News

India briefs: recent incidents of persecution

  June 29, 2012 India Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Burial, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, India, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Sangh Parivar

Police arrested three Christians on charges of “abetment of a thing” in Hubli, after Hindu extremists verbally abused them and seized tracts from them on June 21. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that at about 2:30 p.m. Pastor Manju Nath and two Christians identified only as Stella . . . Read More

Sudanese authorities demolish two churches

  June 28, 2012 Sudan Catholics, Churches, Education, Khartoum, South Sudan, Sudan

Authorities in Khartoum demolished two church buildings last week, days after confiscating three Catholic schools, sources told World Watch Monitor. Officials from the Ministry of Planning and Housing of the local government authority on June 18 sent bulldozers that destroyed a church building belonging to the St. John Episcopal Church . . . Read More

Vietnamese officials destroy two new church buildings

  June 27, 2012 Vietnam Churches, Dien Bien, Evangelical Church of Vietnam, Hmong, Vietnam

Vietnamese officials in Muong Cha district, Dien Bien Province, destroyed two new church buildings of ethnic minority Hmong Christians this month and threatened to tear down a third. The Ho He Church, erected in April by the unregistered Vietnam Good News Mission, was demolished on June 17. The Phan Ho . . . Read More

Christian legislator in Pakistan stuck with Muslim ID

  June 26, 2012 Pakistan Converts, Human rights, Islamic extremism, Minorities, Pakistan, Punjab

Pakistan’s rigid system of prohibiting Muslims from changing their religion status on their national ID cards nearly cost a Punjab politician his post – even though he has always been a Christian. Rana Asif Mahmood’s political opponents in April sought to disqualify him from the Punjab Provincial Assembly seat reserved . . . Read More

Three Lao, two Thai Christians arrested in Laos

  June 25, 2012 Laos Converts, Laos, Luang Namtha, Proselytism, Savannakhet

Lao officials arrested two Lao and two Thai Christians in Luang Namtha Province earlier this month, seizing them from a private residence in Long district, according to Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF). Officials also arrested a pastor in Luang Namtha and dismissed two civil servants in Savannakhet . . . Read More

Appeals Judge in Azerbaijan to Decide Fate of Church

  June 22, 2012 Azerbaijan Baku, Churches, Protestants

A Christian congregation in Azerbaijan is waiting pensively to see if a judge will uphold a court order that banned its right to meet and “liquidated” the church. “They are upset, but at the same time they continue coming out hoping for the best,” said Mechti Suleymanov, an elder at . . . Read More

Islamists bomb three churches in Kaduna, Nigeria

  June 17, 2012 Nigeria Bauchi, Boko Haram, Churches, ECWA, Islamic extremism, Jos, Kaduna, Nigeria, Pentecostals, Sabon Gari, Sharia, Zaria

Suspected Islamic extremists bombed three churches in Kaduna state this morning, the third consecutive Sunday that worship services in Nigeria have ended in lethal bloodshed. In a predominantly Christian area of Zaria known as Wusasa, a suspected Islamic extremist crashed a car into a barricade at an Evangelical Church Winning . . . Read More

Christians hail dissolution of Egyptian parliament

  June 14, 2012 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Elections, Hosni Mubarak, Islamic extremism, Muslim Brotherhood

Christians in Egypt welcomed today’s court decision to dissolve the Islamist-controlled parliament due to election irregularities. The decision offered hope for Christians, many of whom were convinced the country was about to be handed over to Islamists who would stifle religious freedom and persecute non-Muslims. “Christians are happy, because they . . . Read More

Gutted church building leaves Egyptian Copts with debt

  June 14, 2012 Egypt Cairo, Copts, Egypt

A hasty, inadequate renovation of a church building that Salafi Muslims largely gutted a year ago has left the congregation with staggering debt from additional repairs, church members said. Waiting inside the main hall of the Virgin Mary Church in Imbaba, Cairo on Sunday (June 10), a woman looked at . . . Read More

Police in Pakistan decline to prosecute rape suspects

  June 12, 2012 Pakistan Kidnapping, Narowal, Pakistan, Rape, Women

Police have refused to arrest Muslims accused of causing the miscarriage of twin girls by beating their mother, even though a judge cancelled the suspects’ interim bails, according to the woman’s husband. Officers in Punjab Province’s Narowal district are biased in siding with Muslims accused of causing the miscarriage and . . . Read More