Christianity in Afghanistan
[6] Afghanistan was number one on Open Doors’ 2022 World Watch List, an annual ranking of the 50 countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution.
[10] Despite societal restrictions, many sources claim that there is a secret underground community of Afghan Christians living in Afghanistan.
[13] Due to Afghanistan's hostile legal environment, Afghan Christians secretly practice their faith in private homes.
[28] An early third-century Syriac work known as the Acts of Thomas[27] connects the apostle's ministry with two kings, one in the north and the other in the south.
According to the Acts, Thomas was at first reluctant to accept this mission, but the Lord appeared to him in a night vision and compelled him to accompany an Indian merchant, Abbanes (or Habban), to his native place in northwest India.
There, Thomas found himself in the service of the Indo-Parthian (Southern Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Northern India) King, Gondophares.
[27] Bardaisan, writing in about 196, speaks of Christians throughout Media, Parthia, and Bactria[29] and, according to Tertullian (c.160–230), there were already a number of bishoprics within the Persian Empire by 220.
[30] By the time of the establishment of the Second Persian Empire (AD 226), there were bishops of the Church of the East in northwest India, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan, with laymen and clergy alike engaging in missionary activity.
In 424, Bishop Afrid of Sakastan, an area covering southern Afghanistan including Zaranj and Kandahar,[32] attended the Synod of Dadyeshu.
[36] The significance of the Christian community in Herat can be seen in that till today there is a district outside of the city named Injil,[37] The Arabic/Dari/Pashto word for Gospel.
[38] The Apostolic Church of the East established bishops in nine cities in Afghanistan including Herat (424–1310), Farah (544–1057),[38] Zaranj (544), Bushanj (585), Badghis (585) Kandahar, and Balkh.
[35][38] There are also ruins of a Nestorian convent from the 6th–7th centuries a short distance from Panj, Tajikistan on the north bank of the Amu Darya very close to the Afghan border, near Kunduz.
[43][44] There were Armenian merchants living in Kabul as early as 1667 who were in contact with the Jesuits in Mughal (modern day India).
[48] Anglican missionary Joseph Wolff preached to their descendants in Kabul in Persian in 1832; by his account, the community numbered about 23 people.
An article on this issue in the Englishman (Calcutta) dated 11 February 1907 stated: "These people in the time of the late Ameer Abdul Rahman had dwindled down to ten families.
[60] From 1990 to 1994, Father Giuseppe Moretti served as the only Catholic priest in Afghanistan,[61] but he was forced to leave in 1994 after being hit with shrapnel when the Italian embassy was attacked during the civil war, and he had to return to Italy.
The Islamic Center of Washington had recently been built in Washington, DC, for the Muslim diplomats there and President Eisenhower requested permission from King Zahir Shah to construct a Protestant church in Kabul on a reciprocal basis for the use of the diplomatic corp and expatriate community in Afghanistan.
However Muslims who converted to Christianity were subjected to societal and official pressure,[14][70] which may lead to confiscation of property, imprisonment, or death.
He further added “There are only Sikh and Hindu religious minority in Afghanistan that are completely free and safe to practice their religion,”[72] The Taliban took back power in Sept 2021.
