Tag: Apostasy

Iranian rights groups decry treatment of Christians

November 30, 2016 Iran Apostasy, Converts, Human rights, Religious freedom, Youcef Nadarkhani

Iranian and European human rights and religious rights organisations have urged the international community to use new opportunities for trade with Iran to hold the government there to account over its treatment of Christian converts. Nineteen NGOs, including Middle East Concern, Article 18, Impact Iran and Justice for Iran, issued . . . Read More

Mariam Ibrahim: ‘Sharia causing many to suffer’

November 22, 2016 Sudan Apostasy, Islamic extremism, Mariam Ibrahim, Sharia, Sudan

Mariam Ibrahim, the Sudanese woman , says her story represents the ordeals of “many” Christians in Islamic countries forced to live under Sharia. In a rare public appearance since she was helped to travel to the US two years ago, she told a congregation in Washington DC last Saturday: “My . . . Read More

Iranian Christian back in prison again

September 19, 2016 Iran Apostasy, Converts, Iran, Islamic extremism, Maryam Naghash Zargaran, Prisons, Saeed Abedini

On 17 Sep., Maryam Naghash Zargaran was returned to prison after her medical treatment was again cut short. Her friends and family reported that she was again unable to receive adequate treatment during her time at home. Amnesty International has in its prisons. Amnesty mentioned Zargaran, an Iranian Christian who . . . Read More

Unlawfully detained for months, Sudan church leaders finally in court

August 5, 2016 Sudan Abdulmonem Abdumawla, Apostasy, Bahri, Churches, Hassan Taour, Khartoum, Kuwa Shamal, Mariam Ibrahim, NISS, Nuba Mountains, Peter Yen, South Sudan, Sudan, Sudanese Church of Christ, Yat Michael

After nearly eight months of legal limbo, a Sudanese court has finally seen three detained Christian leaders, while charges against them remain officially “unknown”. Hassan Abduraheem Taour and Kuwa Shamal, both Sudan Church of Christ (SCC) pastors, and Abdulmonem Abdumawla Issa Abdumawla, appeared at the Bahri Criminal Court for a . . . Read More

Egypt convert’s legal limbo finally brings him ‘back to Islam’

August 2, 2016 Egypt Apostasy, Islamic extremism, Mohammed Hegazy, Port Said

During Hegazy’s periods of incarceration, he was subject to different forms of abuse.World Watch Monitor Egyptian lawyer Karam Ghobrial was clearly distraught as he talked about the saga both he and his client, once Muslim-turned-Christian Mohamed Hegazy, have endured over the past month. That was before Hegazy – the . . . Read More

Al-Azhar: to leave Islam is ‘treason’

June 22, 2016 Al-Azhar, Apostasy, Cairo, Converts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Mohammed Hegazy, Ramadan, Sharia, Sunni

To convert away from Islam is “treason” that should carry the death penalty, according to Sunni Islam’s topmost religious authority. “The penalty for an open apostate, departing from the community, is well stipulated in Sharia,” Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayyib declared on Egypt television last week. “An apostate must be . . . Read More

Third Iranian Christian granted bail

June 13, 2016 Iran Apostasy, Iran, Mohammad Reza Omidi, Rasht, Saheb Fadaie, Yasser Mossayebzadeh, Youcef Nadarkhani

Mohammad Reza Omidi has been granted bail in the northern city of Rasht after paying the equivalent of $33,000, the same amount as fellow Christians Yasser Mossayebzadeh and Saheb Fadaie, who were released a week earlier. The trio were arrested on 13 May alongside Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian pastor once . . . Read More

Nigeria considers giving Islamic appeals courts authority to take criminal cases

June 5, 2016 Nigeria Apostasy, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Gombe, Hudud, Islamic extremism, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Plateau, Sharia, Yobe, Zamfara

A Sharia court in northern Nigeria.Courtesy of Open Doors The situation Nigeria’s National Assembly is considering a change to the country’s constitution that would expand the scope of jurisdiction of the country’s Islamic Sharia courts of appeal. Currently, the constitution limits those appellate courts to matters concerning family law. . . . Read More

Malaysian court upholds right to convert from Islam

March 29, 2016 Malaysia 'Allah', Apostasy, Catholics, Kuching, Malaysia, Najib Razak, Sabah, Sarawak, Sharia

In a landmark ruling last week a Malaysian court upheld the rights of a Christian to convert from Islam. The judgment establishes a precedent in a country where religious conversions, particularly from Islam to Christianity, have been steeped in controversy. The verdict reaffirms the supremacy of the Federal Constitution, which . . . Read More

A convert’s story

July 31, 2015 Ethiopia Addis Ababa, African Union, Apostasy, Converts, East Africa

U.S. President Barack Obama visited Kenya and Ethiopia 24-28 July, partly to discuss regional security. In Kenya especially, Christians have been targeted by the violent al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab. In the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on 28 July, making an American president’s first speech to the African Union, Obama said . . . Read More

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