Proselytism.info

Proselytism and Religious Outreach Worldwide: Conflicts, Policies, and Trends – 26 September – 2 October 2026

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No. 28 – Generated by Claude AI

Covering the period: 26 September – 2 October 2026, with a few items from previous weeks

Table of Contents

  1. News: Debates, Reactions, and Conflicts over Missionary Activities
  2. Missionary Agency Reports and Data
  3. Documents on the Ethics of Missionary Work
  4. Academic Events and Publications
  5. Analysis

1. News: Debates, Reactions, and Conflicts over Missionary Activities

India — Chhattisgarh: churches post “Christians only” notices after more than a thousand self-declarations (Dhamtari, reported 25–28 September 2026)

More than ten churches in Dhamtari district have posted Hindi notices restricting worship to Christians. One reads: “According to rules, only Christians are allowed to enter this church for prayers. If others come of their own free will, they would be held responsible.” Another: “Worship here is exclusively for Christians; if you are not legally a Christian, you will be held [personally responsible].” The churches include the 116-year-old Sunderganj Mennonite Church. International Christian Concern, an advocacy organisation, puts the number of churches at over forty. That figure rests on that single source.

The background matters more than the notices. The Chhattisgarh Freedom of Religion Act 2026 came into force in August. After that, more than 1,000 non-Christians who attend churches filed self-declarations with the district authorities stating that their attendance was voluntary. Hindu organisations treated the filings as evidence of conversion activity, and the matter was taken up at a district collectorate meeting on 15 September. Diamond Filus, general secretary of the Dhamtari District Christian Forum, told reporters the notices were a “precautionary measure”. He said Hindutva activists have disrupted prayer meetings since the BJP returned to power in 2023.

[Sources: Scroll, English, 25 September 2026; International Christian Concern, English (Christian advocacy), 28 September 2026]

Why it matters: this is the first case this briefing has seen of a receiving community turning the statute’s logic on itself. Some churches are now excluding seekers in order not to be accused of receiving them. It is also a second instance, after the Betul “consent letters” reported on 26 September, of documents meant to prove voluntariness turning into evidence of exposure (see Analysis, §1).

India — Rajasthan High Court reads the State’s 2025 Act: “does not ban conversion as such” (Jodhpur/Jaipur, 29 September 2026)

Justice Ashok Kumar Jain, sitting alone, dismissed a criminal revision petition by three accused in a case from Sri Karanpur (Sri Ganganagar district). The FIR was registered on 19 December 2025 on the complaint of Sharad Gumbar. It combines:

  • sections 3 and 5 of the Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act 2025;
  • section 14(A) of the Foreigners Act, because foreign nationals are among the accused;
  • section 223(B) of the BNS.

The allegations are prayer groups, disparagement of Hindu deities, and claims of supernatural healing. The petitioners said they only held twice-weekly prayers and Bible readings, and that “there was no evidence that they had induced, coerced, or provided misleading information to anyone”. The court held that the police material “establishes a prima facie basis”. It also said that the Act criminalises conversion by prohibited means rather than conversion itself, and that Article 25 rights are subject to public order.

[Source: IANS wire via Social News XYZ, English, 29 September 2026. The judgment itself was not located on the High Court’s website; this rests on the wire report. The nationality of the foreign accused is not given.]

This is an early High Court reading of the 2025 Act. Two points stand out. Healing claims are treated as evidence of “misrepresentation”. And immigration law is again doing work alongside the religion statute: the Foreigners Act sits in the same FIR.

India — the week in the Hindi press: Mirzapur, Betul, Raipur, Shamli, Sangli (26 September – 1 October 2026)

All but one of the reports below come from mainstream Hindi media (Amar Ujala, AajTak), which tend to reproduce police and Hindu-organisation framing. The Raipur case is the exception: it is a family dispute rather than a police raid. Every item here is an allegation, not a finding.

India — West Bengal, a state without an anti-conversion law: some 35 incidents since July (Nerodighi, 27 September; Alt News tally, 26 September 2026)

On 27 September, BJP and Bajrang Dal activists broke up a Christian prayer meeting at Lok Gopal Bhavan in Nerodighi (Purba Bardhaman). Organisers say worshippers were assaulted, equipment was taken, and women were made to do sit-ups holding their ears while being accused of taking money to convert. A BJP district spokesman distanced the party from the attack. A Bajrang Dal functionary, Indranil Sai, defended it as a protest against “exploitation”. [Source: Siasat Daily, English (Hyderabad; minority-rights framing), 27 September 2026]

The fact-checking site Alt News counts about 35 attacks on Christians in West Bengal between July and 20 September 2026, attributed to the VHP, Bajrang Dal, Hindu Jagran Manch and Durga Vahini. Herold Mullick of the Bangiya Christiya Pariseba is quoted saying FIRs produce no action against the attackers. [Source: Alt News, English, 26 September 2026; AsiaNews (PIME), 22 September 2026]

West Bengal has no Freedom of Religion Act. That supports a point this briefing has made before: vigilante mobilisation does not depend on a statute. A statute changes how the mobilisation ends (an FIR against the converter) more than whether it happens.

India — ghar wapsi in Jhansi, and Baba Ramdev’s “every Muslim in India is a convert” (27 September – 1 October 2026)

This continues the “homecoming” thread opened on 26 September (Kerala ghar wapsi; the “neo-paganism” of the Nigerian bishops). Ramdev’s formulation is the maximal version: an entire religious community is defined as a population of converts, and so as a population eligible for return.

Indonesia — a church permit contested in the language of administrative transparency (Palu, Central Sulawesi, 26 September – 2 October 2026)

The Gereja Kasih Anugerah on Jl. Tanjung Tada (Lolu Selatan, Palu) holds a building approval (PBG) from the city, a recommendation from the Religious Affairs office and one from the local interfaith forum (FKUB). Residents opposed its groundbreaking on 13 September. The developments in the window:

An objection that any observer would read as religious is pleaded entirely as a dispute about permits. This is the Indonesian counterpart of Russia’s fire-safety ban (Abinsk, reported 26 September).

Malaysia — the Court of Appeal returns a would-be convert from Islam to the Syariah courts (Putrajaya, 25 September 2026)

A three-judge bench (Mohd Firuz Jaffril, Faizah Jamaludin, Meor Hashimi Abdul Hamid) unanimously allowed the appeals of the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Council (MAIWP) and the government. The court struck out the civil suit of a man seeking recognition as a Sikh under the name Bilawal Singh Bhutter. It held that under Article 121(1A) of the Federal Constitution, leaving Islam is a matter for the Syariah Court. [Source: Malay Mail, English, 25 September 2026.]

This is a reminder that in several Muslim-majority legal orders the conflict sits at the exit, not the entry: the question is not who may persuade, but which court may record that persuasion has succeeded.

Algeria — twelve Christians detained at worship under Ordinance 06-03 (L’Ayaida, near Oran, 4 September 2026)

Police detained twelve Christians meeting at the “House of Refuge” shelter in L’Ayaida, about 36 km east of Oran. The shelter’s worship hall was administratively closed in October 2019. Police seized Christian literature, phones and identity cards. Women were released the next morning; some men were held until 3 a.m. Ordinance 06-03 penalises unauthorised collective non-Muslim worship and acts that “shake the faith of a Muslim”, with two to five years’ imprisonment and fines of 500,000–1,000,000 dinars. At the time of reporting no one had been brought before a prosecutor. [Source: Morning Star News, English, 14 September 2026 (Christian persecution-watch; correspondent anonymous)]

Pakistan — follow-up on the Ahmadiyya: an FIR that omits the motive (Faisalabad, 21 September; reported 30 September – 1 October 2026)

The previous issue noted the Sargodha shootings (19 September) and the Mandi Bahauddin killing (2 September). A further incident has now been reported. Hamid Javed, an Ahmadi, was stabbed near his home in Lathianwala, Faisalabad, on 21 September. Ahmadi advocacy bodies point out that the police FIR (no. 1670/26) records no religious motive. CAP Freedom of Conscience has called for an impartial investigation. [Sources: Daily Asian Age, English, 1 October 2026; The Muslim Times, English (pro-Ahmadi), 30 September 2026, carrying IANS. Both rest on Ahmadi advocacy sources.]

Pakistan — a Hindu minor recovered six months after abduction and conversion (Sindh, 26 September 2026)

A 15-year-old Hindu girl, abducted near Mirpurkhas, was recovered near Badin six months after being converted and married. Faqir Shiva Kachhi of Pakistan Darawar Ittehad announced the recovery and cited further cases in Tando Allahyar. [Source: ETV Bharat, English (Indian outlet), 29 September 2026. Single source, relayed from an advocacy figure.]

Russia — the week on SOVA: a fine for “illegal missionary activity”, donations as crimes, and a Scientology course as “participation” (28 September – 2 October 2026)

  • Kiselyovsk, Kemerovo Region. The city court fined a resident identified only as “Aleksei I.” 5,000 roubles under Art. 5.26 §4 KoAP (missionary activity in breach of the religion law). The decision is dated 18 September. Neither his religious affiliation nor the conduct penalised is stated. SOVA’s source is the Telegram channel “Кузбасс без экстремизма”, which appears to be run by law enforcement. [Source: SOVA Centre, Russian, «Житель Киселевска оштрафован за “незаконное миссионерство”» / “Kiselyovsk resident fined for ‘illegal missionary activity'”, 30 September 2026]. The publicity is coming from the enforcer itself, a point worth noting.
  • Kuban. Gulkevichi District Court gave Tatyana Khodokova three years suspended under Art. 284.1 §2 UK for 13 transfers totalling 34,395 roubles to two Ukrainian religious organisations listed as “undesirable”. She pleaded guilty. Comparable donation cases were reported the same week from Barnaul, Yekaterinburg, Bryansk and St Petersburg. [Source: SOVA Centre, Russian, «Жительница Кубани приговорена к условному сроку за финансирование нежелательных религиозных организаций» / “Kuban resident given suspended sentence for financing undesirable religious organisations”, 1 October 2026]
  • St Petersburg. Nikolai Titkov was fined 5,000 roubles under Art. 20.33 KoAP for advertising L. Ron Hubbard’s four-volume Management Course for 180,000 roubles. The “undesirable” organisation cited is the Church of Spiritual Technology. [Source: SOVA Centre, d54614, Russian, 30 September 2026]. Offering a course for sale is treated as participation in a banned body. This is the commercial edge of the outreach-regulation regime.
  • Birobidzhan. A Jehovah’s Witness, Natalya Kocheva, was fined 40,000 roubles under Art. 282.2 §2 UK, below the statutory minimum; the prosecution had sought three years suspended. [Source: SOVA Centre, Russian, 2 October 2026]

Russia — fifteen children removed from a banned Orthodox splinter group (Ulyanovsk, 2 October 2026)

Zavolzhsky District Court granted the regional social-protection ministry’s claim. It stripped members of the banned “Russian Orthodox Church ‘Tsarist Empire'” («Царская империя») of parental rights and took fifteen children into state care. The court found that the children had been kept in isolation, that identity documents and birth certificates had been destroyed, and that schooling and medical care had been refused. The parents’ freedom-of-conscience defence and their “special approach to education” were rejected. [Sources: Ulpressa, Russian, «Суд изъял 15 детей у сектантов в Ульяновской области и лишил родителей прав» / “Court removes 15 children from sect members in Ulyanovsk region and strips parents of rights”, 2 October 2026; 73online, Russian, 2 October 2026. Both are regional outlets close to the official line.]

This is not a proselytism case in the narrow sense. It belongs to the anti-sekta register of the Russian state. The vocabulary is сектанты (“sectarians”), and the story was picked up by the Orthodox anti-cult milieu. Here, as in Maine’s Bradeen v. Bickford, the harm is constructed around children’s development rather than belief.

Iran — HRANA’s September tally (1 October 2026)

HRANA recorded 23 arrests of members of religious minorities in September 2026, together with summonses, eleven home searches and five assaults. The Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced three Baha’is to a combined 35 years. Christian converts are not broken out separately. [Source: HRANA, English (exile human-rights NGO), 1 October 2026]

Israel — Yad L’Achim’s English-language recaps (2 October 2026)

Yad L’Achim’s English site published two items. One recaps its campaign against the Café Basimta (Hapoel Jerusalem’s withdrawal of sponsorship); the other covers its Sukkot outreach booklet in Russian and Arabic. Both stories were reported here on 12 and 26 September. The only new element is the organisation’s claim that it is “pursuing legal action”, with no court or filing named. Its spokesman’s framing is: “When the facts are brought to the attention of the public, the Jewish heart awakens.” [Source: Yad L’Achim (English), 2 October 2026]

2. Missionary Agency Reports and Data

Wycliffe — 807 complete Bibles, and a record year (statistics updated 1 September 2026; reported 30 September 2026)

Wycliffe UK’s annual figures:

  • 807 languages now have a complete Bible (800 a year ago).
  • 28 complete-Bible launches in the past year, which Wycliffe calls the highest single-year total on record, plus 70 New Testaments.
  • 101 million people received a full Bible in their own language for the first time.
  • Translation is under way in 4,414 languages. 3,224 languages still have no Scripture, and 1,688 have neither Scripture nor a project.
  • Of 383 sign languages, only American Sign Language has a complete Bible.

Wycliffe’s own framing: “The day is getting closer when everyone has access to God’s word in their own language, thanks to the amazing momentum in the work of Bible translation.” [Sources: Wycliffe UK statistics page, “Updated: 1 September 2026”; Christian Today, English, 30 September 2026]

Jehovah’s Witnesses — the New World Translation reaches 350 languages (25 September 2026)

Bible books were released in 14 languages during August 2026, among them Guerrero Nahuatl, White Hmong, Kurmanji Kurdish, Sepedi and Kwanyama. Attendance at release events ranged from 187 to 13,593. The New World Translation “is now available in whole or in part in 350 languages“. [Source: jw.org, English, 25 September 2026]

Set beside Wycliffe, this week supplies two independent counts of the same activity, vernacular Scripture, from two missionary cultures. Each tradition uses its count as its own measure of progress.

Southern Baptist IMB — “souls should care for souls”: an AI award, and a campus-planting target for Seoul (28 September and 1 October 2026)

  • AI and innovation (28 September). Don Barger, the IMB’s Director of Innovation and Artificial Intelligence, received Missio Nexus’s 2026 Excelerate Award at the Mission Leaders Conference in Orlando (24 September). The IMB’s AI framework rests on the principle that “souls should care for souls”: AI takes administrative load and does not replace spiritual care or counselling. Barger defines innovation as “a willingness to ask new questions and explore new approaches while remaining faithful to biblical truth”. His team built faithbot.tools, a suite of AI tools for evangelicals. [Source: IMB newsroom, 28 September 2026. The page would not load; details are from the Biblical Recorder reprint.]
  • Seoul (1 October). Missionaries Hun and Eunjoo Sol aim to plant churches on all 48 university campuses in Seoul by the end of 2028. They frame the mission through the Korean concept of han, “a deep sorrow shaped by generations of war, division, loss”. They target lonely students, including those at risk of suicide. Hun Sol: “Many people think that Korea is exciting and successful… But many Korean people are struggling right now.” Their methods are English clubs, trauma-healing training, prayer walks and the “3 Circles” tool. [Source: IMB newsroom, 1 October 2026]

The Seoul item is a good example of contextual adaptation to a majority-Christian-adjacent, highly secularised urban setting. A local cultural category of suffering (han) is adopted as the missionary’s diagnosis of need.

Seventh-day Adventist Church — OneVoice27: 47.5 million followers, and an “Integrated Mission Pathway” (27 September and 1 October 2026)

  • South America (27 September). More than 250 Adventist content creators with a combined 47.5 million followers met for three days at the Nuevo Tiempo headquarters in Jacareí, Brazil. GC media administrator Odailson Fonseca: “Be yourself on social media, but maintain a missionary focus. Always preserve your identity, mission, message, truth, relevance, and authenticity.” The meeting included the baptism of a woman who found the church through a pastor’s Instagram video. [Source: ANN, 27 September 2026. This is a separate regional meeting from the GC Creator Summit at Silver Spring reported on 25 July.]
  • Southern Asia-Pacific (meeting 20–23 September, Bangkok; reported 1 October). The Division adopted “One Mission. One Strategy. One Voice.” It also adopted an “Integrated Mission Pathway” that hands digital contacts to local congregations through five touchpoints: church media, digital evangelists, bridging events, local programmes and local presence. A shared multilingual media database is planned, with a 30/60/90-day rollout. The key sentence: “Technology may initiate a conversation, but discipleship requires relationships.” [Source: ANN, 1 October 2026]
  • Fiji. Adventist Record reports that “Fiji for Christ [held from August 16–29] concluded with more than 4000 baptisms” (29 September 2026). “With the main campaign concluded, Fiji Mission (FM) is now focusing on follow-up and discipleship for newly baptised members. Local churches will provide ongoing support through Bible studies, small groups, Sabbath school, health ministry and other church activities.” Link

Catholic Church — a new foundation for the Dicastery’s Roman colleges; mission in Ethiopia’s Bale and among Vietnam’s highland minorities (29 September – 2 October 2026)

  • “Donum Missionis” (1 October). A new foundation merges “Domus Missionalis” and “Domus Urbaniana” (both founded in 2005) with effect from 1 November 2026. Pope Leo XIV approved its statutes on 28 July 2026, and it has an initial endowment of €1 million. It will manage the Roman colleges of the Dicastery for Evangelization:
    • the Pontifical Urban College (about 170 seminarians; 400th anniversary in 2027);
    • the priests’ colleges of St Peter, St Paul and St Joseph;
    • Mater Ecclesiae (about 130 sisters);
    • the International Centre for Missionary Formation (CIAM).

    More than 600 priests pass through these colleges each year. [Source: Agenzia Fides, English, 1 October 2026] This is the formation infrastructure of the “Church of the Sheaves”: the Roman institutions through which mission-territory clergy pass are being consolidated.

  • Ethiopia, East Bale (29 September). The Villaregia Missionary Community has moved from Robe to Ghinnir, an overwhelmingly Muslim area. It rents rather than owns its housing and aims at “a presence of relationship, listening, service and fraternity”. Fr Emanuele Ciccia says proclamation there comes through lived Gospel values rather than direct evangelisation. [Source: Agenzia Fides, “How can we be Church where there is not yet a Church?”, 29 September 2026] A restricted-context method stated by the missionaries themselves.
  • Northern Vietnam (30 September). In Păc Năm parish (Diocese of Bắc Ninh, erected 4 October 2025), nearly 500 H’Mông, Tày, Red Dao and Sán Chí Catholics are recorded, with more than 200 baptisms in 2025–26. 105 catechumens were baptised on 25 August 2026, and a Marian statue in Hmong dress was blessed. The pastor, Fr Peter Nguyễn Quang Doãn CSsR: “to proclaim the Gospel, firstly one must understand the local culture, empathize with people’s circumstances, and walk alongside with them.” [Source: Agenzia Fides, 30 September 2026]
  • World Mission Day centenary (18 October). Revue Mission interviewed Fr Dinh Anh Nhue Nguyen OFMConv, Secretary General of the Pontifical Missionary Union: « Un dans le Christ, unis dans la mission » / “One in Christ, united in mission”. The title echoes Leo XIV’s message for the day. Key line: « le Christ appelle tous les baptisés à la Mission » / “Christ calls all the baptised to Mission”. [Source: Revue Mission, French, 25 September 2026]

Muslim World League — Brussels, and the EU’s Article 17 dialogue (28 September – 2 October 2026)

MWL Secretary-General Mohammed Al-Issa had a series of meetings:

  • in New York (28 September) with former Senegalese president Macky Sall;
  • in Brussels with Peter De Roover, President of the Belgian Chamber (30 September);
  • with Interior Minister Bernard Quintin, on “religious, intellectual and security issues” (1 October);
  • with European Parliament leaders on implementing Article 17 TFEU, the treaty basis for the EU’s “open, transparent and regular dialogue” with churches and religious organisations (2 October).

[Sources: MWL — Belgian Interior Ministry, 1 October 2026; MWL — European Parliament, 2 October 2026. These are the official Saudi-funded channel.]

The MWL’s own account does not mention the history, but it is relevant. Belgium ended the MWL’s management of the Great Mosque of Brussels in 2018 on security grounds. The League is now approaching Belgium’s interior ministry as a partner on security. Read with the AI corpus initiative reported on 26 September, it shows an organisation repositioning itself from a da’wa funder to an interlocutor of states and institutions.

Turkish da’wa — conversion certificates for ex-Soviet citizens, and a 40th mosque in Nigeria (22–25 September 2026)

Both outlets are pro-government and religious-conservative. Together with the Diyanet’s standing Department for Converts’ Affairs, these items show that conversion is reported in Turkish media as a routine bureaucratic event: a certificate, a mufti’s office, a statistic.

3. Documents on the Ethics of Missionary Work

No new institutional code of mission ethics appeared this week. Four statements are normative in substance. Their status is given in each case.

A court’s articulation: conversion lawful, means regulated (Rajasthan High Court, 29 September 2026)

Justice Jain’s statement is reported only through the wire, not the text of the order. It says the Rajasthan Act “does not prohibit conversion” but criminalises its prohibited means. This is the standard self-description of the Indian statutes. What is notable is the material the court accepted as prima facie evidence of prohibited means: small prayer groups, disparagement of deities, and claims of healing. (Status: judicial reasoning, reported second-hand.)

An agency’s governing principle for AI in mission: “souls should care for souls” (IMB, 28 September 2026)

The IMB’s AI framework draws an explicit line. Automation is legitimate for administration and illegitimate for spiritual care. This is the agency’s own boundary between tool and witness. (Status: agency method statement, reported in an award announcement; the framework document itself was not located.)

“Technology may initiate a conversation, but discipleship requires relationships” (Adventist Southern Asia-Pacific Division, reported 1 October 2026)

The Integrated Mission Pathway turns this principle into procedure: every digital contact must be handed to a local, embodied community. Read with the Durban statement reported on 26 September (“digital missionaries must communicate honestly”), the Adventist position is becoming clear. The digital layer is legitimate as first contact, not as the locus of conversion. (Status: divisional strategy document as reported by ANN.)

Two scholarly normative proposals

Gaetano Sabetta proposes reading Christian mission and Islamic da’wa as “parallel grammars” that have both moved from conversion-centredness towards ethical responsibility and public witness. Faizan Mustafa proposes individual autonomy as the test for India’s anti-conversion statutes. Both are listed in Section 4. (Status: academic articles.)

4. Academic Events and Publications

New journal articles

1. Faizan Mustafa, “Faith, Privacy, and Abuse of Anti-conversion Laws.” Economic & Political Weekly 61(26–27), commentary. The issue on the landing page is dated 4 July 2026; Crossref gives 19 July 2026. DOI: 10.71279/epw.v61i26-27.47004. A leading Indian constitutional scholar reads the state anti-conversion laws against the Supreme Court’s privacy jurisprudence. He argues that they criminalise conversion “under the guise of protection”, lend institutional form to the “love jihad” narrative, and should be tested against individual autonomy.

2. Gaetano Sabetta, “Parallel Grammars of Engagement: Reframing Mission Studies and Da’wah fī Sabīl Allāh in Comparative Missiology.” Religions 17(8), art. 961, published 14 August 2026. DOI: 10.3390/rel17080961. The article compares mission and da’wa along three axes: divine agency, human mediation, and how truth is communicated. It argues that both have moved beyond conversion-centredness towards ethical responsibility and dialogue. Sabetta is co-editor of the Religions special issue on da’wa and mission that this briefing has been watching since June.

3. Ts. Tsetsenbileg, A. B. Tsydenov, V. A. Rodionov, «Два буддизма в социальной сети “ВКонтакте”: религиозная конверсия и этнорелигиозная традиция» / “‘Two Buddhisms’ on the VKontakte Social Network: Religious Conversion and Ethno-Religious Tradition.” Vestnik Instituta Sotziologii 17(3): 195–214, published 30 September 2026 (Crossref). DOI: 10.19181/vis.2026.17.3.11. Using VKontakte profiles, the authors compare ethnic Buddhists (Buryatia, Tuva, Kalmykia) with convert Buddhists elsewhere in Russia. Converts are mostly younger men who came through individual choice and horizontal networks. Ethnic Buddhism is transmitted through the family as collective identity. A rare data-based study of Buddhist conversion inside Russia.

4. Bernard Doherty, “From Conversion to Coercion: The Changing Public Perception of Shincheonji in Contemporary Australia.” Journal for the Academic Study of Religion 39(1): 63–86, online 23 July 2026. DOI: 10.1558/jasr.35369. Doherty traces how the Korean new religious movement Shincheonji went from “an obscure Korean group with a small membership to a highly visible and actively proselytizing ‘threat'” in Australia between 2018 and 2024. Media coverage and countermobilisation by former members revived “cult menace” narratives and led to increased social-control measures. **Directly on the anti-cult side of the beat.

5. Susan J. Palmer, “Cult Apologists or Objective Social Scientists?” International Journal for the Study of New Religions 16(2): 240–258, online 16 September 2026. DOI: 10.1558/ijsnr.36407. A review essay answering Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi’s 2025 charge that scholars of new religious movements engaged in “collaborationism” and were compensated by groups to downplay their activities. Palmer contests the allegation, criticises Beit-Hallahmi’s method and discusses proper researcher–subject boundaries. This continues a long dispute that shapes how anti-cult movements use or reject scholarship.

6. Emil Arca, “Reframing ‘Balik-Islam’: A Constructivist Analysis of Perceived Links Between Religious Conversion and Terrorism in the Philippines.” Innovare Journal of Social Sciences 14(4): 6–10, 1 July 2026. DOI: 10.22159/ijss.2026v14i4.59570. A short review of twelve sources from 2020–25. It finds that the supposed link between Filipino converts to Islam (“reverts”, Balik-Islam) and extremism comes from incident amplification, not evidence. It recommends behaviour-based rather than identity-based risk assessment. Slight; included for its subject, the securitisation of conversion to Islam in a Christian-majority state.

7. Victor Taiwo Odewale, “Digital Evangelism and the Mediatization of Nigerian Pentecostalism: New Media and the Transformation of Religious Communication in the Twenty-First Century.” European Scientific Journal 22(20): 76ff., 31 July 2026. DOI: 10.19044/esj.2026.v22n20p76. Major Nigerian Pentecostal ministries use livestreaming and social media for transnational evangelism. The author finds global reach alongside commercialisation, doctrinal fragmentation and “virtualisation”. **An African counterpart to this week’s Adventist and IMB digital-mission statements.

8. Kingsford Gyasi Amakye & Grace Sintim Adasi, “Conflict, Faith and Coexistence: Exploring Religious Tensions between the Ahmadiyya Mission and Orthodox Muslims in Wa, Ghana.” Ghana Journal of Science, Technology and Development 11(2): 21–37, 1 July 2026. DOI: 10.47881/536.967x. From the record: a qualitative study of relations between the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission and orthodox Muslims in Wa. An intra-Islamic missionary-competition case from West Africa.

9. Rishiram Adhikari & Chandra P. Dhakal, “The Effect of Religious Conversion on the Preservation of Indigenous Knowledge System in Nepal.” Journal of Indigenous Knowledge and Practice 2(1): 16–32, 17 August 2026. DOI: 10.3126/jikap.v2i1.98109. An interview study from Chitwan on the effect of Christian conversion on Indigenous ritual knowledge. The sample is very small (five interviewees). It is relevant because the “cultural loss” argument is central to Nepal’s anti-conversion discourse.

10. Tobias Johannes Schuckert, “Mission in and from Germany: The Understanding of Mission in the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg — a Critical Missiological Reflection.” International Bulletin of Mission Research 50(3): 268–279, July 2026. DOI: 10.1177/23969393251385916. A critical reading of the Württemberg synod’s 2024 paper Mission verstehen und als Kirche leben, compared with its 1975 predecessor. A window onto intra-Protestant disagreement about what “mission” may mean in a secularised sending church.

11. Tonatiuh Delgado Rendón, «Tensión y disenso en el proceso de evangelización de un pueblo nahua de Guerrero» / “Tension and Dissent in the Evangelization Process of a Nahua People of Guerrero.” Revista Universitaria Digital de Ciencias Sociales 17(33): 69–89, 14 August 2026. DOI: 10.22201/fesc.20072236e.2026.17.33.4. Ethnography from Atliaca (fieldwork 2022–23) of a clergy-led Catholic re-evangelisation drive. Traditional authorities resist it in defence of el costumbre. Intra-Catholic missionary conflict documented from the inside, the category this briefing has flagged as under-documented.

12. Isaac Donoso, “Makhdūmūn and Easternmost Dawah in Early Modern Philippines.” Islam Nusantara 7(2): 1–24, 1 July 2026. DOI: 10.47776/islamnusantara.v7i2.1735. Reconstructs Islamic missionary activity by the makhdūmūn in the pre-colonial and early Spanish Philippines, and its suppression in the course of Catholic evangelisation. Historical.

Books

  • Mou Banerjee, The Disinherited: The Politics of Christian Conversion in Colonial India (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press). ISBN 978-0-674-26803-6 (publisher’s page). This is a 2025 book, not new. It is listed because it has not appeared in this briefing before and was reviewed in IBMR 50(3), July 2026 (review DOI). It is directly on the colonial roots of the Indian conversion debate.
  • Reviews in Missiology, September 2026 (Crossref review records; book ISBNs not yet verified, so the books are listed by review only):
    • Harvey Kwiyani, Decolonizing Mission (review);
    • Holly Berkley Fletcher, The Missionary Kids (review);
    • Corrigan, McAlister & Schäfer (eds.), Global Faith, Worldly Power: Evangelical Internationalism and U.S. Empire (review).

Conferences and diary

  • LDS General Conference, Salt Lake City, 3–4 October 2026: watch for missionary-force announcements.
  • Centenary of World Mission Day, 18 October 2026. Leo XIV’s message: “One in Christ, united in mission.”
  • Global Missiology special issue, “Christian Conversion and Mission”: October 2026.
  • IAMS Europe 2027, Paris, 24–27 June 2027. iamsparis2027.eu

5. Analysis

1. The paperwork of voluntariness becomes the evidence of exposure

The statutes themselves put voluntariness at the centre: conversion is lawful unless it comes by force, fraud or allurement. Communities have responded by documenting their own consent. Two fortnights in a row show where that leads.

  • Betul (reported 26 September). Police seized “consent letters” as evidence alongside the literature and the phones.
  • Dhamtari (this week). More than a thousand non-Christians filed sworn self-declarations that their church attendance was voluntary. The filings did not protect them. They became a census of exposure, which Hindu organisations took to the collectorate. The churches’ answer was to close the door to seekers, with notices warning that anyone who enters does so “at their own risk”.
  • Jhansi. The reconverting family filed identity papers with the district before the temple rite.

Three things follow.

First, this extends the “someone saw” thesis: the offence is constituted by a witness rather than a convert. The witness can now be a document the hearer was induced to file in their own defence.

Second, the burden has moved. In Dhamtari the congregation, not the state, now enforces a boundary between members and enquirers. The statute has produced, without any prosecution, the closed church that its critics feared and that no legislator proposed.

Third, comparison sharpens the point. In Malaysia (Court of Appeal, 25 September) the conflict lies at the registration of exit. In Turkey a mufti issues a conversion certificate as a routine administrative act. Across these orders conversion is governed through the record of it. The decisive question is who keeps the register rather than who did the persuading.

2. Administrative language as the preferred register of objection

Three cases from this and recent issues share a pattern:

  • Palu: residents oppose a church in the language of “administrative regulations and public transparency”;
  • Betul: police ask whether a mission school is “recognised” and the gathering “permitted”;
  • Abinsk (reported 26 September): a Baptist is banned from missionary activity on fire-safety and anti-terror grounds.

Earlier cases on the same list include Nigeria’s road-safety bill and India’s Foreigners Act (again this week in the Rajasthan FIR).

The pattern is now consistent across three legal cultures with no contact between them. Opponents of outreach increasingly prefer the neutral register of permits, safety and immigration to the religious register. It wins in court, it avoids the charge of intolerance, and it borrows the state’s legitimacy. The comparative literature on “anti-conversion law” therefore looks at the wrong instrument. The anti-conversion statute is the visible tip of a regime that operates mostly through generic administrative law.

Russia this week adds the commercial variant. Offering a Scientology management course for sale is treated as participation in an undesirable organisation, and small donations are prosecuted as financing.

3. Missionary agencies draw their own line around the machine

Three Christian bodies have now stated, independently, where digital and automated outreach must stop:

  • IMB: “souls should care for souls”;
  • Adventist Southern Asia-Pacific Division: “Technology may initiate a conversation, but discipleship requires relationships”;
  • Adventist South American creators (47.5 million followers): told to “maintain a missionary focus” while being “yourself”.

The line falls in the same place each time. The machine may make first contact; the conversion must be embodied and communal. This is a missionary self-limitation that no regulator has required. It deserves to be set beside the internal da’wa ethics this briefing has followed in Indonesia, where the risk is located in the preacher’s commercial motive, and beside the MWL’s corpus strategy (26 September), which pushes in the opposite direction: da’wa through the training data of AI systems, with no human contact intended at all.

The comparative question this raises is whether the Christian agencies’ insistence on embodiment is theological (incarnational) or strategic (retention of converts). The Adventist “Integrated Mission Pathway” and its handover from digital contact to local congregation suggests both.

4. “Every Muslim is a convert”: the homecoming frame at full extension

The 26 September issue noted the same act of return named ghar wapsi in Kerala and “neo-paganism” by Nigerian bishops. Baba Ramdev’s statement takes the homecoming frame to its limit. If every Indian Muslim is a convert, then all of Indian Islam is, in principle, a population eligible for return, and Hindu reconversion becomes recovery rather than proselytism.

The rhetorical move is not new; it underlies the Arya Samaj śuddhi campaigns of the 1920s. Its comparative counterpart is the Islamic doctrine of fiṭra used in da’wa, in which converts are “reverts” (the Philippine Balik-Islam of this week’s Section 4). Each tradition that makes the homecoming claim defines its own outreach as non-proselytising, while treating the other’s as proselytism. The Indian statutes write this asymmetry into law: several (Uttar Pradesh 2021, Madhya Pradesh 2021, Uttarakhand among them) exclude a return to one’s “immediate previous” or ancestral religion from the definition of conversion. On this point the statutes have adopted one tradition’s theology of return as their definition of the offence.

All sources cited are hyperlinked to their original locations. Corrections and additions welcome.

This text was generated by Claude (Anthropic), Claude Opus 5.5, on 2 October 2026. It has been published after editing. https://claude.ai.

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