News

Egypt convert’s legal limbo finally brings him ‘back to Islam’

  August 2, 2016 Egypt Apostasy, Islamic extremism, Mohammed Hegazy, Port Said

During Hegazy’s periods of incarceration, he was subject to different forms of abuse.World Watch Monitor   Egyptian lawyer Karam Ghobrial was clearly distraught as he talked about the saga both he and his client, once Muslim-turned-Christian Mohamed Hegazy, have endured over the past month. That was before Hegazy – the . . . Read More

Anti-Christian violence in India at an ‘alarming level’

  August 2, 2016 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Hindu nationalism, Madhya Pradesh, Narendra Modi, Pentecostals

A message is held aloft at a protest march against anti-Christian violence – in Bangalore in February 2015.World Watch Monitor   The leader of a Christian advocacy group in India says that incidents of anti-Christian violence in the country have reached an “alarming level”, with more than 30 incidents a . . . Read More

2 years after IS drove them from their homes, Iraqi Christians ‘are still in survival mode’, bishop says

  August 1, 2016 Iraq Ankawa, Assyrians, Islamic State, Nineveh Plains, Peshmerga, Refugees

U.S. State Department Deputy Secretary Antony Blinken at the Washington Conference on Threats to Religious and Ethic Minorities Under ISIL, 29 July in Washington, D.C.Video capture / U.S. Office of Policy Planning and Public Diplomacy   Two years after being driven from their homeland by the so-called Islamic State, displaced . . . Read More

Copts attacked, forced to settle for nothing, in absence of Egyptian justice

  July 27, 2016 Egypt Al-Azhar, Anba Macarius, Bishop Angaelos, Churches, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Luxor, Pope Tawadros II, Salafism, Sharia, Soad Thabet, Sunni

Eight Christian homes were attacked and an equal number of Copts were detained after Muslims in an Egyptian village went on a rampage following rumours of a house church being built. The attack last week in Saft el-Khirsa (180km south of Cairo) trails more than a dozen others that have, . . . Read More

The murder of a French priest has horrified the world. The same thing happens to Christians in lesser-reported places

  July 27, 2016 Global News -- No Particular Country Central African Republic, Charlie Hebdo, Egypt, France, Jacques Hamel, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Paris, Sudan

Rev. Jacques HamelEglise Catholique de Rouen The 26 July killing of a Catholic priest in his church in St. Etienne du Rouvray, France, once again has pushed jihadist violence into the headlines. The so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility for the murder, committed by two knife-wielding attackers who were shot and . . . Read More

UPDATE: Fresh attacks on Christian villages in Benue, Central Nigeria

  July 27, 2016 Nigeria Agatu, Benue, Fulani herdsmen, Islamic extremism, Joseph Kurah

The aftermath of an attack, which claimed hundreds of lives, in the central Nigerian state of Benue, Feb. 2016.World Watch Monitor   UPDATE (27 July): A fresh attack in the central Nigerian State of Benue by suspected Fulani herdsmen has left at least 14 dead in the predominantly Christian area . . . Read More

Now hunger threatens Nigerian Christians who’ve fled Boko Haram

  July 26, 2016 Nigeria Boko Haram, Borno, Gwoza, Yola

Internally displaced people queuing for relief materials in Maiduguri, Borno State. Oct. 2014World Watch Monitor   ”I met a child today who came to our clinic, looking very thin and definitely showing signs of hunger. His parents don’t live in our camp, but they brought him here for health checks…” . . . Read More

Coptic Pope prays in ancient church symbolic of past persecutions

  July 21, 2016 Egypt Anba Macarius, Copts, Egypt, Minya, Pope Tawadros II

Egypt’s Pope Tawadros II made a heartfelt plea on Wednesday (20 July) on behalf of his country’s Coptic minority which has suffered in excess of 12 violent incidents in the last two months. Shifting the venue of his weekly sermon from the downtown Cathedral of Abbasia to the historic ‘hanging . . . Read More

Iraq’s Mosul Archbishop had to pay ‘protection money’ before his 2008 kidnap and death

  July 21, 2016 Iraq Al-Qaeda, Iraq, Islamic State, Jizya, Kidnapping, Mosul, Quran, Saddam Hussein

The Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul, who was murdered by militias in 2008, paid protection money to safeguard his clergy for years before his kidnapping and death, an aide has told World Watch Monitor. Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was abducted in February 2008 from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which . . . Read More

A dozen incidents against Egypt’s Copts in 7 weeks

  July 20, 2016 Egypt Anba Macarius, Copts, Egypt, Luxor, Minya, Samalut, Sohag, Tanta

Since May 2016, Egypt’s Christians have suffered multiple attacks. Reflecting what most Copts see as the country turning a blind eye to increased violence against its Christian minority, the Coptic Church’s Bishop Makarius tweeted on 17 July “reminding” president Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi that Copts “are Egyptian citizens”, and that his diocese . . . Read More