News

Helping Dunkirk’s migrants – God’s will or collusion in illegal entry?

  March 15, 2017 Calais, Converts, Dunkirk, Egypt, Eritrea, France, Iran, La Linière, Migrants, Refugees

Reaching out to the migrants who arrive in the north of France presents the Church with a weighty dilemma. The migrants have generally paid smugglers several thousand pounds to help them to cross Europe, and have their eyes – and their hearts – set on reaching England, which will mean . . . Read More

Tanzanian widow overcomes grief of husband’s murder during spate of church attacks in east Africa

  March 15, 2017 Tanzania Acid attacks, Amselmo Mwangamba, Arusha, East Africa, Mwanza, Pentecostals, Tanzania, Zanzibar

“Widows often suffer great loneliness. After I lost Elias I feared that loneliness very much.” Three years on from husband Elias’ death, Mary Lunyamila Meshack recalls how her life changed forever the night he stood guard during an overnight service at their church in Mwanza, on the shores of Lake . . . Read More

Injured Indonesian boy, 4, ‘ashamed’ by wounds after 17th operation since November church attack

  March 14, 2017 Indonesia Aceh, Bogor, Islamic State, Java, Joko Widodo, Kalimantan, Samarinda, Sumatra

Just over four months ago, on 13 November 2016, a two-year-old girl died after suffering 75% burns during a bomb attack on a church in Indonesia. Three other young children were also injured – Anita (also two), Trinity (three) and Alvaro (four) – during the attack on Oikumene Church in . . . Read More

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws

  March 14, 2017 Pakistan Blasphemy, Islamic extremism, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Religious freedom

What the laws say Chapter XV of Pakistan’s Penal Code, titled “Of Offences Relating to Religion,” contains six sections. Four of them outlaw a number of acts, ranging from tresspassing on places of worship to “malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings,” with penalties ranging from one to 10 years . . . Read More

Pakistani Christians in Thailand face renewed pressure to return home

  March 13, 2017 Asylum seekers, Badami Bagh, Bangkok, Gojra, Joseph Colony, Migrants, Netherlands, Pakistan, Refugees, Thailand, UK, UN

World Watch Monitor has heard from reliable sources that the Thai government is planning to cancel bail for all male asylum seekers in Bangkok. The move would require them to return to detention centres straight away. This would include many of the estimated 11,500 Pakistani Christians who complained in 2016 . . . Read More

Killer of Coptic alcohol vendor sentenced to death

  March 10, 2017 Egypt Alexandria, Copts

UPDATE (10 March) The murderer of a Coptic man killed “for selling alcohol” has been sentenced to death. Adel Soliman, 48, confessed to the murder of Youssef Lamei and said he would kill everyone who sold alcohol if he could, according to Egypt Independent. Lamei was killed as he sat . . . Read More

Isolated, female and vulnerable to abuse: Christian nannies in the Gulf

  March 8, 2017 India, Nepal, Philippines, Trauma, Women

Locked up in the palaces of rich families, abused and treated as slaves by their “owners”, sexually exploited, or almost starved to death. Such is the plight of many foreign Christian nannies and housemaids from Asian countries working for families in the Arabian Peninsula – and almost nobody knows about . . . Read More

UPDATE: Missing Egyptian woman, 18, given new Muslim identity by security services

  March 8, 2017 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Kidnapping, Luxor, Upper Egypt, Women

UPDATE (8 March) The brother of 18-year-old Hanan Girgis, an Egyptian Christian woman missing since 26 January, says he has been told she has a new Muslim identity and is being held by the security services. Rezeiky Girgis heard from the Civil Status Authority at Esna Police Station that Hanan . . . Read More

‘Double suffering’ when women targeted not only for gender, but also religion

  March 8, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Boko Haram, Central African Republic, Islamic State, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Trauma, Women

On International Women’s Day, one statistic you may not hear much is that 83% of global women identify with a religious faith. Pew Research asked people in 84 countries how often they pray; in half of them, substantially more women than men say they pray on a daily basis. And . . . Read More

‘Secret’ church leader about witnessing his faith to people who might kill him

  March 6, 2017 Converts, Islamic extremism, Refugees, Religious freedom

Hameedullah* works as a church leader in a country known for intense persecution of Christians. When he was young, he lived illegally as a refugee in a Muslim country that didn’t want him or his religion, whose people are always looking out for non-Islamic activity. He even faced scrutiny from . . . Read More