News

Sudanese authorities close Christian offices in South Darfur

  May 14, 2012 Sudan Blue Nile, Darfur, NISS, Nuba Mountains, Nyala, Port Sudan, Salafism, South Kordofan, South Sudan, Sudan

Security agents in Sudan’s South Darfur state have closed down the Nyala offices of the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC) and relief group Sudan Aid, sources said. Agents from the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) arrived at the organisations’ compound in Nyala at 8 a.m. on April 22, . . . Read More

Iranian officials heighten control on Farsi-speaking church

  May 11, 2012 Iran Armenians, Assemblies of God, Assyrians, Churches, Iran, Tehran

Leaders of the Assemblies of God’s (AOG) Central Church of Tehran told their congregation on Sunday (May 6) that authorities have demanded a list of names and identification numbers of church members, a major risk to converts from Islam. Church leaders then asked members in attendance to volunteer their information. . . . Read More

Egyptian judge frees attackers who knifed Christian

  May 9, 2012 Egypt Egypt, Qena, Salafism

A judge in Upper Egypt has dismissed all charges against a group of Salafi Muslims who cut off the ear of a Christian in a knife attack and tried to force him to convert. The Salafists, who say they base their religion on the practices of the first three generations . . . Read More

Lawyer of Iranian pastor on death row faces prison

  May 8, 2012 Iran Ayatollah Khamenei, Converts, Evin Prison, Farshid Fathi, Human rights, Iran, Isfahan, Karaj, Missionaries, Shiraz, Tehran, Youcef Nadarkhani

The main defense lawyer for Iranian pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, who is appealing a death sentence, may be facing imminent imprisonment for defending the rights of Iranians, according to Amnesty International. Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, a prominent human rights activist, had been sentenced in July to a nine-year prison sentence and a . . . Read More

Myanmar reforms offer no respite for ethnic Christians

  May 4, 2012 Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, Baptists, Buddhist nationalism, Chin, Churches, IDPs, Kachin, Karen, Karenni, Minorities, Myanmar, Shan

Amid global euphoria over reforms in Burman-majority parts of Myanmar, life has changed little for more than 3 million Christians and other minorities left to suffer from one of the world’s longest running civil wars. Headlines around the world hailed the induction on Wednesday (May 2) of opposition leader Aung . . . Read More

India briefs: recent incidents of persecution

  April 30, 2012 India Andhra Pradesh, BJP, Hyderabad, India, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Odisha, Pentecostals, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Vishva Hindu Parishad

About 100 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers led by A. Raja and another identified only as Chidambaram on April 21 beat 15 Christians for proclaiming Christ in Paganeri, Shivagangai. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that the Hindu extremists beat them, burned their Bibles and tracts, seized their . . . Read More

Grenade attack on church in Kenya kills one

  April 29, 2012 Kenya Kenya, Nairobi

A grenade explosion yesterday killed a 27-year-old university student at a church in Nairobi and injured 16 people, sources said. Kelvin Walumba was killed after a man pretending to be a worshipper at God’s House of Miracles International Church in the Ngara area of Nairobi threw three grenades as the . . . Read More

Hindu villagers attack mourners in India

  April 27, 2012 India Burial, Chhattisgarh, India

Hindu extremists trying to stop the burial of a convert to Christianity last week in Chhattisgarh state beat a pastor and other Christians, including children and two 60-year-old women who fell unconscious, sources told World Watch Monitor. Jaikant Pawar, 31, of Balgal village, Kanker district, died on April 20 en . . . Read More

Christian’s six-year sentence upheld

  April 27, 2012 Egypt Asyut, Blasphemy, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Prophet Muhammad

A judge in Upper Egypt has upheld a six-year prison sentence for a Coptic Christian wrongly convicted of “blasphemy” against Islam and inciting sectarian strife, his lawyer said. The judge in Assuit on April 5 refused to strike down a Feb. 29 sentence delivered to Makarem Diab, 49, of the . . . Read More

Kidnapped Swiss Christian freed amid Mali’s unrest

  April 27, 2012 Mali Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Ansar Dine, Bamako, Beatrice Stockly, Berbers, Gao, Kidal, Mali, Timbuktu, Tuareg

Separatist Islamist rebels released a Swiss Christian woman kidnapped by a private militia on April 15 amid political turmoil in Timbuktu, Mali, according to a Swiss foreign ministry statement. Armed members of the militant Islamic group Ansar Dine handed Beatrice Stockly to Swiss diplomats on Tuesday (April 24), Reuters reported. . . . Read More