General

Malaysian court upholds right to convert from Islam

March 29, 2016 Malaysia 'Allah', Apostasy, Catholics, Kuching, Malaysia, Najib Razak, Sabah, Sarawak, Sharia

In a landmark ruling last week a Malaysian court upheld the rights of a Christian to convert from Islam. The judgment establishes a precedent in a country where religious conversions, particularly from Islam to Christianity, have been steeped in controversy. The verdict reaffirms the supremacy of the Federal Constitution, which . . . Read More

Christian women face double vulnerability due to gender and religion

March 24, 2016 Global News -- No Particular Country Easter, Women

Nicole Ravelo-Hoerson, originally from Madagascar, a speaker at the Marcham Conference, March 2016Release International Women were close witnesses of the violence meted out to Jesus Christ during his Passion and Crucifixion, which Western Christians commemorate this weekend. They were also among the first to face persecution by the Roman . . . Read More

Village massacres strain Nigeria further, as traditional nomads fight modernisation

March 23, 2016 Nigeria Agatu, Benue, Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen, Katsina, West Africa

The aftermath of an attack, which claimed hundreds of lives, in the central Nigerian state of Benue, Feb. 2016.World Watch Monitor In the rural village of Agatu, in north central Nigeria, someone had successfully installed a solar panel in his home before the arsonists lit their fires. It was . . . Read More

North Korea sentences American to 15 years’ labour

March 16, 2016 North Korea House churches, Hyeon Soo Lim, Kim Jong Wook, North Korea, Otto Warmbier, Pyongyang

North Korea has sentenced a 21-year-old US student to 15 years’ hard labour following his “confession” to stealing a piece of political propaganda during his trip at the request of his church in Wyoming, Ohio. Otto Warmbier, a third-year economics student at the University of Virginia, was arrested on 2 . . . Read More

Enterprising Christians see hope, despite Syria’s five years of war

March 15, 2016 Syria Civil War, Damascus, IDPs, Refugees, Syria

Of an estimated population of 17 million in Syria, 11 million have either left the country or been internally displaced by the civil war which ‘officially’ enters its 5th year today, 15th March. This was when protests began in Deraa, which quickly led to the spiral down into civil war. . . . Read More

US lawmakers accuse IS of genocide

March 15, 2016 Barack Obama, Bashar al-Assad, Genocide, Iraq, Islamic State, Syria, USA, Yazidis

The U.S. House of Representatives has joined the growing number of voices in Western capitals accusing the so-called Islamic State of genocide. In a 393-0 vote 14 March, the House declared “the atrocities perpetrated by ISIL against Christians, Yazidis, and other religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria constitute . . . Read More

UPDATE: Hundreds killed in Nigeria attacks

March 11, 2016 Nigeria Abuja, Agatu, Benue, Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria

On the night of Feb 21, at least 500 people were killed in the mainly Christian area of Agatu in the central Benue state of Nigeria. That’s according to local sources, although the figure could rise even higher – due to continuing violence and the fact that locals and relief . . . Read More

Egypt: ‘suicide’ claim for third Christian conscript in nine months

March 8, 2016 Egypt Asyut, Conscripts, Copts, Egypt

Another Egyptian Christian conscript has died in suspicious circumstances. Michael Gamal, 22, was due to finish his two-year compulsory military service this May, when his family heard the shock news of his ‘suicide’. Last time his family heard from him was Feb 15. “As often, we talked over the phone. . . . Read More

Gunmen kill 4 nuns and 12 others in Yemen

March 7, 2016 Yemen Aden, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Ansar al-Sharia, Hodeidah, Houthis, Islamic State, Kidnapping, Sana'a, Taiz, Tom Uzhunnalil

Four Catholic nuns from the late Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity were among 16 victims killed by six unidentified gunmen at a home for the elderly in Yemen’s southern port city of Aden. The four missionary nurses were serving breakfast to the home’s 80 residents on 4 March when armed . . . Read More

Christians fleeing Pakistan are stuck in Thailand

March 4, 2016 Asylum seekers, Bangkok, Burial, Gojra, Lord Alton, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand, UK, UN

A Thai immigration police officer directs Pakistani refugees released on bail to a waiting bus after their detention at the Immigration detention centre in Bangkok in June 2011. AFP PHOTO/ Nicolas ASFOURI / Getty Images What just happened A group of members of Britain’s Parliament on 24 Feb. urged their . . . Read More

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