News

The war on Christianity in the Congo

  February 3, 2016 Democratic Republic of the Congo ADF, Africa, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Trauma

While the brutality of the so-called Islamic State has concentrated world attention on Iraq and Syria, lesser-noticed movements inspired by IS are taking root far from the Middle East. In central Africa, a brutal militant Islamic group has embedded itself in the eastern extremes of the Democratic Republic of the . . . Read More

Fierce battles in southeast Turkey hedge in Christians

  February 1, 2016 Turkey Assyrians, Diyarbakir, PKK, Syria

The 1,700-year-old Virgin Mary Syriac Orthodox Church, Diyarbakir, Turkey has been damaged in fighting between government forces and Kurdish separatists.World Watch Monitor   One of the oldest churches in the world sustained damage last week in the intensified fighting between the Turkish government and Kurdish separatists. Rocket-propelled grenades destroyed a . . . Read More

Minorities fear backlash over Sri Lanka’s proposed new constitution

  January 27, 2016 Sri Lanka Bodu Bala Sena, Buddhist nationalism, Constitution, Maithripala Sirisena

Sri Lanka’s minority religious groups are concerned after Buddhist hardliners reacted angrily to the President’s proposed new constitution. President Maithripala Sirisena’s new constitution, proposed on 9 Jan., would decentralise power in a bid to prevent ethnic tensions in the country, but Buddhist hardliners say it contains provisions that regulate the . . . Read More

In India, one case of anti-Christian violence every day

  January 21, 2016 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Chennai, Ghar Wapsi, Hindu nationalism, Hindutva, Madhya Pradesh, Vishva Hindu Parishad

Rahul Nayak, 25, the eldest son of Dhubaleswar and Bhubudi Nayak, a Christian couple shot dead in Odisha in July 2015.World Watch Monitor   Attacks on Christians in India were reported on an almost daily basis in 2015, according to a Christian advocacy group. “The country saw 355 incidents of . . . Read More

Niger: a year after 70 churches destroyed in anti-‘Charlie’ riots

  January 20, 2016 Niger Charlie Hebdo, Islamic extremism, Mahamadou Issoufou, Niamey, West Africa, Zinder

Demolishing Boukoki’s EERN church, damaged in the anti-Charlie’ riots in 2015, ahead of its rebuildingWorld Watch Monitor   A year has passed since the churches in the West African country of Niger experienced the worst attacks in their history, in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris. On . . . Read More

Burkina Faso dead include 7 mission workers

  January 19, 2016 Burkina Faso Al-Mourabitoun, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Ansar Dine, Djibo, Ouagadougou, West Africa

Six of the 29 people killed by Islamist militants in Burkina Faso on Friday were on a humanitarian trip prompted by their Christian faith, while a seventh was a US missionary who, with his wife, had been running an orphanage and women’s refuge in the West African country since 2011. . . . Read More

Three attacks on Pakistani Christians mark New Year

  January 15, 2016 Pakistan Blasphemy, Kasur, Lahore, Sialkot

The Apostolic Church in Baath was attacked on 7 Jan.British Pakistani Christian Association   For Christians in Pakistan, the New Year has begun with attacks on their worship places, with three separate incidents in less than a week, including a church being set on fire. On 7 January, items on . . . Read More

Another Egyptian Christian conscript dies in ‘mysterious’ circumstances

  January 14, 2016 Egypt Aswan, Conscripts, Copts, Egypt, Suez

Bishoy Kamel was supposed to walk free from his military service in February. Instead, his family collected his body three months earlier. The corpse bore “signs of torture”, the family said. “When we reached the hospital that afternoon, we saw Bishoy’s body reposed like an angel,” said Natei Kamel, the . . . Read More

2016 World Watch List drawn from world headlines

  January 13, 2016 Global News -- No Particular Country Africa, Bibles, BJP, Boko Haram, Central Asia, Charlie Hebdo, Churches, Egypt, Hindu nationalism, India, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Kenya, Libya, Middle East, Mosul, Niger, Nigeria, Nineveh Plains, North Korea, Paris, Sub-Saharan Africa

Some of the most urgent headlines of the past 12 months, from the global spread of jihadist violence to North Korea’s test of a putative atomic weapon, intersect with an updated list of the most difficult places to live as a Christian. For the 14th straight year, North Korea is . . . Read More

Dare Egypt’s new Parliament amend or even abolish its blasphemy law?

  January 8, 2016 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Blasphemy, Gad Younan

Egypt’s Secular Party has called on President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to support legislation which cancels the blasphemy law, because, in the words of lawyer Hamdi al-Assyouti, it has “become a tool in the hands of extremists against minorities, thinkers, and the creative impulse”. And, in his experience as a defence . . . Read More