Tag: Youth

Egypt: Copt stabbed seven times by neighbour who’d lured in his son

March 24, 2022 Egypt Alexandria, Copts, Egypt, Youth

Magdy Fathy Shehata Awad Allah (r) with a local priest.

An Egyptian Christian was stabbed multiple times when he tried to rescue his son who was held against his will by a Muslim neighbour in Alexandria. On the night of 15 February, Magdy Fathy Shehata Awad Allah, deacon at the Coptic Orthodox Church in the northeast of Alexandria and a . . . Read More

China: Christian students under pressure to give up their faith

November 27, 2018 China China, Churches, Education, Hebei, Shandong, Sichuan, Three-Self Patriotic Movement, Youth, Zhejiang

Group of Chinese students on Tiananmen Square, in front of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Municipal authorities in a city in China’s northern Hebei province have been given directions on how to handle students and teachers who express their religious beliefs, reports religious-liberty magazine Bitter Winter. Foreign teachers and students are not allowed to preach or promote religion, and local students are prohibited from speaking . . . Read More

Young Ethiopian Christians ‘bribed’ to convert to Islam, says charity

November 19, 2018 Ethiopia Converts, Education, Ethiopia, Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Mahibere Kidusan, Youth

Young Ethiopian Christians are bribed with jobs and education prospects if they convert to Islam, according to the UK-based charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). A Christian religious leader who wished to remain anonymous told ACN that Christians who are poor were especially targeted. “The [Muslim employers] are . . . Read More

Myanmar’s ‘forgotten Christians’

August 16, 2018 Myanmar IDPs, Kachin, Karen, Minorities, Myanmar, Refugees, Shan, Youth

An internally displaced woman with a child stands near a temporary shelter in a church compound in Kachin's capital Myitkyina. (Photo: YE AUNG THU/AFP/Getty Images)

While the world is focusing on the plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, Christians caught up in another conflict, in northern Kachin, are largely forgotten, writes Geoffrey P. Johnston for Canadian newspaper The Whig. Thousands have been killed and least 120,000 displaced in majority-Christian Kachin state, where the army and the . . . Read More

China: Christian summer camps closed down, priests dismissed

August 15, 2018 China Catholics, Children, China, Gansu, Religious freedom, Xi Jinping, Youth

Authorities make holding summer youth camps like this one held in 2008, increasingly difficult. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

China has closed several Christian summer camps for children and dismissed two priests for holding a camp, reports Catholic news agency UCAN. The two priests belonged to one of the only two unregistered Catholic churches in Tianshui diocese, in China’s northwest Gansu province. After their dismissal, the Tianshui Municipal Ethnic . . . Read More

Mexican pastor killed, nine years on from son’s murder

June 28, 2018 Mexico Chihuahua, Corruption, Juarez, Kidnapping, Latin America, Mexico, Organised crime, Youth

A Mexican pastor interviewed last year by World Watch Monitor was shot dead earlier this month in another exhibition of lawlessness in the troubled city of Juarez, which is just across the border from El Paso, Texas. Eduardo ‘Lalo’ Garcia was shot at least six times on 8 June, as . . . Read More

Egypt’s Christians face ‘insurmountable barrier’ in pursuit of football career

June 19, 2018 Egypt Alexandria, Copts, Egypt, Football, Youth

As Egypt’s national football team prepares for its second match of the 2018 FIFA World Cup tonight – against hosts Russia in St. Petersburg – long-standing discrimination issues in Egyptian football have surfaced, with the country’s sizeable Christian minority largely excluded. AFP last month spoke with Mina Bendary, 22, who . . . Read More

Can the Scouts help safeguard the future of the Church in Syria?

May 17, 2018 Syria Children, Churches, Damascus, Greek Orthodox, Homs, IDPs, Refugees, Syria, Women, Youth

As the war in Syria enters its eighth year, clergy who have watched their congregations dwindle fear that those who have left the country may not return. One priest expressed his fear that “Christianity will be erased” from certain areas of the country “because the Christians who left these places . . . Read More

Myanmar: 7,000 Kachin displaced as violence escalates

May 15, 2018 Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, China, Churches, Human rights, IDPs, Kachin, Myanmar, Myitkyina, Pope Francis, Rakhine, Rohingya, Tatmadaw, UN, Youth

Displaced Kachin residents cross the Malikha river on 26 April to escape the fighting between the Kachin Independence Army and the Myanmar government troops. (Photo: ZAU RING HPARA/AFP/Getty Images)

Almost 7,000 people belonging to the largely Christian minority group in Kachin, northern Myanmar, have fled their houses since fighting between the army and a rebel group flared up in early April, according to recent figures from the Red Cross. “It’s a war where civilians are being systematically targeted by . . . Read More

Sri Lanka: Facebook told to block religious hate speech

April 19, 2018 Sri Lanka Buddhist nationalism, Censorship, Colombo, Education, Minorities, Sri Lanka, Youth

A young girl in Colombo looks at her mobile phone while Sri Lanka's civil society has called on Facebook to block hate speech. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Civil society groups in Sri Lanka have asked Facebook to do more to prevent hate speech, including comments that discriminate on religious lines, following recent anti-Muslim riots. “There was a post in the Sinhala [Sri Lanka’s largest ethnic group] language on Facebook for six days, which mentioned ‘killing all Muslims, . . . Read More

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