News

UPDATE: New video by Boko Haram claims some Chibok schoolgirls chose not to be rescued

  May 15, 2017 Nigeria Abuja, Boko Haram, Borno, Chibok girls, Muhammadu Buhari

Boko Haram released a video on Friday (12 May) claiming to show Chibok schoolgirls who refused to be rescued as part of last week’s swap deal that saw 82 girls freed by the Nigerian government. In the three-minute video, a girl dressed in a veil and holding a gun says . . . Read More

Pakistan medical superintendent ‘orders Christian staff to recite Quran’

  May 15, 2017 Pakistan Blasphemy, Lahore, Quran

The medical superintendent of a hospital in Pakistan has been accused of forcing its Christian staff to memorise Quranic verses. Article 20 of the Pakistan Constitution guarantees that no-one can be forced into any religious practice or belief against his/her own faith. Dr. Muhammad Sarfaraz was appointed Medical Superintendent of . . . Read More

US Vice-President says Trump will protect Middle East Christians and flush out ‘terrorists’

  May 12, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, Donald Trump, Islamic State, Mike Pence, Taliban

US Vice-President Mike Pence has said that the Trump administration is committed “to defend[ing] Christians, and those of all faiths, whose freedom of religion is threatened”. He was speaking on the first day of the World Summit In Defence of Persecuted Christians in Washington DC, which has been organised by . . . Read More

UPDATE: Two Sudanese convicted of aiding Czech Christian ‘spy’ released

  May 11, 2017 Sudan Abdulmonem Abdumawla, Churches, Hassan Taour, Sudan, Sudanese Church of Christ

UPDATE [11 May 2017] – The two Sudanese men who were jailed with the Czech aid worker, Petr Jasek, were released from prison in Khartoum this afternoon after a presidential pardon. Abdumonem Abdumawla and Revd Hassan Abduraheem Taour were arrested in December 2015 for “aiding and abetting” Jasek in his alleged ‘spying’. In January this . . . Read More

Chibok parents relieved: ‘Grace is out!’

  May 11, 2017 Nigeria Chibok girls, Gwoza, Muhammadu Buhari, Trauma, West Africa

The 82 Chibok girls who were released on 6 May by the terrorist group Boko Haram in Nigeria, have not returned to their families yet, but are held in a centre in the capital Abuja for screening and rehabilitation. However, Peter Pogu, father of one of the girls, was overjoyed . . . Read More

Relatives of Coptic ‘martyrs’ join summit on persecuted Christians in US capital

  May 11, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Chad, Converts, Copts, Donald Trump, Egypt, India, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Libya, Mexico, Mike Pence, Pakistan, Refugees, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, USA

A “World Summit in Defence of Persecuted Christians” has started in Washington DC, and is expected to be addressed by the US Vice-President Mike Pence today (Thursday, 11 May). It has been organised by American evangelist Franklin Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. 600 participants have come from 136 countries: including Egypt, . . . Read More

Widespread condemnation for prison sentence of Ahok

  May 10, 2017 Indonesia Ahok, Blasphemy, Southeast Asia

Tuesday’s verdict of an Indonesian court, sentencing Jakarta’s outgoing governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known as ‘Ahok’, to two years in prison for blasphemy, has received widespread condemnation globally as politicians, academics and rights groups express their concern about religious pluralism in Indonesia. Ahok, the capital’s first Christian and ethnic governor since the . . . Read More

Solidarity for Egypt’s beleaguered Christians during first Coptic papal visit to UK

  May 10, 2017 Egypt Bishop Angaelos, Copts, Egypt, Pope Tawadros II, Tanta

British Christian and political leaders praised Egypt’s embattled Coptic Christians during Pope Tawadros II’s pastoral visit to the UK, the first by a Coptic Pope. Tawadros’ visit follows Pope Francis’ visit to Egypt during which he told the head of the Coptic Church: “The innocent blood of defenceless Christians was . . . Read More

Sudanese government destroys another church

  May 10, 2017 Sudan Churches, Khartoum, Pentecostals, Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church, Sudanese Church of Christ

Sudanese government officials demolished the Sudan Church of Christ (SCOC) building in the Soba region, 20km south of the capital Khartoum, on Sunday. Two church members were detained and interrogated but later released. The two men were arrested by Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) because they had refused . . . Read More

Sinai: eighth El-Arish Copt killed in targeted attack

  May 8, 2017 Egypt Copts, Helwan, Islamic State, Port Said, Sinai

Nabil Saber Ayoub Mansour became the eighth Egyptian Coptic Christian to be murdered in El-Arish, northern Sinai, this year in what appear to be linked killings. He was shot dead by four masked men on 6 May. Mansour, 40, was in El-Arish for a brief visit (contrary to media reports that said he had returned . . . Read More