It’s been almost three years since Iranian officials arrested Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani on charges of apostasy, but now Iranian judges may add crimes against national security and blasphemy, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
Three violent African Islamist groups are now networking together to further their attacks against that continent’s Christians.
As the Islamists of Boko Haram continue to terrorize northern Nigeria, local residents are still reeling from the bombing of three of Kaduna’s churches weeks ago.
Thousands of Christians have fled their homes in Syria where news emerged Tuesday, July 3, that intelligence agencies run dozens of torture centers where detainees are beaten with batons and cables, burned with acid, sexually assaulted, and have fingernails torn out.
Native Christian missionaries in Egypt remained concerned saying at least two fellow believers were killed by suspected Islamists since Mohammed Morsi was declared the country’s president.
The rise of Christianity and the accompanying spread of its clandestine house churches in Iran is seen as a serious threat by the Islamic state’s senior clerics.
Vietnamese officials in Dien Bien Province recently destroyed two new church buildings belonging to minority Hmong Christians.
Suspected members of the Islamist Al-Shabaab killed 17 worshipers in coordinated attacks on churches in Garissa, Kenya, according to International Christian Concern.
Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court has acquitted an evangelical pastor on charges of “severe damage to health due to negligence” after praying for an ill man, but devoted Christians in another former Soviet republic, Azerbaijan, were awaiting whether a high court would ban their church.