News

Rising Islamist militancy across Sahel belt threatens African Christianity

  September 8, 2016 Agadez, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Ansar Dine, Beatrice Stockly, Islamic extremism, Ivory Coast, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Muammar Gaddafi, Niger, Sahel, Timbuktu, Tuareg, West Africa

More than 70 churches, as well as Christian homes, schools and orphanages,were burned down by Islamists in Niger in January 2015.World Watch Monitor As the world focusses on potential military advances against the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, it risks overlooking another vast region where militant Islam is . . . Read More

Uzbek pastor: ‘It will be even worse after Karimov’

  September 7, 2016 Uzbekistan Islam Karimov, Soviet Union, Uzbekistan

An Uzbek church leader has said he fears life will be even harder for minority Christians after the death of Islam Karimov, the country’s President since 1989. Karimov, who was installed during the Soviet era, was eventually confirmed to have died on 2 September, after a week of speculation following . . . Read More

Funeral held for Pakistani Christian killed in Peshawar attack

  September 6, 2016 Pakistan Peshawar, Sweepers, Warsak Dam

The main gate to the Warsak Dam Christian Colony, where Samuel Masih, 55, was killed.World Watch Monitor A funeral was held on Saturday (3 Sep.) for the Christian cleaner killed during the 2 Sep. attack on a Christian colony in Peshawar, north-western Pakistan. Four suicide bombers carrying automatic weapons were . . . Read More

In violence-racked Baghdad, the few Christians still there struggle to cope

  September 6, 2016 Iraq Baghdad, Iraq, Islamic State, Ramadan

At the height of its scorching summer, Iraq saw its worst attack since the Allied Forces ousted Saddam in 2003. Some 324 people lost their lives when a van exploded in the bustling al-Karada neighbourhood of Baghdad – during Islam’s holy month of Ramadan. The 3 July destruction claimed by . . . Read More

Pakistan: One killed after attack on Christian colony

  September 2, 2016 Pakistan Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mardan, Peshawar, Taliban, Warsak Dam

One person was killed and two policemen injured after an early morning attack on a Christian colony near the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar. Four suicide bombers carrying automatic weapons were waiting at the gate to the colony, which was locked every night. When Samuel Masih, 55, opened the gate on his . . . Read More

Uzbek pastor and family granted asylum in US after 9-year ordeal

  September 2, 2016 Uzbekistan Andijan, Asylum seekers, Central Asia, Fergana Valley, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Islam Karimov, Islamic extremism, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Migrants, Refugees, Soviet Union, USA, Uzbekistan

Finally, their journey is over. Three years since fleeing Uzbekistan – following four years in a labour camp, house arrest and death threats – Pastor Dmitry Shestakov has arrived in the United States, where he and his family have been granted asylum. It’s been almost 10 years since Shestakov was . . . Read More

Prosecutor demands ‘harshest punishment’ for pastors charged with highlighting Sudan Christians’ suffering

  August 30, 2016 Sudan Abdulmonem Abdumawla, Hassan Taour, Khartoum, Kuwa Shamal, Nuba Mountains, Peter Yen, Petr Jašek, Religious freedom, Sharia, South Kordofan, South Sudan, SPLM-N, Sudan, Yat Michael

A trial of four men, including two Sudanese church leaders and a foreign aid worker, resumed on 29 August in Khartoum, with Sudan’s prosecution accusing the defendants of highlighting alleged Christian suffering in war-ravaged areas of the country. The four defendants are a Czech Christian aid worker named Petr Jasek; . . . Read More

‘ISIS on a mission to exterminate Christians’

  August 26, 2016 Al-Qaeda, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Idlib, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, London, Mosul, Salafism, Syria

Shiraz Maher, senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London, in a 2015 photo.Morten Brakestad / Stortinget / Flickr CC   The  so-called Islamic State will not stop until it has “exterminated” all other religious groups, according to a former Islamic extremist . . . Read More

FARC: ‘Colombia wins, death loses’ in peace deal, but not everyone is convinced

  August 25, 2016 Colombia ELN, FARC, Juan Manuel Santos, Latin America, Trauma

An anti-FARC march in 2008. The conflict has raged for over 50 years, claiming over 250,000 lives and creating the world’s largest population of internally displaced people – nearly 7 million.AlCortes / Flickr / CC   The deal is done. The war, at least on paper, is over. After more . . . Read More

Report: Pakistan school textbooks riddled with religious ‘hate material’

  August 25, 2016 Pakistan Balochistan, Education, Islamic extremism, Jamaat-e-Islami, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, Taliban

A young girl does her school work in Karachi, Pakistan, in a 2011 photo.UN Photo / John Isaac / Flickr CC   A report by Pakistan’s National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) says the government has failed to keep its promise to eradicate religious “hate material” from textbooks used . . . Read More