Belarus Monitors Priests, Religious Groups
Hundreds of priests in autocratically-ruled Belarus have been warned that state agencies are monitoring them and hundreds of religious communities.
Hundreds of priests in autocratically-ruled Belarus have been warned that state agencies are monitoring them and hundreds of religious communities.
In a move welcomed by religious rights advocates, the United States has for the first time officially listed the Republic of Azerbaijan as a country which violates religious freedom, Christianity Today (CT) reports. A part of the former Soviet Union until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, Azerbaijan is a Muslim-majority transcontinental state which lies at the intersection of Eastern Europe and Western Asia.
Evangelical Christians in Russia were forced to pay a “tax on faithfulness” in 2022, which will likely increase this year as part of a government crackdown on non-Orthodox faiths, rights investigators tell Worthy News.
About 120,000 Armenian Christians are trapped inside the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, including women, children, and the disabled, Christian aid workers told Worthy News Friday.
Authorities have now ordered the congregation at the New Life Church in Minsk, Belarus, to stop even the outdoor parking lot meetings they were reduced to after city officials sealed their church building last year, Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) reports. Ideologically close and loyal to Russia’s President Putin, Belarus’ authoritarian regime has criminalized unregistered Christian activity.
Tajikistan’s autocratic Islamic government has told Protestant church leaders that it will not register new churches, effectively banning congregations, Christians familiar with the talks said Thursday.
In what has been described as an extraordinarily courageous step, hundreds of evangelical Christians in Russia have signed an open petition calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop his invasion of Ukraine, Christianity Today (CT) reports.
Since Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014—one of the central points of conflict in the current clash between the two countries—Protestant Christians in the territory have faced greater government penalties for practicing their faith.
As many as eight people were injured after a Russian teenager tried to blow himself up in an apparent suicide attack outside a Christian school and a monastery, officials said Monday.
Devoted Christians face a difficult Christmas season in Kazakhstan after legislators approved one of Europe’s harshest religious laws limiting worship or other faith-based events.
Christians expressed concerns Thursday about new religious legislation in Azerbaijan that bars churches from naming leaders without state approval.
Belarus has detained a Christian missionary as part of a massive crackdown on those deemed dangerous to the government, Christians told Worthy News.
Christian rights activists say Uzbekistan’s new Religion Law maintains restrictions despite state media claims that it extend freedoms.
Russia has stripped several Christian institutions of their right to offer higher education, several sources confirmed.
A Russian court has fined an influential priest for publicly denying the existence of the new coronavirus and urging his followers to ignore government ordered lockdowns.
A Tajik Pastor imprisoned for over 2 years for possessing a Josh McDowell book was released recently, 3 months before the end of his sentence.
At least 3 evangelical churches have been closed in Russia over the last 6 months, in spite of President Vladimir Putin’s pledge at a recent conference to “do everything” to protect Christians in the Middle East.
The pastor of a church in Tajikistan has called for prayer after secret police raided a church worship service on Sunday 11 March 2018.
Christians said they saw a ‘sign from God’ following a firebombing attack by Muslim militants on an evangelical church in Kyrgyzstan. The flames burned through much of the interior but stopped at the open Bible on the altar.
An Azerbaijani man fined for leading a ‘house church’ without state permission has not been treated fairly during his appeal against the fine, a local source has told World Watch Monitor.