General

‘My daughters have no future in the Middle East’

November 10, 2017 Lebanon Beirut, Divorce, Iraq, Islamic State, Lebanon, Refugees, Syria, UN

Suha, an Iraqi Christian living in Beirut with her four daughters and her mother

“I lived with my in-laws for 35 years. At the beginning it was like going to the gallows!” recalls Lydia Babayan, 57, an Iraqi-born Armenian Catholic. “My mother-in-law was very aggressive and my father-in-law was very strict. But my husband’s sister was good to me, she never said a bad . . . Read More

Nigeria: 9 dead as suspected Fulani herdsmen ambush Christians in Plateau

November 9, 2017 Nigeria Christian Association of Nigeria, Church of Christ in Nigeria, ECWA, Fulani herdsmen, Nigeria, Plateau

Nine Christians were shot dead by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria’s central Plateau State on Tuesday night (7 November), as they returned from a weekly village market. Four more were injured during the incident in the Riyom Local Government Area (LGA), which happened at around 7.30pm. Seven were killed instantly, . . . Read More

Lives in limbo – Iraqi Christians’ long wait for asylum in Lebanon

November 8, 2017 Lebanon Armenians, Assyrians, Asylum seekers, Beirut, IDPs, Iraq, Islamic State, Lebanon, Middle East, Refugees, Syria, Trauma, UN

Petros Babayan strains to sit up as if each bone of his paper-thin frame were heavy as iron. His wife Lydia and adult daughter Rita rush to help him. In their tiny rented apartment in Beirut, his single bed takes up a quarter of the room in which they live . . . Read More

Pakistan: Christians flee village after death threats against teenager accused of blasphemy

November 7, 2017 Pakistan Blasphemy, Gujranwala, Islamic extremism, Pakistan

Five Christian families in rural Pakistan have gone into hiding after death threats were made against an 18-year-old because of his alleged blasphemy against Islam. Sonu Arshad, who lives in the remote village of Sukheki, 200 kilometres north of Lahore, belongs to one of the families – the only Christians . . . Read More

Sudan: two church leaders fined, trial of five others postponed

November 7, 2017 Sudan Sudan, Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church, Sudanese Church of Christ

The Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) in Bahri, North Khartoum marked for demolition by order of the government in June 2014. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Two Sudanese church leaders have been found guilty of criminal misappropriation and trespass, following a long-running dispute over church land and property. Rafat Samir, chairman of the Lands and Buildings Committee of the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC), and Daniel William, the deputy chairman, were each fined 5,000 Sudanese pounds (approximately . . . Read More

Iran MPs want to change law so people can only vote for candidates from their own religion

November 3, 2017 Iran Armenians, Assyrians, Ayatollah Khomeini, Elections, Iran, Minorities, Sepanta Niknam, Sharia, Yazd, Zoroastrians

Conservative MPs within Iran’s parliament are proposing that Iranians should only be allowed to vote for members of their own religious group. In Iran, where 90-95% of the population is Shia Muslim, this will essentially mean that it will be impossible for members of religious minorities to be elected. The . . . Read More

Dozens killed as Islamist violence erupts again in eastern DRC

November 3, 2017 Democratic Republic of the Congo ADF, Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila, North Kivu

After a period of relative calm, violence has resumed in eastern DRC. Various attacks by armed groups, including the radical Islamic group Muslim Defense International (MDI), formerly known as the Allied Democratic Forces, have claimed dozens lives among civilians in September and October. In one recent attack on 26 October, . . . Read More

Egypt church reopened after 22 years seen by some as gesture to US

November 3, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Anba Macarius, Churches, Copts, Egypt, Minya, Pentecostals, USA

After 22 years, the doors of the Pentecostal church in Minya City were reopened on 29 October 2017. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A Pentecostal church in Minya City, Egypt, reopened its doors on Sunday (29 October) after 22 years without a permit, a move some see as a goodwill gesture from the government ahead of the visit of US Vice President Mike Pence. Pence announced last week that he hoped to visit . . . Read More

Nineveh Christians still talk of emigration, despite Iraqi-Kurd peace agreement

November 3, 2017 Iraq Dohuk, Iraq, Islamic State, Kirkuk, Nineveh Plains, Peshmerga

In an attack of IS on Friday 21 Oct 2016, about 50 students and 8 nuns were in the area where IS launched an attack on Kirkuk. Check also the article on GP, published 24 Oct 2016.

Christians in Kirkuk and other parts of northern Iraq continue to worry about insecurity in the Nineveh Plains despite the recent peace agreement between Kurdish and Iraqi forces. Recent clashes between the Kurdish Peshmerga and the combined forces of the Iraqi army and al-Hashd al-Shaabi – the pro-Iraqi militia groups – . . . Read More

Eritrean Christians told to remove crosses as schools forced to go public

November 3, 2017 Eritrea Abune Antonios, Asmara, Catholics, Education, Eritrea, Pentecostals, Religious freedom

People running in the streets of Asmara while gun shots can be heard.

Eritrea’s security forces shot at protesters, using live ammunition, in the capital Asmara on Tuesday (31 October) during a protest against the government’s plans to turn all schools public. This would mean forbidding students from wearing religious items such as Christian crosses or Muslim headscarves. A local source told World . . . Read More

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