General

Full Steam Ahead

December 29, 2014 India BJP, Ghar Wapsi, Good Governance Day, Hindu nationalism, Narendra Modi, RSS, Sangh Parivar, Vishva Hindu Parishad

ANALYSIS By John Dayal There is an element of irony, which has not gone entirely unnoticed, in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement that what the world knows as Christmas will henceforth be celebrated in India as “Good Governance Day.” A slew of activities in honour of the first Bharatiya . . . Read More

In Malaysia, Christmas decried as ‘ploy’ to lead Muslims astray

December 25, 2014 Malaysia 'Allah', Bibles, Borneo, Christmas, Converts, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Hudud, Kuala Lumpur, Najib Razak, Selangor

A billboard in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, appeals to national unity in a February 2014 photo. Rising fundamentalist Islam put increased pressure on minorities in the country’s famously multicultural society during the year.Courtesy Open Doors International For Malaysian Christians, 2014 has been a year when they had to dig deep . . . Read More

Pakistani Christian couple ‘still alive’ when thrown into kiln – coroner

December 23, 2014 Pakistan Bonded labourers, Gojra, Kasur, Punjab, Quran, Shahzad Masih, Shama Bibi

Christians at a church in Punjab, Pakistan; Sept. 2014 World Watch Monitor A lawyer for the state of Punjab, Pakistan has described the murder of a Christian couple by a mob of at least 500 to 600 as “brutal and barbaric”. The post-mortem report on their twin deaths (first . . . Read More

India Hindu leaders turn up ‘reconversion’ rhetoric

December 23, 2014 India BJP, Ghar Wapsi, Hindu nationalism, Hindutva, Narendra Modi, RSS, Vishva Hindu Parishad

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in JammuVishal Dutta / Flickr / Creative Commons Ignoring paralyzing opposition in Parliament and private expressions of exasperation from their own political leader, the top leaders of India’s fundamentalist Hindu movement have mounted a vigorous defense of a campaign to bring Christian converts back to . . . Read More

Iraqi Yazidi couple flees ISIS to freedom

December 22, 2014 Iraq Iraq, Peshmerga, Refugees, Yazidis

Rescue operations began Dec. 19 in northern Iraq for thousands of Yazidi villagers trapped for the past four months on Mount Sinjar and its surrounding villages. Aided by a barrage of coalition air strikes, Kurdish Peshmerga forces began a military offensive on Dec. 17 to break the siege imposed upon Sinjar’s . . . Read More

Christmas 2014 ‘evokes not joy but fears’ for India’s Christians

December 18, 2014 India BJP, Christmas, Dharm Jagran Samiti, Good Governance Day, Hindutva, India, Maharashtra, Narendra Modi, RSS, Uttar Pradesh

Christmas is an occasion mostly associated with joy and celebration. But since the start of the holiday season, India’s minority religious groups of Christians and Muslims have been especially under pressure. The Indian Parliament has hardly functioned since the start of December because several opposition lawmakers have been protesting a . . . Read More

Three more cases in which Pakistani Christians accused of blasphemy

December 11, 2014 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Barelvi, Blasphemy, Kasur, Lahore, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan, Sharia

A brick kiln in Pakistan where 24 bonded-labourer Christian families narrowly escaped a mob attack in December 2014. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Three more cases of blasphemy accusations have emerged in Pakistan, even after a Christian couple’s beating to death and burning in a brick kiln after allegations of blasphemy horrified the world, including the metropolitan elite in the country. The Christian couple were killed over suspicions of desecrating the Qur’an on . . . Read More

Human Rights Day but Article 18 violated every day

December 11, 2014 North Korea Divorce, Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-il, UN

Drawing made by a former prisoner who was detained in the Chongori prison. North Korean prisoner pretends to be asleep and uses food to catch a mouse which he will eat raw.United Nations Human Rights “Christmas in a N. Korean gulag will be just another day of grotesque suffering” . . . Read More

Lawyer: ‘Egyptian convert’s arrest linked to leaving Islam’

December 9, 2014 Egypt Egypt, Minya, Mohammed Hegazy, Sharia, Upper Egypt

The first Egyptian citizen to attempt to change his legal religious identity from Muslim to Christian, Mohammed Hegazy, has been in jail for a year now, awaiting a verdict on separate misdemeanor charges, due on Dec. 28. Hegazy faces a five-year prison sentence if an appeal court upholds his conviction . . . Read More

‘Secret church’ served with coffee & cakes in Central Asian cafes

December 5, 2014 Azerbaijan, Central Asia, House churches, Islamic extremism, Kyrgyzstan, Russian Orthodox Church, Uzbekistan

In a country where Christians often must meet secretly to avoid arrest, a group of women have taken the opposite approach: hiding in plain sight. They meet to pray and encourage each other in a coffee shop, in one of the largest cities in Central Asia. “It is better for . . . Read More

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