Afghanistan under the Taliban does not acknowledge that any citizen of the country is Christian at all. Most of the Christians in Afghanistan therefore keep their faith secret. Conversion from Islam to Christianity is illegal. Please pray that the hearts of this strife-torn country’s leaders would be turned toward the light, and that Holy Orthodoxy would ultimately come to Afghanistan. For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in Afghanistan, see here.
“Taliban going door-to-door searching for Christians, inspecting phones for Bible apps,” by Ryan Foley, Christian Post, August 20, 2021:
…In a statement released Tuesday, the leader of the underground church ministering to Christians in Afghanistan and the founder of the nonprofit organization Global Catalytic Ministries, who goes by the alias Pastor X, provided a “first-hand ground report” on the situation in the country. The statement was shared by Frontier Alliance International, an organization committed to laying the foundations for the Gospel where there are none.
“The Taliban has a hit list of known Christians they are targeting to pursue and kill. The U.S. Embassy is defunct and there is no longer a safe place for believers to take refuge,” the statement reads.
“All borders to neighboring countries are closed and all flights to and from have been halted, with the exception of private planes. People are fleeing into the mountains looking for asylum. They are fully reliant on God, who is the only One who can and will protect them.”
The statement noted that “the Taliban are going door-to-door taking women and children.”
“The people must mark their house with an ‘X’ if they have a girl over 12 years old, so that the Taliban can take them. If they find a young girl and the house was not marked, they will execute the entire family,” the statement added. “If a married woman 25 years old or older has been found, the Taliban promptly kill her husband, do whatever they want to her, and then sell her as a sex slave.”
Additionally, Pastor X stated that “Husbands and fathers have given their wives and daughters guns and told them that when the Taliban come, they can choose to kill them or kill themselves — it is their choice.”
In a statement released Tuesday and shared with The Christian Post, Rex Rogers, the president of the nonprofit Christian media ministry SAT-7, elaborated on the dangers faced by Christians.
“We’re hearing from reliable sources that the Taliban demand people’s phones, and if they find a downloaded Bible on your device, they will kill you immediately,” Rogers said.
“It’s incredibly dangerous right now for Afghans to have anything Christian on their phones. The Taliban have spies and informants everywhere.”
With the Taliban’s takeover, SAT-7 reports that many Afghans have begun censoring themselves to avoid “retribution.” In the first six months of 2021, SAT-7 PARS reported an increase in audience engagement from viewers in Afghanistan. SAT-7 PARS broadcasts two Dari programs targeting Afghan viewers titled “Window of Light” and “Secret of Life.”
In an update Thursday, SAT-7 reported that an anonymous SAT-7 PARS viewer told the organization that Christians “are in real danger.”…
