In India, Christians are Being Arrested and Losing their Homes because of Their Faith
In India, the month of October saw various attacks against Christians. Houses of Christian families were burnt, hate speeches went viral, false allegations of converting people against Christian believers, and foreign nationals were wrongly accused of carrying out religious pursuit.
The homes of at least eight Christian families caught on fire while they were attending a church service. Other believers, who live in the area, were present in their homes and were able to put out the fire near them, but eight houses were burned to ashes. The police came to take the report and decided the fire was started due to ‘irresponsible handling of fire crackers’ in the region, but the believers know that this was an act of persecution.
The local community was displeased by the 40 families who have accepted Christ over the years, but they never openly opposed them except for the one time when they threatened, “Return to your old faith, Hinduism, or else you will face dire consequences one day.”
Following the incident, the believers suspect that the same opposition started this fire as it was too precise to have just been started by accident. It was a calculated fire that only spread to the believers’ houses. Had it been a fire started by the irresponsible handling of firecrackers, it would have first spread to the surrounding regions of the non-Christians, where these substances were being handled in masses for the last few days.
In another incident, nine Christians who also live in the slums were arrested on charges of forcefully converting 400 people to Christianity when they refused to comply with the local mafia’s orders to vacate their homes for his unauthorized construction. The complaint was registered by religious extremists. The police took them into custody at a local police station, where they beat and mistreated them. Of the arrested nine people, six were sent to prison under the unlawful conversion act, but three young mothers were detained in the police station against the law which states no woman can be arrested after 6 pm. The people were accused of forcing people to accept Christianity after providing benefits during the pandemic lockdown.
Resistance from the Christians in the slum against the construction helped the local mafia to create an improvised facade to rouse the emotional sentiments of right-wing religious leaders. This resulted in the persecution of these Christians under false allegations. The Anti-Conversion law is frequently used by powerful people for their own interests.
A further incident involves both Swedish and German nationals. Three Swedish nationals have been locked away on false charges of converting locals to Christianity. The Swedish nationals had come to attend a prayer meeting, but the anti-Christian elements blamed them for forcefully converting the locals. The foreigners were deported back to their country when the embassies intervened and proved the charges wrong.
While the same was the case with German nationals, where seven of them were questioned by state authorities the day after the Swedish nationals were deported. Seven German visitors were on a tourist visit and just attended the church but did not participate in any religious activities. Yet they were questioned and invalidly blamed for attending the church to convert Indians.
The Germans were left only when they paid more than a thousand dollars. Two local Christians were arrested in the case for inviting the foreign nationals and involving them in religious pursuit.
Please pray for India
- Pray that the government will stop seeing Christians as a threat and instead see them as a blessing.
- Pray for those struggling with false charges.
- Give thanks to God that many people are coming to know Jesus after being healed of sickness; pray that this will continue.
- Pray that social media companies will do more to combat the spread of disinformation and hatred on their platforms.
