Many members of the Christian families have now gone into hiding because they are targeted and are pressured to deny Jesus. Additionally, they face social boycotts and intense pressure from the majority Muslim population of their area. “Now, the Christians cannot go to the marketplace, cannot buy and sell things, and cannot go to work,” Abraham says. “The Christians are not allowed to enter the market. The Maulana have been going from market to market, shop to shop, telling the Muslims not to sell things to the Christians.”
Anand*, one of the believers pressured to renounce his faith, shares his situation: “I have a shop at the local market, which is my only source of income. I am threatened by the Muslims to not go to my shop. I cannot go to my shop for weeks. I don’t know if my things are still in the shop or not, and I am suffering a food crisis. I am the only believer in my family, and my family members are pressuring me to renounce from my faith in Jesus. I don’t know what to do.”
Anand also says he and the other Christians have been given a deadline to deny Jesus. “We are given a time to renounce,” he explains. “If we do not renounce within a certain number of days, then they will take serious action against us. The local political leader has threatened us that if we do not renounce, then they will create an issue to attack us and kill us.”
According to leaders in the area, the Maulana might not stop with one group of Christian converts; they might also start visiting homes of MBBs in other places.
How you can pray