General

Pakistani Christian boy, 16, charged with blasphemy for discussing his faith

July 19, 2017 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Barelvi, Blasphemy, Gujrat, Lahore, Mardan, Pakistan, Punjab

A 16-year-old Pakistani Christian boy has been charged with blasphemy for talking with a colleague about his belief in Jesus, the second such incident in a month. Shahzad Masih, 16, a cleaner at a hospital in the city of Dinga (near the religiously conservative city of Gujrat), was arrested on . . . Read More

Legal limbo of Turkey’s Syriac Christian properties still unresolved

July 18, 2017 Turkey Mardin, Mor Gabriel Monastery, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Syria, Syriacs, Turkey

Over the past five years, legal ownership of at least 100 ancient Syriac Christian properties in Turkey’s southeast has been seized and transferred to the Turkish state treasury, where the title deeds still remain. The government-confiscated properties include two functioning monasteries, including adjacent lands to the 4th century Mor Gabriel . . . Read More

New Anglican bishop tells of Iranian persecution and exile

July 18, 2017 Iran Iran

Firsthand experience of persecution has returned to the top levels of the Church of England with the appointment of a bishop whose brother was murdered and whose parents were attacked in their bed during the Iranian Revolution. Guli Francis-Dehqani was last week (11 July) named the Bishop of Loughborough with a . . . Read More

India: Christians in shock after pastor shot dead in ‘safe’ Punjab

July 17, 2017 India India, Ludhiana, Pentecostals, Punjab

The Christian community in Ludhiana, the largest city in India’s north-western state of Punjab, is in shock after a pastor was shot dead outside his Pentecostal church on Saturday evening (15 July). Sultan Masih, 47, who also ran a school for the poor, was gunned down by two people on . . . Read More

BJP candidate favourite to win India’s presidential election

July 17, 2017 India Beef, BJP, Dalits, India, Ram Nath Kovind, RSS

Ram Nath Kovind (L), the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) governments's candidate for the upcoming presidential election, gestures as he leaves an NDA meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) and top Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani (C) in New Delhi on June 23, 2017.

Today (17 July) Indian lawmakers are expected to elect Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind as the nation’s next president in a move that will strengthen the position of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist party. According to Reuters the victory of the candidate put forward by Modi’s ruling . . . Read More

Nepal: Christian worker shot at Easter says he’s still fearful

July 14, 2017 Nepal Catholics, Hindu Morcha Nepal, Hindu nationalism, Kathmandu, Nepal

Three months ago, on 16 April, Christian worker Santosh Khadka was shot in Kathmandu while he was returning home from an Easter service. Police have not been able to identify the attackers, but local Christians say Khadka was targeted because of his religious-freedom work, as some groups in this young democracy . . . Read More

Church relieved as Yemen confirms kidnapped Indian priest is ‘alive’

July 14, 2017 Yemen Aden, Catholics, Islamic State, Tom Uzhunnalil, Yemen

The Church in India, especially in the southern state of Kerala, is breathing a sign of relief after Yemen confirmed to India’s foreign minister that Catholic missionary Father Tom Uzhunnalil, kidnapped in Yemen in March 2016, is “alive”. “We are thrilled to hear that good news,” Cardinal George Alencherry, Major . . . Read More

More Christian than Muslim refugees in US under Trump, but fewer overall

July 14, 2017 Chaldeans, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Donald Trump, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Migrants, Mike Pence, Refugees, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, USA, Yemen

Christians account for a steadily growing share of refugee arrivals in the US, Pew Research has found, although the net number of Christian arrivals may in fact be shrinking. In its review of US State Department data, published on 12 July, Pew noticed a gradual increase in the numbers of . . . Read More

Sudan sanctions extended for three months

July 13, 2017 Sudan Human rights, North Korea, Religious freedom, Sanctions, Sudan, USA

A Sudanese woman carries a bag of food-aid on her head at the El-Riyadh camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in Geneina, the capital of Sudan’s West Darfur state, on 8 February 2017. Rights groups are calling for “a new set of “smart and modernised” sanctions that would “spare” the Sudanese people. (Photo: Getty Images)

The US has extended its sanctions against Sudan for another three months, saying “more time is needed” to review whether Sudan has done enough to merit their removal. Sudan’s President, Omar Bashir, responded by suspending his negotiating committee until the end of the three months. The committee has been in . . . Read More

Terrorist threat forces Egyptian Christians to cancel summer activities

July 13, 2017 Egypt Alexandria, Andrea Zaki, Asyut, Cairo, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Ismailia, Minya, Suez, Tanta, Terrorism

The churches of Egypt are temporarily shutting down their summer activities. “I asked all our churches and conference centres to cancel their trips and events for the next three weeks,” Dr. Andrea Zaki, president of the Protestant Churches of Egypt, told World Watch Monitor. “There is news they could be . . . Read More

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