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Pakistan and Iraq: Christmas joy mixed with grief

December 24, 2017 Christmas, Iraq, Kirkuk, Multan, Nineveh Plains, Pakistan, Quetta

How will Christians under pressure for their faith celebrate Christmas? In the first of our series we hear from Pakistan and Iraq. Pakistan: Pattern of suicide attacks during festivals This is the fourth time in three years that suicide bombers have targeted churches or gatherings around Christian festivals. Last Sunday . . . Read More

Egypt teenager’s murder ‘aimed to intimidate Copts ahead of Christmas’, says his pastor

December 22, 2017 Egypt Asyut, Copts, Egypt, Upper Egypt

Murdered 14 yr old Ishak Nashaat Birwan, who drove a 'tuk-tuk' taxi

The body of 14-year-old Ishak Nashaat Birwan was found on Wednesday (20 December), 11 days after he disappeared, in a canal near where he lived in Izziyah, a large Christian village near Manfalout in Asyut. Samir Fekry, Ishak’s cousin, told World Watch Monitor that the body was taken to the . . . Read More

Adding insult to injury – Pakistani church leaders arrested, fined for ‘not putting security in place’

December 22, 2017 Pakistan Faisalabad, Lahore, Multan, Pakistan, Peshawar, Punjab, Quetta

Bishop of Multan Leo Paul with a security inspection team outside Multan Cathedral, late Dec 2017

Pakistan intelligence agencies on Tuesday (19 December) put out an alert that major parks could be targeted by suicide bombers over Christmas in Lahore, capital of Punjab province – where the largest population of Christians resides. On Sunday (17 December), two suicide bombers attacked Bethel Memorial Methodist Church in the . . . Read More

India’s top Catholic on Hindutva attacks: ‘country being divided on basis of religious belief’

December 22, 2017 India Anti-conversion law, Catholics, Hindu nationalism, Hindutva, India, Madhya Pradesh, Minorities, Rajasthan, Religious freedom, Tripura, Vishva Hindu Parishad

The President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, has expressed a lack of trust in the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as the leader of the ruling BJP – known for pursuing a Hindu nationalistic agenda. “The country is being divided on the . . . Read More

Egypt: After 7 years of delays, new church for Copts, who agree to drop arson claims

December 21, 2017 Egypt Anba Macarius, Copts, Egypt, Kom El-Loufy, Minya

After 12 years of fierce opposition Coptic Christians in Kom El-Loufy, Minya, will soon again have a church. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Copts in the Egyptian town of Kom El-Loufy, Upper Egypt, 250 km south of Cairo, started the construction of a church today, seven years after their previous building was closed by local authorities because of “security reasons”. They have withdrawn their charges against 23 Muslims who burned down some of their . . . Read More

Egypt: ‘Let them live to tell the story’- boys who saw dad die on the monastery road

December 21, 2017 Egypt Children, Copts, Egypt, Minya

Marco and Mina with their mother and elder sister hold portrait of their father who died in 25 May attack. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Marco and Mina live in a small village in the Minya region of rural southern Egypt. Both look young for their age, 14 and 10 respectively. On 25 May 2017, they joined their father Ayad to go to the monastery of St. Samuel. Ayad worked there and was going to . . . Read More

Indian ‘converted by carol singers’ now claims membership of militant Hindu group

December 19, 2017 India Anti-conversion law, Bajrang Dal, Ghar Wapsi, Hindu nationalism, India, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh

An Indian man who claimed a group of carol singers illegally converted him has now said he is a member of the militant Hindu group Bajrang Dal and is unwilling to confirm his allegation. The complaint made last Thursday (14 December) to the police by Dharmendra Dohar led to the . . . Read More

Pakistan: mourners bury 11 killed in Quetta church suicide attack, as 50 injured

December 18, 2017 Pakistan Balochistan, Pakistan, Quetta

Mourners attending the funeral of victims of the church bombing, Quetta, Pakistan (World Watch Monitor)

Pakistani Christian mourners today (Monday) are burying their dead only days before they should be celebrating Christ’s birth. Worshippers were lining up to take the Holy Communion when at least two men, armed and wearing suicide vests, attacked Bethel Memorial Methodist Church in western Pakistan’s restive city Quetta on Sunday . . . Read More

Why are Chile’s churches under attack?

December 15, 2017 Araucanía, Catholics, Chile, Churches, Mapuche, Temuco, Weichan Auka Mapu

Seven hours’ drive south of Chile’s capital, Santiago, in the Araucanía region, 27 churches have been burnt down in the past couple of years by a radical indigenous group, Weichan Auka Mapu. The attackers leave behind messages spelling out the demands of the Mapuches, an ancestral tribe who blame the Chilean . . . Read More

Indonesian children still in recovery mode one year after church bombing

December 14, 2017 Indonesia Borneo, Indonesia, Islamic State, Kalimantan, Samarinda, Terrorism, Trauma

Three-year-old Anita Sihotang is still too scared to leave her house. It has been just over a year since a terrorist threw a Molotov cocktail into the grounds of the church yard where she was playing in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province. The explosion killed one of her friends, two-year-old Intan . . . Read More

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