News

From Africa to Asia, offended Muslims vent anger on Christian churches

  September 26, 2012 Global News -- No Particular Country Africa, Algeria, Asia, Bauchi, Benghazi, Boko Haram, Cairo, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Mardan, Mosul, Nigeria, Pakistan, Prophet Muhammad, Zinder

Across much of the Muslim world, more than two weeks of backlash to the internet video “Innocence of the Muslims” has occasionally been directed at Christians, from computer hacks to church burnings. It can be difficult to sort deliberate acts of persecution from simple undirected anger sparked by the video, . . . Read More

Analysis: India’s narrow path to religious freedom

  September 26, 2012 India Bangalore, BJP, Converts, Himachal Pradesh, Hindutva, India, Religious freedom, Shimla

In August, the high court of India’s Himachal Pradesh state rejected a portion of the state’s laws regulating religious conversion. World Watch Monitor asked Steven David, director of the Centre for Contemporary Issues, in Bangalore, to provide his perspective. By Steven David Shimla apples are world-famous. They are grown in . . . Read More

Extremist Hindus rout Christians from rural Indian village

  September 25, 2012 India Chhattisgarh, Converts, Himachal Pradesh, Hindu nationalism, India

Hindus twice assaulted a Christian community in a rural India village early this month, beating Christians, forcing them into Hindu worship rituals, and damaging their homes, according to Christian witnesses. The Sunday worship meeting was underway Sept. 2 at the home of a new Christian, Daminbai Sahu, in Bhanpuri, a . . . Read More

Perpetrators of Turkey’s ‘Malatya Massacre’ Put on Trial

  September 19, 2012 Turkey Malatya

Nineteen suspects accused of inciting the brutal 2007 murders of three Christians in eastern Turkey went on trial before Malatya’s Third Criminal Court in early September. With the court’s acceptance in June of a third indictment in the case, known as the “Malatya Massacre” in the Turkish media, allegations against . . . Read More

Kazakhstan jails pastor, considers extradition to Uzbekistan

  September 17, 2012 Kazakhstan Almaty, Kazakhstan, Makset Djabbarbergenov, UN, Uzbekistan

A former Uzbek house church pastor is in a Kazakhstan jail, awaiting a ruling whether he will be returned to his native country, even as Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court considers whether to declare him a refugee from almost-certain persecution.Makset Djabbarbergenov was arrested Sept. 5 in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s financial center and largest . . . Read More

Pope Benedict urges peace as radical Islamists target Western interests

  September 14, 2012 Andrea Zaki, Asia, Benghazi, Copts, Egypt, Libya, Middle East, USA

Pope Benedict started a visit to Lebanon in the Middle East on Friday, as angry demonstrations and attacks on Western interests continued to spread across the region and into Asia. They came in the wake of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya’s second city, which killed American . . . Read More

Jailed Iranian pastor, once facing death, walks free

  September 10, 2012 Iran Apostasy, Gilan, Rasht, Youcef Nadarkhani

An Iranian pastor who faced a death sentence because of accusations he abandoned Islam for Christianity walked out jail a free man Saturday, according to a Christian human-rights organisation. After 2 years, 11 months behind bars, Yousef Nadarkhani emerged from jail to rejoin his wife, Fatemeh Pasandideh, and their two sons, reported . . . Read More

Nigerian church tries to move on after massacre

  September 9, 2012 Nigeria Boko Haram, Kaduna, Kogi, Nigeria

The church is still empty. Clothes and Bibles remain scattered throughout the sanctuary. Dried bloodstains the floor. One month after gunmen opened fire inside Deeper Life Bible Church in Eika-Adagu, a suburb 12 kilometers from the town of Okene in central Nigeria’s Kogi state, members of the church have yet . . . Read More

Rimsha leaves Pakistan jail, reunited with family, government says

  September 7, 2012 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Children, Islamabad, Mumtaz Qadri, Paul Bhatti, Prophet Muhammad, Punjab, Quran, Rimsha Masih, Salmaan Taseer, Shahbaz Bhatti, Women

Under heavy security, Rimsha Masih, the teenage Christian Pakistani girl accused of blasphemy, was whisked out of jail Saturdy to a waiting helicopter that government officials said took her to rejoin her family.The Pakistani news agency Dawn reported Rimsha, left Adiala Jail wering a green shirt and pants, and entered an armored . . . Read More

Case against Rimsha’s dramatic turn prompts Pakistan religious leaders to debate blasphemy law

  September 4, 2012 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Islamabad, Pakistan, Pakistan Ulema Council, Paul Bhatti, Quran, Rimsha Masih

An unexpected twist in the Rimsha Masih blasphemy case appears to have paved the way for her freedom from apparently false charges of desecrating the Quran. The imam who supported her accuser was himself arrested and appeared in court on the same charge as the girl, that of desecrating the . . . Read More