The situation in Afghanistan is developing hour by hour, but we have now have definitive reports on the plight facing Christians under the Taliban. Here is a summary of them for those who are interested.
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Christianity Dailyreports that the Taliban has a hit list of Christian pastors they plan to target, and that the Taliban is checking people’s cell phones and killing those who have Bible apps. Because nearly all Afghan Christians are former Muslims and apostasy bears the death sentence in Islam, most Christians are at imminent risk.
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Evangelical Focus has a summary of the situation, and also details the fate facing millions of Afghan women.
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The Christian Broadcasting Network posted an interview with a Christian leader in Afghanistan. His analysis was chilling:
In a two-part interview with ICC posted to YouTube, the anonymous church leader explained in broken English that the Taliban “has a great number of influence” against people in terms of obtaining information.
“They want to be safe,” the church leader explained. “They want to be protected so if they come to my area, ‘I will tell them everything that I know so that when the Taliban come then they somehow spare my family. They don’t hurt me’.”
He said that some Christians cannot even trust their own family members.
“The Taliban come in the area of the mosque, ask how many members of the household are part of that and they take names of all of the people who live there. Places like north of Afghanistan, Taliban control some of the areas, having a beard is compulsory. Taliban come to houses. They ask for food. They ask for money. Some of them are known that they have been Christian,” the leader noted.
And those who do not adhere to the militants demands risk the chance of being killed.
“Definitely, they’re going to kill some of the Christians that have been known, and that way they want to spread that fear that we will not tolerate anything against that,” the church leader added.
He said the Taliban will also likely take children away from Christian families and turn them into sex slaves and Islamic fighters.
“Definitely for Christians, it’s just an obvious thing that they’re (Taliban) going to take all of their kids and they have to go through the retraining of that system and marrying the Taliban. And for the boys, they have to go be reeducated in the madrassas and definitely they will be trained as (Taliban) soldiers forcefully.”
He pointed out that the Taliban will also take away Christian women and force many people to convert to Islam.
Here are the interviews:
Part II:
The Daily Wire reports that Glenn Beck’s Nazarene Fund raised more than twenty million dollars in just three days to get Afghan Christians out.
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I hope to do a longer-form article on this subject soon.
