News

IS renews threat to Copts as Al-Azhar head says Islam ‘at war with itself’

  November 14, 2017 Egypt Al-Azhar, Egypt, Islamic State, Pope Francis, Terrorism

A pro-Islamic State (IS) group media outlet has issued a new threat against Egypt’s Coptic Christians, saying they must be attacked as “infidel fighters” and their churches must be blown up. The message, issued by the Wafa Media Foundation, said Copts did not accept dhimmitude – the condition of submission imposed . . . Read More

Ceasefire holds but food shortage threatens Sudan’s Nuba people

  November 14, 2017 Sudan East Africa, Education, Nuba Mountains, Sanctions, South Kordofan, SPLM-N, Sudan

The war planes may have gone and the bombings stopped, thanks to a ceasefire, but the people of Sudan’s Nuba Mountains are now battling another enemy: hunger. Six years of civil war between Sudan’s government troops and the SPLM-N rebels, fighting for self-determination, has destroyed communities and infrastructure in the . . . Read More

Pakistani Christian sent to prison for ‘insulting Islam’ despite mental ill-health

  November 10, 2017 Pakistan Blasphemy, Islamic extremism, Lahore, Pakistan

A Christian man was arrested on the day of his son’s funeral in Pakistan last weekend, and charged with insulting Islam – blasphemy – despite being recognised as mentally ill. He is now in prison. Iqbal Masih, 65, a retired father of nine, is from the Fazlia Colony of Lahore, . . . Read More

‘My daughters have no future in the Middle East’

  November 10, 2017 Lebanon Beirut, Divorce, Iraq, Islamic State, Lebanon, Refugees, Syria, UN

“I lived with my in-laws for 35 years. At the beginning it was like going to the gallows!” recalls Lydia Babayan, 57, an Iraqi-born Armenian Catholic. “My mother-in-law was very aggressive and my father-in-law was very strict. But my husband’s sister was good to me, she never said a bad . . . Read More

Nigeria: 9 dead as suspected Fulani herdsmen ambush Christians in Plateau

  November 9, 2017 Nigeria Christian Association of Nigeria, Church of Christ in Nigeria, ECWA, Fulani herdsmen, Nigeria, Plateau

Nine Christians were shot dead by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria’s central Plateau State on Tuesday night (7 November), as they returned from a weekly village market. Four more were injured during the incident in the Riyom Local Government Area (LGA), which happened at around 7.30pm. Seven were killed instantly, . . . Read More

Lives in limbo – Iraqi Christians’ long wait for asylum in Lebanon

  November 8, 2017 Lebanon Armenians, Assyrians, Asylum seekers, Beirut, IDPs, Iraq, Islamic State, Lebanon, Middle East, Refugees, Syria, Trauma, UN

Petros Babayan strains to sit up as if each bone of his paper-thin frame were heavy as iron. His wife Lydia and adult daughter Rita rush to help him. In their tiny rented apartment in Beirut, his single bed takes up a quarter of the room in which they live . . . Read More

Pakistan: Christians flee village after death threats against teenager accused of blasphemy

  November 7, 2017 Pakistan Blasphemy, Gujranwala, Islamic extremism, Pakistan

Five Christian families in rural Pakistan have gone into hiding after death threats were made against an 18-year-old because of his alleged blasphemy against Islam. Sonu Arshad, who lives in the remote village of Sukheki, 200 kilometres north of Lahore, belongs to one of the families – the only Christians . . . Read More

Sudan: two church leaders fined, trial of five others postponed

  November 7, 2017 Sudan Sudan, Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church, Sudanese Church of Christ

Two Sudanese church leaders have been found guilty of criminal misappropriation and trespass, following a long-running dispute over church land and property. Rafat Samir, chairman of the Lands and Buildings Committee of the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC), and Daniel William, the deputy chairman, were each fined 5,000 Sudanese pounds (approximately . . . Read More

Iran MPs want to change law so people can only vote for candidates from their own religion

  November 3, 2017 Iran Armenians, Assyrians, Ayatollah Khomeini, Elections, Iran, Minorities, Sepanta Niknam, Sharia, Yazd, Zoroastrians

Conservative MPs within Iran’s parliament are proposing that Iranians should only be allowed to vote for members of their own religious group. In Iran, where 90-95% of the population is Shia Muslim, this will essentially mean that it will be impossible for members of religious minorities to be elected. The . . . Read More

Dozens killed as Islamist violence erupts again in eastern DRC

  November 3, 2017 Democratic Republic of the Congo ADF, Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila, North Kivu

After a period of relative calm, violence has resumed in eastern DRC. Various attacks by armed groups, including the radical Islamic group Muslim Defense International (MDI), formerly known as the Allied Democratic Forces, have claimed dozens lives among civilians in September and October. In one recent attack on 26 October, . . . Read More