Over 10,000 Vietnamese attend Franklin Graham's prayer rally in Hanoi

More than 10,000 Vietnamese came to the Quan Ngua Sports Stadium in Hanoi last week to attend a rare Christian prayer rally led by U.S. evangelist Franklin Graham.

"I just concluded a Crusade in Hanoi. This is the first time an evangelistic event like this has been held in the northern part of Vietnam. A tremendous crowd came on Saturday night, and in addition to the full sports complex, people watched outside on giant screens," Graham wrote on Facebook on Saturday.

Graham, the president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), said that the Vietnamese authorities only granted permission for the rally last week, noting that the event took a year to organize. He told The Associated Press (AP) that the Vietnamese government did not attach any conditions to hold the event.

Despite sweeping economic reforms in Vietnam, the country's ruling Communist Party maintains strict control over all aspects of society, including the media and religions. Human Rights Watch has reported that more than 100 Vietnamese are currently incarcerated for peaceful religious and political activities.

"This is unprecedented really for us and for the government," Graham said. "We don't want to do anything that would embarrass the government or the people of Vietnam. Again, we're guests, the government has not told me what to say or not say. I'm going to talk about God. We are not here to talk about politics," he added.

Graham said that he hoped that the government through his event would see that Christians are "some of the best citizens in Vietnam and people that they can trust and depend on."

The American evangelist said that the prayer rally is an indication that there has been a significant change in Vietnam in the past 20 years.

Despite some of the improvements on religious freedom in Vietnam, the U.S. State Department has noted in its annual global report that the authorities continue to limit the practices of unrecognized faith groups as well as those without certificates of registration for religious activities.

The report noted that some religious leaders have experienced various forms of harassment, including physical assault, short-term detention, prosecution, monitoring, restrictions on travel, and property seizure and destruction.

The advocacy group Open Doors has ranked Vietnam as the 17th worst nation in the world when it comes to the persecution of Christians.

Open Doors noted that converts to Christianity from Buddhist or ethnic-animist background face the most persecution not only from the authorities but also from families, friends and neighbors.

According to AP, there are about 1 million Protestants and 6.5 million Catholics living among the Buddhist-majority nation's population of 95 million.