News

Kenyans mourn 147 victims on anniversary of Garissa attack

  April 4, 2016 Kenya Al-Shabaab, Garissa, Somalia

UPDATE (4 April) Memorial events were held in Kenya on Saturday (2 April), as Kenyans marked the anniversary of the day Al-Shabaab militants stormed the University campus in Garissa – in Kenya’s volatile east, near the Somalia border – and slaughtered 147* mostly Christian students. A tree-planting ceremony and procession took . . . Read More

Egypt: Copt cleared of Facebook ‘blasphemy’

  April 4, 2016 Egypt Blasphemy, Copts

A Coptic Christian, Bishoy Kameel Garas, has been declared “innocent” after he served more than half his six-year sentence for charges including defamation of Islam. Garas, now in his late twenties, was jailed in September 2012 for offending the country’s dominant religion, the then-Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, and a Muslim . . . Read More

Kandhamal Christian granted month’s bail after 7 years in jail

  April 1, 2016 India Kandhamal, Odisha

Nearly 100 Christians were killed and 300 churches and 6,000 Christian homes damaged in the Kandhamal district of Odisha, after the killing death of a Hindu leader in 2008.Courtesy Open Doors International   More than seven years since seven Indian Christians were arrested on suspicion of murdering a Hindu leader . . . Read More

Faith-based persecution on the rise in Asia-Pacific

  March 31, 2016 Asia-Pacific, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Religious freedom, Taiwan

The first Asia-Pacific Religious Freedom Forum was held in Taiwan from 18-21 Feb, and hosted by former Vice-President of Taiwan, Annette Lu.World Watch Monitor   Persecution due to people’s faith has increased over recent years in the Asia-Pacific region, said speakers addressing the first Asia-Pacific Religious Freedom Forum, held from . . . Read More

Pakistani Christians bury their dead after Easter massacre

  March 31, 2016 Pakistan Easter, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Lahore, Nawaz Sharif, Taliban

The aftermath of a bomb blast in the middle of a popular Lahore amusement park packed with people on Easter Day.Abid Nawaz for World Watch Monitor   Parvaiz Masih didn’t know his son was among the hundreds injured in the Easter bombing of a crowded park in Pakistan until the . . . Read More

CAR’s new President brings hope, but hunger threatens ‘new start’

  March 30, 2016 Central African Republic Catherine Samba-Panza, Dieudonné Nzapalainga, Elections, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, Nicolas Guérékoyamé-Gbangou, Oumar Kobine Layama, PK5

The Central African Republic is suffering from a continuing humanitarian emergency, and a now-serious threat of famine.Courtesy Open Doors International Today’s inauguration (30 March) of a new President in the Central African Republic (CAR) brings hope for a new beginning, and a brighter future for the war-torn country. After three . . . Read More

Malaysian court upholds right to convert from Islam

  March 29, 2016 Malaysia 'Allah', Apostasy, Catholics, Kuching, Malaysia, Najib Razak, Sabah, Sarawak, Sharia

In a landmark ruling last week a Malaysian court upheld the rights of a Christian to convert from Islam. The judgment establishes a precedent in a country where religious conversions, particularly from Islam to Christianity, have been steeped in controversy. The verdict reaffirms the supremacy of the Federal Constitution, which . . . Read More

Christian women face double vulnerability due to gender and religion

  March 24, 2016 Global News -- No Particular Country Easter, Women

Nicole Ravelo-Hoerson, originally from Madagascar, a speaker at the Marcham Conference, March 2016Release International   Women were close witnesses of the violence meted out to Jesus Christ during his Passion and Crucifixion, which Western Christians commemorate this weekend. They were also among the first to face persecution by the Roman . . . Read More

Village massacres strain Nigeria further, as traditional nomads fight modernisation

  March 23, 2016 Nigeria Agatu, Benue, Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen, Katsina, West Africa

The aftermath of an attack, which claimed hundreds of lives, in the central Nigerian state of Benue, Feb. 2016.World Watch Monitor   In the rural village of Agatu, in north central Nigeria, someone had successfully installed a solar panel in his home before the arsonists lit their fires. It was . . . Read More

North Korea sentences American to 15 years’ labour

  March 16, 2016 North Korea House churches, Hyeon Soo Lim, Kim Jong Wook, North Korea, Otto Warmbier, Pyongyang

North Korea has sentenced a 21-year-old US student to 15 years’ hard labour following his “confession” to stealing a piece of political propaganda during his trip at the request of his church in Wyoming, Ohio. Otto Warmbier, a third-year economics student at the University of Virginia, was arrested on 2 . . . Read More