected members of an insurgent jihadist group have slaughtered 20 Christians in villages in the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Islamic State-linked Allied Democratic Forces are suspected in the attacks, said a local clergyman who lost his family in an assault.
“They tried to force some of our Christians to convert to Islam,” he told a Morning Star News contact. “They also tried to force my wife and our four children to convert to Islam, but when they refused to convert, they shot my wife in the head while our four children were cut into pieces with a Somali sword.”
Hyderabad, India
Six Hindu extremists beat a pastor unconscious and threatened to sacrifice him to their god as punishment for passing out gospel tracts. Pastor Shelton Vishwanathan was about to go on his way when one of them seized the keys from his scooter, took his phone, and signaled the others to attack him.
When he regained consciousness, he found himself locked in a dark room. “I shouted for help, cried loud hoping someone would hear my cries and come to help me, but nobody could hear me,” he said. “I was lying down on the floor without food or water for the next few days.” Seven days later, he persuaded an elderly woman who heard his cries to open the door.
Eight Hindu extremists had attacked him in June 2019, pushing him off his scooter and breaking his hand and foot as they beat him. Now he has been forced to vacate his home.
Christians, house churches, and pastors are attacked here weekly. Many do not call police, as officers are often complicit in Hindu extremist aggression.
Chhattisgarh State, India
Several families are in hiding after tribal animists threatened to kill them for reporting a mob attack to police that sent 21 Christians to hospitals. Armed with bamboo sticks, iron rods, bows and arrows, and iron sickles, the large mob attacked a home and adjoining church hall where Christians had celebrated a child dedication the previous evening. Some 20 to 25 friends and family were sleeping in the home and another 25 to 30 in the church hall when the villagers attacked at 1 a.m.
“While the children were beaten up with hands and feet, the others were shot at with arrows and beaten up with iron rods,” a survivor reported.
“It was complete mayhem, and people were running to save their lives,” someone else said.
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