General

Coptic headmistress denied promotion ‘for being Christian’

March 2, 2016 Egypt Copts, Minya

An Egyptian headmistress is not being instated in her post “because she’s a Christian.” This is the claim surrounding the case of Mervat Sefein, a vocational teacher in Beni Mazar, a town of Minya, 220 km south of Cairo. Sefein was included on a Feb. 8 Egyptian Ministry of Education . . . Read More

Pakistan hangs killer of Governor who challenged blasphemy law

February 29, 2016 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Salmaan Taseer, Shaan Taseer, Shahbaz Bhatti

Mumtaz Qadri after his arrest following the assassination of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer in 2011. (Photo: courtesy of Dawn)

Pakistan has executed the murderer of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who had justified the 2011 assassination upon Taseer’s desire for reforms in the blasphemy law, and for his support of Asia Noreen, a Christian woman condemned to death for blasphemy. Mumtaz Qadri was hanged early today (Monday, 29 Feb.), after . . . Read More

Calais ‘Jungle’ camp demolition to begin

February 25, 2016 Calais, Europe, France, Grande-Synthe, Migrants, Refugees, Trauma

Local authorities want to move migrants either into more hygienic quarters within converted shipping containers, or to refugee centres across France.Courtesy Marguerite M. Horner French authorities have been told that they can demolish the southern part of the Calais migrant camp known as the “Jungle”. Calais is one of . . . Read More

Turkey backs down on closing Bursa’s only church

February 24, 2016 Turkey Bursa, Churches, Converts, Greek Orthodox, Protestants, Sunni, Turkey

The local government of the northwestern Turkish city of Bursa ordered that its only church, which serves four congregations, be vacated by Friday (26 Feb.) before rescinding the order on Tuesday. Ismail Kulakcioglu, the pastor of the Protestant congregation, said they were given less than a week to vacate the . . . Read More

Nigeria churches unite for first time to address violence in north

February 22, 2016 Nigeria Boko Haram, Christian Association of Nigeria, Churches, Samuel Dali, Trauma

The region of Africa that today is northern Nigeria has been governed by Muslim sultans and emirs for centuries, through British colonial rule and the arrival of Christian missionaries in the 19th Century, and into independence in the 1960s. The northern Christian population grew rapidly, to the point where Christians . . . Read More

How romance across Egypt’s religious divide forces women and Christians to pay a high price

February 22, 2016 Egypt Converts, Copts, Women

A street in a neighbourhood of Tamia, Egypt, where the romance began.World Watch Monitor Not for the first time in Egypt, a romance between a Muslim divorcee and a Copt eventually ended in tragedy late last year, when the woman, who had ‘converted’ to Christianity, was killed by members . . . Read More

Living as a Christian in the Islamic State

February 18, 2016 Syria Islamic State, Raqqa

When John, a Syrian Christian, chose to stay in Raqqa after the Islamic State took control of the city in 2014, he had no idea how he would survive. Thousands abandoned the city, believing it better to save their lives than live at the centre of the Islamists’ new “caliphate”. . . . Read More

Christian migrants find discrimination follows them to Europe

February 17, 2016 Calais, Dunkirk, Europe, Grande-Synthe, Migrants, Refugees

Christians among the thousands of Middle Eastern migrants who have fled to Europe have discovered that a familiar burden has followed them: religious harassment. Some Christian migrants have been subjected to discrimination, harassment and violence from Muslim migrants with extremist views. One Iranian convert to Christianity was murdered. The phenomenon . . . Read More

Turkey’s Protestants ‘anxious and distressed’

February 15, 2016 Turkey Ankara, Balikesir, Christmas, Protestants

After a year filled with repeated threats and attacks against Protestant churches and their leaders in Turkey, the leader of their tiny Christian community has admitted that they remain “anxious and distressed”. In an interview with Al-Monitor, Pastor Ihsan Ozbek of the Association of Protestant Churches named two major obstacles . . . Read More

Pope Francis meets Patriarch Kirill

February 12, 2016 Cuba Pope Francis

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