Bangladeshi Christians told to close church, convert to Islam

Construction of Tangail Evangelical Holiness Church,
 in Bilbathuagani village, was halted by local officials.
World Watch Monitor

A local government official in central Bangladesh has halted the construction of a church, forced Christians to worship at a mosque and threatened them with eviction from their village unless they renounce their faith.

The Tangail Evangelical Holiness Church in Bilbathuagani village, was created Sept. 8 by a group of about 25 Christians who had been meeting secretly for three years.

Local council chairman Rafiqul Islam Faruk joined around 200 demonstrators Sept. 13 to protest against the start of the building of the church. He summoned the Christians to his office Sept. 14, as about 1,000 Muslims gathered outside.

“The chairman and the imams of the mosques interrogated me for accepting Christianity,” Mokrom Ali, 32, told World Watch Monitor. “They asked me why I had become a Christian. It is a great sin to become a Christian from Islam. If I did not accept Islam, they would beat me, burn my house, and evict me from the society.

Others reported being pressured to embrace Islam. They later filed documents in court re-affirming their Christianity.

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