General

BJP’s Bihar defeat a vote against ‘intolerance’

November 12, 2015 India Beef, Bihar, BJP, Haryana, India, Narendra Modi

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the UK – a first visit by an Indian head of state for a decade – comes on the back of a heavy election defeat in the key state of Bihar. Modi is expecting an even greater reception in London than that which . . . Read More

Fleeing Boko Haram – nowhere to run, nowhere to hide

November 12, 2015 Abuja, Adamawa, Boko Haram, Borno, Cameroon, Chad, Chibok girls, EYN, Genocide, Jos, Kaduna, Niger, Nigeria, Samuel Dali, UN, West Africa, Yobe, Yola

A special report by IRIN, built on field visits to Nigeria’s north-eastern region which the military has re-taken from the Boko Haram insurgency, reveals an unprecedented humanitarian disaster in the Lake Chad Basin region. In Europe, Syrian refugees with the means head for their country of choice, armies of aid . . . Read More

37 Assyrian Christians released in Syria

November 9, 2015 Syria Assyrians, Hasakah, Islamic State, Jacques Mourad, Khabur, Qaryatain, Syria

The self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) has released another 37 Assyrian Christians kidnapped nine months ago in Syria, Assyrian sources said. The group, including men and women in their sixties and seventies, were among the 253 Christians snatched in IS attacks on Assyrian villages in northeastern Syria’s Hassaka province. Three thousand . . . Read More

India: village church attacked, Christians hospitalised

November 6, 2015 India Chhattisgarh, Hindu nationalism, Pentecostals

Several Christians were hospitalised after the incident in Chhattisgarh state.Courtesy Open Doors International Several Christians were hospitalised and others forced to reconvert to Hinduism, after a village church in India’s central Chhattisgarh state was attacked by Hindu hardliners. The Christians from the Independent Pentecostal Church in Kohkameta were attacked . . . Read More

Global Church meets to seek unity in face of persecution

November 6, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Albania, Aleppo, Algeria, Catholics, Churches, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, India, Iraq, Islamic State, Kenya, Kidnapping, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nigeria, Nineveh Plains, Orthodox, Pakistan, Pentecostals, Protestants, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Yohanna Ibrahim

Twenty-five years ago, on 4 Nov. 1990, a priest risked his life to hold a mass in a cemetery in Albania. In 1967 his president, Enver Hoxha, had declared that he had “abolished” the Christian faith, and that his country was henceforth the world’s first atheist state. On 4 Nov. . . . Read More

UN report focuses on children’s rights

November 5, 2015 Iraq Children, Converts, Divorce, Minorities, Religious freedom, UN

This little girl and her family were forced out of their home in Iraq by the Islamic State.Courtesy Open Doors International States must pay more attention to violations of the rights of children and their parents, particularly minorities and converts, according to the latest report from the United Nations’ . . . Read More

Pakistan NGO tackles demeaning low-caste word for ‘Christians’

November 2, 2015 Pakistan Caste, Constitution, Dalits, Pakistan, Sweepers, Youhanabad

A program organised by Bargad, Pakistan’s biggest NGO for youth development, is attempting to tackle the social stigma Christians face from the word used in the Constitution for them. The Urdu “Isai” (derived from “Isa“, the Arabic word for “Jesus” used in the Qur’an) now carries strong overtones – from . . . Read More

Christian lawyers call for Chinese colleagues’ release

October 29, 2015 China China, Human rights, Zhang Kai, Zhejiang

Justice Michael F. Saldanha speaking at the Advocates Asia conference in New Delhi on 22 October.World Watch Monitor Advocates Asia, a forum of Christian lawyers in 20 Asian countries, has urged the Chinese government to release “immediately and unconditionally” human rights lawyers and activists detained since early July. The . . . Read More

Two Sudan churches destroyed, one for a ‘marketplace’

October 29, 2015 Blue Nile, Churches, Darfur, Gadaref, Lutheran Church of Sudan, Omdurman, South Kordofan, Sudan

Two churches were destroyed in two separate incidents earlier this month in Sudan, local sources told World Watch Monitor. On Oct 22, authorities demolished the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sudan (LCS) in Omdurman, citing re-development reasons, after first giving the church only 72 hours’ notice. Word about the impending action . . . Read More

Asia Bibi ‘healthy and safe,’ says her lawyer

October 26, 2015 Pakistan Blasphemy, Multan, Salmaan Taseer

The lawyer of the only Pakistani Christian woman to be given the death penalty for alleged blasphemy met her in prison last week, reporting that she is safe and in good health. The final appeal for Aasiya Noreen, commonly known as Asia Bibi, is pending before Pakistan’s top court, after the . . . Read More

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