Tag: Apostasy

NGOs say changes to Sudan’s Islamic laws don’t go far enough

August 18, 2020 Sudan Apostasy, Blasphemy, Converts, Human rights, Minorities, Religious freedom, Sharia, Women

Despite the abolition in July 2020 of Sudan’s apostasy law (under which the case of Christian doctor Mariam Ibraheem, sentenced to hang in 2014, became global headline news), a group of 29 Sudanese NGOs says that its transitional government’s amendments to many of its laws do not go far enough. . . . Read More

Malaysia releases four Finnish Christians

November 29, 2018 Malaysia Apostasy, Malaysia, Proselytism

Putra Mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Evangelism among Malay Muslims is against the law. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The four Finnish nationals arrested in Malaysia last week for distributing Christian literature have been released and deported, The Associated Press reports. The four – two men and two women aged between 27 and 60 – were arrested in their hotel on Langkawi Island, a well-known tourist destination, on 20 . . . Read More

Malaysia arrests four Finnish nationals for distributing Christian literature

November 23, 2018 Malaysia Apostasy, Malaysia, Proselytism, Religious freedom

Conversion to Christianity in Muslim-majority Malaysia is against the law in almost all states, as is evangelism among Malay Muslims. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Four Finnish nationals were arrested by police in Malaysia on Tuesday, 20 November, for allegedly distributing Christian pamphlets, reports AsiaNews. The four, two men and two women aged between 27 and 60, were arrested in their hotel on Langkawi Island, a well-known tourist destination, on charges of “disturbing religious harmony”. . . . Read More

Young Kyrgyz Christian hospitalised, while his attackers go free

November 14, 2018 Kyrgyzstan Apostasy, Central Asia, Islamic extremism, Kyrgyzstan, Protestants

A young Protestant in Kyrgyzstan has been left with a fractured jaw after being attacked by three men, Forum 18 reports. Eldos Sattar uuly, 25, was attacked in his uncle’s house in the village of Tamchi, in the north-eastern Issyk-Kul region. A villager told Forum 18 that Sattar uuly had . . . Read More

Malaysia’s ‘deep-seated tensions’ exposed by MP’s call for religious freedom

November 7, 2018 Malaysia Apostasy, Catholics, Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia, Proselytism, Putrajaya, Raymond Koh, Religious freedom, UN

A Malaysian Catholic MP’s call last month for the government to sign the UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief has highlighted the “deep-seated tensions between ultra-conservative Muslims and the new government”, says the director of Malaysia’s Religious Freedom . . . Read More

Sudanese church leader charged with apostasy

October 26, 2018 Sudan Apostasy, Darfur, Mariam Ibrahim, NISS, Nuba Mountains, Nyala, Police, Sudan

Yousef denied to recant his Christian faith and now faces apostasy charges for which he can receive the death penalty. (Photo: UNAMID via Flickr; CC 2.0)

A Sudanese church leader is scheduled to appear in a Darfuri court on Sunday, 28 October, on charges of apostasy, after he refused to recant his faith while in police custody, Middle East Concern (MEC) reports. Tajadin Idris Yousef was the leader of the group of 13 Sudanese Christians taken . . . Read More

Church of Muslim converts told to close in Kyrgyzstan

July 4, 2018 Kyrgyzstan Apostasy, Converts, Islamic extremism, Kyrgyzstan

A church in Kyrgyzstan that is home to many former Muslims has been ordered to cease its Sunday worship. A local source told World Watch Monitor that services at the church, which is led by a convert from Islam, have been interrupted twice in the last few months by a . . . Read More

Tajikistan: Christian convert’s burial delayed as relatives call for husband to return to Islam

June 20, 2018 Tajikistan Apostasy, Burial, Central Asia, Converts, Islamic extremism, Minorities, Tajikistan

When an elderly Christian woman from a Muslim background died last week in a Tajikistan hospital, her husband Mihrab* and children – all of them Christians – organised a funeral ceremony and invited people from their church. But Mihrab’s Muslim relatives also invited local Muslims, including a cleric, who demanded . . . Read More

Report: UN weakness on religious freedom undercuts its authority on human rights

May 9, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Anti-conversion law, Apostasy, Bhutan, Blasphemy, Human rights, India, London, Minorities, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Religious freedom, Sam Brownback, Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, UN, USA, Uttarakhand

Dressed in the saffron colour, groups such these are promoting the nationalist cause for India to be a Hindu-nation. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The UN cannot strengthen, promote and protect human rights if it does not prioritise religious freedom, a report published by the Washington-based human rights alliance, ADF International has argued. The 73-page report, titled “Anti-Conversion Laws and the International Response”, claims that “some UN entities, especially special rapporteurs, have highlighted the . . . Read More

Tunisia’s religious freedom curbed by societal pressure – UN Rapporteur

April 23, 2018 Tunisia Ahmed Shaheed, Apostasy, Blasphemy, Human rights, Islamic extremism, Religious freedom, Sharia, Tunisia, UN

The Malik ibn Anas Mosque in Carthage, near the capital Tunis. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Old laws and societal pressure pose the greatest challenges to religious freedom in Tunisia, concluded the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Ahmed Shaheed, after a ten-day visit. Though Tunisia’s 2014 Constitution guarantees religious freedom, there is still work to be done to align its laws and . . . Read More

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