Year: 2018

Chinese bishop reshuffle reinforces fears of state meddling

January 30, 2018 China Catholics, China, Churches, Crosses, Guangdong, Pope Francis, Religion Law, Shantou, Sinicisation, Xi Jinping

Fears are growing that China’s communist government may be gaining more control over the Catholic Church there, as news emerged that the Vatican asked two bishops it had appointed to step aside in favour of ones selected by Beijing. These developments have taken place following a state campaign against China’s . . . Read More

Uganda: Refusal to convert to Islam ends in family tragedy

January 30, 2018 Uganda Islamic extremism, Uganda

A Christian woman has been brutally attacked with a machete by her Muslim husband for refusing to convert to his religion, sources told World Watch Monitor. The attack led to the death of the woman’s one-week-old twins. Regina Navatovu, 35, lived with her husband, Asuman Sekidde, in Bumogolo village in . . . Read More

Boko Haram sets churches on fire in latest attack on Cameroon’s Far North

January 29, 2018 Cameroon Boko Haram, Cameroon, Chad, Churches, Far North, IDPs, Mayo-Tsanaga, Muhammadu Buhari, Niger, Nigeria, UN

Residents of Roum village in the Far North region of Cameroon woke up to two churches and many houses ablaze on the night of 15 January. The fire was claimed by Boko Haram militants, who had stormed the village late at night. Four people were killed. Apart from the Union . . . Read More

Bolivian Christians can still evangelise … for now

January 26, 2018 Bolivia Bolivia, Churches, Constitution, Evo Morales, Latin America, Religious freedom

Bolivia's president repealed a controversial new penal code in which evangelism alongside terrorism would be a crime. (Photo: Flickr / CC / Szymon Kochański)

After much criticism, Bolivian president Evo Morales announced earlier this week that his government would repeal a new law that seemed set to make evangelism a crime. The new penal code, adopted by Bolivia’s parliament in December, placed the “recruitment of persons for their participation in religious organisations or cults” . . . Read More

Evangelical churches in Turkmenistan want official registration

January 26, 2018 Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Protestants, Religion Law, Religious freedom, Turkmenistan

Six Evangelical churches in Turkmenistan have submitted a letter to President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, asking to be allowed to register as official religious communities. Following the adoption of a new Law on Religious Organisations and Religious Freedom in March 2016, all religious entities are required to re-register in order to operate . . . Read More

Do Christians really ‘thrive’ in Israel?

January 26, 2018 Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Jerusalem, Messianic Jews, Orthodox Jews, Palestinian Territories, Tel Aviv, Theophilos III, USA, West Bank

Jews praying at the Western Wall, Jerusalem. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Protests in the southern Israeli town of Dimona have flared up again, two weeks after a meeting centre for Messianic Jews re-opened its doors. The centre was closed in May last year following violent protests by ultra-Orthodox Jews and attacks on the homes of church leaders. Earlier this week a . . . Read More

Iran protests saw people ‘turn their backs on political Islam’

January 25, 2018 Iran Ayatollah Khamenei, Ayatollah Khomeini, Donald Trump, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, Iran, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Mashhad, Shia, Syria, USA, Yemen

Ayatollah Khomeini spoke about human rights and religious freedom when he returned to Iran 40 years ago. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Iranians are challenging the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic because corruption and inequality undermine its ideals, a human rights activist has claimed. In an interview with World Watch Monitor, Mansour Borji, Iranian-born advocacy director of UK-based human rights charity Article 18, said the street protests that spread across the country . . . Read More

Pakistan: Christian cleaner dies at work, leaving wife and two children

January 25, 2018 Pakistan Caste, Gujranwala, Karachi, Minorities, Pakistan, Pakistan Peoples Party, Punjab, Sindh, Sweepers

A Pakistani Christian, who fell ill after inhaling poisonous gasses at work, died on Saturday (20 January) after three days on a life-support machine. Shahzad Masih, 24, who leaves a wife and two young children, worked as a sewer cleaner in the Korangi area of the southern city of Karachi, . . . Read More

US installs Sam Brownback as religious freedom ambassador

January 25, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Darfur, Mike Pence, Religious freedom, Sam Brownback, USA

Sam Brownback was confirmed as Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom in January.

The US Senate has confirmed Sam Brownback as the new head of the Office of International Religious Freedom. Brownback is the first ambassador under the US’s revised International Religious Freedom Act, which affirms a commitment to international religious freedom as a foreign relations policy. Brownback, 60, ran for president in . . . Read More

Syria church leader condemns Turkey’s ‘unjustified aggression’

January 24, 2018 Syria Afrin, Free Syrian Army, Kurds, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Syria, Turkey, USA

A senior church leader in Syria has condemned Turkey’s new military offensive as “unjustified aggression” and urged the international community to exert “maximum pressure” to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. Rev. Abdalla Homsi, of the Evangelical Christian Alliance Church of Aleppo, issued a statement as an estimated 5,000 people were reported to . . . Read More

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