News

Hindu nationalists harass villages for weeks, injure 4

  June 28, 2013 India BJP, Hindu nationalism, Odisha

Three months of intimidation and assaults in two villages in eastern India has left four Christians hospitalised and others injured, two houses damaged, and the entire Christian community unable to do business or draw water from the town well, church leaders say. The boycott of the Christians of Dangarguda village, . . . Read More

Pakistan court throws out blasphemy charge against pastor

  June 27, 2013 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Rimsha Masih, Sheikhupura

Aasiya Noreen, more widely known as Aasiya Bibi, with two of her daughters in a 2010 photo. As a Pakistan court threw out blasphemy charges against pastor Karma Patras, Noreen remained in prison, awaiting appeal of her conviction on blasphemy charges. She faces the death penalty.Photo courtesy Open Doors International . . . Read More

Algeria’s Protestants want their churches back

  June 27, 2013 Algeria Algeria, Algiers, Arab Spring, Bejaia, Bibles, Churches, Islamic extremism, Kabylie, Mostaganem, Protestant Church of Algeria, Protestants

The Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA) has reaffirmed its desire to regain control of several former churches used today for other purposes. Christians are the distinct minority in Algeria, representing less than 1% of Algeria’s 38 million inhabitants, and often face restrictions when seeking to build new churches. The presence . . . Read More

Syrian Christians caught in crossfire

  June 25, 2013 Syria Bashar al-Assad, Free Syrian Army, Islamic extremism

Syria has been torn apart by a conflict lasting more than two years.flickr.com/freedomhouse Syrian Christians are the victims of disproportionate violence and abuse as sectarian violence continues to engulf Syria, says a new report. Christian women are especially vulnerable to sexual abuse, while Christian men are facing pressure from both . . . Read More

Is conflict in Nigeria really about persecution of Christians by radical Muslims?

  June 24, 2013 Nigeria Boko Haram, Christian Association of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan

St Rita’s Catholic Church in Kaduna, north-central Nigeria, after a suicide bomb attack in October 2012.World Watch Monitor   Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan was reported last week to have said that statistics show that more Muslims than Christians have been killed by Boko Haram. Speaking at his Presidential villa in . . . Read More

C. African Republic religious leaders consider plan for country otherwise ‘likely to explode’

  June 21, 2013 Central African Republic African Union, Bria, Michel Djotodia, Oumar Kobine Layama, Seleka

The aftermath of a Séléka attack in Dekoa village.CECA   As a significant risk of interfaith conflict looms over the Central African Republic (CAR), the leaders of the two main religions in the country – Christianity and Islam – have decided to speak with one voice. The CAR was plunged . . . Read More

Iraqi MP: Syria collapse would endanger all Mideast Christians

  June 20, 2013 Syria Assyrians, Free Syrian Army, George Sabra, Iraq, UN

The collapse of the Syrian state would be a jihadist triumph and a threat to Christians throughout the Middle East, says Yonadam Kanna, a member of the Iraqi National Assembly and Secretary General for the Assyrian Democratic Movement. Assyrians are an ancient ethnic group indigenous to the Middle East, and . . . Read More

Iran convicts six Christian converts

  June 19, 2013 Iran Elections, Hassan Rouhani, Shiraz

Six Iranian converts to Christianity were convicted of crimes related to their membership in a house church, a news service has reported.  Mohabat News, which reports on news of Christians inside Iran, published a report on Sunday (June 16) claiming that four men, a woman and her teen-aged son were convicted . . . Read More

Upsurge in attacks signals growing Islamist threat in Niger

  June 14, 2013 Niger Agadez, Mahamadou Issoufou, Maradi, MUJAO, Niamey, West Africa, Zinder

The remains of the car used in the May 23 suicide attack in Agadez.World Watch Monitor   Four attacks within the last three weeks in Niger have raised the spectre of a growing Islamist threat in the country. In the latest attack on Tuesday (June 11), unidentified armed men attacked . . . Read More

Iranians vote for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s successor

  June 14, 2013 Iran Ayatollah Khamenei, Elections, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s second term as President of Iran is coming to an end. The Iranian constitution doesn’t allow him to run again for President, so one thing is certain: on August 3, another man will be inaugurated as the new President. Four years on from the contentious elections of . . . Read More