News

The UN is about to take a very close look at Sudan’s treatment of Christians

  May 4, 2016 Bahri, Converts, Darfur, Hassan Taour, Human rights, International Criminal Court, Kuwa Shamal, Mariam Ibrahim, NISS, Omar al-Bashir, Religious freedom, Sharia, South Sudan, Sudan, Sunni, Telal Rata, UN

What is happening? The UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights is scheduled to hold a 3 1/2-hour hearing in Geneva on Wednesday, 4 May, at which UN member nations will examine the state of human rights in Sudan. It promises to be an interesting meeting. Sudan’s president, . . . Read More

US religious-freedom report urges government to add 7 countries to worst-offenders list

  May 2, 2016 Global News -- No Particular Country Africa, BJP, Boko Haram, Central African Republic, China, Egypt, Eritrea, Europe, India, Iraq, Middle East, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Taliban, Turkmenistan, USA, Uzbekistan, Vietnam

What is happening? The primary US government agency on global religious freedom issued its annual report 2 May. It says “religious freedom abroad has been under serious and sustained assault” during the past year, and says America should add seven countries to its list of worst offenders: Central African Republic . . . Read More

Algerian churches still fighting for freedom of worship

  April 29, 2016 Algeria Algeria, Algiers, Churches, Kabylie, Mâatkas, Protestant Church of Algeria

Churches in Algeria are facing intimidation and harassment, despite constitutional provisions guaranteeing freedom of worship in the country. On Sunday 24 April, 2016, a church in Mâatkas, in the north-eastern region of Kabylie, was ordered to cease all religious activities on the grounds that it was in breach of a . . . Read More

Vietnam’s Religion Law ‘created to repress, control’

  April 27, 2016 Vietnam Communism, Religion Law

Vietnam’s new “Law on Belief and Religion,” scheduled to come into effect this year, will add another layer of governmental repression and control to an already pressurised Church, says Vo Tran Nhat, Executive Secretary of the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights. “They’re going to adopt a new law, a law . . . Read More

‘Losing my religion’ – why it’s so hard in the Middle East

  April 26, 2016 Burial, Children, Education, Marriage, Middle East, Mohammed Hegazy

Why is the Middle East the way it is? There are many ways to approach answering this question. The book ‘Identity Crisis’ by Jonathan Andrews, a former researcher for Middle East Concern, a group of Christian charities which all work across the region, provides “a unique and timely perspective on . . . Read More

Coptic teenager kidnapped for ransom in Upper Egypt

  April 21, 2016 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Kidnapping, Qena

The News Earlier this month, a young Christian boy was kidnapped in Upper Egypt, before being released 12 days later after the payment of a hefty ransom. Anthonius Farag, 13, was snatched outside his school early in the morning on April 5, in the village of Mansheyyit Manbal, off Matay . . . Read More

Indian pastor and pregnant wife attacked by militant Hindus

  April 21, 2016 India Bajrang Dal, BJP, Chhattisgarh, Hindu nationalism, India, Pentecostals, Raipur

An Indian pastor and his pregnant wife were assaulted and their church set on fire on Sunday evening (17 April) after they refused to praise a Hindu god. Pastor Dinbanhu Sameli, 30, and his wife, Meena, 26, seven months pregnant, lead a church in the troubled Bastar district of the . . . Read More

UK Parliament votes that Islamic State commits ‘genocide’

  April 21, 2016 Europe, Genocide, Iraq, Islamic State, Syria, UK

The UK Parliament has joined US Secretary of State John Kerry, US House of Representatives, the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in describing the actions of Islamic State (or Da’esh) as genocide. A motion, passed on Wed 20 April by 280 votes to 0, . . . Read More

Pakistan court grants bail to chief suspect in oven killings of Christian couple

  April 19, 2016 Pakistan Blasphemy, Bonded labourers, Gojra, Joseph Colony, Kasur, Pakistan, Prophet Muhammad, Quran, Shahzad Masih, Shama Bibi

A Pakistani court has granted bail to the lead suspect in the brutal 2014 killings of a young Christian couple, burned alive in a brick kiln where they worked as bonded labourers, itself illegal in Pakistan. National outrage over their deaths meant the case had moved to Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Court . . . Read More

Saudi Arabia limits powers of its religious police

  April 18, 2016 Saudi Arabia Riyadh, USA

Saudi Arabia’s official religious police were ordered to conduct their affairs with “gentleness and lenience” in a new directive issued in the capital, Riyadh, last week. While most “offenders” will be Muslims transgressing in dress or behaviour, some two million expatriate Christians thought to be living in Saudi Arabia – . . . Read More