News

Death toll climbs in Islamist attacks in Nigeria’s northeast

  January 9, 2012 Nigeria Adamawa, Boko Haram, Gombe, Lagos, Nigeria

The number of Christians killed in an Islamic extremist attack here on Thursday (Jan. 5) has risen to nine, and over the weekend the same terrorist group killed at least 21 Christians in neighboring Adamawa state, sources said. Members of the Boko Haram group that seeks to impose sharia (Islamic . . . Read More

Myanmar’s Christian civilians attacked during Christmas

  January 9, 2012 Myanmar Chin, IDPs, Kachin, Karen, Myanmar, Myitkyina, Panglong

Attacks on Christians in Myanmar continued into the Christmas season in Kachin state as Burmese Army troops killed a civilian and destroyed church property despite President Thein Sein’s order to stop the war against insurgents. A Baptist church in Loije, Bhamo district, held a funeral on Dec. 27 for 47-year-old Maran . . . Read More

Top 10 Stories of 2011

  January 6, 2012 Global News -- No Particular Country Abyei, Afghanistan, Al-Shabaab, Aswan, Berom, Bogor, Boko Haram, China, Converts, Egypt, GKI Yasmin, Hosni Mubarak, Indonesia, Iran, Java, Kabul, Kadugli, Laos, Mogadishu, Nigeria, Omar al-Bashir, Shahbaz Bhatti, Shouwang Church, Somalia, Sudan, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Taliban, Youcef Nadarkhani

Unceasing, accelerating incidents of bloodshed in Nigeria topped World Watch Monitor’s top 10 news stories of 2011 as Boko Haram and other Islamic extremists lashed out at Christians. Following this top news story was the assassination of Pakistan’s only Christian cabinet member in March 2011; the upholding of the death . . . Read More

Indonesia: anti-Christian incidents nearly doubled in 2011

  January 4, 2012 Indonesia Banten, Bogor, Churches, GKI Yasmin, Indonesia, Jakarta, Java, Nahdlatul Ulama, Pentecostals, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Acts of violence and intolerance against Christians in Indonesia almost doubled in 2011, with an Islamist campaign to close down churches symbolizing the plight of the religious minority. The Indonesian Protestant Church Union, locally known as PGI, counted 54 acts of violence and other violations against Christians in 2011, up . . . Read More

Persecution increased most in Sudan, Nigeria, report says

  January 4, 2012 Global News -- No Particular Country Abyei, Afghanistan, Alexandria, Arab Spring, Blasphemy, Blue Nile, Boko Haram, China, Copts, Egypt, Ethiopia, Hosni Mubarak, Iran, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Maspero, Nigeria, Omar al-Bashir, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Kordofan, South Sudan, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Yemen

Sudan and northern Nigeria saw steeper increases in persecution against Christians than 48 other nations where Christians suffered abuse last year, according to an annual ranking by Christian support organization Open Doors. Sudan – where northern Christians experienced greater vulnerability after southern Sudan seceded in a July referendum, and where . . . Read More

Authorities again deny facility to Shouwang Church

  January 3, 2012 China China, Shouwang Church

Authorities in China again thwarted efforts by Shouwang Church to lease a worship facility at the year’s end, and the Beijing congregation again met outdoors on Sunday (Jan. 1) – resulting in the arrest of 48 members, sources said. “The church tried three times to rent three different venues, but . . . Read More

Pregnant woman beaten in Pakistani jail granted bail

  December 30, 2011 Pakistan Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, Women

A judge this month granted bail to a Christian woman falsely charged with theft in Abbottabad after police failed to produce evidence incriminating her, she said. Salma Emmanuel, 30, was freed on bail on Dec. 8. She and her husband were severely beaten for three days when they refused to . . . Read More

Officials force Christians to recant for burial

  December 30, 2011 Laos Burial, Laos, Savannakhet

Officials this week forced Christians in a Lao village to give up their faith in order to bury a family member in the village graveyard, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF). In Huey, Ad-Sapangthong district of Savannakhet Province, where immediate burial is essential in . . . Read More

India Briefs: Recent Incidents of Persecution

  December 30, 2011 India Andhra Pradesh, Bangalore, Hindu nationalism, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Pentecostals, RSS, Tamil Nadu

Police arrested a Christian after Hindu extremists on Dec. 22 accused him of forceful conversion in Nagarcoil. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that Hindu extremists accused Sagaya Dass of forceful conversion after he and students from SP Hindu College organised a Christmas program. The extremists filed a police . . . Read More

Christians face harsh realities of Nigerian church bombing

  December 29, 2011 Nigeria Abuja, Boko Haram, Christmas, Nigeria, Sultan of Sokoto, Trauma

Until last Sunday, Christmas Day, St. Theresa’s Catholic Church on the outskirts of Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, was just one of many branches of Christianity in the country. An early morning suicide bomb attack by Islamic extremist group Boko Haram that left at least 45 people dead and 73 others . . . Read More