Source: Open Doors UK, April 27, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kerim wasn\u2019t allowed to attend his mother\u2019s funeral. In his small village in Kyrgyzstan, the fact that he is a Christian is enough to ban him. After everyone left, Kerim tried to quietly enter the cemetery to mourn his mother\u2014but the mullah (a Muslim leader) and other locals threw him out. They said he would \u201cdesecrate the holy place\u201d with his presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kerim asked for an explanation. Instead of getting one, the mullah forced him to pack his belongings and leave the village. The same mullah had previously demanded that the family deny their Christian faith, otherwise he would not allow them to bury Kerim\u2019s brother in their village. The family had to hold the funeral in a Christian cemetery almost a hundred miles away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kerim\u2019s story is just one example of growing persecution against Christian converts in Kyrgyzstan. Since the beginning of 2022, reports of persecution are rising\u2014including death threats, violent attacks, and mental abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one incident, a pastor and several church members in a small village received threats through phone calls and WhatsApp messages after distributing books of Bible stories in a local boarding school. Locals even poisoned the pastor\u2019s dogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
See the full story<\/a> with prayer points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also from Open Doors: According to a new report, nearly 200 foreign Christian workers and their families were forced to leave Turkey<\/a> between 2019 and 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Learn more about religious freedom in Kyrgyzstan<\/a> in a news and analysis article from Forum 18. They have similar roundups<\/a> focused on each of the countries in Central Asian countries and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: Open Doors UK, April 27, 2022 Kerim wasn\u2019t allowed to attend his mother\u2019s funeral. In his small village in Kyrgyzstan, the fact that he is a Christian is enough to ban him. After everyone left, Kerim tried to quietly enter the cemetery to mourn his mother\u2014but the mullah (a Muslim leader) and other locals … Continue reading Kyrgyzstan: Threats, Poisoned Pets, and No Place to Bury Their Dead<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11119,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11118\/revisions\/11119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}