DONG SAVANH, Laos — Twelve members of a Christian family were driven from their Laotian village in February by individuals angry over the family’s practice of “foreign” religion.
The family’s home in the Dong Savanh village in Savannakhet province was burned in the Feb. 9 attack, according to a report by relief group Barnabas Fund. This incident followed another attack on the family in December. That time, individuals struck the family members and beat the coffin of their deceased father forcing them to bury the father in their own rice field, the report said.
Laos is a communist country with a predominately Buddhist population. In 2019, the government passed its Law on the Evangelical Church, giving Laotian Christians the right to conduct services and preach, the report said. But International Christian Concern said last year that Christians in Laos continue to face harassment by local officials and religious rights are still restricted, with officials deriding Christianity as an American import.
Laos is No. 26 on Open Doors’ 2022 World Watch List of places most difficult to be a Christian.
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