Story number 1 for 9 Aug 2002

(Maldives)–We begin today’s newscast in an island nation southwest of India. Alarming incidents of persecution are coming to the forefront in Maldives. Voice of the Martyrs’ Glenn Penner says the country claims to be 100% Muslim and denies the existence of any non-Muslim in this tiny nation. Christians who are ‘caught’ evangelizing there are vanishing. “It is illegal to propagate any religion apart from Islam; it is illegal to convert to any other religion. It is very similar the type of thing which used to happen in the former communist world, in the Soviet Union, in Albania; people would just disappear.” Penner says church leaders in southeast Asia are asking for prayer support as they continue to share the hope of Christ. “When they are discovered, they are pressured to deny their faith, to reconvert to Islam. Pray for those that are believers in Maldives, that they will show wisdom in how to share their faith in this country. And pray for the protection of those who have been arrested, that God would deliver them.”