Tag: Islamic State

Philippines reconsiders bill for autonomous Bangsamoro

July 20, 2017 Philippines Abu Sayyaf, Bangsamoro, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, Cotabato, Islamic State, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, Zamboanga

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (C) shakes hands with Al-Hajj Murad (L), chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), as Ghazali Jaafar (R), vice chairman of MILF, looks on during a ceremony where a draft of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) was submitted to the president at the Malacanang Palace in Manila on July 17, 2017. (Photo: Getty Images)

A new law that will govern the creation of a new autonomous Muslim region in the southern Philippines was submitted as a bill to the government on Monday (July 17) for approval by Congress. President Rodrigo Duterte received the draft “Bangsamoro Basic Law” (BBL), crafted by a 21-member commission that . . . Read More

Secret ministry of Chinese missionaries in northern Iraq

July 19, 2017 Balochistan, China, Iraq, Islamic State, Lee Zingyang, Meng Lisi, Missionaries, Pakistan, Quetta

Cross on Dongguang Church against factory name. Shenyang, northeastern China. Shenyang is the capital and largest city of China’s northeast Liaoning Province. It was the site of the 17th-century Manchu capital Mukden, and the imposing Mukden Palace (Shenyang Imperial Palace) is a blend of Manchurian and Tibetan architectural styles. Mausoleums of Qing dynasty emperors can be found at Zhaoling Tomb, amid the pine forests and lakes of Beiling Park, and at Fuling Tomb in the city’s east. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A Christian from China’s underground Church says he feels safer working as a missionary in northern Iraq than he does at home. Such a perspective might seem somewhat surprising: but it says more about returning stability to parts of northern Iraq than it does about possible dangers in China. The South . . . Read More

Security guard stabbed at church in Egypt’s Alexandria

July 19, 2017 Egypt Alexandria, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State

The front of the Al-Qiddisain (Saints) Church in Alexandria, Egypt. (Photo: Open Doors International)

A security guard was wounded on Saturday (15 July) at a Coptic church in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria, after an Egyptian Muslim stabbed him in the neck, a senior police official told AFP. The 24-year-old male perpetrator, an unemployed law-school graduate, attacked the 47-year-old guard with a knife after . . . Read More

Church relieved as Yemen confirms kidnapped Indian priest is ‘alive’

July 14, 2017 Yemen Aden, Catholics, Islamic State, Tom Uzhunnalil, Yemen

The Church in India, especially in the southern state of Kerala, is breathing a sign of relief after Yemen confirmed to India’s foreign minister that Catholic missionary Father Tom Uzhunnalil, kidnapped in Yemen in March 2016, is “alive”. “We are thrilled to hear that good news,” Cardinal George Alencherry, Major . . . Read More

Terrorist threat forces Egyptian Christians to cancel summer activities

July 13, 2017 Egypt Alexandria, Andrea Zaki, Asyut, Cairo, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Ismailia, Minya, Suez, Tanta, Terrorism

The churches of Egypt are temporarily shutting down their summer activities. “I asked all our churches and conference centres to cancel their trips and events for the next three weeks,” Dr. Andrea Zaki, president of the Protestant Churches of Egypt, told World Watch Monitor. “There is news they could be . . . Read More

Kurdish government opens church for refugees who fled IS

July 12, 2017 Iraq Ankawa, Bashar Warda, Chaldeans, Islamic State, Kurds, Peshmerga

Iraqis displaced by IS and Catholics in Kurdistan have welcomed the opening of a 1,300-seater church by the regional government there, although a US report has voiced concern at “religious abuses” and discrimination against non-Kurds there. The 30 June opening ceremony was attended by Chaldean Catholics from the Kurdish region, . . . Read More

Indonesian schoolchildren ‘likely’ used notebooks containing IS propaganda

July 11, 2017 Indonesia Ahok, Islamic State, JAD, Joko Widodo, Papua, Sumatra

Children are “likely” to have used notebooks with Islamic State (IS) propaganda on their covers and inside, reports Reuters. Hundreds of the notebooks were seized during an investigation into the stabbing to death of a policeman in Medan, North Sumatra province on 25 June. Children’s handwriting was found in some . . . Read More

Four more Copts killed in ‘most aggressive campaign in history of modern Egypt’

July 7, 2017 Egypt Copts, Hosni Mubarak, Islamic State, Minya, Tala

Coptic Christians in Egypt are reeling from a fresh spate of murders, which they fear are part of a jihadist campaign against them. Three Coptic men were found dead in the space of eight days from the last week of June to the first week of July. A fourth was . . . Read More

Philippines: Islamist separatists endorse fatwa denouncing extremist violence

July 6, 2017 Philippines Bangsamoro, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Manila, Marawi, Maute, Mindanao, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Quran

The Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group has backed a fatwa against violent extremism issued by a senior Islamic religious leader in the troubled southern region of Mindanao. Sheikh Abehuraira Abdulrahman Udasan, mufti of the influential Bangsamoro House of Opinion in Mindanao, issued the Islamic legal ruling “against the entry and . . . Read More

Security not only concern for Syrians returning home

July 4, 2017 Syria Aleppo, Damascus, Homs, IDPs, Islamic State, Maaloula, Migrants, Refugees, Trauma, UN

As Islamic State forces are pushed back and more areas declared “safe”, Syrians are starting to return to their homes. According to the UN’s Refugee Agency (the UNHCR), nearly half a million have gone back since January. Around 440,000 internally displaced people, and more than 31,000 refugees who had fled . . . Read More

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