General

Pakistani woman charged with ‘blasphemy’ for refusing Islam

March 12, 2012 Pakistan Blasphemy, Pakistan, Prophet Muhammad, Punjab, Women

A young mother has been falsely accused of “blaspheming” Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, because she rebuffed attempts by relatives who had converted to Islam to force her to renounce her Christian faith, family members said. Police in Khichiwala, Bahawalnagar district, in Punjab Province, charged 26-year-old Shamim Bibi, mother of . . . Read More

Another church in Jos, Nigeria hit by suicide bombing

March 11, 2012 Nigeria Boko Haram, Jos, Nigeria

Two weeks after a suicide bomb attack by the Islamist sect Boko Haram during a church service here left at least three Christians dead, a similar blast during a Catholic Mass today killed at least three people. As in the Feb. 26 bomb blast outside the church walls of the . . . Read More

Two Christian hospital workers abducted in Karachi, Pakistan

March 7, 2012 Pakistan Islamic extremism, Karachi, Kidnapping, Pakistan, Proselytism, Sindh, Taliban

Authorities do not know who abducted two Christian hospital employees in Karachi last week, but police sources said they suspected the kidnappers had links with banned terrorist organisations. There is a strong possibility that Islamic extremists took the two workers of South Korea-based Good Samaritan Hospital, Issac Samson and Indrias . . . Read More

Egyptian court sentences priest from attacked church building

March 7, 2012 Egypt Aswan, Egypt

A priest in Egypt was sentenced this week to six months in jail for a minor construction violation at his church building, while no one in a mob that burned the same structure down has been arrested. The Rev. Makarious Bolous of the Mar Gerges Church in Aswan was sentenced . . . Read More

Islamists in Egypt use rumours to attack Christians

March 5, 2012 Egypt Egypt, Salafism

Tensions remain high in an Egyptian village where as many as 5,000 mostly Salafi Muslims went on a rampage over a false rumor that a church was holding a girl against her will in order to convert her back to Christianity. Dismissing media reports of 20,000 rioting Muslims, sources told . . . Read More

Christian woman in Pakistan freed after ‘blasphemy’ accusation

March 1, 2012 Pakistan Blasphemy, Lahore, Pakistan, Quran

In a rare triumph of rule of law over mob mentality in Pakistan, police last week resisted intense pressure from violent Muslim protestors and released without charges a Christian woman falsely accused of desecrating the Quran. Muslim teachers at City Foundation School in Roranwala village, in the suburbs of Lahore, . . . Read More

India briefs: recent incidents of persecution

February 29, 2012 India Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, India, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Raipur, RSS

State police on Feb. 21 arrested a Christian after Hindu extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) accused him of forceful conversion and beat him in Thuvakudi, Trichy district. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that the Hindu extremists made the accusation against Sahayam Chidambaran after arguing with . . . Read More

Doctors try to save remaining eye of Ugandan pastor

February 28, 2012 Uganda Acid attacks, Jinja, Kampala, Mbale, Uganda

While a Ugandan pastor was fighting to retain sight in his remaining eye after an acid attack, Muslim extremists this month were shooting at his close friend, a leader of another church. Doctors at Sheba Hospital in Tel-Aviv, Israel, are still not sure what kind of chemicals Muslim extremists cast . . . Read More

Indictment of ‘masterminds’ of murders in Turkey expected

February 28, 2012 Turkey Armenians, Malatya, Trabzon, Turkey

Judges in Turkey’s southeastern city of Malatya have announced the preparation of an indictment in the case of three murdered Christians that is expected to reveal a shadowy network that incited five young men to carry out the crime. The Third Criminal Court of Malatya is expected to announce the . . . Read More

Pakistani Muslims employ ‘blasphemy’ threat in land grab

February 27, 2012 Pakistan Blasphemy, Pakistan, Punjab, Sialkot, Sunni Tehreek

Tensions are still high in a village near here following Muslims’ attempt to seize land from a Christian family by threatening to accuse them of “blasphemy.” What began on Feb. 19 as a quarrel over a pigeon between Christian and Muslim youths at Nawa Pind Sabu Mohal village, in Sialkot’s . . . Read More

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