by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - Reports are emerging that underground ministries are losing contact with Christians in Afghanistan who are now living under the violent rule of the Islamic extremist Taliban, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. The Taliban are violently opposed to anyone who converts from Islam to Christianity and, as most believers in Afghanistan are former Muslims, they face death, torture, and abduction if found.
Mission Network News (MMN) has reported that ministries who are working to evacuate vulnerable believers have lost contact with a number of Christians they are trying to help, ICC said.
MMN was told, for example, of a Pakistani evangelist called Abdar, who was being helped by the FMI ministry. “He is from Afghanistan, studying in Pakistan, and he said last month that he was going to Afghanistan for evangelism purposes. It’s been more than a week since we have been unable to hear from him. We have lost contact,” Nehemiah of FMI reported.
ICC notes that believers in Afghanistan do not have a well-organized church, and this also makes it difficult to keep in contact with permanent residents as well. “Many Christian communities are extremely secretive and remain underground due to widespread oppression and persecution,” ICC said.
“The Taliban is keeping a close eye on Christians, even sending them threatening letters warning them not to meet,” ICC said. “Their status as converts makes Afghan Christians direct targets for persecution by both extremist groups and society in general. In Afghanistan, leaving Islam is considered extremely shameful and converts can face dire consequences if their conversion is discovered.”
Afghanistan ranked 2 on the US Open Doors 2021 Watch List of top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted, even before the Taliban took power in August.