Afghanistan:
President Hamid Karzai
Islamic state. Fighting a war against Taliban insurgency.
Algeria:
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Islamic state. Troubled by al-Qaeda terrorism. Government appeasing Islamists for political gain.
Azerbaijan:
President Ilham Aliyev
Christian/Sunni/Shia religious fault-line state. Trying to balance liberty and security.
Bangladesh: (now under emergency rule)
General Moeen Uddin Ahmed
Fakhruddin Ahmed (head of caretaker government)
Increasingly intolerant Muslim state.
Belarus:
President Aleksandr Lukashenko
Repressive dictatorship. State persecutes Protestants for political gain and for geopolitical reasons.
Bhutan:
King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck
Prime Minister Jigmi Yoezer Thinley
Formerly a Buddhist Kingdom, now making the delicate transition to constitutional democracy.
Bosnia:
Presidents Haris Silajdzic (Muslim) Nebojsa Radmanovic (Serb, Orthodox) Zeljko Komsic (Croat, Catholic)
Threat of Muslim domination makes peace tenuous.
Burma (Myanmar):
General Than Shwe
Repressive, corrupt, racist, military dictatorship.
China:
President Hu Jintao
Premier Wen Jiabao
An expansive multi-cultural nation in transition.
Colombia:
President Alvaro Uribe
Church is in frontline with government in fight against corruption, drug trafficking and kidnapping.
Cuba:
President Raul Castro
Repressive socialist dictatorship possibly reforming under new leadership.
Egypt:
President Hosni Mubarak
Islamic state. Muslim intolerance and violence growing.
Eritrea:
President Isaias Afwerki
Brutal dictatorship. Some 2000 Christians imprisoned. Torture rampant.
Georgia:
President Mikhail Saakashvili
Ancient Christian nation. Sovereignty and security under threat from Russian-backed ethnic separatism, particularly in the self-declared independent Muslim "Republic of Abkhazia", headed by 'President' Sergey Bagapsh and self-declared independent South Ossetia, headed by 'President' Eduard Kokoity.
India:
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh
World's most populous democracy. Religious liberty gravely at risk due to growing popularity of intolerant and militant Hindu nationalism.
Indonesia:
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
World's most populous Muslim state. Islamic fundamentalism and intolerance rising. In Papua, the indigenous, predominantly Christian Papuans are facing a slow genocide.
Iran:
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Brutally repressive, Islamic revolutionary Shi'ite theocracy.
Iraq:
President Jalal Talabani
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
Islamic state wracked with religious intolerance, insecurity, terrorism and sectarian conflict. Indigenous Assyrian Christian minority is being driven out of its ancient homeland.
Israel:
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
In Israel's Palestinian Administered Territories, especially Hamas-ruled Gaza, Islamic fundamentalism is extreme and terrorism is endless. President of Palestinian Authority: Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas' Prime Minister in Gaza: Iran-backed Ismail Haniyeh.
Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire):
President Laurent Gbagbo
A failed Muslim coup in this once prosperous and free state has left Ivory Coast ethnically and religiously polarised. Muslim rebels control the Muslim north.
Japan:
Prime Minister Taro Aso
Though Japan is open and free, the Japanese are deeply wedded to Shinto ancestor worship.
Jordan:
King Abdullah II
Prime Minister Nader Dahabi
A leadership known to be progressive is under siege from growing grassroots radicalisation.
Kazakhstan:
President Nursultan Nazarbayev
Protestants repressed for political convenience and to appease the intolerant.
Laos:
President Khamtay Siphandone
Communist dictatorship. War of ethnic cleansing against ethnic Hmong who are predominantly Christian.
Lebanon:
President Michel Suleiman
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora
Once a majority-Christian, Mediterranean tourist destination, Lebanon is majority- Muslim, war-ravaged and wracked with sectarianism. Hezballah, a militant Iranian proxy headed by Hassan Nasrallah, is the controlling power.
Libya:
Colonel Moammar Gadhafi
Repressive Muslim socialist dictatorship.
Maldives:
President Mohamed Nasheed
On 28 October, reform advocate and former political prisoner and torture victim Mohamed Nasheed (41) was democratically elected as President of the Republic of Maldives, bringing to an end three decades of repressive dictatorship and advancing Islamic radicalisation.
Malaysia:
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Multi-racial (Malay, Indian, Chinese) Muslim-majority state wrestling with Islamic fundamentalism.
Morocco:
King Mohammed VI
Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi
Arab Muslim state attempting bold reforms.
Nepal: (in transition)
President Ram Baran Yadav
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal (aka Prachanda: Maoist leader)
Formerly a Hindu Kingdom, now making the difficult transition to constitutional democracy.
Nigeria:
President Umaru Yar'Adua
A Christian/Muslim religious fault-line state. Muslim north is ruled (unconstitutionally) by Sharia (Islamic) Law.
North Korea:
"Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il
Extremely repressive and cruel military regime. Kim constantly oscillates between openness and isolation as he seeks to improve conditions while retaining power.
Pakistan:
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani
Islamic state with al-Qaeda-Taliban sanctuary. The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are now controlled by al-Qaeda-Taliban forces. State facing al-Qaeda-Taliban advance and terrorism.
Philippines:
President Gloria Arroyo
Negotiating a peace deal with Muslim separatists in the south. Religious liberty in south at risk.
Russia:
President Dmitry Medvedev
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
Protestants are pressured for political gain and for geopolitical reasons. Islamic fundamentalist jihad simmers in the south. Chechnya's pro-Moscow Chechen president, Ramzan Kadyrov, has restored security by brutally repressing Islamic jihadism. Christians were driven from Chechnya during the second Chechen war (1999-2000).
Saudi Arabia:
King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud
Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Aziz Al-Asheikh
Saudi Arabia operates as an alliance between the al-Saud royal family and the Wahhabi clerical establishment. Wahhabi Islam is Sunni orthodox, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, anti-Shia, pro-jihad and pro-Sharia. The clerical establishment disseminates Wahhabi Islam worldwide through a massive state-run operation funded by Royal petro-dollars.
Serbia:
President Boris Tadic
Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic
Ancient Christian nation. Unity, sovereignty and security shattered by US-led NATO-backed ethnic and Muslim separatism. Serbia's Albanian Muslim minority have declared independence in Kosovo. The self-declared independent "Republic of Kosova" is headed by 'President' Fatmir Sejdiu; Prime Minister Mr Hashim Thaci.
Sri Lanka:
President Mahinda Rajapaksa
Civil war fuelling escalating violent Buddhist nationalism.
Sudan:
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir
Vice Presidents Ali Othman Mohamed Taha (northerner) and Salva Kirr (southerner)
Vice President of Southern Sudan, Riek Machar
All leaders seem to be taking Sudan in the direction of war. The best hope for Sudan is a united opposition against the belligerent ruling Arab Islamist dictatorship.
Syria:
President Bashar al-Assad
Syria is aligned with Iran and determined to control Lebanon. It is also home to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christian refugees.
Turkey:
President Abdullah Gul
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Turkey is being torn between its Islamist forces and nationalist forces, both of which are anti-Christian.
Turkmenistan:
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov
A dictatorship slowly and tentatively emerging from intense isolation.
Uzbekistan:
President Islam Karimov
A repressive dictatorship battling a serious Islamist threat. Protestants are repressed along with the Islamists for political convenience as well as for geopolitical reasons.
Vietnam:
President Tran Duc Luong
Communist regime that persecutes everything it cannot either control or exploit for economic gain.
Yemen:
President Ali Abdullah Saleh
Repressive, corrupt dictatorship. Islamic state wracked by Sunni vs Shi'ite conflict with regional dimensions and escalating radicalisation and disaffection.
Zimbabwe:
President Robert Mugabe
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai
Corrupt, repressive dictatorship that violently persecutes all opposition. The Church is in the frontline of the struggle for justice and human rights.
Furthermore, numerous Western rights-affirming leaders are coming under great pressure to appease Islamic fundamentalists and militants by repressing historic civil liberties and conceding ground on fundamental human rights. Numerous Western leaders are also falling prey to Islamic propaganda and manipulation, for instance the Organisation of the Islamic Conference strategy of equating race with religion, criticism with defamation and hurt feelings with human rights violations. Because Islamic forces are militarily weak, they rely on terrorism and propaganda to extract concessions. They well understand that manipulating democratically elected governments can be as easy as manipulating the emotions of the electorate – they seek to use the media to change the heart of the people in order to change the direction of the government, even if that involves lies and deception. Pray for wisdom, discernment and courage for the leaders (and journalists!) of the free world.
The desire of a godly king:
‘Show me the path where I should walk, O Lord; point out the right road for me to follow.’
King David's prayer in Psalm 25:4
Wise advice to a king:
‘Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.’
Advice to King Lemuel from his mother. Proverbs 31:8-9 ESV
Encouragement to pray:
‘The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.'
Proverbs 21:1 ESV
Promise:
‘O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.’
Psalm 10:17-18 ESV