Crossing the Bridge

A Christian schoolteacher detained for allegedly insulting Islam signifies how Christians are persecuted today. The case follows the arrests of dozens of Christians for blasphemy after Egypt’s 2011 revolution and adds to concerns that Islamists are using their newly gained power to stifle freedom of expression.

You often hear us say that "Children are the unseen victims of persecution." Well...it's because it's true! The great persecution of Christians is not limited to adults, but targets children as well. Sometimes it affects children through poverty, like those we support in Egypt.  As minorities, Egyptian Christian children are denied education and rights, forcing them into a life of perpetual poverty. Sometimes children are left as orphans when their parents are martyred, like those we support in India, who were orphaned in 2008 due to anti-Christian riots. 

As I entered the Kandhamal district in India’s northeastern state of Orissa, I couldn’t help but notice the beautiful landscape opening up before me: jungle-covered mountains and villages tucked amidst valleys of rice fields left me awestruck. The view was almost beautiful enough to make me forget the unspeakable tragedies that happened and continue to unfold. 

If You Teach a Man to Fish…

Masud grew up in a strict Muslim home in a remote part of Bangladesh. Not only was his family strict, but his father was also an Imam. Masud grew up with full knowledge of the Quran and considered himself to be a radical Muslim. As he grew, however, he began to wonder about the Jesus he read about in the Quran and asked his father many questions: “Who is Jesus? Is the Quran true? Is the Bible true? The Quran says we must study all the books that came before (the Torah) why don’t we study these? The Quran says we must study the teaching of Jesus because he was more than a prophet. Why don’t we?”  These questions made his father, the Holy Religious Leader, very angry and he would beat Masud and say: “Stop asking questions. You must not question Islam.” 

ICC Regional Manager visits persecuted pastors in India to investigate the rise of persecution in the southern states.

We frequently tell you that much of the persecution of believers is not published, not even in Christian news today. One such example is the plight of an Uzbek Baptist Christian named Tohar Haydarov.

After six days of travel, I found myself sitting in a hotel room feverishly studying my Bible. I wanted to get an “up close” look at the lives of 20 missionaries ICC supports in India, so I paired up with a missionary named Mangaldan who was willing to take me out for a day to what he called his “field.”

While delivering humanitarian aid to impoverished families in Kfar Dael, a village near Aleppo, two archbishops were kidnapped by gunmen on April 22. Archbishops Boulos Yazigi and Yohanna Ibrahim are the most senior church leaders abducted in Syria’s civil war to date.

A year ago, she walked into our offices with a shy smile that made her eyes glow. As we shook hands I had the deep sense that this woman, who still suffers the effects of Christian persecution today, had a depth of faith that only comes from suffering. Her name is Semsa Aydin, and six years ago this month she became a widow, and her children fatherless, when her husband was brutally murdered for his faith.