Indian police in Pune charged a church leader based in Great Britain under Maharashtra’s anti-conversion law eleven days before it came into force — and the interim bail order that followed contains a rare judicial proposition: an open door is not an invitation to convert. Elsewhere, the RSS held its coordination meeting without mentioning conversion, preferring the language of demographic imbalance; Shanghai reportedly extended curbs on Catholic practice to funeral rites; a Russian court fined three Baptists for missionary activity without saying what made it missionary.
Proselytism and Religious Outreach Worldwide: Conflicts, Policies, and Trends- 31 July – 7 August 2026
This week’s briefing opens on a paradox: Nigeria’s Senate has criminalised bus preaching — not under a religion law but under a road-safety act, and defends itself by noting the ban has sat quietly in traffic regulations since 2007. Elsewhere three traditions moved to police their own missionaries: Indonesia’s MUI certified a 49th cohort of preachers, Thailand’s overseas dhammaduta office met in Ulaanbaatar to map legal obstacles, and the IMB deployed physiotherapy where preaching is unwelcome. Plus Yad L’Achim confronts the IDF, and lay Christians outpace their pastors into AI.
Proselytism and Religious Outreach Worldwide: Conflicts, Policies, and Trends – Weekly Briefing – 21-27 March 2026
India has entered an accelerated phase of what might be called the “juridification of conversion.” – The “public Islam” controversy in Britain as a template. – The structural asymmetry of persecution coverage. – The centennial of World Mission Sunday in October 2026 will likely generate a significant volume of Catholic reflection on the theology and ethics of mission.