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MUSLIMS BLOCK CHRISTIANS FROM CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS IN INDONESIA
Morning Star News –. On Dec 14, police officers and onlookers in West Java Province, Indonesia watched dozens of Muslim men and women holding hands to form a human chain to stop members of the Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) as they struggled to make their way to Christmas services. The Muslim crowd made anti-Christian comments and shouted the jihadist slogan “Allahu Akbar [God is the Greatest)”. This followed the blocking of Christians from worship on the two prior Sundays.
Local authorities held a mediation meeting between the conflicting parties on Dec. 15. The parties agreed that the HKBP congregation would hold services temporarily at the Interfaith Harmony Forum office in the city of Jababeka. On Thursday (Dec. 18), the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs held a further mediation meeting between the two parties, resulting in eight agreements, the official Indonesian news agency Antara reported. The conflicting parties agreed to forgive each other and resolve all permit processes for construction of prayer centres, and the Ministry of Religion agreed to help the church celebrate Christmas.
Indonesians on social media lamented the repeated violations of religious freedom. Referring to the West Java Governor, one protester posted: “This kind of intolerance happens too often in your province. Year 2025 was the worst year in the history of interfaith tolerance in Indonesia…Please, policymakers, don’t turn a blind eye to this persecution of Christians…They are not second-class citizens, Sir. They have the same right to worship, and the state is obliged to protect and defend them.”
Indonesian society in recent years has adopted a more radical Islamic character, and churches involved in evangelistic outreach are at risk of being targeted by Islamic extremist groups, according to Open Doors.

MASSIVE CHRISTMAS RAID IN WENZHOU CHINA
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on December 13 deployed more than 1,000 police officers to conduct Christmas raids in the city of Wenzhou, in an effort to stop any Christmas celebrations. Hundreds of Christians were arrested. As a result, many Christian leaders spent Christmas in prison. The operation lasted nearly five days, where roads leading to churches were closed, Bibles and hymnals were confiscated, and belongings of relevant individuals were illegally taken away. The Chinese government knows that Christmas is one of the most important holidays in China, which is why they launched the raid.
Two local Christian leaders seem to be at the centre of the raids – 58-year-old Lin Enzhao and 54-year-old Lin Enci. Their faces were posted on China’s ‘most wanted’ posters for “provoking trouble” – a charge that is commonly used against Christians. No public statement was issued by officials, but the Communist Party launched fireworks in celebration of the crackdowns. Pastor Enoch is one of the most well-known pastors in Wenzhou, and has been one of the few leaders to build an official church building that holds thousands in attendance every week. “Christmas is a time of evangelism,” he said. The latest report indicates that none of those imprisoned has as yet been released.

CCP BRANDS CHURCH LEADERS ‘CRIMINAL SUSPECTS’ AMID CRACKDOWN
Following the mass arrests this month, the CCP hosted an “Elimination of Six Evils” demonstration, with riot police deployed en masse “to demonstrate force, intimidate local Christians, and create an atmosphere of fear, framing the earlier law enforcement actions as ‘results of the anti-organised crime campaign’”, by which the government means the crackdown on Christians.
According to ChinaAid, police have stationed vehicles at the homes of known Christians, disrupted communications among Christians in the area, and have even gone door-to-door questioning church members and asking them to denounce Enzhao and Enci. Government-driven public opinion campaigns are spreading defamatory rumours portraying Christians as ‘unpatriotic’ or belonging to a ‘cult’ . On 29 September, China’s leader reiterated in a speech the need to ‘systematically advance the Sinicisation (worship of communism and the Chinese leader) of religion’. Earlier, mass arrests at the Beijing Zion Church saw pastors and church members detained on fabricated charges of ‘fraud’.
In comments to The Washington Stand, ChinaAid founder and Senior Fellow for the US based International Religious Liberty at Family Research Council (FRC), Bob Fu said: “The massive pre-Christmas assault on churches in Wenzhou is a chilling reminder that the Chinese Communist Party fears the light of Christ most when it shines brightest. [Source: Back to Jerusalem]

CANADIAN DOCTORS WANT TO EUTHANIZE HOMELESS PEOPLE
 Once killing the sufferer becomes a societally acceptable means for ending suffering, there becomes no end to the “suffering” that justifies human termination. This phenomenon is seen most vividly in Canada, because it is happening there more quickly than in most cultures. For example, a recent poll found that 27 percent of Canadians polled strongly or moderately in agreeing that euthanasia is acceptable for suffering caused by “poverty” and 28 percent strongly or moderately agreed that killing by doctors is acceptable for suffering caused by homelessness. Euthanasia mutates a society’s soul.
This kind of thinking finds enthusiastic, albeit not unanimous, expression among secular bioethicists. In fact, two Canadian bioethicists just published a paper in the Journal of Medical Ethics — a prestigious British Medical Journal publication — arguing that “unjust social conditions” justify lethal jabs (euphemistically called MaiD – medical assistance in dying). The argument claims that killing is a form of “harm reduction”.
In 2022, an individual in Canada, who had been diagnosed with multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS), received MAiD. However, by their own description, the decision by doctors, the individual and his family to choose MAiD, was driven primarily by the fact that they were unable to access affordable housing compatible with MCS, and not the condition itself. Another person, also with MCS, writes: ‘I’ve applied for MAiD essentially because of abject poverty’. So the patient in question is dead — not because of their medical condition, but because of the prevailing housing shortage. And doctors used the physical issues as a pretext for justifying the killing as within the law! Bioethics is growing into an increasingly monstrous evil. And that matters because these are the so-called “experts” who exert tremendous influence on our laws and regulations, in court rulings, over the attitudes of journalists, among the purveyors of popular culture, and, ultimately, upon public attitudes.
All this stresses the need for the Church to urgently proclaim the Gospel, because it is only Christians who have a true understanding of the meaning of life, caring for one’s neighbour, and being there to  provide for their spiritual and physical needs. [Source: Information from the The Daily Declaration]

DEEP IN THE CAVES OF AFGHANISTAN WOMEN ARE SECRETLY LEARNING HOW TO READ
According to a UN report, an astonishing 4 in 5 women in Afghanistan are not able to read and write  since the Taliban took over in 2021. Now, that number is increasing even further. The Taliban has banned women and girls from secondary and higher education completely. Not only is it functionally impossible for women to receive an education, but in the next generation or two it might be impossible for any woman in Afghanistan to read and write.
The Christian Missionary Group, Back to Jerusalem (BTJ), is partnering with brave Christian women on the ground who are risking their lives to teach Afghan women how to read and write. Secret lessons are given to groups of women in caves to teach them the skills to know how to read and write. If any of these women are discovered, they could be beaten by their families and even executed by the government. Please keep this outreach and these women in your prayers. [Source: Back to Jerusalem]

PASTOR’S WIFE AND MUSLIM ARRESTED IN PASTOR’S KILLING IN PAKISTAN
Following our report last week of the fatal shooting of the Rev Salamat a Presbyterian Minister, which sent shockwaves through Pakistan’s Christian community, with many initially fearing it was another targeted attack on Christians who  make up less than 2 percent of the population. But now, Police in Pakistan have arrested the wife of the Presbyterian pastor – Salmina Kamran,  and her alleged Muslim accomplice – Najam Ul Saqib, in connection with the killing of the church leader. The Police investigation revealed that the pastor’s wife was in a relationship with the co-accused, and that the two allegedly conspired to murder Rev Salamat. The pastor’s wife had then planned to seek asylum in the United States on religious persecution grounds on the basis of her husband’s murder, hoping that Saquib could join her there, according to police.

– compiled by Guido Kettniss