Widespread condemnation for prison sentence of Ahok

The sentencing of Jakarta's Christian Governor to prison on blasphemy charges, focuses the spotlight again on Indonesia's controversial Blasphemy Law.
Tuesday’s verdict of an Indonesian court, sentencing Jakarta’s outgoing governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known as ‘Ahok’, to two years in prison for blasphemy, has received widespread condemnation globally as politicians, academics and rights groups express their concern about religious pluralism in Indonesia. Ahok, the capital’s first Christian and ethnic governor since the . . . Read More

Jakarta’s Christian governor reveals repeated sectarian attacks at trial testing Indonesia’s pluralism

Jakarta's Christian governor reveals repeated sectarian attacks at trial testing Indonesia's pluralism
The Indonesian Christian governor on trial for blasphemy said yesterday (4 April) that he has been the target of racist and religious attacks since he was elected to public office in 2005. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (better known as “Ahok”), the governor of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, also reiterated to the court . . . Read More

Islamic extremism causing fresh concerns in the Philippines

Islamic extremism causing fresh concerns in the Philippines
Christians in the Philippines are concerned at a rise in Islamic extremism in the country. A local church leader, who wished to remain anonymous, told World Watch Monitor about a recent meeting of around 3,000 Islamists on one island – the name of which he wouldn’t say, for fear of . . . Read More

Malaysian bill amendment to tighten Sharia punishments alarms non-Muslims

Malaysian bill amendment to tighten Sharia punishments alarms non-Muslims
On the last day of Malaysia’s latest session of Parliament, a member of the ruling coalition, UMNO (United Malays National Organisation), had a bill amendment approved which has provoked an outcry in the country. That’s because it aims to tighten the implementation of Sharia; and critics claim it intends to . . . Read More

Mass arrest of Thailand’s Christian asylum seekers

Thailand’s internal political pressures on its Bangkok UNHCR office has resulted in the arrest of at least 50 Pakistani Christian asylum seekers, a church leader there told World Watch Monitor. On March 7, the Chief of Pakistan’s Christian Congress wrote to the Thai Prime Minister, about arrests of those registered . . . Read More

VIDEO: Amidst hopes of Jokowi, Indonesian Christians remain concerned

VIDEO: Amidst hopes of Jokowi, Indonesian Christians remain concerned
In Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, the number of cases of religious intolerance doubled during 2014 – to 67, according to a recent report from the Southeast Asian nation’s National Commission on Human Rights. About 30 of these cases were about the closure or vandalism of churches, . . . Read More

Laos Christians arrested for attending church

UPDATE: Six of the seven Christians arrested at the end of September have been released from the detention center in the village of Boukham, in the province of Savannakhet on October 3 . Pastor Sompong Supatto and six other Christians were arrested for ‘exercising religious freedom in gathering for religious worship’ . . . Read More