News

Why are attacks on Egypt’s Coptic Christians getting worse?

  July 14, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Arab Spring, Cairo, Copts, Egypt, El-Arish, Hosni Mubarak, Iraq, Mohamed Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood, Salafism, Syria, Yemen

Attacks on Christians in Egypt have intensified in brutality because of an influx of arms and foreign jihadis, lax border security and increased local hostility to non-Muslims, according to a leading UK academic. Dr Mariz Tadros of Sussex University’s Institute of Development Studies said that the suicide attack on a . . . Read More

Church relieved as Yemen confirms kidnapped Indian priest is ‘alive’

  July 14, 2017 Yemen Aden, Catholics, Islamic State, Tom Uzhunnalil, Yemen

The Church in India, especially in the southern state of Kerala, is breathing a sign of relief after Yemen confirmed to India’s foreign minister that Catholic missionary Father Tom Uzhunnalil, kidnapped in Yemen in March 2016, is “alive”. “We are thrilled to hear that good news,” Cardinal George Alencherry, Major . . . Read More

More Christian than Muslim refugees in US under Trump, but fewer overall

  July 14, 2017 Chaldeans, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Donald Trump, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Migrants, Mike Pence, Refugees, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, USA, Yemen

Christians account for a steadily growing share of refugee arrivals in the US, Pew Research has found, although the net number of Christian arrivals may in fact be shrinking. In its review of US State Department data, published on 12 July, Pew noticed a gradual increase in the numbers of . . . Read More

Sudan sanctions extended for three months

  July 13, 2017 Sudan Human rights, North Korea, Religious freedom, Sanctions, Sudan, USA

The US has extended its sanctions against Sudan for another three months, saying “more time is needed” to review whether Sudan has done enough to merit their removal. Sudan’s President, Omar Bashir, responded by suspending his negotiating committee until the end of the three months. The committee has been in . . . Read More

Terrorist threat forces Egyptian Christians to cancel summer activities

  July 13, 2017 Egypt Alexandria, Andrea Zaki, Asyut, Cairo, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Ismailia, Minya, Suez, Tanta, Terrorism

The churches of Egypt are temporarily shutting down their summer activities. “I asked all our churches and conference centres to cancel their trips and events for the next three weeks,” Dr. Andrea Zaki, president of the Protestant Churches of Egypt, told World Watch Monitor. “There is news they could be . . . Read More

Mexico a ‘case study in government inaction’ as third priest killed this year

  July 12, 2017 Mexico Catholics, Coahuila, Latin America, Los Zetas, Mexico City, Michoacán, Nayarit, Organised crime, Tijuana

A third Mexican priest this year has been killed following a violent attack at his parish just outside Mexico City. Luis Lopez Villa, 71, was killed by intruders at his San Isidro Labrador parish in Nezahualcóyotl on 5 July. An initial police report said his hands and feet were bound . . . Read More

Rash of sentences ‘shows government’s fear of growth of Christianity in Iran’

  July 12, 2017 Iran Amin Afshar Naderi, Exile, Hassan Rouhani, Iran, Mohammad Reza Omidi, Rasht, Saheb Fadaie, Yasser Mossayebzadeh, Youcef Nadarkhani

Four more Christians received lengthy jail sentences in Iran last week, it has emerged, taking the total number sentenced in the last month to 12. Yasser Mossayebzadeh, Saheb Fadaie, Mohammad Reza Omidi and Youcef Nadarkhani were each sentenced to ten years in prison. Omidi and Nadarkhani – a pastor who . . . Read More

‘Longest seven minutes of my life’: Uzbek beaten up for leading secret church

  July 12, 2017 Uzbekistan Communism, Converts, House churches, Islamic extremism, Soviet Union, Uzbekistan

Azamat became a Christian in the early days of Uzbekistan’s independence, soon after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, when, he says, the country “was a much freer place than it is now”. He embraced his new faith, setting up a network of house churches, and finding teachers for . . . Read More

Jailed Algerian Christian receives partial presidential pardon

  July 12, 2017 Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Bejaia, Berbers, Blasphemy, Constantine, Jijel, Kabylie, MAK, Setif, Slimane Bouhafs, Tizi Ouzou

A Christian imprisoned for three years for “insulting Islam and the prophet Muhammad” in his social media posts has received a partial presidential pardon. Slimane Bouhafs, who converted to Christianity from Islam in 1997, was arrested almost a year ago (31 July 2016) for posting a message on social media . . . Read More

Murder of fifth Copt in six weeks creating ‘state of fear and terror’ among Egypt’s Christians

  July 12, 2017 Egypt Cairo, Copts, Muslim Brotherhood, Upper Egypt

A fifth Copt has been murdered in Egypt in six weeks, aggravating fears among Christians that Islamist extremists are targeting them with impunity. Nadra Mounir, 26, was found dead in her flat in Cairo last Thursday evening (6 July), and religious icons in her home had reportedly been desecrated. Her . . . Read More