News

Mombasa church gun attack kills at least six, injures 21

  March 24, 2014 Kenya Garissa, Islamic extremism, Mombasa, Nairobi, Pentecostals, Westgate

At least six people have died since masked gunmen stormed a church on Sunday in Kenya’s second city Mombasa, injuring about 21 others. The armed men, believed to be three or four in number, struck the Joy Jesus Pentecostal Church in the Sinai area in Likoni, on the mainland just . . . Read More

Global leaders emphasise continuing CAR chaos is ‘not about religion’

  March 18, 2014 Central African Republic Catherine Samba-Panza, UN

L to R: Archbishop Dieudonné Nzapalainga; Imam Omar Kobine Layama; Rev. Nicolas Guérékoyamé Gbangou; UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a photo taken March 13 at the United Nations in New York.UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe The three top religious leaders of the Central African Republic have once again travelled to the United . . . Read More

Nigeria attacks kill more than 150

  March 17, 2014 Nigeria Boko Haram, Borno, Fulani herdsmen, Kaduna, West Africa

Attacks in Kaduna state, Nigeria, on March 14 left more than 114 people dead and many houses burned.World Watch Monitor   More than 150 people have been killed since Friday in central and northern Nigeria in separate attacks on villages populated by a concentration of Christians. On Friday, March 14, . . . Read More

Pakistani university refuses prosperous work to Christians

  March 17, 2014 Pakistan Dalits, Pakistan Muslim League, Shahbaz Bhatti

A public university in Pakistan defies court orders and misleads government authorities to avoid giving federally approved jobs to non-Muslims, a Christian politician in the nation’s ruling party says. In May 2009 the government passed a law requiring 5% of jobs to be allocated to religious minorities. The University of . . . Read More

Bombs heighten fears that Zanzibar autonomy movement targets Christians

  March 13, 2014 Tanzania Acid attacks, Islamic extremism, Seventh-day Adventists, Stone Town, Tanzania, Zanzibar

A series of bomb blasts in Tanzania’s island of Zanzibar is stoking fears that an Islamist breakaway movement is increasingly targeting Christians. Since 2010, the cases have been on the increase and Christians and their leaders — many of them originally from mainland Tanzania — say they are anxious. In . . . Read More

Turkey returns less than half of monastery land it seized

  March 13, 2014 Turkey Europe, Mardin, Mor Gabriel Monastery, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Syria, Syriacs

The Turkish Ministry of EU Affairs welcomed March 2 the return of property, seized by the country’s treasury, to the world’s oldest Syriac Orthodox monastery, Mor Gabriel. In February, the head of the Mor Gabriel Religious Foundation, Kuryakos Ergun, received the property deeds to 12 plots of land totaling 244,000 . . . Read More

Nigeria’s churches will not stay silent during violence, leader says

  March 12, 2014 Nigeria Berom, Boko Haram, Christian Association of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, Pentecostals

Nigeria’s largest church network is calling on the country’s president for more protection from Boko Haram attacks. The president, meanwhile, is calling for more prayer. “We will not keep silence amidst persecution Christians are facing,” Rev. Ayo Oritsejafor, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, told World Watch Monitor on . . . Read More

N. Korea to execute 33 for missionary work

  March 10, 2014 North Korea Kenneth Bae, Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong Wook, Kim Jong-Un, Missionaries, North Korea

North Korea has ordered the death of as many as 33 people because of their alleged contact with a missionary, South Korea’s largest news organization has reported. The 33 North Koreans are charged with attempting to overthrow the regime by setting up 500 underground churches, according to the South Korean . . . Read More

Use of ‘Allah’ still unresolved for Malaysia’s Christians

  March 8, 2014 Malaysia 'Allah', Bibles, Borneo, Brunei, Jill Ireland, Lawrence Andrew, Najib Razak, Putrajaya, Sabah, Sarawak, Selangor, Sharia, Southeast Asia, UMNO

Malaysian Christians this week have been anxious about their right to practise their faith without state interference or provocation from militant Islam, as three cases concerning religious freedom have come to court. Much is riding on the legal system to affirm Malaysia’s constitutional guarantee of religious freedom. Christians in Malaysia . . . Read More

Nigeria ‘at war’ with Boko Haram

  March 6, 2014 Nigeria Adamawa, Boko Haram, Borno, Cameroon, Chad, Goodluck Jonathan, Kaduna, Niger, Sultan of Sokoto, Yobe, Zaria

Goodluck Jonathan pictured at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland in January.Jolanda Flubacher, WEC / Flickr / Creative Commons   The Nigerian President’s spokesman has said that the conflict with Boko Haram is a “war situation”. Speaking to Lagos-based Channels TV on Feb. 28, Doyin Okupe . . . Read More