General

Mexico a ‘case study in government inaction’ as third priest killed this year

July 12, 2017 Mexico Catholics, Coahuila, Latin America, Los Zetas, Mexico City, Michoacán, Nayarit, Organised crime, Tijuana

A third Mexican priest this year has been killed following a violent attack at his parish just outside Mexico City. Luis Lopez Villa, 71, was killed by intruders at his San Isidro Labrador parish in Nezahualcóyotl on 5 July. An initial police report said his hands and feet were bound . . . Read More

Rash of sentences ‘shows government’s fear of growth of Christianity in Iran’

July 12, 2017 Iran Amin Afshar Naderi, Exile, Hassan Rouhani, Iran, Mohammad Reza Omidi, Rasht, Saheb Fadaie, Yasser Mossayebzadeh, Youcef Nadarkhani

Four more Christians received lengthy jail sentences in Iran last week, it has emerged, taking the total number sentenced in the last month to 12. Yasser Mossayebzadeh, Saheb Fadaie, Mohammad Reza Omidi and Youcef Nadarkhani were each sentenced to ten years in prison. Omidi and Nadarkhani – a pastor who . . . Read More

‘Longest seven minutes of my life’: Uzbek beaten up for leading secret church

July 12, 2017 Uzbekistan Communism, Converts, House churches, Islamic extremism, Soviet Union, Uzbekistan

Azamat became a Christian in the early days of Uzbekistan’s independence, soon after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, when, he says, the country “was a much freer place than it is now”. He embraced his new faith, setting up a network of house churches, and finding teachers for . . . Read More

Jailed Algerian Christian receives partial presidential pardon

July 12, 2017 Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Bejaia, Berbers, Blasphemy, Constantine, Jijel, Kabylie, MAK, Setif, Slimane Bouhafs, Tizi Ouzou

Slimane Bouhafs has been released after 18 months in prison for alleged blasphemy on Facebook. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A Christian imprisoned for three years for “insulting Islam and the prophet Muhammad” in his social media posts has received a partial presidential pardon. Slimane Bouhafs, who converted to Christianity from Islam in 1997, was arrested almost a year ago (31 July 2016) for posting a message on social media . . . Read More

Murder of fifth Copt in six weeks creating ‘state of fear and terror’ among Egypt’s Christians

July 12, 2017 Egypt Cairo, Copts, Muslim Brotherhood, Upper Egypt

A fifth Copt has been murdered in Egypt in six weeks, aggravating fears among Christians that Islamist extremists are targeting them with impunity. Nadra Mounir, 26, was found dead in her flat in Cairo last Thursday evening (6 July), and religious icons in her home had reportedly been desecrated. Her . . . Read More

Filipino Bishops: ‘Marawi war is not a religious conflict’

July 11, 2017 Philippines Bangsamoro, Catholics, Manila, Marawi, Maute, Philippines, Teresito Suganob

Smoke is billowing from Marawi's homes. (Photo: Getty Images)

The Catholic Bishops in the Philippines, at the end of their episcopal Conference in Manila on Monday (10 July), have called for an end to the crisis in the southern city of Marawi (Mindanao), which, they say, “is not a conflict of religion”. “We heard and read truly amazing stories . . . Read More

US hostage’s wife asks his African captors to contact her

July 11, 2017 Niger Abalak, Jeff Woodke, Niger, Sahel

Jeff Woodke (Photo: Woodke's Facebook page)

The wife of a pioneering American missionary abducted nine months ago in Africa’s Sahel region has put out a video pleading for his safe return. In the 2’26” video released today (11 July), Els Woodke expresses her despair and desire to be in touch with her husband’s kidnappers. Jeff Woodke, . . . Read More

Jailed Iranian Christian asks authorities: ‘Why do you hate me?’

July 11, 2017 Iran Amin Afshar Naderi, Blasphemy, Converts, Evin Prison, Hadi Asgari, Iran, Kaviyan Fallah-Mohammadi, Tehran, Victor Bet-Tamraz

An Iranian convert to Christianity, sentenced last week to 15 years in jail, has written an open letter to the authorities, asking what he has done to “make you hate me this much” and declaring that he has decided to “terminate my life slowly” through a hunger strike. Amin Afshar-Naderi . . . Read More

Food aid starts to reach 5m Boko Haram victims, now at risk of famine

July 10, 2017 Nigeria Abuja, Boko Haram, Cameroon, IDPs, Jos, Lagos, Migrants, Refugees

15,000 families who are facing 'acute food insecurity' in northern Nigeria receive food aid. (Photo: Open Doors)

It’s been called the “greatest crisis on the African continent“. The UN’s World Food Programme in mid-June warned that hundreds of thousands of Nigerians could starve to death in the famine-threatened northeast due to lack of aid funds to feed them. It needs $172 million to help. Now the militants . . . Read More

Indians take to the streets in protest against religious violence

July 7, 2017 India Assam, Bangalore, Beef, BJP, Dalits, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Mumbai, Narendra Modi

Thousands of people, including church groups and representatives of civil society, have gathered in cities across India over the past ten days to protest against mounting religious intolerance and to express solidarity with the victims of the violence, under the banner “Not in My Name”. The protests in Kolkata, Hyderabad, . . . Read More

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