Tag: USA

Freedom of religion an issue ‘whose time has come’

February 13, 2014 Global News -- No Particular Country Arab Spring, Barack Obama, China, Egypt, Eritrea, Europe, India, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Middle East, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Religious freedom, Saudi Arabia, Sharia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, UN, USA, Uzbekistan, Vietnam

Freedom of religion and belief is an issue “whose time has come”, the vice chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said yesterday. During the presentation of two reports on religious freedom at the European Parliament in Brussels on Feb. 12, commission Vice Chairwoman Katrina Lantos Swett said . . . Read More

Church wants political Syria solution

September 20, 2013 Global News -- No Particular Country Damascus, France, Germany, Russia, Syria, Turkey, UK, UN, USA

Church leaders from Syria, Russia, the US, UK, France, Germany and Turkey have called for a political solution as the only way to peace in Syria. They met the UN Secretary General and his Special Envoy to Syria on the same day that Syria’s Deputy Prime Minister said that the . . . Read More

Assyrians urge US to hold fire

September 12, 2013 Syria Assyrians, Islamic extremism, Middle East, Syria, USA

The Assyrian American National Coalition has mounted an online letter-writing drive to urge the U.S. administration to hold its fire in Syria. Assyrians are an ancient ethnic group indigenous to the Middle East, and belonging mostly to various eastern and orthodox Christian churches. “Now, as extremist jihadists have moved their war to . . . Read More

New concern for North Korea

September 3, 2013 North Korea Human rights, Kenneth Bae, Kim Jong-Un, North Korea, Prisons, UN, USA

A new report from The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea states that an “extremely high” number of prisoners are detained on political grounds, while countless others are unaccounted for or have died in detention. “Through this vast system of unlawful imprisonment, the North Korean regime isolates, banishes, punishes . . . Read More

North Korea rescinds invitation to U.S. envoy

August 30, 2013 North Korea Kenneth Bae, Pyongyang, USA

North Korea has rescinded its invitation to a special U.S. envoy who had planned to visit Pyongyang with hopes of bringing jailed American Kenneth Bae home. “We are surprised and disappointed” at the decision, according to a statement released Friday by U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf. “We have sought . . . Read More

Senator pushes for religious freedom envoy

August 23, 2013 Copts, Egypt, Middle East, Religious freedom, USA

US Senator Roy Blunt is renewing his call for the State Department to create a special envoy for religious minorities in the Middle East. Blunt, a Republican from Missouri, introduced the necessary legislation in March. This week, in the wake of widespread attacks on Christian churches, schools and other facilities . . . Read More

Abedini ‘accused of spying’

June 4, 2013 Iran Iran, Saeed Abedini, USA

Iran’s Bultan News has accused Saeed Abedini, an Iranian-American pastor serving an eight-year prison sentence, of spying for the White House, according to Mohabat News. Abedini was also reportedly accused of spreading ‘Zionist Christianity’, planting house churches illegally and preying on vulnerable young Iranians, such as orphans and recovering drug addicts.

Bounty for Boko Haram

June 4, 2013 Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Boko Haram, Islamic extremism, North Africa, USA, West Africa

The US is offering rewards for the first time for information on Islamist militants in North and West Africa, reports the BBC. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau tops the US Department of State’s list with a bounty of up to $7m. Also wanted are leaders from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic . . . Read More

Wife worries she won’t hear husband’s voice for 8 years

January 29, 2013 Iran Evin Prison, House churches, Iran, Saeed Abedini, Tehran, USA

The wife of an American citizen sentenced to an Iranian prison for eight years expects she won’t hear from her husband until 2021, unless U.S. pressure is able to pry him free. Naghmeh Shariat Panahi told World Watch Monitor that the last time she heard Saeed Abedini’s voice was Jan. . . . Read More

US demands release of American pastor from Iranian prison

January 18, 2013 Iran Ayatollah Khamenei, Evin Prison, House churches, Iran, Religious freedom, Saeed Abedini, USA

Stepping up the urgency of American response, the White House on Friday called on Iran to release a jailed American pastor facing a trial that could send him to the gallows. Saeed Abedini, a native of Iran and a naturalized American citizen, is expected to enter one of Iran’s revolutionary . . . Read More

Catching Our Eye