{"id":5497,"date":"2025-12-25T08:07:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T08:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/threats-at-christmas\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T08:07:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T08:07:07","slug":"threats-at-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/threats-at-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Threats at Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Due to increasing threats from Islamist rebel groups following a military coup in July 2023, Christians in Niger are taking extra precautions during the Christmas season. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very dangerous,&rdquo; said a Christian leader. &ldquo;Actually, we are stopping celebrating in the night.&rdquo; Previously, Christians would hold evening services, and young church members would sing Christmas songs through the streets before celebrating in homes. The Nigerien church leader added that, in the past, their Muslim neighbors would often wish them a happy Christmas. Now, however, Muslim neighbors are told it is a sin to say, &ldquo;Merry Christmas.&rdquo; He added that one Christian community had been planning to conduct a free medical clinic in their town, but now officials are demanding bribes for permission. The leader said, &ldquo;We are going to talk to God, and he&rsquo;ll find a way for these innocent people to be treated and see the love of Jesus.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/globalprayerguide\/niger\/\">Click here<\/a> to find out about Christian persecution in Niger and learn how to pray.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.icommittopray.com\/request\/2921\/christians-in-niger\/\" target=\"_blank\">Post a prayer for Christians in Niger on iCommitToPray.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Due to increasing threats from Islamist rebel groups following a military coup in July 2023, Christians in Niger are taking extra precautions during the Christmas season. &#8220;It&#8217;s very dangerous,&#8221; said a Christian leader. &#8220;Actually, we are stopping celebrating in the night.&#8221; Previously, Christians would hold evening services, and young church members would sing Christmas songs through the streets before celebrating in homes. The Nigerien church leader added that, in the past, their Muslim neighbors would often wish them a happy Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-i-commit-to-pray","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Threats at Christmas - Stories<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/threats-at-christmas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Threats at Christmas - Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Due to increasing threats from Islamist rebel groups following a military coup in July 2023, Christians in Niger are taking extra precautions during the Christmas season. &quot;It&#039;s very dangerous,&quot; said a Christian leader. &quot;Actually, we are stopping celebrating in the night.&quot; Previously, Christians would hold evening services, and young church members would sing Christmas songs through the streets before celebrating in homes. 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