11/22/2019 Hong Kong (International Christian Concern) – More than 40 Hong Kong Christians who have been vocal or actively participate in the ongoing protests have received threatening messages to their WhatsApp accounts.
According to Christian Times (Hong Kong), more than dozens of Christians from different churches, seminary, publisher, or organizations have seen intimidating messages from unknown sources in their cell phones, demanding them to stop voicing their opinion with regards to current social movement.
These messages came from a few callers, mostly pay-as-you-go SIM card users. They seem to know lots of personal information of the targeted individuals, and used derogatory comments and profanity against these Christians, with threats such as “if you don’t stop voicing your opinion, all the members of your family will die,” or “your limbs will be chopped off.”
Assistant professor Dr. John Chan from the Alliance Bible Seminary is among the victims. He said he started receiving these messages in August. At first he didn’t pay much attention and just blocked the number. But when he shared with his other colleague and friends, he found out that four others have also received similar texts, so they have formed a group to talk about these verbal attacks. Up till now there are more than 30 victims in this group.
These senders also seem to be familiar with the personal lives of these recipients. “For instance, when Flow Church livestreamed a service recently, the sender watched it; if a certain preacher would be speaking this week, he also knows… He even knows who has a younger sister and where she works at,” John added. They are shocked by the extent of information the attackers are aware of.
The victims are concerned that their family members would be worried, but they decided to take action to make their stories known, so that the public can pay attention. They have not filed a police report because the general public has already lost trust in Hong Kong police.
Source: ICC www.persecution.org
