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2019-05-30

• Election Results Raise Concerns for Christians

  

  As more than 600 million citizens cast their ballots in the Indian general election, Christians and members of other religious minorities had added concerns about the outcome. Those concerns were realized after the results came in, for the Hindu-nationalist BJP party captured 303 of the 543 eligible seats. No other party had secured the minimum ten percent of seats required to gain official party standing.

• Historic Church Closed

  

  The Assyrian Christian community in the city of Tabriz were shocked to discover that the Presbyterian church was being forced to close. Intelligence agents stormed the 100-year-old national heritage site on May 9th. Locks were changed, the cross on the tower was torn down, and the church warden was ordered to leave.

• Church and Bible School Closures

  

  A church in the town of Boudjima of northern Algeria was closed by authorities on May 22nd, along with its associated Bible school. According to Pastor Youssef Ourahmane, the church had applied for a permit but, as usual, there had been no response.

  On the day of the closure, Pastor Youssef was summoned to the church where he was informed by the gendarmes that the governor had ordered for it to be sealed. The officers at the scene apologized for what they were doing, saying, "We are only the executors."