Year: 2018

Iraqi Christian boy Noeh under his own roof again

October 15, 2018 Iraq Iraq, Islamic State, Karamles, Middle East, Nineveh Plains, Pope Francis, UN, USA

Around 40,000 Christians who escaped from the 2014 attacks of Islamic State in Iraq’s Nineveh Plains have returned to their homes but are in a “very hard situation”, according to the Pope’s nuncio in Iraq: “There is still much to be done, much to rebuild. The houses were damaged, burned . . . Read More

Brunson freed, permitted to leave Turkey

October 12, 2018 Turkey Andrew Brunson, Coup, Donald Trump, Fethullah Gülen, Izmir, PKK, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey

Andrew and Norine Brunson in their Alsancak home in Izmir, Turkey, on 12 October, 2018, moments before they were escorted to the airport by US Embassy officials to fly back to the United States. Photo/World Watch Monitor

Andrew Brunson, the American-born pastor who was charged with espionage against Turkey and held in custody for two years, has been released and is free to leave the country. A Turkish court on Friday, 12 October, convicted the Presbyterian pastor on terrorism and espionage charges related to the failed 2016 coup . . . Read More

Pakistan: Islamic groups threaten Supreme Court judges ahead of Asia Bibi ruling

October 11, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Minorities, Pakistan, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan

Asia Bibi with Punjab Governor, Salmaan Taseer, who was assassinated for supporting her case. (Photo: Office of the Governor of Punjab)

Extremist religious groups in Pakistan have called for mass protests and threatened the judges of the country’s Supreme Court in Islamabad ahead of their ruling in the blasphemy case of Christian woman Asia Bibi. The hardline Islamic party Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) threatened the judges in a press conference on YouTube, saying . . . Read More

Algeria: Christian family accused of ‘proselytism’ – hearing postponed

October 10, 2018 Algeria Algeria, Churches, Idir Hamdad, Kabylie, Minorities, Proselytism, Protestant Church of Algeria, Tizi Ouzou

Four Algerian Christians accused of proselytism will appear in court on 6 November, in Bouira, in the north-eastern region of Kabylie. They had been due to appear yesterday (9 October), but the hearing was postponed. The four, including three members of the same family, are all from the town of . . . Read More

Andrew Brunson’s legal appeal sent to Turkey’s highest court

October 9, 2018 Turkey Andrew Brunson, Coup, Donald Trump, Izmir, PKK, Protestants, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey, USA

Jailed US pastor Andrew Brunson’s lawyer has filed a formal appeal before the Turkish Constitutional Court to overturn two lower court refusals to release his client from house arrest. The 10-page petition, studied by World Watch Monitor, called for “urgent” and “corrective” action by Turkey’s highest court to set free . . . Read More

Pakistan’s Supreme Court hears Asia Bibi’s ‘blasphemy’ appeal but delays ruling

October 8, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Islamabad, Mumtaz Qadri, Pakistan, Salmaan Taseer, Shahbaz Bhatti, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan

Aasiya Noreen, a Pakistani Christian woman, has been on death row for over eight years for alleged blasphemy. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has finally heard the much-delayed appeal of Asia Bibi, the first Christian woman sentenced to death under Pakistan’s blasphemy law, today, 8 October, in the capital, Islamabad. It has not announced its decision, saying it will “reserve judgment” for several days or possibly weeks. Aasiya Noreen, commonly . . . Read More

Ten years after arrest of their illiterate husbands, Indian wives wait for justice

October 5, 2018 India Hindutva, Kandhamal, Odisha

It was around midnight on 4 October 2008 that Durjo Sunamajhi and Munda and Sanathan Badamajhi were arrested by dozens of police in their shanty homes in India’s eastern Odisha state. Ten years on, these three illiterate Christians, from the remote Madaguda area of Kandhamal, are yet to return home. Four other Christians – . . . Read More

Nobel Peace Prize for two campaigners against rape as weapon of war

October 5, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Islamic State, Women, Yazidis

The Congolese physician Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad, a Yazidi, have been announced as the winners of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict”. “Denis Mukwege is the helper who has devoted his life . . . Read More

Leah Sharibu’s mother pleads with Nigerian president as kidnappers threaten to kill daughter

October 4, 2018 Nigeria Boko Haram, Leah Sharibu, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria

The mother of the Christian girl detained by Boko Haram for over seven months has called on Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to secure her daughter’s release. Leah Sharibu, 15, was one of 110 girls kidnapped on 19 February 2018 from a school in Nigeria’s north-eastern town of Dapchi, in Yobe . . . Read More

Indonesia: Three churches closed in permits dispute

October 3, 2018 Indonesia Banten, Churches, Indonesia, Islamic Defenders Front, Java, Minorities, Sumatra

Officials close and seal the doors of the Assemblies of God church in West Kenali village, Sumatra, who have been meeting since 2004. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Three churches were closed in an Indonesian village last week amidst rumours Muslims were planning to protest against the churches’ presence because they did not have the required permits. But a pastor from one of the affected churches in West Kenali village, Alam Barajo district, in Sumatra’s central Jambi province, . . . Read More

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