News

Afghanistan: Radical Islamist groups recruit at universities

  August 9, 2019 Afghanistan Afghanistan, Education, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Kabul, Taliban, USA

While the Afghan government is engaged in peace talks with the hard-line Taliban movement, radical Islamist groups are spreading their ideology at universities. Basira Akhtar, a 22-year-old student, was beaten up twice earlier this year, at her university in the capital Kabul, when her headscarf slipped from her head. In . . . Read More

Nigeria: Violence continues but government in denial, church leaders say

  July 25, 2019 Nigeria Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen, Genocide, Middle Belt, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria, Plateau

A pregnant woman and a child were among four people killed in attacks by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria’s Plateau State last week. The attackers targeted the villages of Ancha and Tafigana in the Bassa Local Government area, as reported by news site Nasoweseeamonline. Margaret Wakili, 27, from Ancha – . . . Read More

‘It’s time to be real: what happens in Iraq is ethnic cleansing’ – UK analyst

  July 12, 2019 Iraq Genocide, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Minorities, Nineveh Plains, UK, UN, USA, Yazidis

What Iraq’s Christians want from the West is to say the plain truth: that there is ethnic cleansing of Christians in the region and it is ongoing, Dr Tim Stanley told a meeting at the UK’s parliament last Tuesday, 9 July. The historian and columnist, working for UK daily newspaper . . . Read More

Ethiopia: Pressure on churches building; evangelical church told to vacate after ten years

  June 18, 2019 Ethiopia Churches, Ethiopia, Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Oromia

An evangelical church in central Ethiopia has been ordered to vacate its building, 10 years after it started meeting there, and churches elsewhere in the region say pressure is increasing on them, too. The Mekane Yesus Evangelical Church in the town of Robe in Bale zone, about 400km southeast of . . . Read More

Iraq: Five years after IS occupied Mosul, returnees live in fear

  June 10, 2019 Iraq Bartella, Bashar Warda, Human rights, Iraq, Islamic State, Minorities, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Ramadan, Shabak

The Islamic State’s three-year occupation of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and its surrounding villages ended nearly two years ago, yet the city and its diminished number of Christian residents remain vulnerable.   Last month the Iraqi government announced it would arm residents of 50 villages around Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, . . . Read More

India: Supreme Court orders Kandhamal Christian freed on bail after 10 years in prison

  May 22, 2019 India Hindu nationalism, India, Kandhamal, Minorities

Gornath Chalanseth, one of seven Christians jailed for life for the murder of a Hindu swami in the Kandhamal district of Odisha state in eastern India, has been freed on bail by India’s Supreme Court yesterday, May 21. The seven – three of whom are Dalits, the other four tribals . . . Read More

Burkina Faso: 5 leaders killed in 3 months as Islamists continue to target churches

  May 16, 2019 Burkina Faso Ansar ul Islam, Arbinda, Burkina Faso, Dablo, Islamic extremism, Niger, Oudalan, Singa, Sirgadji, Soum

At least ten more Christians have been killed as a spate of attacks on churches continues in northern Burkina Faso. The ten, who died in two attacks on 12 and 13 May, include another Catholic priest, Siméon Yampa. On Monday, 13 May, a procession of four Catholics was attacked while . . . Read More

Sri Lankan Christians grapple with aftermath of Easter bombings amid fears of fresh attacks

  May 9, 2019 Sri Lanka Catholics, Churches, Islamic extremism, Minorities, Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan Arasaratnam Verl is deep in mourning. His son Jackson (13) and sister Verlini (36) were killed instantly when a bomb exploded in the evangelical Zion Church in the eastern city of Batticaloa on Easter Sunday morning, 21 April. Verlini’s husband Ranjith (39), an engineer and Blackbelt in karate, . . . Read More

Ten years after fake blasphemy charge, Pakistani Asia Bibi reunited with family

  May 8, 2019 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Catholics, Islamic extremism, Minorities, Pakistan, Salmaan Taseer, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan

Asia Bibi’s daughter Eicham was 9 when she saw her mum badly beaten and in front of a mob charged with “blasphemy” against the Prophet Muhammad. For over 9 years, Eicham has visited her on death row in Pakistan. Finally, today, now a young woman at 18, Eicham and her . . . Read More

Burkina Faso church leader killed by Islamists: ‘I’d rather die than leave my community’

  May 2, 2019 Burkina Faso Assemblies of God, Burkina Faso, Djibo, IDPs, Islamic extremism, Islamic State West Africa Province, Ken Elliott, Sahel, Sirgadji, Soum, West Africa

Gunmen who attacked a Protestant church in Burkina Faso on 28 April asked the pastor and five others to convert to Islam before they killed them, World Watch Monitor has learned. Last Sunday’s violence in the West African country appears to have been the first attack, specifically on a church . . . Read More