General

Indian priest kidnapped in Afghanistan

June 4, 2014 Afghanistan Bamiyan, Herat, Kabul, Kidnapping, Taliban

The school in Sohadat, about 30 kilmoetres from Herat city, Afghanistan, that the Jesuit Refugee Service had helped to build. Rev. Alexis Prem Kumar was visiting the school when he was abducted June 2.Jesuit Refugee Service An Indian Catholic priest has been kidnapped in Afghanistan, and no information about . . . Read More

Church website blocked as ‘porn’ by Turkish parliament

May 30, 2014 Turkey Bursa, Censorship, Diyarbakir, Malatya

The home page of the Diyarbakir Church website. It was blocked by the Turkish government inside parliament offices because it was deemed “pornography.www.diyarbakirkilisesi.com/ Aykan Erdemir, a member of Turkey’s parliament, plans to travel to Diyarbakir Church in mid-June. This week, to prepare for his visit, he looked up the . . . Read More

Renewed fighting in Mali revives Christian anxieties

May 30, 2014 Mali African Union, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Bamako, Burkina Faso, Gao, Kidal, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Timbuktu, Tuareg

A Malian child waits to see receive a free consultation at a medical clinic in Gao, Mali.16 May 2014UN Photo/Marco Dormino Renewed fighting and re-occupation of a number of towns in northern Mali by armed Tuareg groups has renewed anxieties among the region’s Christian minority. On May 21, a . . . Read More

Tensions high in CAR after church and mosque attacked

May 29, 2014 Central African Republic Anti-balaka, Bangui, Bossangoa, Catherine Samba-Panza, Central African Republic, PK5, Seleka

An attack at Fatima Catholic Church in Bangui following by ex-Seleka on May 28, 2014 left numerous dead. No structural damage happened to the church in CAR.World Watch Monitor Tension is high in the Central African Republic capital, Bangui, as protesters clashed with security forces following a deadly attack . . . Read More

As Boko Haram violence continues, Christians and Muslims talk peace

May 28, 2014 Nigeria Berom, Boko Haram, Borno, Christian Association of Nigeria, Jos

Jos market bombing. May 20 2014.World Watch Monitor More than 100 people have been killed in three bombings in a span of four days, all suspected to be planted by Boko Haram, in the Nigerian city Jos. On May 24, three people – including the suicide bomber – were . . . Read More

Eritrea turns 21

May 28, 2014 Eritrea Abune Antonios

The tiny state of Eritrea, flanked by Ethiopia on one side and the Red Sea on the other, celebrated its 21st birthday May 24, its Independence Day a public holiday. Yet beneath the official festivities, Eritrea’s 6 million people live under a regime that has earned a reputation as the . . . Read More

Pakistani blasphemy law used against popular TV channel, Jehovah’s Witnesses and more

May 27, 2014 Pakistan Blasphemy, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Multan, Shahbaz Bhatti

Pakistani Christians and supporters protest the use of blasphemy laws in Pakistan. London, December 2009. helen.2006 / Flickr / Creative Commons With several Christians on trial awaiting potential death sentences for allegedly committing blasphemy – tensions are increasingly high across the nation with a record breaking amount of blasphemy . . . Read More

Uganda churches warned of Al-Shabaab ‘threats’

May 22, 2014 Uganda Al-Shabaab, East Africa, Islamic extremism, Kampala, Kenya, Somalia

Uganda and Kenya authorities have scaled up security in recent days in response to warnings from Western countries that a jihadist group is planning to attack churches in Uganda. The U.S. embassy in Uganda warned that churches there may face “specific threats” from Al-Shabaab, a Somalia-based militant Islamist terrorist group. . . . Read More

Bombs kill dozens in Nigerian Christian district and Jos

May 20, 2014 Nigeria Boko Haram, Chibok girls, Goodluck Jonathan, Hisbah, Jos, Kano, Nigeria, Sabon Gari, Sharia

At least five people were killed May 18 by a bomb blast in the Christian district of Kano, in Northern Nigeria. That attack was followed by an even more deadly one on May 20, when two bomb explosions rocked the city of Jos, in Nigeria’s heartland. Two bomb blasts were reported, one . . . Read More

Nigerian government ‘sympathises’ with Boko Haram

May 20, 2014 Nigeria APC, Borno, Samuel Dali

New claims that parts of the Nigerian government share the anti-Christian convictions of Boko Haram have emerged since the group’s abduction of hundreds of school girls, most of who were Christian and are still missing, one month after the incident. “Many Nigerians will tell you that they don’t trust the . . . Read More

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