Demonstrations broke out after the Nepali government blocked several social media platforms. The platforms had allegedly failed to register with the government.

“Gen Z [is] just frustrated with corruption. It started with an anti-corruption movement,” Joe Handley with A3 says. “Their main means of communication with each other and with the world is social media. So they’re protesting against [corruption], but you add to it that their communication channels are shut down. So the tension rises within them.”

Clashes on Monday between protesters and police killed at least 19 people. On Monday night, the government lifted the social media ban, but that did not stop the riots.

Photo in the Ason Bazar, Kathmandu, Nepal (Photo courtesy of Aayush Lama Tamang via Unsplash)

“This is the generation, at least there in Nepal, [that is] looking for a better future. They feel like this government has not provided that for them,” says Handley. 

Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli resigned on Tuesday over the unrest, but young demonstrators still set the parliament building and other structures in Kathmandu on fire.

Handley says that after the ban lifted on Monday, reports from their partners began to increase. “If you’re on social media, you’re seeing smoke rising in Kathmandu, all over different parts of the town.” (See a collection of pictures here.) 

The government is calling for restraint and dialogue. A3’s network of alumni is calling for prayer. 

“They’re trying to be agents of peace in the midst of the chaos — and having to be careful too, because there [are] guns being shot and fire billowing in the capital,” Handley says. 

“My colleagues are begging the global Church to pray for peace, to pray that they could be agents of hope and good news, and that the gospel would shine.”

Header photo courtesy of Samrat Khadka via Unsplash.

Yesterday, a mob of hundreds of people stormed the predominantly Christian neighborhood Jaranwala in Faisalabad. So far, at least five churches have been burned as well as many believers’ homes.

Nehemiah with FMI says, “Before they burned these churches and houses, they tortured Christians, they vandalized and they demolished everything. While I’m talking to you right now, riots continue in Jaranwala in the same city and radical Muslims have blocked all major highways.”

Pakistan (Photo courtesy of FMI)

Videos show some local police, rather than stopping the violence, actually joined the protestors. Other police, “even if they’re not part of the riots, they are just standing there alongside with these mobs and watching them burning these churches and then vandalizing everything.”

The Gospel is needed more than ever in Pakistan.

Nehemiah asks, “Please pray for FMI partners because we have partners in the same city. I was able to connect with him and, of course, he was scared, he was afraid. But he’s still standing on the ground and…he is serving in this very, very difficult and dangerous situation.”

Ask God also for protection over churches and Christians in Faisalabad.

Header photo of the Minar of a Masjid in Faisalabad, Pakistan. (Photo courtesy of Asfand Yar/Unsplash)

On Wednesday, protestors stormed the Iraqi Parliament in Baghdad. Hundreds pushed into the building, waving flags in support of powerful Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr. They only left after al-Sadr asked them over Twitter.

Nine months after the 2021 elections, Iraqi politicians have been unable to form a government. Samuel with Redemptive Stories says, “Iraq is so fragmented, especially right now, because of the political instability as well as even just social instability.”

Civilians killed

Meanwhile, tensions between Iraq and Turkey remain high. On July 20, artillery fire killed five Iraqi tourists at a resort in Kurdistan, near the Turkish border.

The attack was meant to target the PKK (Kurdistan Worker’s Party), which Turkey considers a terrorist organization. The PKK fights against Turkey for independence in Kurdish areas. Samuel says, “They often have forces that hide in Kurdistan. And Turkey was targeting one of them. Apparently, the targeting went awry, and shells landed in a populated area.”

Samuel says these incursions happen regularly. “They are drone strikes, but also missile strikes. These happen on a weekly basis, or maybe even twice a week. But this was one of the first attacks that actually caused civilian casualties.”

“So there are protests all throughout Kurdistan and down all the way into Baghdad.”

This region has a Christian community that always seeks to engage its neighbors. Ask God to give them a voice during this time. Samuel says, “Pray they can also be a light to their Kurdish brothers and sisters who have suffered great loss. They too have continually faced traumas as a persecuted minority group within the context of Iraq.”

The header photo shows Muqtada al-Sadr in 2019. (Photo courtesy of Khamenei.ir, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Police arrested two suspects, sparking protests among Muslims throughout the city of Sokoto. A large crowd besieged a government building and later tried to loot shops owned by Christians.

Greg Kelley with World Mission says, “Boko Haram in the native language, Hausa (spoken by millions of Nigerians in the north) literally translates into, ‘Western education is forbidden,’ or ‘Western education is evil.’ It’s just a very radical interpretation of Islam.”

“Anything that allows tolerance or acceptance of Western education is attacked, and that includes moderate Muslims.”

And as Kelley points out, “blasphemy” is up to the mob to interpret. “Someone could just simply say, ‘Hey, Jesus was a greater teacher than Mohammed, or bring up the deity of Jesus in comparison to Muhammad.’”

Ministry to Muslims

Kelley says many Muslims are grieved by what radical groups are doing to Nigeria. In fact, many Muslims condemned the killing, including the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammed Sa’ad Abubakar, a leading spiritual authority among Muslims in Nigeria. The mob later protested outside his house.

Many families have lost everything to Boko Haram violence. Kelley says, “There are so many people in these internally displaced camps all across northern Nigeria. These people are frustrated. They’re sitting in these camps waiting for a Gospel witness.”

How to get involved

World Mission sends audio Bibles to the region and also provides humanitarian aid. Support the ministry here. Kelley says, “We’re helping villages with water projects and humanitarian efforts that really open the door.”

Pray also for God to change hearts. Kelley says, “Jesus died for those perpetrators. Jesus died for radical Islam and its followers.”

The header photo shows the sultan’s palace in Sokoto, Nigeria. (Photo courtesy of Sanijamilu2023, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Both Sri Lankan and Pakistani leaders condemned the violence, and Pakistan’s prime minister says over 100 people have been arrested. Nehemiah with FMI says “Videos we have received show hundreds of men and young boys gathered at the site chanting slogans. And I’m very sad to say that in these videos, we can see rescue workers and police were there. But they were helpless because they know very well about the mobs’ aggression.”

The mob wasn’t led by terrorist leaders, but young boys. Nehemiah says, “These are teenagers who are killing people. This is what we are reporting and requesting people to pray for. These guys are very young. They don’t know anything about their religion, about Islam. They are just brainwashed. And they’re charged by TLP slogans.”

TLP

TLP refers to an extremist political and religious organization in Pakistan. The government banned them for a time and even held their leader in prison. But on the streets, their popularity has grown, along with their extreme ideology. Nehemiah says the Pakistani government recently struck a secretive deal with the TLP and released their leader.

Since violent ideology runs so deep in Pakistani society, Nehemiah says it will happen again. “Yet Pakistan’s leaders continue to support politics that stokes this violence. It’s very sad to say that Pakistani society is nurturing Frankenstein’s monsters in the name of Islam.”

FMI partners work in Sialkot, the city where the attack took place. Ask God to protect and strengthen them. Pray the love of Jesus would challenge fear and violence.

The header image shows a man riding to his home in Sialkot, Pakistan, where the violence took place. (Esa Mehdi, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons) 

The FBI continues to monitor potential unrest ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration tomorrow. Additionally, several people who took part in storming the capitol have since been detained. Many were caught on videos subsequently uploaded to social media.

Damage from inside the Capitol building following the riot. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

The January 6th riots put on full display some of the darkest corners of American history. White supremacist symbols dotted the crowd and someone waved a confederate flag inside the Capitol building itself. Five people died, and dozens of police officers were injured.

Rex Rogers, President of SAT-7 USA, urges Christians to pray for peace. “We want to pray for those who are in authority, we want to pray for the safety of law enforcement people who are put out there. That’s somebody’s sons and daughters who are in the middle of all this.”

How can Christians respond?

Rogers says Christians in the U.S. can learn how to handle times of political unrest by watching their brothers and sisters from other countries around the world. “Christians there have long since understood that they cannot look to government, or regimes, or political leaders, or ideologies, or parties, for their protection and salvation, so to speak. Actually, to do that is idolatry. They’re amazingly resilient in their commitment to Christ and Christianity. We should be doing the same thing.”

Pray Christians would love each other during this turbulent time without confusing politics with identity in Christ. Rogers says, “You do that? You’ve just reduced the prophetic power and voice of your faith.”

Header photo: New Jersey National Guard Soldiers and Airmen from 1st Battalion, 114th Infantry Regiment, 508th Military Police Company, 108th Wing, and 177th Fighter Wing arrive near the Capitol to set up security positions in Washington, D.C., Jan. 12, 2021. National Guard Soldiers and Airmen from several states have traveled to Washington to provide support to federal and district authorities leading up to the 59th Presidential Inauguration. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Matt Hecht) (The National Guard, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

“I’ve been wrapped around the political issues – I think we all have – and we have different thoughts and convictions on how we feel things need to go. However, it’s a good reminder that our citizenship is in heaven,” Ethnos360 President Larry Brown says.

Headquartered in Florida, Ethnos360 is the U.S. branch of an international alliance of church planting organizations. It’s also a member of the Alliance for the Unreached.

While being aware and informed of current events is useful, some topics and issues can create separation in the Church. “Division [is] something that the enemy has used for centuries [because] it’s very effective. The enemy wants to do anything he can [to] distract our combined efforts as the body of Christ in reaching unreached people groups,” Brown explains.

Using Hebrews 3:1 as an example, he suggests believers keep their ultimate focus on Christ.

“There’s a much, much higher calling that God has invited us to participate in; let’s focus our energies there.”

The Great Commission: a “much higher calling”

Shortly before He ascended to heaven, Christ instructed His followers to “go and make disciples of all nations.” Despite all the modern advances in our world today, one in three people have no access to the Gospel or a church community.

You can help change that on May 23, 2021: the International Day for the Unreached, or IDU Sunday. The Alliance for the Unreached uses IDU Sunday to catalyze a movement, uniting churches, organizations, and individuals around the cause of reaching every unreached people group on earth with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

“There’s a lot of excellent organizations that are having very good ministry with the unreached,” Brown says. See a list of groups here.

(Photo by Edwin Andrade on Unsplash)

“You can’t look at God’s Word too long before you realize His passion is to reach and give an opportunity to these [unreached] people, so they also have access to the Gospel.”

Above all else, pray; prayer fuels the work of missions. Use the prompts listed alongside this article to guide your intercession.

“[Pray for] wisdom and discernment; the world is not becoming a friendlier place,” Brown requests.

“We know where the (unreached) people groups are, but we find that our ability to [access them] is becoming more difficult.”

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Ben White via Unsplash.

Vice President Mike Pence was evacuated shortly after protestors breached the building, and other politicians were evacuated soon after. Police eventually herded the protestors out of the building, and the mayor of D.C. has declared a 15-day state of emergency. The D.C. national guard has been activated to help quell any future outbreaks over the next two weeks.

Several police officers suffered injuries in the event, and at least 52 people have been arrested. Authorities discovered and neutralized six firearms and two pipe bombs on the grounds.

In the United States?

It isn’t the kind of thing people expect to see at the heart of democracy in the United States, says Bruce Allen of FMI. “I do go to places where I have seen dysfunction in government: fistfights and wrestling matches in halls, parliaments, and congresses. People taking the law into their own hands just because they don’t like a particular outcome. That is a common occurrence in many, many parts of the world. Some of the reports I get are astounding.”

The U.S., meanwhile, has enjoyed a relatively stable political history, especially since the Civil War. The last time the Capitol building was breached, the British were sacking Washington D.C. during the War of 1812.

Allen says, “We’re susceptible to operating under the delusion that these other people who live in other nations are the ones with problems. We’re the experts. We’re the ones who have all the answers. But that truly is a delusion. Events like this show us that we too have significant struggles.”

Pray for unity

Allen says Christians need to pray right now, not only for the unity of the U.S. and people’s safety but for our hearts as God’s people. Allen prays, “We confess that Caesar is not Lord and that only You are. May I recognize that my salvation does not come at the hands or from the minds of politicians and that my battle is not against flesh and blood. It is against powers of darkness instead. And I pray that I would know what it means that my citizenship is ultimately in the kingdom of heaven.”

Congress worked into the early morning hours on Thursday to finish certifying the election results. With a new administration comes new chances for Christians to love each other despite their political differences, and glorify Christ as a result.

The header photo shows protestors gathering in D.C. the morning of January 6th. (Photo courtesy of Elvert Barnes from Silver Spring MD, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

“There was no evidence against [these Christians],” says Bruce Allen of FMI. “But [the government] said, ‘hey, if we can get diya paid to the victims’ families, then the judge is absolutely free to commute a sentence and release these prisoners.'”

“The government in essence, was trying to save face. They didn’t want to start a riot as [a] radical political party frequently does in Pakistan. They didn’t want them to riot against the court decision. So, this was a way to save face.”

And over 193,000 US dollars (the equivalent of the sum paid) was paid as diya, or blood money. Allen says this payment is a part of Islamic law in Pakistan, and that it doesn’t mean the men have been considered guilty of committing the crime.

Christians paid the blood money so the prisoners could be released. (Image by Thanasis Papazacharias from Pixabay)

How the money was paid

But the families of the Christians never could have paid this price. Allen says most Christians in Pakistan are impoverished, and these families especially so, since their husbands couldn’t earn any money.

Allen says, “These were charitable donations most likely from overseas, where people said, ‘if we know that the judge is considering the payment, then we want to help these families out to do this.’”

Irfan Bashir Masih, one of the Christians released, said that he was not even present when the two Muslim men were killed. He had no hope that he would see his family again until the money was paid. Read more here.

Difficulties for believers in Pakistan

Pakistan (Photo courtesy of FMI)

Still, Christians see injustice in the situation. Allen says, “So much attention was given to the fact that two Muslims died. Very little attention inside Pakistan was given to the fact that nearly 20 Christian worshippers died. There’s no compensation given to the Christian families of the terrorist attack. It is a lopsided scenario, but that is common in Pakistan.”

And bigger attacks with more casualties are not even the most common form of persecution in Pakistan. Allen says, “Individual against individual, usually family member against family member. [A] person from within a family places their faith in Christ, the rest of the family, because they feel like this new Christian has shamed their family by abandoning Islam, . . . make it their priority to kill their own family member.”

Allen says Pakistan remains one of the worst places in the world for Christians to live. He says Christians there need prayer for supernatural courage.

“So, we pray for God’s protection [for] the Christians. We pray especially for their courage. Not just to continue to do ministry in the face of hardship, but to follow Jesus’s injunctions about how to love your enemies.”

Prison cell. (Image by Jan Marczuk from Pixabay)

Bruce Allen of FMI has been keeping us up to date on the struggles Christians in Pakistan face all while sharing ways believers from around the world can support the growth and strengthening of the Pakistani Church. He recently learned of yet another case involving the blasphemy laws.

Patras Masih is an 18-year-old Christian in Pakistan. This month, he was accused of blasphemy for something that happened last month.

Mosque Lahore in Pakistan. (Photo courtesy of FMI)

Allen says, “Someone had accused him of posting blasphemous content—a photo—on his Facebook page or through his Facebook page to a group on January 16^th. It’s really interesting because the accusation wasn’t registered with the police until about a month later.”

The problem with this accusation is that Masih had sent his phone in for repairs on December 8 and because of a lack of funds, he never picked it up. His phone was his sole method of connecting to Facebook.

“The phone wasn’t even in … Patras’ possession. And yet, once it was announced that this young man, his Facebook page had blasphemous content, whether there was evidence for that or not, whether the phone was in his possession or not, didn’t matter to a mob of hundreds of people who stormed his neighborhood.”

They showed up to Masih’s neighborhood, a Christian-majority district aiming to kill.

“This mob of angry Muslims demanded him—they were going to behead him. They said ‘We demand to execute him right now.’ Well, this young kid, he went into hiding.”

The mob lit tires on fire, blocking the roadways out of the neighborhood. They walked around with cans of gasoline, threatening to burn all of the houses in the town.

“There was going to be no trial, they weren’t going to investigate to see if the charges were even true,” Allen says.

Many Christian families fled the area. Fortunately, security forces arrived in time to calm everyone down. They arrested Masih’s father and a local pastor and eventually Masih himself. Allen says it’s possible that Masih was set up. He believes that the technicians at the repair shop or somebody else could have hacked into his Facebook account. But for many, these considerations don’t matter.

“People do not wait for justice, they do not look for evidence. They just want to have this bloodlust and kill people who may think differently than they do.”

Sajid’s parents (Photo courtesy of FMI for MNN use).

Over the weekend, reports surfaced that Patras Masih’s cousin, Sajid Masih, was also arrested. During the course of an interrogation at the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FAI) building in Punjab, Sajid sustained critical injuries. FAI officers said he jumped off the fourth floor, hitting the second-floor roof, after refusing to give them his phone password.

Sajid has a different story, claiming that both he and his cousin were beaten and that FAI officials forced him to perform a sexual act on his cousin. The details are cloudy and conflicting, but one thing is certain. Blasphemy is a white-hot issue that can prompt instant rage.

On Monday, Allen received more word from their contact on the ground:

Sajid Masih, Patras Masih’s [hospitalized] cousin, is in high spirits, but still in critical condition. So far some administrative negligence has caused delay of his surgery, which was supposed to start by now. His injuries [include a] dislocated jaw, fractured spine, [broken] left femur, right tibia and ribs. Neither of his surgeries have been done today. Parents of Sajid Masih wait outside the hospital in Lahore for the confirmation of the operation.

Is Islam a religion of peace?

Looking at this most recent event, the question comes to mind: is Islam a peaceful religion? This is a question that has been argued back and forth again and again. But Allen’s interesting take on the subject suggests that maybe there’s an important distinction most people aren’t taking into consideration.

He says, “The late Nabeel Qureshi, who was a dynamic speaker with Ravi Zacharias’ ministry, had explained that you cannot equate Muslims with Islam. And what he meant by this was you may know peaceful Muslims. He himself, Nabeel Qureshi, grew up in a Muslim home, a devout Muslim home.”

Allen explains that Qureshi described his family as peaceful Muslims. But as he studied Islam, he understood it was not a religion of peace.

“So, that’s a statement coming from someone who was a devout Muslim. And it really shook him to the core when he realized the truth about Islam.”

In fact, Allen says if you were to read the Quran chapters in chronological order, you would see an increasingly militant attitude preached by the prophet Muhammad.

According to International Christian Concern, these latest revolts led to about 100 Christian families fleeing the area. The police continue to take up residence in the community in case of more violence.

Masih may have been a particularly easy target for this kind of hatred. In fact, he shares the last name of many Christians in the area. ‘Masih’ means ‘messiah’ and therefore using it as a name is a proclamation of one’s Christian faith.

What’s next for Masih?

While Masih is in custody, tensions have hardly died down. And if his case follows the normal trend of blasphemy cases against Christians, there’s a long, hard road ahead.

“We know that from brother Ahmed’s case in Pakistan that Mission Network News has been following for four months now—just because something gets to the court system in Pakistan, and you may know you’re innocent of the charges, and you may know that there is no evidence to corroborate the charges, there is corruption. There is violence in the judicial system there.”

Beyond that, he says, there are fatwahs issued for extra-judicial killings. This is when the local mosque system calls for the execution of someone without the threat of consequences. They are promised a reward in paradise for their actions.

Knowing that this can happen to an 18-year-old—just a kid—you start to realize just how bad things are in Pakistan.

“It can be a scary, scary place. And yet, there are a lot of Christians living there. And they need to know how to not just survive but how to thrive in this culture and do ministry in this culture.”

Bruce says that Masih’s family is grieving him as if he’s already been lost. That’s how doubtful his future is in the court systems.

(Photo courtesy of FMI).

“This law is so easily abused in Pakistan because number one, it automatically carries a death sentence if you’re convicted. And number two, to get that conviction, no evidence is required. Then number three, we think about the prevalence of corruption within the judicial system.”

For example, Allen says in Ahmed’s case, the prosecuting team admitted in court that they’d already bribed the judge for a guilty conviction.

Even if someone is found not-guilty after a blasphemy accusation, their life in society will be “fragile at best” Allen explains. People will hunt you down. Another example of this is Asia Bibi. For years, Christians have been praying for her release.

“And yet, prison may be the safest place for her because there are people who are intentionally waiting for her release in order to kill her. It’s a very fragile situation inside of Pakistan,” Allen says.

Interceding for Masih

There are a number of ways to be praying about this situation. Pray for the protection of Masih and his family and that his family would be able to visit him and encourage him.

Pray for Masih’s strength of faith. We don’t know his spiritual maturity, but we know he is young and that his world has been flipped upside-down.

“He’s vulnerable, he’s confused, ‘How did this happen to me?’ But we pray for God’s glory in everything. He’s sovereign over the nations.”

Allen likens his story to that of the biblical Joseph who was abused by his family, sold into slavery, and imprisoned on false charges.

“Genesis repeats that the Lord was with Joseph in all these things—in his slavery, in his imprisonment. These things didn’t happen because God turned his back on him. In fact, God had laser-sharp focus attending on Joseph. So we pray that Patras understands and has the assurance of God’s presence, even in prison.”

Pray for him to be strengthened, not broken. Pray for justice in Masih’s case and that through this trial, people would come to know the Lord.

It is stories like this that motivate FMI in partnering with church planters and evangelists to help train up believers to engage the hostile culture. If you’d like to support their work, click here.