News

Syrian Christian spearheads ‘one million voices’ petition to support Church to stay in Middle East

  November 8, 2016 Aleppo, Iraq, Middle East, Refugees, Syria

A Syrian Christian now living in the UK is helping to bring hope for the future to his native land as part of a worldwide advocacy campaign. Rami (who can’t use his real name for security) co-ordinates ‘Hope for the Middle East’, a seven-year advocacy campaign from charity Open Doors . . . Read More

UPDATE: Iran allows Azerbaijani Christians home on ‘conditional’ release

  November 8, 2016 Iran Azerbaijan, Bahram Nasibov, Eldar Gurbanov, Naser Navard Gol-Tapeh, Yusif Farhadov

Three Azerbaijani Christians, accused by Iran of “missionary activities”, were allowed to go home on Sunday (6 Nov.), after more than four months in prison, Middle East Concern (MEC) said. Eldar Gurbanov, 48, Yusif Farhadov, 51, Bahram Nasibov, 37, and an Iranian, Naser Navard Gol-Tapeh, have been released from prison, . . . Read More

UPDATE: Another Chibok schoolgirl escapes with baby

  November 7, 2016 Nigeria Boko Haram, Borno, Chibok girls, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria, Trauma

The released 21 Chibok girls met President Buhari – seen here with Vice President Osinbajo – at his villa in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, 19 Oct.The Office of the President   A Nigerian Government spokesman, Sani Usman, told media another girl, believed to be one of the nearly 300 Chibok school . . . Read More

UPDATE: Nigeria: suspects in blasphemy case released

  November 4, 2016 Blasphemy, Boko Haram, Hisbah, Imo, Jama'atu Nasril Islam, Kano, Muhammadu Buhari, Niger, Nigeria, Ramadan, Sabon Gari, Sharia, Sultan of Sokoto

Christian Center in Abuja, Nigeria, Feb. 2016 (World Watch Monitor) A court in Nigeria’s northern city of Kano has freed five people detained in relation with the killing of a pastor’s wife who had been accused of blasphemy. Bridget Agbahime, 74, wife of Mike Agbahime, pastor of Deeper Life Bible . . . Read More

Algerian converts denied Christian funerals

  November 4, 2016 Algeria Burial, Kabylie, Protestant Church of Algeria, Tizi Ouzou

Christian cemetery in Algiers.Joseph McGonagle / Flickr / Creative Commons   When someone close to us dies, emotions are difficult enough…imagine if then, on top, you couldn’t ‘say goodbye’ in the way that would honour them and bring comfort to the grieving. That is the situation for many Christians when . . . Read More

UPDATE: Protests in Algeria for release of sick Christian

  November 4, 2016 Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Berbers, Blasphemy, Constantine, Kabylie, MAK, Setif, Slimane Bouhafs

Bouhafs’ family said seeking a presidential pardon is a ‘last resort and the only possible solution to set him free’.World Watch Monitor Protesters in Algeria have called for the release of Slimane Bouhafs, an evangelical Christian jailed for three years in September for “insulting Islam and the prophet Mohammed” in . . . Read More

Two Pakistani Christian families escape blasphemy accusations

  November 3, 2016 Pakistan Balochistan, Blasphemy, Bonded labourers, Islamic extremism, Pakistan, Quetta, Sheikhupura, Sweepers

Two blasphemy cases lodged against Pakistani Christians accused of desecrating Islamic scriptures have been dropped in the past week. The cases related to alleged offences under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws and were registered in separate incidents, hundreds of miles apart. In both cases Christians were initially suspected of the crime . . . Read More

Alqosh, the last Christian town in Iraq, is here to stay

  November 3, 2016 Iraq Alqosh, Nineveh Plains, Peshmerga

A view from the Christian town of Alqosh in the Nineveh Plain.World Watch Monitor   For more than two years it lasted, just minutes away from Islamic State-held territory. The Iraqi town of Alqosh (50km north of Mosul) is the only Christian stronghold in the country that survived IS. Looking . . . Read More

Aleppo churches open doors to displaced Muslim families

  November 2, 2016 Syria Aleppo, Lebanon, Migrants, Refugees

Life hasn’t been easy for 28-year-old Syrian mother Kristina, a Christian of Armenian descent, who lived with her husband in Aleppo long before the civil war started in 2011. It was in that besieged city that Kristina gave birth to her firstborn daughter, 18 months ago. She’s brought the little . . . Read More

Christian convert in French refugee camp told: ‘We will kill you’

  November 2, 2016 Austria, Calais, Croatia, Dunkirk, Grande-Synthe, Greece, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Jacques Hamel, Kurds, Migrants, Refugees

A Kurdish church leader smuggled to Britain says he received death threats – for having left Islam for Christianity – while living in makeshift camps in northern France. The church leader, who did not wish to be identified, spent nine months living in camps outside the French cities of Calais . . . Read More