General

India Chief Justice: Lack of convictions over Kandhamal violence ‘very disturbing’

August 15, 2016 India Kandhamal, Odisha

India’s Supreme Court Chief Justice has said it is “very disturbing” that such a “large number” of the perpetrators of the worst case of anti-Christian violence in India’s history – in the Kandhamal district of Odisha (formerly Orissa), eastern India, in 2008 – have not yet been brought to justice. . . . Read More

Coptic priests in Gulf meet to discuss challenges

August 13, 2016 Alexandria, Arabian Peninsula, Bahrain, Cairo, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates

Egyptian priests serving in the Arab Gulf region have held their first conference to discuss challenges faced in the heartland of Islam: “Challenges facing Gulf priests and their wives”. The head of the largest group of Christians in the Middle East, Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II led bishops and priests . . . Read More

Libya ‘chaos’ makes it one of world’s most dangerous places to be a Christian

August 12, 2016 Libya Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Muammar Gaddafi

An anti-Gaddafi rally in Libya, 2011.Flickr / CC / Mojomogwai It’s five years this month since Muammar Gaddafi’s government in Libya was overthrown when rebels stormed his compound and he went into hiding. However, despite high hopes, the ongoing anarchy there now makes it “one of the most dangerous . . . Read More

Convert explains journey to Christianity, and why he left Iran

August 11, 2016 Iran Converts, Islamic extremism, Migrants

The Fatema Mæ’sume shrine in Qom, a religiously conservative city 150km south of Tehran.World Watch Monitor In Iran, converting from Islam to Christianity can land you in prison or even get you killed. However, many Iranians – considered “Muslims” regardless of personal beliefs – still “convert”. World Watch Monitor . . . Read More

In new report on religious freedom, US government turns its attention to blasphemy laws

August 10, 2016 Blasphemy, Boko Haram, Islamic State

The U.S. State Department on 10 Aug. released its 2015 International Religious Freedom Report. Required by U.S. law, the report contains an assessment of the conditions supporting, or suppressing, freedom of religion or belief in nearly 200 countries, excluding the United States. The annual document influences American diplomacy and assistance . . . Read More

Iraq: 2 years since Nineveh fell to IS, displaced Christians pray for ‘liberation’

August 8, 2016 Iraq Islamic State, Karamles, Kurds, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Qaraqosh, Refugees

It’s been two years since thousands of Christians fled their homes in Mosul and the Nineveh Plains to run away from the advancing armies of the so-called Islamic State. But now, as Iraqi forces plan to retake Mosul, the Christians are praying they will soon be able to return home. . . . Read More

Iraqi Christians confront two-year trauma with drama

August 5, 2016 Iraq Christina Abada, Erbil, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Lebanon, Qaraqosh

Part of a play performed by Iraqi Christians forced to flee to Kurdistan after the self-proclaimed Islamic State seized their northern town of Qaraqosh.Video capture / World Watch Monitor “The streets are empty! Why are the streets empty?” The shocked actor shouts at the top of his lungs: “Qaraqosh, . . . Read More

UPDATE: Attack by suspected militants leaves 7 dead in DRC

August 5, 2016 Democratic Republic of the Congo ADF, Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila, North Kivu, Oicha

UPDATE (5 August): Seven people have lost their lives following an attack by suspected Ugandan Islamist rebels from the ADF – in Oicha, in DRC’s troubled eastern North-Kivu province. The 30 July attack took place at about 5.30pm, local sources told World Watch Monitor; the Congolese army, supported by UN . . . Read More

Unlawfully detained for months, Sudan church leaders finally in court

August 5, 2016 Sudan Abdulmonem Abdumawla, Apostasy, Bahri, Churches, Hassan Taour, Khartoum, Kuwa Shamal, Mariam Ibrahim, NISS, Nuba Mountains, Peter Yen, South Sudan, Sudan, Sudanese Church of Christ, Yat Michael

After nearly eight months of legal limbo, a Sudanese court has finally seen three detained Christian leaders, while charges against them remain officially “unknown”. Hassan Abduraheem Taour and Kuwa Shamal, both Sudan Church of Christ (SCC) pastors, and Abdulmonem Abdumawla Issa Abdumawla, appeared at the Bahri Criminal Court for a . . . Read More

‘We have no voice’: Christians in Jordan 2 years after fleeing N. Iraq

August 5, 2016 Iraq Genocide, Islamic State, Jordan, Lebanon, Mosul, Qaraqosh, Refugees, Tel Kaif, Women

Bahar (left), 81, with her daughters, Samira and Bahija. IS beat Bahija and ransacked their home in Tel Kayf, outside Mosul. Bahar’s family shares a one-bedroomed house in Amman with another family of three, who sleep in the lounge.World Watch Monitor Bahija, 65, a housekeeper, told me she cries . . . Read More

Catching Our Eye