News

Indonesian Catholic and Protestant groups attacked by Islamists

  June 12, 2014 Indonesia Islamic Defenders Front, Java, Pentecostals, Yogyakarta

Muslims protest the building of a church in Java, Indonesia; December 2010.World Watch Monitor   Two church group attacks within 3 days of each other in Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population, have caused concern ahead of Presidential elections in July. They both occurred in Yogyakarta province’s Sleman . . . Read More

Mosul Christians tell of ISIS forces’ Iraqi takeover

  June 12, 2014 Iraq Alqosh, Ankawa, Baghdad, Dohuk, Erbil, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Mosul, Sunni, Syria

The radical Sunni Islamist ISIS forces continue their takeover of cities in Iraq. Many have fled possible clashes between ISIS and the Iraqi army, and the feared violence ISIS has already shown in places it controls, such as Syrian city Raqqa. Thousands are now in Erbil, 88km (55 miles) east . . . Read More

Up to 1000 Christian families flee Iraq’s second city

  June 10, 2014 Iraq Alqosh, Dohuk, Islamic State, Mosul, Qaraqosh, Syria

Christian families fled Mosul in February 2010 successive to at least 12 people being killed in anti-Christian violence. Some of the refugees gathered in this monastery in Al Qosh.World Watch Monitor   A mass exodus is underway from Iraq’s second largest city Mosul after its seizure by the ISIS, the . . . Read More

Russian takeover of Crimea leads to inter-Church tensions

  June 9, 2014 Ukraine Crimea, Donetsk, Kiev, Patriarch Kirill, Russia, Russian Orthodox Church, Soviet Union, Sunni, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin

Reports of violence and intimidation by pro-Russian groups against non-Russian Orthodox Christians in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine are beginning to emerge. According to Ukraine’s Liga News website, on June 1, a group of armed men in traditional Cossack clothes attacked the Holy Virgin Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kiev Patriarchate (the UOC-KP) . . . Read More

Pakistani Muslim NGO highlights forced conversion of Christian women

  June 9, 2014 Pakistan USA, Women

Christian girl in Central Pakistan.World Watch Monitor   A Pakistani Muslim NGO says that every year between 100 to 700 Christian women, “usually between the ages of 12 and 25 are abducted, converted to Islam, and married to the abductor or third party”. In its investigative report “Forced Marriages & . . . Read More

Boko Haram suspects kill 200 more in Nigeria

  June 6, 2014 Nigeria Boko Haram, Christian Association of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Stephen Davis

Parents, whose daughters were abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Borno State, receiving prayer messages of encouragement sent from Christians around the world; 18 May 2014.World Watch Monitor   It is feared Boko Haram militants have killed at least 200 more people in a wave of attacks launched across Borno . . . Read More

Indian priest kidnapped in Afghanistan

  June 4, 2014 Afghanistan Bamiyan, Herat, Kabul, Kidnapping, Taliban

The school in Sohadat, about 30 kilmoetres from Herat city, Afghanistan, that the Jesuit Refugee Service had helped to build. Rev. Alexis Prem Kumar was visiting the school when he was abducted June 2.Jesuit Refugee Service   An Indian Catholic priest has been kidnapped in Afghanistan, and no information about . . . Read More

Church website blocked as ‘porn’ by Turkish parliament

  May 30, 2014 Turkey Bursa, Censorship, Diyarbakir, Malatya

The home page of the Diyarbakir Church website. It was blocked by the Turkish government inside parliament offices because it was deemed “pornography.www.diyarbakirkilisesi.com/   Aykan Erdemir, a member of Turkey’s parliament, plans to travel to Diyarbakir Church in mid-June. This week, to prepare for his visit, he looked up the . . . Read More

Renewed fighting in Mali revives Christian anxieties

  May 30, 2014 Mali African Union, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Bamako, Burkina Faso, Gao, Kidal, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Timbuktu, Tuareg

A Malian child waits to see receive a free consultation at a medical clinic in Gao, Mali.16 May 2014UN Photo/Marco Dormino   Renewed fighting and re-occupation of a number of towns in northern Mali by armed Tuareg groups has renewed anxieties among the region’s Christian minority. On May 21, a . . . Read More

Tensions high in CAR after church and mosque attacked

  May 29, 2014 Central African Republic Anti-balaka, Bangui, Bossangoa, Catherine Samba-Panza, Central African Republic, PK5, Seleka

An attack at Fatima Catholic Church in Bangui following by ex-Seleka on May 28, 2014 left numerous dead. No structural damage happened to the church in CAR.World Watch Monitor   Tension is high in the Central African Republic capital, Bangui, as protesters clashed with security forces following a deadly attack . . . Read More