Tag: Protestants

Turkey orders deportation of pastor’s American wife, a mother-of-three, in string of expulsions

July 3, 2020 Turkey Andrew Brunson, Ankara, Human rights, Protestants, Turkey, USA

Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

An American mother-of-three has been told she has to leave Turkey, one of the latest incidents in a series of expulsions of Christian expatriates from the country. Joy Anna Crow Subasigüller, originally from Florida, USA, and her Turkish husband Lütfü were married seven years ago. They settled and started a . . . Read More

Tajik pastor freed after 3 years in prison for ‘singing extremist songs in church’

December 18, 2019 Tajikistan extremism, Khujand, Pentecostals, Protestants, security police, Tajikistan

Tajikistan_Bakhrom Kholmatov with family after release from prison 18.12.19

A Protestant pastor sentenced to three years in prison for “singing extremist songs in church and so inciting religious hatred” has been freed three months early (he was due to be freed in March 2020). Bakhrom Kholmatov, 42, was sentenced in July 2017 and has served his term in a . . . Read More

Korean murdered in southeast Turkey ‘for mobile phone’

November 29, 2019 Turkey Diyarbakir, Jin-Wook Kim, Korean, Malatya, Protestants, Religious freedom, Turkey

Criminal investigations into the stabbing to death of a Korean Christian last week in southeast Turkey’s largest city are continuing under a cloak of judicial secrecy, as authorities search for evidence to resolve the controversy over the killer’s motive. South Korean Jin-Wook Kim, 41, was murdered in a late-night Nov. . . . Read More

Turkey serves deportation order after German’s 20 years of tourism work

September 19, 2019 Turkey Austria, Germany, Minorities, Protestants, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, tourism, Turkey

Hans-Jurgen Louven has worked in Turkish tourism for 20+ years

Without any warning, the Turkish government last month notified a German who’s worked for two decades in its tourism sector that his routine application to renew his residency visa had been denied. Abruptly, 58-year-old Hans-Jurgen Louven was then ordered to leave Turkey – where he owns property, and . . . Read More

Pastor Brunson case increased ‘hate speech’ against Turkey’s Protestants – report

February 27, 2019 Turkey Andrew Brunson, Ankara, Human rights, Istanbul, Izmir, Malatya, Mardin, Protestants, Turkey

Malatya’s Kurtulus (Salvation) Church posted this message on the broken glass after an attacker heaved a brick through the church’s display window on November 24, 2017: “’Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.’ – Jesus Christ.” (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Turkey’s high-profile criminal case against Protestant pastor Andrew Brunson has triggered a significant increase in public hate speech against the nation’s small Protestant community, creating what its church leaders last week called a ‘climate of insecurity’ for its congregations and individual members. According to the Turkish Association of Protestant Churches’ . . . Read More

Uzbek Protestants detained and their religious materials confiscated despite being legal

November 29, 2018 Uzbekistan Protestants, Religious freedom, Uzbekistan

Christian women in Uzbekistan meet for a meal and to pray together. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Uzbek police raided a home where eight Protestants had gathered for a meal, and to read the Bible together, and arrested all of them, Forum 18 reports. The incident took place in the town of Pap, in Uzbekistan’s eastern Namangan Region, on 19 November. Police conducted the raid without a search . . . 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

Record anti-Christian violence in India’s most populous state

October 31, 2018 India BJP, Catholics, Chennai, Hindu nationalism, Jharkhand, Manipur, Narendra Modi, Protestants, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh

India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, saw a “record level” of anti-Christian violence last month, according to a survey by Violence Monitor, a monthly magazine that reports incidents of violence against minorities, as reported by AsiaNews. The magazine revealed that out of 25 cases of religious intolerance reported in the . . . Read More

Ukraine: Churches forced to close after registration denied

October 26, 2018 Ukraine Catholics, Churches, Luhansk, Protestants, Religion Law, Ukraine

In the battle for Luhansk between Ukrainian forces and rebels in 2014, churches like this one in Pervomaisk, some 50 km west of Luhansk, were also attacked. (Photo: JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images)

Dozens of churches in the rebel-held Luhansk region of Ukraine have had to stop meeting after their registration applications were turned down by the authorities of the self-declared republic, reports Oslo-based news agency Forum 18. The deadline for religious communities to register, set for 15 October by the Luhansk People’s . . . Read More

Turkey’s Protestant Christians ‘feel stronger’ after trauma of Brunson case

October 22, 2018 Turkey Andrew Brunson, Catholics, Coup, Izmir, Orthodox, Protestants, Sunni, Turkey, USA

Soner Tufan with Andrew Brunson on the evening of the 12 October 2018 trial

A spokesman for Turkey’s Protestant Christians declared yesterday that his country’s tiny Christian community has “emerged stronger” from the high-profile trauma of evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson’s highly contested imprisonment and trial. The US pastor’s two-year ordeal culminated in a Turkish court’s decision on 12 October for his release and departure . . . Read More

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