News

Key trends show in 2019 List of countries where it’s most difficult to live as a Christian

  January 16, 2019 Global News -- No Particular Country BJP, Blasphemy, Boko Haram, China, Egypt, Hindu nationalism, India, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Middle East, Minorities, Nigeria, Religious freedom, World Watch List

In its 2019 World Watch List, Open Doors International reports that 11 countries score highly enough to fit into the ‘extreme’ category for the level of persecution of Christians. It was the same last year, but five years ago, only North Korea was in that category. From roughly 2006, and accelerating from 2012, the NGO says the . . . Read More

Church construction slows under Egypt’s new church-building law

  December 21, 2018 Egypt Building

A 2016 law designed to make it easier to establish and build churches in Egypt has not eased the bottleneck, according to a new report. The 12 December report, issued by the Project on Middle East Democracy, said approval of church building projects actually has slowed under the new law. . . . Read More

New religion-control law changes little in Vietnam after 1 year

  December 18, 2018 Vietnam

Christian leaders in Vietnam largely agree that little has changed since the new Law on Belief and Religion came into effect January 1, 2018. Its potentially positive provisions are unevenly applied, and completely ignored in remote areas where ethnic minorities continue under heavy persecution and yet convert to Christianity. On . . . Read More

Two Pakistani Christian brothers sentenced to death for blasphemy

  December 17, 2018 Pakistan Blasphemy, Lahore, Minorities, Pakistan, Punjab

A Pakistani court last week sentenced two Christian brothers to death for blasphemy. Since their arrest in 2014, Qaisar and Amoon Ayub had been held in District Jail Jhelum, in Punjab province, 200 km north of Lahore, for allegedly posting “disrespectful material” on their website, according to AsiaNews. For security . . . Read More

Calls for inquiry into UN peacekeepers’ role in massacres in Central African Republic

  December 17, 2018 Central African Republic Alindao, Anti-balaka, Central African Republic, Dieudonné Nzapalainga, Seleka, UN, UPC

United Nations peacekeepers failed in protecting civilians in the Central African Republic during an attack in November that killed as many as 100 people, among them two priests, according to a report by Amnesty International that was published 14 December. Multiple eyewitnesses told Amnesty that UN peacekeepers did not stop . . . Read More

‘I must denounce this wickedness openly’ – detained Chinese pastor

  December 14, 2018 China Chengdu, China, Churches, Sam Brownback, Sichuan, Xi Jinping, Xinjiang

A Chinese pastor and his wife who were arrested alongside 100 church members and detained in southwest China on Sunday are accused of subverting state power, which can carry a prison sentence of up to five years. Pastor Wang Yi and his wife, Jiang Rong, and other members of their . . . Read More

Pakistan joins US list of worst religious freedom violators

  December 13, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, China, Comoros, Eritrea, Iran, Minorities, Myanmar, North Korea, Pakistan, Religious freedom, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, USA, Uzbekistan

Pakistan is among the ten countries that appear on the US State Department’s latest list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) for religious-freedom violations, Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, announced in a press statement on Tuesday, 11 December. China, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Pakistan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and . . . Read More

Indian Christians heave sighs of relief as Hindu nationalists lose elections in key states

  December 12, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Chhattisgarh, Christmas, Delhi, Elections, Hindu nationalism, India, Madhya Pradesh, Minorities, Police, Rajasthan

Christians can heave sighs of relief as the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP has been thrown out of power in three key states in central India that have reported dozens of incidents of anti-Christian violence and harassment. The BJP, which had enjoyed unstinted power in two of the states – Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh – for 15 . . . Read More

­­­Egypt: Copt sentenced to three years in prison for ‘blasphemous’ Facebook post

  December 12, 2018 Egypt Blasphemy, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Minya, Prophet Muhammad

An Egyptian court has sentenced a Coptic Christian to three years in prison after he was found guilty of “insulting Islam in the first degree”. Abdo Adel, 43, from Menbal, a village in Egypt’s Minya governorate, 200km south of Cairo, was accused in July of publishing a post on his . . . Read More

Indonesian Christian governor Ahok set for early release from prison

  December 11, 2018 Indonesia Ahok, Blasphemy, Indonesia, Islamic extremism, Jakarta, Minorities

Jakarta’s former governor, known as “Ahok”, who was sentenced last year to two years in jail for blasphemy against Islam, is to be released from prison next month, four months ahead of schedule. The ethnic Chinese Christian, whose real name is Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, was due to be released in . . . Read More