News

OIC letter from C. African Republic President sought support for Islamic republic

  May 22, 2013 Central African Republic African Union, Alindao, Bambari, Bangassou, Bangui, Bossangoa, Catholics, Kaga Bandoro, Michel Djotodia, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Seleka

Michel Djotodia, CAR President.Crispin for World Watch Monitor   The Catholic Church in the Central African Republic (CAR) has written a letter to the former rebel leader and new President, Michel Djotodia, raising concerns about his past and asking him to speak out against the suffering inflicted on civilians by . . . Read More

Bangladesh — Islamist protest leaders arrested in wake of Dhaka siege

  May 21, 2013 Bangladesh Awami League, Dhaka, Hefazat-e-Islam, Jamaat-e-Islami, Sheikh Hasina

Cattle market in Dhaka, pictured in 2008.W Jackson for World Watch Monitor   Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh on May 17 alleged that the opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was responsible for a conspiracy to topple the government from power, using recent violent protests which have rocked . . . Read More

Iranian Christians face ‘systematic persecution and prosecution’

  May 20, 2013 Iran Ahmed Shaheed, Armenians, Assyrians, Behnam Irani, Converts, Farshid Fathi, Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Youcef Nadarkhani

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani greets his wife Fatemah after his release from prison in September 2012.Nadarkhani family for World Watch Monitor   Iran’s treatment of its Christian minority has come under fresh scrutiny in recent months with some damning verdicts on the country’s human rights record. Reports from the UK’s Foreign . . . Read More

Boko Haram ‘on verge of seizing control of Borno State’ after pastor’s death

  May 17, 2013 Nigeria Boko Haram, Borno, Goodluck Jonathan, Pentecostals

Rev. Faye Pama Musa, CAN Secretary for Borno, was killed in his home by suspected Boko Haram members.World Watch Monitor   Borno State in Northern Nigeria has been teetering on the brink of a takeover by Islamist militant group Boko Haram, warned its Governor, Kassim Shettima, a few days before . . . Read More

VHP leads mob to destroy Indian church

  May 14, 2013 India Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Churches, Hindu nationalism, Hyderabad, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Raipur, Vishva Hindu Parishad

Members of Divya Jyoti Church were too late to stop a mob from knocking down their building.World Watch Monitor   On March 12 in a southeast India village, the local newspaper published allegations that Divya Jyoti Church had been built on government land. The next day, a crowd equipped with . . . Read More

Nigeria – Taraba State violence over funeral procession leaves at least 39 dead

  May 13, 2013 Nigeria Burial, Jukun, Nigeria, Taraba

Security forces have been enforcing a 24-hour curfew in Wukari, Taraba State in Central Nigeria to prevent the escalation of violence between Christians and Muslims on Friday 3 May that left at least 39 people dead and at least 30 injured. The bloody clash between the majority Christian Jukun community . . . Read More

Indonesian clerics dispute president’s ‘world statesman’ award

  May 10, 2013 Indonesia Aceh, Banten, Bekasi, Bogor, GKI Yasmin, HKBP Filadelfia, Jakarta, Java, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

According to the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is a world statesman who promotes religious tolerance. According to the Clergy Forum of Jakarta, Banten and West Java in Indonesia, Yudhoyono turns a blind eye to oppression of minority religions in his own country. The forum on . . . Read More

Tanzania – bomb outside new Catholic church one of worst ‘terrorist’ incidents in years

  May 10, 2013 Tanzania Arusha, Butchers, Dar es Salaam, East Africa, Tanzania, Zanzibar

Mwananchi Tanzania, once celebrated as a role model for peace in Africa, is no longer being considered ‘safe’ after an increase in inter-faith violence, with little evidence so far of perpetrators brought to justice. Last Sunday’s blast outside St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Arusha, a town popular with tourists . . . Read More

The Camp

  May 5, 2013 Syria Assyrians, Free Syrian Army, Refugees, Syria, Syriacs, Turkey

Earthwork at the site of a planned refugee camp for Syrian Christians at Midyat, Turkey. The Mor Abrohom Monastery is in the background, right.Saima Altunkaya for World Watch Monitor   Hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the violence in Syria live in camps just inside Turkey. So the April 10 . . . Read More

Churches campaign ahead of Malaysia elections

  May 3, 2013 Malaysia Bibles, Elections, Islamic extremism, Malaysia, Sabah, Sarawak, UMNO

On Sunday, May 5, Malaysians head to the polls for what could be the most critical general elections in the country’s history. The ruling coalition, dominated by Umno (the United Malays National Organisation), has been raising issues of religion and race in an effort to win the support of the . . . Read More