Source: Open Doors, June 20, 2019<\/p>\n
In the landlocked country of 19.1 million people, the church and general population have seen escalating and deadly violence from Muslim extremists. Recent attacks have targeted church buildings and Christians, suggesting the involvement of Islamic extremists or what the population is calling jihadists.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s foreign minister says tackling terrorism has become a fight \u201cfor the very survival\u201d of the Sahel region, which incorporates the countries of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. Militants have forced 100,000 in Burkina Faso alone to flee their homes in recent months.<\/p>\n
The Muslim-majority nation (Christians make up roughly 35 percent) has long been known for its peaceful coexistence between different religious and ethnic groups. But now, Muslim extremist violence is on the rise, fueling panic and fear over decreasing stability in the greater Sahel region.<\/p>\n
One resident in the eastern region testified of increasing Sharia law: \u201cAt 6pm, everyone has to go to the mosque, then straight home. In the middle of the night, you must go and listen to sermons. You\u2019re forbidden to criticize them. Women have to cover their heads. There\u2019s no talk of cigarettes, alcohol or music, no celebrations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00bb Read full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00bb Elsewhere, we see Christianity in Iraq has decreased by 80 percent over the last two decades. An article in The Atlantic shares the story through the eyes of one family<\/a>. An article from The Independent tells the haunting story of a 12-year-old Christian girl<\/a> who, before dying in a fire set by ISIS, urged her parents to forgive them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: Open Doors, June 20, 2019 In the landlocked country of 19.1 million people, the church and general population have seen escalating and deadly violence from Muslim extremists. Recent attacks have targeted church buildings and Christians, suggesting the involvement of Islamic extremists or what the population is calling jihadists. The country\u2019s foreign minister says tackling … Continue reading BURKINA FASO: A Fight for Survival<\/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-8646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8646","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=8646"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8647,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8646\/revisions\/8647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}