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Nairobi church stands strong after grenade kills boy, injures others

October 11, 2012 Kenya Al-Shabaab, Garissa, Kenya, Mombasa, Nairobi

“Every week we wondered ‘What if it’s this week?’ Yet every week we turned up for church.” Speaking to World Watch Monitor just after her Oct. 9 return from the funeral of 9-year-old John Ian Maina, Nairobi Sunday School teacher Sally Gatei was in reflective mood. “I told the team . . . Read More

Rimsha and family will stay in Pakistan, lawyer says

October 10, 2012 Pakistan Blasphemy, Children, Islamabad, Mardan, Pakistan, Paul Bhatti, Prophet Muhammad, Punjab, Rawalpindi

Rimsha Masih and her family will remain in Pakistan after her legal ordeal is over, one of her lawyers says. The teen-aged Pakistani girl, whose arrest in August on suspicion of desecrating Islamic texts, is due to appear in an Islamabad juvenile court Oct. 17. Originally charged in regular court . . . Read More

‘I will never forget that day’

October 5, 2012 Nigeria Boko Haram, Jos, Nigeria, Plateau

It has been nearly three months since Hannatu Dantong’s husband died. She has been surrounded by his colleagues and family during this time, but still is in a deep state of mourning. “I find the greatest comfort in Psalm 23,” Dantong said. “I am reminded that the Lord will always . . . Read More

India briefs: Recent incidents of persecution

October 3, 2012 India Andhra Pradesh, Bajrang Dal, Bangalore, Chhattisgarh, Hindu nationalism, Hyderabad, India, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh

In towns across India, Hindu extremists continued to pressure Christian churches in September. The usual pattern: After the disruption of church or worship services, Christians were physically assaulted and sometimes arrested and jailed on suspicion of forcibly converting Hindus to Christianity. Three of the Indian states included in this roundup . . . Read More

From Africa to Asia, offended Muslims vent anger on Christian churches

September 26, 2012 Global News -- No Particular Country Africa, Algeria, Asia, Bauchi, Benghazi, Boko Haram, Cairo, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Mardan, Mosul, Nigeria, Pakistan, Prophet Muhammad, Zinder

Across much of the Muslim world, more than two weeks of backlash to the internet video “Innocence of the Muslims” has occasionally been directed at Christians, from computer hacks to church burnings. It can be difficult to sort deliberate acts of persecution from simple undirected anger sparked by the video, . . . Read More

Analysis: India’s narrow path to religious freedom

September 26, 2012 India Bangalore, BJP, Converts, Himachal Pradesh, Hindutva, India, Religious freedom, Shimla

In August, the high court of India’s Himachal Pradesh state rejected a portion of the state’s laws regulating religious conversion. World Watch Monitor asked Steven David, director of the Centre for Contemporary Issues, in Bangalore, to provide his perspective. By Steven David Shimla apples are world-famous. They are grown in . . . Read More

Extremist Hindus rout Christians from rural Indian village

September 25, 2012 India Chhattisgarh, Converts, Himachal Pradesh, Hindu nationalism, India

Hindus twice assaulted a Christian community in a rural India village early this month, beating Christians, forcing them into Hindu worship rituals, and damaging their homes, according to Christian witnesses. The Sunday worship meeting was underway Sept. 2 at the home of a new Christian, Daminbai Sahu, in Bhanpuri, a . . . Read More

Perpetrators of Turkey’s ‘Malatya Massacre’ Put on Trial

September 19, 2012 Turkey Malatya

Nineteen suspects accused of inciting the brutal 2007 murders of three Christians in eastern Turkey went on trial before Malatya’s Third Criminal Court in early September. With the court’s acceptance in June of a third indictment in the case, known as the “Malatya Massacre” in the Turkish media, allegations against . . . Read More

Kazakhstan jails pastor, considers extradition to Uzbekistan

September 17, 2012 Kazakhstan Almaty, Kazakhstan, Makset Djabbarbergenov, UN, Uzbekistan

A former Uzbek house church pastor is in a Kazakhstan jail, awaiting a ruling whether he will be returned to his native country, even as Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court considers whether to declare him a refugee from almost-certain persecution.Makset Djabbarbergenov was arrested Sept. 5 in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s financial center and largest . . . Read More

Pope Benedict urges peace as radical Islamists target Western interests

September 14, 2012 Andrea Zaki, Asia, Benghazi, Copts, Egypt, Libya, Middle East, USA

Pope Benedict started a visit to Lebanon in the Middle East on Friday, as angry demonstrations and attacks on Western interests continued to spread across the region and into Asia. They came in the wake of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya’s second city, which killed American . . . Read More

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