News

Pakistan ‘mob justice’ against mentally ill man prevented, but riots ensue

  June 2, 2015 Pakistan Blasphemy, Lahore, Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League, Youhanabad

It was a familiar scene: hundreds of angry people in the dense urban streets of a big Pakistan city, whipped up by rumors that someone had defiled a Holy Quran. Pounding on doors. Throwing rocks. Demanding blood. This time, however, something unusual appeared in the Sandha sector of Lahore, Pakistan’s . . . Read More

Buhari takes office after election ‘miracle’

  May 29, 2015 Nigeria Boko Haram, Elections, Goodluck Jonathan, Muhammadu Buhari

Muhammadu Buhari will be sworn in today (May 29) as the new President of Nigeria, two months after he became the first opposition leader to win an election. On March 28, Buhari, a former general, defeated incumbent Goodluck Jonathan by a 54-46 margin – the first time the opposition had . . . Read More

Christians remain cautious about Modi

  May 27, 2015 India BJP, Elections, Narendra Modi

To mark the first anniversary of his government, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 26 declared the world is “optimistic about India and is enthusiastic about exploring the opportunities India has to offer.” To which one leader of India’s churches replied: “We have nothing to celebrate. Rather, we have . . . Read More

Collateral damage? 63 churches hit in Syrian civil war

  May 19, 2015 Al-Nusra Front, Bashar al-Assad, Islamic State, Syria

The Syrian Network for Human Rights says 63 churches have been damaged or destroyed so far in four years of civil war.AINA   Sixty-three churches have been damaged or destroyed so far during four years of civil war in Syria, says the Syrian Network for Human Rights. In a comprehensive . . . Read More

In Myanmar, Christian rebels are in double trouble

  May 19, 2015 Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, Chin, Kachin, Karen, Myanmar, Panglong

In March the Myanmar government and 16 rebel groups signed a draft ceasefire agreement, ahead of national elections scheduled for November this year. The pact, however, doesn’t contain self-determination provisions that these ethnic groups have demanded. Myanmar is made up of eight major and eight minor ethnic groups, each of . . . Read More

UPDATE: Trial of S. Sudan pastors begins, then is delayed

  May 18, 2015 Sudan East Africa, Khartoum, NISS, Omdurman, South Sudan, Sudan, Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church

UPDATE (19 May) After the 19 May start of the trial of Yat Michael and Peter Yein, the judge ordered a 12-day recess. Nahmia Shaloka, a Sudanese lawyer who left the country because of his human rights activity and now lives in the United States, said a judge of Khartoum . . . Read More

Libya: ‘a country where Christians shouldn’t come’

  May 14, 2015 Libya Algeria, Ansar al-Sharia, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Libya, Migrants, Muammar Gaddafi, Refugees, Tripoli, Tunisia

Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has been engulfed by conflicts between various coalitions of armed groups.Photo courtesy Open Doors International Migrants and refugees in Libya are increasingly facing widespread abuse and persecution on religious grounds, a report by Amnesty International has revealed. Foreign nationals travelling irregularly . . . Read More

Good news in Nigeria, but not for Chibok girls, yet

  May 10, 2015 Nigeria Boko Haram, Chibok girls, Gwoza, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria

Some of the hundreds of people, mostly women and children, rescued from Boko Haram camps in Nigeria’s Sambisa Forest, in early May 2015.Photo courtesy Open Doors International   The tide may have turned against Boko Haram, at least for the moment. Camps in the Sambisa forest – said to be . . . Read More

Vietnam’s Religion Law

  May 8, 2015 Vietnam Catholics, Central Highlands, Churches, Communism, Human rights, Minorities, Religion Law, Religious freedom, UN, Vietnam

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is drafting a “Law on Belief and Religion,” for passage in the National Assembly in 2016, and possibly this year. It is almost inevitable the new law will disappoint proponents of universal human rights.1 Diverse religions and religious practices flourish in communist Vietnam. Religious believers far . . . Read More

‘We are going through a terrible moment’

  May 7, 2015 Syria Assyrians, Hasakah, Islamic State, Qamishli, Syria

Archimandrite Emanuel Youkhana leads prayers for the Hassaka, Syria Christians at a mass in the Assyrian Church of the East in Beirut on March 22, 2015.World Watch Monitor   Danger levels rose sharply in late April for northeast Syria’s isolated Assyrian Christians, caught for nearly three months now between Kurdish . . . Read More