Tag: Churches

Global Church meets to seek unity in face of persecution

November 6, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Albania, Aleppo, Algeria, Catholics, Churches, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, India, Iraq, Islamic State, Kenya, Kidnapping, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nigeria, Nineveh Plains, Orthodox, Pakistan, Pentecostals, Protestants, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Yohanna Ibrahim

Twenty-five years ago, on 4 Nov. 1990, a priest risked his life to hold a mass in a cemetery in Albania. In 1967 his president, Enver Hoxha, had declared that he had “abolished” the Christian faith, and that his country was henceforth the world’s first atheist state. On 4 Nov. . . . Read More

Two Sudan churches destroyed, one for a ‘marketplace’

October 29, 2015 Blue Nile, Churches, Darfur, Gadaref, Lutheran Church of Sudan, Omdurman, South Kordofan, Sudan

Two churches were destroyed in two separate incidents earlier this month in Sudan, local sources told World Watch Monitor. On Oct 22, authorities demolished the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sudan (LCS) in Omdurman, citing re-development reasons, after first giving the church only 72 hours’ notice. Word about the impending action . . . Read More

Indonesian Christians flee violent attacks

October 15, 2015 Indonesia Aceh, Churches, Indonesia

A church has been burnt down and another targeted in Indonesia’s Aceh province. Clashes broke out between Muslims and Christians following the arson on 13 October in the world’s most populous Muslim nation. One person was killed and dozens injured, while thousands of Christians fled the province, reports UCA News. . . . Read More

Egyptian land dispute threatens inter-religious flashpoint

October 5, 2015 Egypt Alexandria, Churches, Copts

What in a normal setting is an everyday land dispute can quickly turn into a full-blown sectarian flashpoint with adverse effects on the wider community, when one side of the feud happens to belong to the wrong religion. This is what Hamdi Makanoti, his family, and local Coptic Christians are . . . Read More

‘Scandalous’ choice of Saudi for UN rights panel

September 24, 2015 Saudi Arabia Arabian Peninsula, Churches, Human rights, Religious freedom, Saudi Arabia, UN

Critics are accusing the UN of handing a key human rights role to the country with ‘arguably the worst record in the world when it comes to religious freedom’, writes the Independent. The appointment to the Human Rights Council of Saudi ambassador to Geneva, Faisal bin Hassan Trad, was uncovered . . . Read More

Ethiopian Orthodox leaders jailed after protesting about persecution

August 25, 2015 Ethiopia Addis Ababa, Churches, Ethiopia, Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Oromia, Protestants, Silte

A district court in Ethiopia has charged six members of an Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) with inciting public disturbance, destroying public trust in government officials and spreading hatred after it surfaced in the media that official complaints were made to the government about increasing persecution of Christians in a Muslim-dominated area in . . . Read More

Cross removal ‘escalates’ in eastern China

August 13, 2015 China China, Churches, Crosses, Xi Jinping, Zhejiang

Christian groups in China have told the BBC they are increasingly worried that the authorities are targeting them because of their religion, as the past year has seen an “escalated campaign” to remove outdoor crosses from church buildings. The rise in demolitions in the eastern province of Zhejiang, where there . . . Read More

Obama visit puts Ethiopia’s record in spotlight

July 28, 2015 Ethiopia Addis Ababa, African Union, Amhara, Bahir Dar, Barack Obama, Churches, Ethiopia, Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Human rights, Mahibere Kidusan, Pentecostals, Protestants

n Ethiopians walk past a poster of US President Barack Obama in Addis Ababa on 27 July. gettyimages.com U.S. President Barak Obama is visiting Ethiopia on 27 and 28 July, providing an opportunity for America to prod its ally on its human-rights record, which gets low marks from world capitals. . . . Read More

Niger churches ‘abandoned’ after Charlie Hebdo destruction

July 23, 2015 Niger Baptists, Boko Haram, Charlie Hebdo, Churches, Islamic extremism, Mahamadou Issoufou, Niamey, Niger, Prophet Muhammad, Protestants, Trauma, West Africa, Zinder

In the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, the churches in the predominantly Muslim West African nation of Niger experienced the worst attacks in their history. On the weekend of 16-17 January, hundreds of angry Islamists attacked and ransacked dozens of properties and churches, shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah . . . Read More

Boko Haram victim ‘left for dead’ in 2012 loses sister and her two children in church bomb

July 7, 2015 Nigeria Boko Haram, Borno, Chibok girls, Churches, Jigawa, Jos, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria, Potiskum, Sabon Gari, Yobe, Zaria

The sister of a man whose miraculous survival from a shot in the head by Boko Haram took him to testify to the US Congress, has been killed with two of her children. Tabita Adamu, 44, her 18-year-old daughter, Haske, and 11-year-old son, Nuhu died in the July 5 bomb . . . Read More

Catching Our Eye