General

Egypt: Coptic teens tried for video ‘mimicking jihadists’

February 12, 2016 Egypt Blasphemy, Copts, Gad Younan

A year since members of the so-called Islamic State killed 20 Egyptian Copts and one Ghanaian in Libya, Egypt is set to judge four young Copts for alleged blasphemy. The four teenagers, aged 15 to 17, appeared in a 30-second video clip, mocking the militants’ show of Islamic piety in . . . Read More

Christian leaders kept in Sudan since December uncharged, but incommunicado

February 10, 2016 Sudan Hassan Taour, Khartoum, Kuwa Shamal, NISS, Nuba Mountains, Omdurman, Peter Yen, Telal Rata, Yat Michael

Sudanese authorities have been keeping two Christian pastors in an unknown location since mid-December, with no official charges yet filed against them. On 12. Dec., members of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) visited the family home of Telahoon Nogosi Kassa Rata, a leader of the Fellowship of University . . . Read More

EU puts ‘genocide’ tag on Islamic State

February 4, 2016 David Cameron, Genocide, Hilary Clinton, Islamic State, UN

The European Parliament has declared the violent campaign by the so-called Islamic State against Christians and other religious minorities to be genocide. “Daesh commits genocide,” according to the resolution passed 4 Feb. by a show of hands from representatives of the 28-nation European Union. Daesh is an English representation of . . . Read More

Christian and Muslim leaders call for peace in Cameroon

February 4, 2016 Cameroon Boko Haram, Cameroon, Maroua, Nigeria

Christian and Muslim leaders in northern Cameroon have reiterated their call for tolerance and peace in the face of a surge of terror attacks by the Nigerian radical Islamic group Boko Haram. On 21 Jan., several prominent religious leaders gathered in the town of Mora to discuss peaceful coexistence. The . . . Read More

The war on Christianity in the Congo

February 3, 2016 Democratic Republic of the Congo ADF, Africa, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Trauma

While the brutality of the so-called Islamic State has concentrated world attention on Iraq and Syria, lesser-noticed movements inspired by IS are taking root far from the Middle East. In central Africa, a brutal militant Islamic group has embedded itself in the eastern extremes of the Democratic Republic of the . . . Read More

Fierce battles in southeast Turkey hedge in Christians

February 1, 2016 Turkey Assyrians, Diyarbakir, PKK, Syria

The 1,700-year-old Virgin Mary Syriac Orthodox Church, Diyarbakir, Turkey has been damaged in fighting between government forces and Kurdish separatists.World Watch Monitor One of the oldest churches in the world sustained damage last week in the intensified fighting between the Turkish government and Kurdish separatists. Rocket-propelled grenades destroyed a . . . Read More

Minorities fear backlash over Sri Lanka’s proposed new constitution

January 27, 2016 Sri Lanka Bodu Bala Sena, Buddhist nationalism, Constitution, Maithripala Sirisena

Sri Lanka’s minority religious groups are concerned after Buddhist hardliners reacted angrily to the President’s proposed new constitution. President Maithripala Sirisena’s new constitution, proposed on 9 Jan., would decentralise power in a bid to prevent ethnic tensions in the country, but Buddhist hardliners say it contains provisions that regulate the . . . Read More

In India, one case of anti-Christian violence every day

January 21, 2016 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Chennai, Ghar Wapsi, Hindu nationalism, Hindutva, Madhya Pradesh, Vishva Hindu Parishad

Rahul Nayak, 25, the eldest son of Dhubaleswar and Bhubudi Nayak, a Christian couple shot dead in Odisha in July 2015.World Watch Monitor Attacks on Christians in India were reported on an almost daily basis in 2015, according to a Christian advocacy group. “The country saw 355 incidents of . . . Read More

Niger: a year after 70 churches destroyed in anti-‘Charlie’ riots

January 20, 2016 Niger Charlie Hebdo, Islamic extremism, Mahamadou Issoufou, Niamey, West Africa, Zinder

Demolishing Boukoki’s EERN church, damaged in the anti-Charlie’ riots in 2015, ahead of its rebuildingWorld Watch Monitor A year has passed since the churches in the West African country of Niger experienced the worst attacks in their history, in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris. On . . . Read More

Burkina Faso dead include 7 mission workers

January 19, 2016 Burkina Faso Al-Mourabitoun, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Ansar Dine, Djibo, Ouagadougou, West Africa

Six of the 29 people killed by Islamist militants in Burkina Faso on Friday were on a humanitarian trip prompted by their Christian faith, while a seventh was a US missionary who, with his wife, had been running an orphanage and women’s refuge in the West African country since 2011. . . . Read More

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