Kazakh arrested for praying
A pastor in Kazakhstan has been told he must spend two months in detention awaiting sentencing for charges including praying and singing. (Forum 18)
Catching Our Eye
Iranian pastor arrested
An Iranian pastor was arrested on Tuesday (May 21) in the midst of a church service in central Tehran. Churches in Iran are under increasing pressure to stop all services held in Farsi, reports Mohabat News. Robert Asseriyan, pastor of the Assemblies of God church, was arrested and taken to an . . . Read More
Uzbek woman fined over Bible
An Uzbek woman has been fined and sentenced to one and a half years of corrective labour for the “illegal production, storage, import or distribution of religious literature”. Sharofat Allamova, a Protestant from Urgench in north-western Uzbekistan, has also been banned from leaving the country, is to be placed in . . . Read More
Sudan loses ‘bright young leader’
Joseph Taban Lusaba, principal of New Bishop Gwynne College (of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, ECS) in Juba, South Sudan, died May 20 after an illness. Before studying for a masters at Duke University in the United States in 2010, Joseph Taban had been a priest at ECS’ All Saints . . . Read More
‘Egypt’s challenge’
Two years on from the revolution in Egypt, the country’s media is still wrestling with its newfound ‘freedom of speech’. BBC World Service reporter Shaimaa Khalil says the country is “polarised between the Islamists and the liberals, with little common ground”.
Egyptian church burned
Officially, no cause has been determined for the Sunday fire that caused extensive destruction to the Coptic Church of the Virgin Mary in Tema, Egypt. Unofficially, suspicion has fallen upon Muslims who, according to Mideast Christian News, distributed a leaflet in December with this warning: “To the Crusaders of Tema and sons of . . . Read More
Sudan: ‘Christianisation’ a problem
Ammar Saleh, the Chairman of the Islamic Centre for Preaching and Comparative Studies in Khartoum, Sudan, has called “official bodies and the community to take a stand against ‘Christianisation’ and find a long-term solution to the problem”. (Sudan Tribune)
Musa murder linked to Boko Haram
Rev. Faye Pama Musa, secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Borno State, was shot and killed yesterday (May 14). Musa’s murder came on the day President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. Various reports in the region have linked the murder . . . Read More
Another thumbs-down for SBY ‘statesman’ award
Add another human-rights watchdog group to the list disapproving of the decision by the Appeal of Conscience Foundation to bestow its 2013 “World Statesman Award” to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, widely known as SBY. The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network, or ETAN, has launched an online petition urging the . . . Read More
Anniversary of Eritrea crackdown
It’s been 11 years since Eritrea outlawed all Christian churches except those belonging to the Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran denominations. Eritrea is currently ranked 10th on the World Watch List, an annual ranking of the 50 countries where Christians are most under pressure for their faith. To mark the date, . . . Read More