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China: More church closures and Internet censorship in further religious clampdown

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Senior lady looking at Dongguang Church in Shenyang, northeastern China. (Photo: Open Doors International)
One of China’s largest unofficial “house churches” was closed on Sunday, while new measures have been introduced to curb religious activities online. Beijing’s Zion Church had received warnings following its refusal to place CCTV cameras in its auditorium at the government’s request. On Sunday afternoon, 9 September, around 60 government . . . Read More

Philippines: Mindanao Christians present ‘policy agenda’ for new Muslim region

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Christians form a minority in southern Philippines and policy proposals dealt with their concerns once they become citizens of an autonomous Muslim region. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)
Christian leaders have submitted a “Christian policy agenda” to the transitory body that will facilitate the formation of a new autonomous Muslim region in the southern Philippines, reports the Catholic news website UCAN. The agenda, put together after consultations last month in several areas set to become part of the . . . Read More

Myanmar: Peace talks for settling conflict with majority-Christian ethnic groups

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Myanmar: Peace talks for settling conflict with majority-Christian ethnic groups
Myanmar’s Peace Commission has held a meeting in China with the representatives of three ethnic armed groups fighting the Myanmar Armed Forces along the country’s northern border, AsiaNews reports. The  Ta’ang National Liberation Army, Arakan Army and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army are part of the Northern Alliance, which also . . . Read More

China ‘uses legal tactics to suppress religious freedom’, says rights agency

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People leaving the church after a service in Shenyang, north-eastern Dongguang province. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)
China’s churches are experiencing the worst persecution in 40 years, with a government which uses “non-religious reasons” and civil law to close houses of worship, according to the US-based St Charles Institute. Pressure is applied “through opaque queries of fire-protection measures, by questioning the legality of printed materials used by the . . . Read More

Having human rights in Kazakhstan depends on state permission – report

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The Presidential Palace, the official work place of Kazakhstan's president, in the capital Astana. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)
Kazakhstan tries to make the “exercising of human rights conditional on state permission”, says the Oslo-based news service Forum 18. “[Kazakhstan] systematically violates intertwined fundamental rights – such as the freedoms of religion or belief, of expression and of assembly” when it has international obligations to respect and defend these, . . . Read More

Philippines: Internet café bomb kills two Christian teenagers

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Philippines: Internet café bomb kills two Christian teenagers
A bomb explosion in a town in the southern Philippines on 2 September claimed the lives of an 18-year-old catechist (he taught the Christian faith in public schools in his free time) and his 15-year-old cousin, Catholic news agency UCAN reports. The blast that killed Jun Mark Luda and Marialyn . . . Read More