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Iran: another Christian convert ‘arrested, beaten and told to renounce faith’

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Iran: another Christian convert ‘arrested, beaten and told to renounce faith’
An Iranian convert to Christianity has been arrested in the western city of Dezful, the fourth such convert arrested in the city in recent weeks. Abdol-Ali Pourmand was arrested on Saturday (21 October) after a raid on his home two days before, during which materials including Bibles and Christian CDs . . . Read More

New UNHRC members criticised for ‘dismal rights record’

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New UNHRC members criticised for ‘dismal rights record’
Afghanistan and Pakistan were among the 15 States elected last week (16 October) to serve on the UN Human Rights Council, with human rights groups calling it a “crisis in the UN and its intergovernmental system”. Maliha Lodhi, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, called it an “endorsement of Pakistan’s strong . . . Read More

China: state-sanctioned Church says new regulations will ‘strengthen Christianity’

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China: state-sanctioned Church says new regulations will ‘strengthen Christianity’
China’s new regulations on religious affairs, passed last month, are a “major event for Chinese Christianity, [as] they clarify Christianity’s role and strengthen her constructions”, according to the two organisations that comprise the state-sanctioned Church in China. The China Christian Council and Three-Self Patriotic Movement, which form the ‘lianghui’ (two . . . Read More

Saudi Arabia pledges to scrutinise hadiths to ‘eliminate’ extremism

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The big mosque near Deera square in Riyadh with room for 20,000 people. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)
Saudi Arabia has pledged to monitor preachers and jurists’ use of Prophet Muhammad’s hadiths (sayings) “to prevent them being used to justify violence or extremism”. Saudi’s King Salman has ordered an international council of senior Islamic scholars to scrutinise the hadiths. The Saudi Culture and Information Ministry promised on Tuesday . . . Read More

UN ‘overlooked’ IS crime of forced displacement

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Iraqi Christians ask the international community for help as they are facing annihilation by Islamic State. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)
Campaigners for Christian and Yazidi victims of the Islamic State group welcomed the UN’s decision last month to recognise the Islamic State group’s crimes as “genocide”, but human rights advocate Ewelina Ochab questions why “forced displacement” wasn’t included. The UN Security Council voted unanimously to create an investigative team to . . . Read More

Two UN peacekeepers among dozens killed by Islamist militants in eastern DRC

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Two UN peacekeepers among dozens killed by Islamist militants in eastern DRC
Dozens of people have lost their lives in recent days in separate attacks attributed to the radical Islamic group Muslim Defense International (MDI), formerly known as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), in the volatile region of North Kivu in eastern DRC. According to local sources, 11 people were killed when a convoy . . . Read More

Belarus archbishop: ‘Give Catholic Church its rights’

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Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of Minsk-Mohilev © Aid to the Church in Need
A Catholic archbishop in Belarus has asked the government to make it easier for foreign priests to work in the country and to return ownership of church buildings to the Catholic Church. Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, whose diocese encompasses the capital, Minsk, told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need . . . Read More