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• BJP to make conversion election issue: Rajnath (PTI)
  
  
• Minority groups appeal against anti-conversion law | Stung by the recently enacted controversial Anti Conversion law in Tamil Nadu, Christian leaders appealed for intervention from the National Commission For Minorities (NDTV, India)
  
  
• Bihar denies any forced conversions | Government says Hindu claims that 1,500 Dalits were coerced into Christianity are false (AFP)

• Conversions fuelled mob: Cops | For the first time since a pastor and several Christians were attacked in Bhiwandi, the police have said that conversions were taking place at the municipal school hall at Padma Nagar (Express News Service)
  
  
• Converts deny saffron activists attacked them | The victims themselves say that they were beaten up by their own brethren, who were angered by the conversions (The Times of India)

Persecution and violence:

• Attack on church condemned | The All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, Sindh and Balochistan chapters, has condemned the attack on a church in Chianawali, Daska, on Christmas day, terming it a conspiracy against minorities (Dawn, Karachi, Pakistan)
  
  
• Christians, Muslims clash in Iganga | Another dispute over slaughtering animals (The Monitor, Kampala, Uganda)
  
  
• Twenty-five Catholics killed for faith in 2002 | 10 in Colombia alone (Religion News Service)
  
  
• Religious tolerance imperative | The two separate but concurrent incidents that had unfolded themselves in recent weeks in Makalle and Addis Ababa are causes for concern with regard to religious tolerance and the meddling by the security forces in spritual affairs (Editorial, Addis Tribune, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
  
  
• Beijing authorities take hard line on Christian activist Hua Huiqi | Human Rights in China has learned that Beijing officials have retaliated against Christian activist Hua Huiqi and his family following their protests against forced removal for redevelopment of their neighborhood (HRIC)
  
  
• Metal detectors sent to Jibla Baptist hospital | Security patrols have also been increased at the Jibla Hospital following the Dec. 30 attack (Associated Press)

Religious freedom and interfaith relations:

• State dept. of confusion | Recently, the State Department released its annual International Religious Freedom Report condemning Israel's "discrimination" and lauding the Palestinian Authority for its "tolerance." (Gary Bauer, UPI)
  
  
• Vandals hit controversial billboard | A "Jews for Jesus" billboard in the Pico-Robertson area, whose very existence angered many members of the orthodox Jewish neighborhood, was defaced last week by vandals invoking the name of a controversial rabbi accused of terrorist acts (Los Angeles Independent)
  
  
• Everyone's religion is better than yours | Why you stayed home on Christmas morning (Aubrey Henretty, Michigan Daily)
  
  
• Speech down the Pipes | Daniel Pipes gets blackballed (Stanley Kurtz, National Review Online)
  
  
• How about a little respect for Tallahassee's faith community? | The Tallahassee Democrat missed the point of Christmas (Jim Nash, Tallahassee Democrat)

Politics and law:

• N. Koreans' dire plight described | Activists who work with refugees are touring U.S. churches, urging congregants to work toward toppling the Communist regime (Los Angeles Times)

• Preaching to the converted | With Bush in the White House, God is as much as ever at the heart of the American political project (Financial Times)
  
  

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January (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47