General

India: Chhattisgarh church remains shut, 6 weeks after Hindu mob forced closure

March 17, 2017 India BJP, Chhattisgarh, Hindu nationalism, Kerala, Narendra Modi

An Indian church remains shut, six weeks after a mob of angry Hindus halted a Sunday service and forced the pastor to close the church. He says the local government has sided with the mob. The church is in Dalli Rajhara, a mining city in the central state of Chhattisgarh, . . . Read More

Accounts surface of persecution of Christians in Dunkirk migrants’ camp

March 15, 2017 Afghanistan, Calais, Converts, Dunkirk, France, Grande-Synthe, Iran, Iraq, La Linière, Migrants, Refugees, Shiraz, Syria, Vietnam

Outside the windswept port of Dunkirk, in northern France, sits a migrants’ camp called La Linière. Home to around 1,400 people, it lies 25 miles from Calais and the now-demolished camp that became known as the “Jungle”. La Linière opened a year ago, with the collaboration of Médicins sans Frontières . . . Read More

Inside a migrant camp in northern France

March 15, 2017 Calais, France, Grande-Synthe, Iran, Iraq, Kurds, La Linière, Migrants, Refugees

Armed police amass outside as the day draws to a close at La Linière migrant camp in Grande-Synthe, northern France, which has just celebrated its one-year anniversary. There was an incident last night and there’s every chance another could follow tonight. This camp may boast a new, prettier face, but . . . Read More

Iran’s hidden Christians are becoming visible in the migrant camps of Europe

March 15, 2017 Calais, Converts, Dunkirk, Grande-Synthe, Iran, La Linière, Migrants, Refugees, Shiraz, Zoroastrians

A pastor in northern France has described her church’s ministry to Middle Eastern migrants in a nearby camp as “the mission field coming to you”. The church’s leader, Pastor Lydie Granger, said that among the estimated 1,400 migrants living in the camp outside Dunkirk were around 40 Iranians who had . . . Read More

Helping Dunkirk’s migrants – God’s will or collusion in illegal entry?

March 15, 2017 Calais, Converts, Dunkirk, Egypt, Eritrea, France, Iran, La Linière, Migrants, Refugees

Iranian migrants line up for prayer alongside other members of the congregation at the Dk Live church in Dunkirk

Reaching out to the migrants who arrive in the north of France presents the Church with a weighty dilemma. The migrants have generally paid smugglers several thousand pounds to help them to cross Europe, and have their eyes – and their hearts – set on reaching England, which will mean . . . Read More

Tanzanian widow overcomes grief of husband’s murder during spate of church attacks in east Africa

March 15, 2017 Tanzania Acid attacks, Amselmo Mwangamba, Arusha, East Africa, Mwanza, Pentecostals, Tanzania, Zanzibar

“Widows often suffer great loneliness. After I lost Elias I feared that loneliness very much.” Three years on from husband Elias’ death, Mary Lunyamila Meshack recalls how her life changed forever the night he stood guard during an overnight service at their church in Mwanza, on the shores of Lake . . . Read More

Injured Indonesian boy, 4, ‘ashamed’ by wounds after 17th operation since November church attack

March 14, 2017 Indonesia Aceh, Bogor, Islamic State, Java, Joko Widodo, Kalimantan, Samarinda, Sumatra

Just over four months ago, on 13 November 2016, a two-year-old girl died after suffering 75% burns during a bomb attack on a church in Indonesia. Three other young children were also injured – Anita (also two), Trinity (three) and Alvaro (four) – during the attack on Oikumene Church in . . . Read More

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws

March 14, 2017 Pakistan Blasphemy, Islamic extremism, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Religious freedom

What the laws say Chapter XV of Pakistan’s Penal Code, titled “Of Offences Relating to Religion,” contains six sections. Four of them outlaw a number of acts, ranging from tresspassing on places of worship to “malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings,” with penalties ranging from one to 10 years . . . Read More

Pakistani Christians in Thailand face renewed pressure to return home

March 13, 2017 Asylum seekers, Badami Bagh, Bangkok, Gojra, Joseph Colony, Migrants, Netherlands, Pakistan, Refugees, Thailand, UK, UN

World Watch Monitor has heard from reliable sources that the Thai government is planning to cancel bail for all male asylum seekers in Bangkok. The move would require them to return to detention centres straight away. This would include many of the estimated 11,500 Pakistani Christians who complained in 2016 . . . Read More

Killer of Coptic alcohol vendor sentenced to death

March 10, 2017 Egypt Alexandria, Copts

UPDATE (10 March) The murderer of a Coptic man killed “for selling alcohol” has been sentenced to death. Adel Soliman, 48, confessed to the murder of Youssef Lamei and said he would kill everyone who sold alcohol if he could, according to Egypt Independent. Lamei was killed as he sat . . . Read More

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