Nigeria

In January we received news that Mubarak Bala, the president of the Nigerian Humanist Society, was released from prison.

Mr Bala had been arrested at his home in April 2020, having been accused of insulting Islam in Facebook posts. He was held incommunicado for the first 162 days, denied access to his legal team for five months, and spent 462 days in prison before being formally charged.

In April 2022 Mr Bala was convicted on 18 counts of causing a public disturbance. He was sentenced to an excessive 24 years in prison, which was reduced to five years in May 2024. We thank God that he is now free, while continuing to advocate for the repeal of Nigeria’s blasphemy law. It remains a dangerous driver of religious extremism.

India

As they gathered for a church service on Sunday 16 February, around 50 Christians were attacked in Bikaner, a city in the northwestern state of Rajasthan.

Towards the end of the service a mob of almost 200 people entered the church and began assaulting the Christians with iron rods. Three members of the church were left with severe injuries; most of the others had bruises all over their bodies. When the police arrived at the scene, the mob immediately dispersed.

However, the police then escorted the pastor, his wife and a few of the other church members to the police station for questioning. Thankfully they weren’t charged, as the attackers couldn’t provide any evidence that forceful conversions were taking place at the church, as they claimed.

The Christians decided not to file a complaint for fear of reprisals. Sadly, the police haven’t taken any action against those who perpetrated the attack either.

834 attacks against Christians in 2024, up from 127 incidents in 2014.

(Source: United Christian Forum)

China

Pastor Ma Yan is a 32-year-old Hui Christian from Yunnan Province. On 24 March he was sentenced to nine months in prison for ‘organising illegal gatherings’, in relation to a gathering of no more than ten Christians. His prosecution is yet another example of the Chinese Communist Party targeting ethnic and religious minorities.

The pastor was first detained alongside three other Christians on 9 August 2024, when police raided a gathering at a guesthouse in the capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

The next day, an administrative detention order was issued, and all four men were detained for ‘disrupting public order’. Two of them were released after a week, while Pastor Ma and another Christian were held for ten days. Then on 26 September, Pastor Ma was formally arrested on the new charge of ‘organising illegal gatherings’.

Despite his innocence, Pastor Ma pleaded guilty to the ‘illegal gathering’ charge at his trial in February, because it carries a lighter sentence compared to other charges and isn’t stigmatised.

Taking into account 32 days of previous administrative detentions, Pastor Ma should be released on 17 April 2025.

Vietnam

A 71-year-old Protestant pastor, Nguyen Manh Hung, was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City on 16 January, after being accused of using social media to spread ‘anti-state propaganda’. His son, Nguyen Tran Hien, was detained at the same time, but released after several hours of interrogation. If found guilty, Pastor Nguyen could face up to 20 years in prison.

Pastor Nguyen has recently been associated with the Chuong Bo Protestant Church (affiliated with the global Mennonite Church) and is a member of the Interfaith Council of Vietnam. Neither is registered with the government, which is required under Vietnamese law.

Elsewhere, Vietnamese authorities stopped all Vietnamese invitees from travelling to the United States to attend the International Religious Freedom Summit in February. The Venerable Thich Nhat Phuoc (a Buddhist monk) and two Cao Dai dignitaries (Nguyen Xuan Mai and Nguyen Ngoc Dien) were all banned from leaving the country on the grounds of ‘national defence and security’.