News

Nigeria churches unite for first time to address violence in north

  February 22, 2016 Nigeria Boko Haram, Christian Association of Nigeria, Churches, Samuel Dali, Trauma

The region of Africa that today is northern Nigeria has been governed by Muslim sultans and emirs for centuries, through British colonial rule and the arrival of Christian missionaries in the 19th Century, and into independence in the 1960s. The northern Christian population grew rapidly, to the point where Christians . . . Read More

How romance across Egypt’s religious divide forces women and Christians to pay a high price

  February 22, 2016 Egypt Converts, Copts, Women

A street in a neighbourhood of Tamia, Egypt, where the romance began.World Watch Monitor   Not for the first time in Egypt, a romance between a Muslim divorcee and a Copt eventually ended in tragedy late last year, when the woman, who had ‘converted’ to Christianity, was killed by members . . . Read More

Living as a Christian in the Islamic State

  February 18, 2016 Syria Islamic State, Raqqa

When John, a Syrian Christian, chose to stay in Raqqa after the Islamic State took control of the city in 2014, he had no idea how he would survive. Thousands abandoned the city, believing it better to save their lives than live at the centre of the Islamists’ new “caliphate”. . . . Read More

Christian migrants find discrimination follows them to Europe

  February 17, 2016 Calais, Dunkirk, Europe, Grande-Synthe, Migrants, Refugees

Christians among the thousands of Middle Eastern migrants who have fled to Europe have discovered that a familiar burden has followed them: religious harassment. Some Christian migrants have been subjected to discrimination, harassment and violence from Muslim migrants with extremist views. One Iranian convert to Christianity was murdered. The phenomenon . . . Read More

Turkey’s Protestants ‘anxious and distressed’

  February 15, 2016 Turkey Ankara, Balikesir, Christmas, Protestants

After a year filled with repeated threats and attacks against Protestant churches and their leaders in Turkey, the leader of their tiny Christian community has admitted that they remain “anxious and distressed”. In an interview with Al-Monitor, Pastor Ihsan Ozbek of the Association of Protestant Churches named two major obstacles . . . Read More

Pope Francis meets Patriarch Kirill

  February 12, 2016 Cuba Pope Francis

[<a href=”//storify.com/wwmonitor/pope-francis-meets-patriarch-kirill” target=”_blank”>View the story “Pope Francis meets Patriarch Kirill” on Storify</a>]

Egypt: Coptic teens tried for video ‘mimicking jihadists’

  February 12, 2016 Egypt Blasphemy, Copts, Gad Younan

A year since members of the so-called Islamic State killed 20 Egyptian Copts and one Ghanaian in Libya, Egypt is set to judge four young Copts for alleged blasphemy. The four teenagers, aged 15 to 17, appeared in a 30-second video clip, mocking the militants’ show of Islamic piety in . . . Read More

Christian leaders kept in Sudan since December uncharged, but incommunicado

  February 10, 2016 Sudan Hassan Taour, Khartoum, Kuwa Shamal, NISS, Nuba Mountains, Omdurman, Peter Yen, Telal Rata, Yat Michael

Sudanese authorities have been keeping two Christian pastors in an unknown location since mid-December, with no official charges yet filed against them. On 12. Dec., members of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) visited the family home of Telahoon Nogosi Kassa Rata, a leader of the Fellowship of University . . . Read More

EU puts ‘genocide’ tag on Islamic State

  February 4, 2016 David Cameron, Genocide, Hilary Clinton, Islamic State, UN

The European Parliament has declared the violent campaign by the so-called Islamic State against Christians and other religious minorities to be genocide. “Daesh commits genocide,” according to the resolution passed 4 Feb. by a show of hands from representatives of the 28-nation European Union. Daesh is an English representation of . . . Read More

Christian and Muslim leaders call for peace in Cameroon

  February 4, 2016 Cameroon Boko Haram, Cameroon, Maroua, Nigeria

Christian and Muslim leaders in northern Cameroon have reiterated their call for tolerance and peace in the face of a surge of terror attacks by the Nigerian radical Islamic group Boko Haram. On 21 Jan., several prominent religious leaders gathered in the town of Mora to discuss peaceful coexistence. The . . . Read More