News

CAR warring factions devote a week to peace

  May 6, 2015 Central African Republic Anti-balaka, Catherine Samba-Panza, Seleka, UN

Delegates to a national reconciliation forum in Bangui, Central African Republic, stand for the official portrait. At front is the mediator, Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso (red tie), and CAR interim President Catherine Samba Panza (turquoise suit).World Watch Monitor   A week-long attempt to reconcile warring elements in the Central . . . Read More

Christian journalists threatened in Pakistan

  May 3, 2015 Pakistan Balochistan, Quetta

2014: A year of particular concern

  April 30, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Anti-balaka, Bashar al-Assad, BJP, Boko Haram, Central African Republic, Chibok girls, Chin, China, Egypt, Eritrea, Ghar Wapsi, Hindu nationalism, India, Iran, Iraq, Islamic State, Kachin, Kano, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Potiskum, Rohingya, Saudi Arabia, Seleka, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, USA, Uzbekistan, Vietnam

If ever there were a year that made plain the importance of religious freedom, 2014 was it, according to the just-released annual report by an American government advisory group. “By any measure, the horrors of the past year speak volumes about how and why religious freedom and the protection of the . . . Read More

Vietnam’s two faces

  April 30, 2015 Vietnam Cambodia, Central Highlands, Dien Bien, Ho Chi Minh City, Montagnards, Nguyen Van Dai, Religious freedom, UN

n Vietnam’s paddy fields and distinctive rock formations are major attractions for tourists. Kristen Elsby / Getty Images   As Vietnam celebrates 40 years since the end of what is commonly known elsewhere as the ‘Vietnam War’, its government faces accusations of failing to ensure the rights of its citizens . . . Read More

Nepal’s long-delayed transition to democracy worries its Christians

  April 27, 2015 Nepal Burial, Constitution, Kathmandu, Maoists, Sushil Koirala

As Nepal struggles to respond to the massive earthquake and aftershocks during the weekend that left thousands dead, the world has offered aid to a country which is still one of the poorest and most isolated in Asia, despite its attractive image for mountaineers and Western backpackers. It’s still overcoming . . . Read More

Video mocking IS causes riots in Egypt

  April 26, 2015 Egypt Blasphemy, Copts, Gad Younan, Islamic State

An April 17 ‘reconciliation meeting’ in Al-Nasriyah village in Upper Egypt, where Christians announce a local teacher, Gad Younan, will leave town and not return.World Watch Monitor   When an Egyptian teacher filmed five Coptic Christian secondary school students impersonating terrorists from the so-called Islamic State, the boys could be . . . Read More

Overcoming a century of pain

  April 24, 2015 Turkey Armenian Genocide, Armenians

Turkish and Armenian Christians circle the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, Armenia, on April 11. NOTE: faces have been blurred to protect identities.Ricardo Pessoa   “We came to share your pain,” Turkish Christians declared in early April, standing before TV cameras at the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan. “We have . . . Read More

Syriac priest wrestles with Turkey’s ethnic tensions

  April 22, 2015 Turkey Armenian Genocide, Armenians, Assyrians, Diyarbakir, Islamic State, Kurds, Mardin, Middle East, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Syria, Syriacs, Turkey

In the courtyard of the 1,700-year-old church over which he presides, Fr. Yusuf Akbulut beams with pride. He points out that the excellent stone and woodwork is a result of the craftsmanship of his ethnic group, the Syriac Christians of Turkey. “The Syriacs were always the goldsmiths, metal workers, stone . . . Read More

Confusion around Pakistani Christian boy’s burns death, amid communal tensions

  April 17, 2015 Pakistan Gojra, Gujranwala, Joseph Colony, Lahore, Youhanabad

A funeral was held for Nauman Masih, 14, at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Lahore on 15 April.World Watch Monitor   A 14-year-old Christian boy, who was first reported to have been doused with petrol and set on fire because of his faith, died on Tuesday (14 April) in Lahore, . . . Read More

A year gone

  April 13, 2015 Nigeria Boko Haram, Chibok girls, Goodluck Jonathan, Kidnapping, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria, Rebecca Dali, Stephen Davis

A year later, the parents are still crying. It was April 14, 2014 when militants of the radical Islamic group Boko Haram kidnapped about 275 teenage school girls from Chibok, a predominantly Christian village in northeastern Nigeria. Some 232 of them are still missing, and for much of the year, . . . Read More