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International Christian Concern staffers are experts on global persecution and pride themselves on knowing the trends and ins and outs of religious freedom. ICC’s global team, ICC Fellows, and guest scholars write breaking news stories and reports on persecution topics, countries, and regimes. ICC’s signature comprehensive report is the annual Global Persecution Index.
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Hope Walked Across the Graduation Stage
March 20, 2026 — In September 2025, five young survivors of the African Islamist terrorist group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) violence walked across a graduation stage in Butembo in the Congo. Their achievement represented...
Cuban Pastor, Son Arrested
March 19, 2026 Cuba — Protests in Morón, Cuba, erupted the night of March 13 and lasted through the next day in response to a week of blackouts and shortages of medical and food supplies. Protestors ransacked and set fire to the Cuban Communist Party’s headquarters. Among...
India’s Second-Largest State Passes Discriminatory Anti-Conversion Law
March 19, 2026 India — The Maharashtra Assembly passed a bill this week to legally regulate religious conversion. Ironically titled the Maharashtra Freedom of Religion Bill 2026, the legislation imposes stringent restrictions on individuals’ rights to...
When Help Arrives at Just the Right Time
March 18, 2026 India — On Jan. 21, 2025, Hindu nationalists attacked Pastor Ishan Prasad and his family during a prayer meeting in their village in India, severely injuring each family member. Following the attack,...
How Christian Girls Become Muslim Wives in Egypt
March 18, 2026 Egypt — Comprising about 10% of Egypt’s current population, Copts are the largest Christian community in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Among the earliest of all Christians, the Copts...
China’s Persecution Has No Borders
March 17, 2026 China — By ICC Fellow Linda Burkle, PhD Fifteen years ago, I traveled to China with a friend and ministry partner to conduct a training conference for underground church leaders. This was our second trip...
Attacks Against Christians in Nigeria Continue Despite U.S. Military Presence
March 17, 2026 Nigeria — A Christian leader in Nigeria’s Plateau state has alleged that efforts to secure international protection for communities facing repeated attacks in the country’s Middle Belt did not result in assistance...
Africa News
See All Africa NewsAttacks Against Christians in Nigeria Continue Despite U.S. Military Presence
March 17, 2026 ICC News — A Christian leader in Nigeria’s Plateau state has alleged that efforts to secure international protection for communities facing repeated attacks in the country’s Middle Belt did not result in assistance...
Economic Persecution: Restoration and Resilience (Part 5 of 5)
March 13, 2026 ICC News — By Lisa Navarrette, ICC Fellow Persecution seeks to isolate, weaken, and erase. It destroys farms and businesses, blocks promotions, weaponizes laws, and fuels hostility. Yet across the world, persecuted Christians continue to rebuild....
Christians Endure Persecution, Death, and Destruction in the DRC
March 13, 2026 ICC News — Christians are being attacked, murdered, and abducted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) every week, and the violence appears to be worse than ever. Between July 1, 2024,...
Fulani Christians Deny Link to Miyetti Allah as Plateau State Violence Rages
March 13, 2026 ICC News — Fulani Christians in Nigeria say they are not members of Miyetti Allah, a Fulani socio-political organization that civil society groups, lawmakers, and its victims have accused of being involved in terrorism and the persecution of...
Middle East News
See All Middle East NewsHow Christian Girls Become Muslim Wives in Egypt
March 18, 2026 ICC News — Comprising about 10% of Egypt’s current population, Copts are the largest Christian community in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Among the earliest of all Christians, the Copts...
Economic Persecution: Restoration and Resilience (Part 5 of 5)
March 13, 2026 ICC News — By Lisa Navarrette, ICC Fellow Persecution seeks to isolate, weaken, and erase. It destroys farms and businesses, blocks promotions, weaponizes laws, and fuels hostility. Yet across the world, persecuted Christians continue to rebuild....
Why Some Iranians Dance During War
March 12, 2026 ICC News — By Dr. Nathan Rostampour, Ekklesia Mission president and ICC board member Many of my friends have asked me, “Why are some Iranians dancing while war is unfolding in their country?”...
Economic Persecution: Displacement (Part 4 of 5)
March 12, 2026 ICC News — By Lisa Navarrette, ICC Fellow Persecution doesn’t end when a family flees. Often, displacement is not the conclusion of suffering. It is often the beginning of a deeper economic unraveling....
South Asia News
See All South Asia NewsIndia’s Second-Largest State Passes Discriminatory Anti-Conversion Law
March 19, 2026 ICC News — The Maharashtra Assembly passed a bill this week to legally regulate religious conversion. Ironically titled the Maharashtra Freedom of Religion Bill 2026, the legislation imposes stringent restrictions on individuals’ rights to...
When Help Arrives at Just the Right Time
March 18, 2026 ICC News, Project Highlight — On Jan. 21, 2025, Hindu nationalists attacked Pastor Ishan Prasad and his family during a prayer meeting in their village in India, severely injuring each family member. Following the attack,...
Christian Families Attacked After Being Denied Government Assistance
March 16, 2026 ICC News — Twenty-eight Christian families in Chhattisgarh were brutally assaulted on March 10 after demanding justice from government authorities, who have denied them food rations for months. From November 2025 onwards, the...
Economic Persecution: Restoration and Resilience (Part 5 of 5)
March 13, 2026 ICC News — By Lisa Navarrette, ICC Fellow Persecution seeks to isolate, weaken, and erase. It destroys farms and businesses, blocks promotions, weaponizes laws, and fuels hostility. Yet across the world, persecuted Christians continue to rebuild....
Southeast Asia news
See All Southeast Asia NewsChina’s Persecution Has No Borders
March 17, 2026 ICC News — By ICC Fellow Linda Burkle, PhD Fifteen years ago, I traveled to China with a friend and ministry partner to conduct a training conference for underground church leaders. This was our second trip...
A Military-Controlled Parliament in Myanmar Convenes for First Time in Five Years
March 17, 2026 ICC News — More than five years after being dissolved in a February 2021 military coup, the lower house of Myanmar’s national parliament convened on Monday, to be followed on Wednesday by the...
China’s ‘Ethnic Unity’ Law Deepens Repression of Minorities
March 16, 2026 ICC News — China’s National People’s Congress this week approved a sweeping new law titled the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress. Marketed by Beijing as a measure to foster “unity” among...
Locals Protest Church’s Renovation in Indonesia
March 5, 2026 ICC News — About 70 residents visited the HKBP Kulim Jaya Church in Riau, Indonesia, on Feb. 25 to demand a stop to its renovations. Twenty locals entered the church and requested permits,...
Religious freedom in the west
See All The West NewsCuban Pastor, Son Arrested
March 19, 2026 ICC News — Protests in Morón, Cuba, erupted the night of March 13 and lasted through the next day in response to a week of blackouts and shortages of medical and food supplies. Protestors ransacked and set fire to the Cuban Communist Party’s headquarters. Among...
Platform Censorship Threatens Online Expressions of Faith
March 13, 2026 ICC News — On Feb. 4, Päivi Räsänen, a member of the Finnish Parliament, testified before the House Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C., highlighting how the European Union’s online censorship policies could threaten...
Hundreds of Churches Destroyed by Russian Forces in Ukraine
March 6, 2026 ICC News, Press Release — According to a report published earlier this year by Mission Eurasia, a parachurch ministry dedicated to equipping churches in and around Ukraine, Russian forces have damaged or destroyed at least...
In the Shadow of the Cross
March 5, 2026 ICC News — By Pieter Vermeulen, ICC Board Member In much of the Western world, believers are not imprisoned for their faith. They are not dragged before courts or threatened with violence. Yet...
ICC Fellows
See All ICC Fellows NewsEconomic Persecution (Part 1 of 5)
March 9, 2026 ICC Fellows, ICC News — By Lisa Navarrette, ICC Fellow When persecution is discussed, it is usually framed in images of violence: burned churches, imprisoned pastors, mobs chanting in the streets. These images are real, and...
Update on Syria: A New Era or More of the Same for Syrian Christians?
September 19, 2025 ICC Fellows — By Linda Burkle, Ph.D., ICC Fellow Several years ago, while in Jordan, I had the privilege of participating in a feeding and grocery distribution program for Syrian refugees. We served...
Word Wrangling in the Sahel Region
May 8, 2025 ICC Fellows — By Dr. Greg Cochran, ICC Fellow One of the greatest half-truths ever unleashed on humanity was the pithy encouragement parents commonly passed down to their children: “Sticks and stones may...
The Refugee Camp Economy: How Refugee Camps Fuel Growth
March 24, 2025 ICC Fellows — 03/24/2025 Washington, D.C. (International Christian Concern) – When conflict and persecution happen, whole populations flee their homes, cross national borders, and end up in refugee camps. By 2030, more than 300...
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