Wolrd Religion

U.S.-based International Christian Concern said the January 17 violence in the city of Udaipur in Rajastha beganwhen members of the radical Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsavak Sangh raided the Faith Calvary Church prayer meeting armed with machetes, axes and sticks "and proceeded to beat Pastor Surajth Bhagari and church members of the church."

Christians comprise just over two percent of India's mainly Hindu population of nearly 1.2 billion people, according tothe United States Central Intelligence Service.

There have been increased anti-Christian attacks reported by Hindu radical groups who oppose the spread of Christianity in India.

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A young Christian shopkeeper was sentenced to a life term in prison and fined more than $1,000 last week following a dubious conviction of desecrating the Quran, according to Pakistan's National Commission for Justice and Peace.

A conviction for blaspheming Muhammad (Section 295-C) is punishable by death under Pakistani's notorious blasphemy laws. Widely condemned by the international community as easily invoked to settle personal enmities, Pakistan's blasphemy laws have come under review in recent months, but to no avail.

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One of two brothers sentenced to death in Contra Costa County in 2005 for slaughtering five people in a bizarre murder-extortion plot designed to hasten Christ's return to Earth has been hospitalized after apparently trying to commit suicide.

The man's brother has enlisted him and a roommate in a cult-like plot to train Brazilian orphans to slaughter the leaders of the Mormon Church so he could become its prophet and "transform America."

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Michael Emack, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, pleaded no contest to the accusation of sexual assault of a child Friday, was found guilty and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Emack is the third of 10 FLDS members indicted, with trials scheduled to go on through December.

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