News

REPORT: The impact of Christians leaving Middle East

  April 18, 2016 Iraq, Islamic State, Migrants, Refugees, Syria

War and persecution has led to a haemorrhaging of Christians from the Middle East, particularly from Syria and Iraq. A new report highlights what the region stands to lose should Christians continue to leave. The report, compiled by a trio of Christian charities and a university, argues that Christians are an . . . Read More

Some Chibok girls alive, but families’ agony goes on

  April 14, 2016 Boko Haram, Chibok girls, Nigeria, Stephen Davis, Trauma

The #BringBackOurGirls campaign to raise awareness of the kidnappings is launched in Nigeria, 2014World Watch Monitor   Today (14 April) marks two years since the abduction of more than 200 girls from Chibok Secondary School in northern Nigeria’s Borno State. A video now released by the radical Islamist group, Boko . . . Read More

Bhutan – a ‘happy’ place, but not for all

  April 14, 2016 Bhutan Buddhist nationalism

The visit of the young UK Royals, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (“Will and Kate”), to Bhutan is shining a spotlight on a small Himalayan nation perhaps best known for its own King assessing his country’s performance by factors which contribute to “Gross National Happiness”. But despite this apparent . . . Read More

Eritrean church leaders still in jail 12 years later

  April 13, 2016 Eritrea Abune Antonios, Barentu, East Africa, Refugees

Although the tiny East African nation of Eritrea has a population of just 6 million, Eritrea is one of the leading sources of refugees in Europe. There are many reasons for this, but chief among them is a lack of religious freedom. The Eritrean government outlawed worship outside of Islam . . . Read More

UPDATE: A ‘shaming’ of Christians in Pakistan schoolbooks

  April 12, 2016 Pakistan Balochistan, Education, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Madrassas, Punjab, Sindh, USA

Note: This report has been updated to include remarks made at the USCIRF announcement 12 April in Washington, D.C. The news Textbooks in Pakistan’s public schools have become more antagonistic toward Christians and other religious minorities in the past five years, a new report says. “The trend toward a more biased . . . Read More

Islamists close Indonesian church weeks after it opened

  April 12, 2016 Indonesia Bekasi, Bogor, GKI Yasmin, Islamic extremism, Jakarta, Protestants, Santa Clara

In 2010, Bogor’s GKI Yasmin church was sealed and padlocked by order of the mayor and city government. They now hold Sunday services outside the church, and stage monthly services outside Indonesia’s Presidential Palace. To date, they have held 115 such services.World Watch Monitor   An Islamist group in Indonesia . . . Read More

Khartoum keeps 5 Christian leaders under daily surveillance

  April 11, 2016 Sudan Hassan Taour, NISS, Nuba Mountains, Peter Yen, Telal Rata, Yat Michael

Sudanese authorities have, apparently against their own law, continued to keep two church leaders incommunicado since mid-December, with no official charges yet filed against them; recently Sudan has also increased the number of church leaders who must report every day to its security services.  Telahoon Nogosi Kassa Rata, a leader . . . Read More

Pakistani Christians in Thailand given temporary ID cards

  April 6, 2016 Pakistan Asylum seekers, Gojra, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Refugees, Taliban, UN

Pakistani Christians in a Thai detention facility, in an image taken from a BBC documentary.BBC   Last month, World Watch Monitor reported that there are about 11,500 Pakistanis seeking asylum in Thailand, a 51 per cent increase from the previous year; all are classified as Christians in a recent report . . . Read More

Turkey seizes six churches as state property in volatile southeast

  April 6, 2016 Turkey Armenian Genocide, Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Diyarbakir, Kurds, PKK, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Surp Giragos, Syriacs

The 1,700-year-old Virgin Mary Syriac Orthodox Church in Diyarbakir was one of the churches seized.World Watch Monitor   After 10 months of urban conflict in Turkey’s war-torn southeast, the government has expropriated huge sections of property, apparently to rebuild and restore the historical centre of the region’s largest city, Diyarbakir. . . . Read More

Priest’s crucifixion rumours false, says India’s Foreign Minister

  April 4, 2016 Yemen Aden, Islamic State, Kidnapping, Tom Uzhunnalil, Yemen

Mathew Uzhunnalil, left, the older brother of kidnapped priest Thomas Uzhunnallil, talks with their cousin, V.A. Thomas, in the family home in Kerala state, India.World Watch Monitor   UPDATE (4 April) India’s government has said rumours that a kidnapped Catholic priest was crucified on Good Friday are false, and promised . . . Read More