General

Sudan’s aerial bombing aims at churches in Nuba Mountains

March 30, 2012 Sudan Islamic extremism, Khartoum, Nuba Mountains, Omar al-Bashir, Refugees, Sharia, South Kordofan, South Sudan, SPLM-N, Sudan

After Khartoum denied that it had bombed civilians earlier this month, Sudanese aerial strikes last week were aimed at church buildings and schools in Kauda, South Kordofan state, a humanitarian aid worker said. Antonov airplanes dropped bombs on Thursday and Friday (March 22 and 23), destroying some houses and cattle . . . Read More

Briefs: recent incidents of persecution

March 29, 2012 India Assam, Bangalore, Delhi, Hindu nationalism, India, Jabalpur, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, RSS, West Bengal

Police arrested five Christians on March 25 in Dhanegaon, Chhinwara, after Hindu extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh attacked them and accused them of forceful conversion. A source told World Watch Monitor the extremists barged into the Sunday worship service of Bharatiya Pratna Bhawan (India Prayer Hall), beat pastor Harichand . . . Read More

Laos: five Christians arrested in southern village

March 28, 2012 Laos Churches, Laos, Savannakhet, Vientiane

Officials in a village in southern Laos on Sunday (March 25) arrested and detained five Christians during worship and charged them with leading a religious movement without official approval, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF). The five Christians from Palansai district were attending a . . . Read More

Salafist leaders celebrate death of Coptic Pope in Egypt

March 23, 2012 Egypt Al-Nour Party, Copts, Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, Salafism

As Christians across Egypt continued to mourn the loss of Pope Shenouda III this week, Islamist leaders of the Salafist movement issued a litany of insults, calling the late leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church the “head of the infidels” and thanking God for his death. The vitriol indicated the . . . Read More

Parents torn over loss of daughter in Nigeria

March 22, 2012 Nigeria Bauchi, Nigeria

Nearly seven months after their 24-year-old daughter disappeared during a wave of Islamic extremist violence here, Helen and Dakim Gyang Bot can only assume that the voice on the other end of her cell phone that told them “we have killed her” was telling the truth. The body of Simi . . . Read More

Christians targeted in Sudan’s ‘ethnic cleansing’

March 20, 2012 Sudan Episcopal Church of Sudan, Islamic extremism, Kadugli, Nuba Mountains, Omar al-Bashir, Refugees, Sharia, South Kordofan, South Sudan, SPLM-N, Sudan

The “ethnic cleansing” that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has undertaken against black Africans in the Nuba Mountains is also aimed at ridding the area of Christianity, according to humanitarian workers. By targeting Christians among people who are also adherents of Islam and other faiths in the Nuba Mountains, military force . . . Read More

Parents, Islamic extremists beat young woman in India

March 20, 2012 India India, Islamic extremism, West Bengal

A young woman was thrown out of her home this month for daring to give thanks for healing in Christ’s name in a predominantly Muslim village in India’s West Bengal state, and then her parents helped Islamic extremists to beat her nearly unconscious. The attack on Rekha Khatoon, 22, took . . . Read More

Crackdown hits official churches

March 16, 2012 Iran Ahwaz, Assemblies of God, Assyrians, Converts, Dezful, House churches, Iran, Isfahan, Kermanshah, Pentecostals, Proselytism, Shiraz

In a rare crackdown on a concentrated area, Iranian authorities have arrested Christians living in the country’s third largest city in what is seen as a tactic to discourage Muslims and converts to Christianity from attending official churches. Since last month officials have arrested about 12 Christian converts in Isfahan, . . . Read More

Nuns traumatised after school attack in Egypt

March 16, 2012 Egypt Aswan, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Trauma

Two nuns in Upper Egypt faced “unimaginable fear” – with one later hospitalised over the emotional trauma – when 1,500 Muslim villagers brandishing swords and knives trapped them inside a guesthouse last week and threatened to burn them out. The next day, the assailants frightened children at the school; attendance . . . Read More

Survivors desperately seek loved ones in Jos, Nigeria blast

March 13, 2012 Nigeria Jos, Nigeria

One man rendered a widower by the Islamist suicide bombing at a Catholic church on Sunday (March 11) discovered his wife had been killed only after finding her severed hand with her wedding ring on it. Another could identify his wife only by the clothing left on her remains. Both . . . Read More

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