General

European Parliament debates Nigeria and Boko Haram

May 9, 2016 Nigeria Agatu, Boko Haram, Europe, Islamic extremism, Terrorism

Jan Olbrycht MEP, co-chairman of the European People’s Party Working Group on Inter-religious Dialogue, and Joachim Zeller MEP, at the 3 May event.African Diaspora for Freedom of Religion A conference on religious radicalisation, Boko Haram and terrorism in Nigeria was held by the largest group in the European Parliament . . . Read More

Syrian priest: ‘No words to describe the suffering’

May 6, 2016 Syria Aleppo

Amid the worst violence since the Syrian conflict began more than five years ago, a local Syrian Catholic Archbishop has joined in raising attention to the situation facing Christians in the city of Aleppo. “More than half the city’s population left over the last four or five years,” Jean-Clement Jeanbart, Melkite . . . Read More

DR Congo – Christians killed, as thousands flee continuing Islamist violence

May 6, 2016 Democratic Republic of the Congo ADF, Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Islamic extremism, North Kivu

Islamist militants are suspected to have killed between 20 and 40 villagers in the eastern extremes of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to news reports and a World Watch Monitor source. Attackers carried machetes and axes into a village in North Kivu province, in eastern DRC, late in . . . Read More

Third church in four months burnt down in N. Tanzania

May 5, 2016 Tanzania Bukoba, Catholics, Churches, Kagera, Pentecostals

Another church in Tanzania’s extreme north-west corner was burned to the ground on 2 May in a suspected arson attack. No group has claimed responsibility for the fire that destroyed the Roman Catholic church in Nyarwele, in the Kagera region which borders Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda. It is the third . . . Read More

The UN is about to take a very close look at Sudan’s treatment of Christians

May 4, 2016 Bahri, Converts, Darfur, Hassan Taour, Human rights, International Criminal Court, Kuwa Shamal, Mariam Ibrahim, NISS, Omar al-Bashir, Religious freedom, Sharia, South Sudan, Sudan, Sunni, Telal Rata, UN

What is happening? The UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights is scheduled to hold a 3 1/2-hour hearing in Geneva on Wednesday, 4 May, at which UN member nations will examine the state of human rights in Sudan. It promises to be an interesting meeting. Sudan’s president, . . . Read More

US religious-freedom report urges government to add 7 countries to worst-offenders list

May 2, 2016 Global News -- No Particular Country Africa, BJP, Boko Haram, Central African Republic, China, Egypt, Eritrea, Europe, India, Iraq, Middle East, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Taliban, Turkmenistan, USA, Uzbekistan, Vietnam

What is happening? The primary US government agency on global religious freedom issued its annual report 2 May. It says “religious freedom abroad has been under serious and sustained assault” during the past year, and says America should add seven countries to its list of worst offenders: Central African Republic . . . Read More

Algerian churches still fighting for freedom of worship

April 29, 2016 Algeria Algeria, Algiers, Churches, Kabylie, Mâatkas, Protestant Church of Algeria

Churches in Algeria are facing intimidation and harassment, despite constitutional provisions guaranteeing freedom of worship in the country. On Sunday 24 April, 2016, a church in Mâatkas, in the north-eastern region of Kabylie, was ordered to cease all religious activities on the grounds that it was in breach of a . . . Read More

Vietnam’s Religion Law ‘created to repress, control’

April 27, 2016 Vietnam Communism, Religion Law

Vietnam’s new “Law on Belief and Religion,” scheduled to come into effect this year, will add another layer of governmental repression and control to an already pressurised Church, says Vo Tran Nhat, Executive Secretary of the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights. “They’re going to adopt a new law, a law . . . Read More

‘Losing my religion’ – why it’s so hard in the Middle East

April 26, 2016 Burial, Children, Education, Marriage, Middle East, Mohammed Hegazy

Why is the Middle East the way it is? There are many ways to approach answering this question. The book ‘Identity Crisis’ by Jonathan Andrews, a former researcher for Middle East Concern, a group of Christian charities which all work across the region, provides “a unique and timely perspective on . . . Read More

Coptic teenager kidnapped for ransom in Upper Egypt

April 21, 2016 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Kidnapping, Qena

The News Earlier this month, a young Christian boy was kidnapped in Upper Egypt, before being released 12 days later after the payment of a hefty ransom. Anthonius Farag, 13, was snatched outside his school early in the morning on April 5, in the village of Mansheyyit Manbal, off Matay . . . Read More

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