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‘Careful response needed’ after Mozambique’s first Islamist attack

October 26, 2017 Al-Shabaab, Cabo Delgado, Islamic extremism, Mocimboa da Praia, Mozambique, Saudi Arabia, Sufi, Sunni, Wahhabism

Mozambiques President Filipe Nyusi addresses the 71st session of the UN General Assembly in New York on 21 September 2016. (Photo: Getty Images)

Mozambique experienced its first confirmed Islamist attack earlier this month when a local group raided three police stations in the coastal town of Mocimboa da Praia. Now a “careful response” is required from the government, says African historian Eric Morier-Genoud. A group of about 30 armed men launched the attack . . . Read More

India: Kandhamal victims wait, a year on, for government to obey Supreme Court

October 26, 2017 India Dalits, Hindu nationalism, India, Kandhamal, Odisha

In northeast India, local Christian leaders are calling on the Odisha state government to enforce a Supreme Court ruling that the compensation paid to victims of the 2008 Kandhamal violence, which left about 100 Christians dead, was “not enough”, reports Asia News. The August 2016 ruling ordered that Odisha should . . . Read More

Egypt: 4 Coptic churches closed after Muslim protests

October 26, 2017 Egypt Churches, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Minya, Sohag

Four Coptic churches in Upper Egypt were closed down last weekend by local authorities seeking to ease tensions between Muslim and Christian villagers. Three of the churches were in Minya governorate, just south of Cairo, and the fourth in Sohag, further south. In the Minya village of Ezbet al-Qeshiri, the . . . Read More

US aid to Middle East will fund faith groups before ‘ineffective’ UN

October 26, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Barack Obama, Iraq, Middle East, Mike Pence, Nineveh Plains, Peshmerga, Syria, Tel Skuf, USA

The United States’ Vice President Mike Pence has announced that its State Department will favour “faith-based groups” and the US Agency for International Development over “ineffective” UN relief efforts, reports The Independent. Pence made the announcement as keynote speaker at the annual dinner of a Washington-based advocacy NGO In Defense . . . Read More

Indonesia: Christians cancel event Muslims say would have been ‘arena of apostasy’

October 25, 2017 Indonesia Apostasy, Indonesia, Indonesian Ulema Council, Islamic extremism, Java, Yogyakarta

Indonesian Christians planning to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Protestant Christianity were forced to abandon a stadium event following threats from Muslim hardliners. “For the sake of interreligious harmony … and to avoid acts of intolerance, the committee decided to call off the national prayer service to mark 500 years . . . Read More

Tajik pastor placed in solitary confinement in prison 350km from home

October 25, 2017 Tajikistan Bakhrom Kholmatov, Khujand, Protestants, Sogd, Tajikistan, Yavan

A Tajik Protestant church leader serving a three-year sentence for “singing extremist songs in church and so inciting religious hatred” has been moved to a prison 350km from his home and placed in solitary confinement. Bakhrom Kholmatov, 42, was sentenced in July under the Tajik Criminal Code Article 189 (“inciting . . . Read More

Qatar conference: ‘no peace in Middle East without democracy and rule of law’

October 25, 2017 Arabian Peninsula, Arabs, Copts, Doha, Egypt, Iraq, Middle East, Minorities, Qatar

A two-day conference in Qatar earlier this week focused on the plight of Arab Christians and the threats they face through wars and conflicts in the Middle East, recognising there is “no magic wand” to deal with inter-religious and sectarian strife. Bomb attacks on Coptic churches in Egypt and forced . . . Read More

Myanmar: Pope Francis’ visit could ‘heal wounds of country’

October 24, 2017 Myanmar Cardinal Bo, Chin, Kachin, Myanmar, Pope Francis, Shan, Yangon

Myanmar’s Cardinal Bo has said he hopes Pope Francis’ upcoming trip will “help heal the wounds of his country, especially for minorities under attack”. Pope Francis, due to visit Myanmar from 27-30 November, will meet the country’s leader – in all but title – Aung San Suu Kyi. Charles Maung . . . Read More

Film about Sultan and St. Francis shown in Egypt

October 24, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Copts, Egypt, Terrorism

Francis of Assisi (l) and Mohammad Malik (r) meet, seeking peace in the midst of war. (Photo: a still taken from the movie trailer)

The film ‘The Sultan and the Saint’, about the relationship at the height of the Crusades between Sultan Malik Al-Kamel, a Muslim ruler, and Francis of Assisi (later to become one of Christianity’s most famous saints), has had its first showing in Egypt where, under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, inter-religious . . . Read More

Religious freedom in Nepal ‘teetering on the edge’

October 23, 2017 Nepal Anti-conversion law, Blasphemy, Charikot, Constitution, Nepal, Religious freedom

Within less then 24 hours after the provisions on religion were approved by the Constituent Assembly in September 2015, 3 churches in the eastern Jhapa district were bombed. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Nepali president Bidhya Devi Bhandari last week signed into law a bill criminalising religious conversion and the “hurting of religious sentiment”, as two parliamentarians warn religious freedom in the country is “teetering on the edge”. Nepali MP Lokmani Dhakal and Canadian MP David Anderson expressed their concerns after an international . . . Read More

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Catching Our Eye

Catching Our Eye

‘Careful response needed’ after Mozambique’s first Islamist attack

India: Kandhamal victims wait, a year on, for government to obey Supreme Court

Egypt: 4 Coptic churches closed after Muslim protests

US aid to Middle East will fund faith groups before ‘ineffective’ UN

Indonesia: Christians cancel event Muslims say would have been ‘arena of apostasy’

Tajik pastor placed in solitary confinement in prison 350km from home

Qatar conference: ‘no peace in Middle East without democracy and rule of law’

Myanmar: Pope Francis’ visit could ‘heal wounds of country’

Film about Sultan and St. Francis shown in Egypt

Religious freedom in Nepal ‘teetering on the edge’

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