Three Christian men who were detained in Pakistan for allegedly “desecrating” the Quran, viewed by Muslims as holy, have been released after police and authorities concluded the allegation “stemmed from a personal dispute rather than an act of blasphemy,” Christian advocates told Worthy News Wednesday.
The United States has condemned the “horrific killing” of nine relatives of Reverend Ezekiel Dachomo, a Nigerian pastor whose earlier appeal warned that “fear has become a way of life” in Nigeria’s violence-plagued Plateau State.
Christians in southern Egypt were recovering from shock and injuries Friday after a violent crowd attacked a Coptic church in the latest reminder of the pressures facing believers despite government efforts to improve their status.
Concern mounted Friday over the disappearance of a young Christian businessman in Pakistan and the continued imprisonment of two Christian men held for years on blasphemy charges, underscoring the challenges facing the country’s Christian minority.
Christians worldwide were urged to pray after Chinese police reportedly raided several house churches in the city of Yueyang in central China’s Hunan Province, detaining numerous believers in what advocacy groups described as the latest crackdown on unregistered congregations.
Russia has added a U.S.-based Christian ministry focused on evangelizing children and caring for minors to its list of “undesirable organizations,” raising concerns about the safety of its workers as well as churches and organizations using the ministry’s materials, sources told Worthy News.
Christian missionaries told Worthy News Wednesday that their “pregnancy support ministry” in Jordan has helped nearly 200 pregnant refugee women and girls over the past year despite war, displacement and, in some cases, pressure to abort their unborn children.
Outspoken Christians and other government critics are expected to face mounting pressure after Nicaragua’s long-serving President Daniel Ortega said the Central American nation will no longer hold elections, eliminating any possibility of an electoral challenge when his current term ends next year and further consolidating the power he shares with his wife, Rosario Murillo.
The U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation that could suspend American assistance to Nigeria unless its government takes measurable steps to protect Christians and prosecute those responsible for religiously motivated violence.
Pakistani Christian advocacy leaders have praised the European Union’s legislature for condemning the persecution of Christians and other violations of freedom of religion or belief in Pakistan and several other countries.
Chinese authorities raided a worship gathering connected to Early Rain Covenant Church in Sichuan province, detaining 33 Christians and holding scores of other believers—including elderly members and families with children—inside the meeting hall for several hours, according to a statement issued by the church.
Chinese authorities have intensified a nationwide campaign against Christians who worship outside state-controlled churches, arresting thousands of believers and targeting some of the country’s largest underground congregations, according to an investigation by The Telegraph.
Police have detained a 36-year-old man accused of carrying out a series of Molotov cocktail attacks against churches in New York City.
A leading Christian advocate has urged greater protection for religious minorities in Pakistan after two young Christian men were shot dead while playing cricket in the country’s southwestern Balochistan province.
Nigerian security forces have rescued dozens of schoolchildren and teachers nearly two months after they were abducted by suspected Boko Haram-linked Islamic militants, raising fresh concerns that Islamist extremists are expanding their reach into southwestern Nigeria, officials said.
Tens of thousands of Christians have been killed in Nigeria over the past six years, many in attacks blamed on radicalized Fulani militant groups, according to a new report by the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa.
Iranian authorities are moving to confiscate Tehran’s historic St. Peter’s Evangelical Church and evict Christian families from the church compound, marking another escalation in the Islamic Republic’s long campaign to suppress Protestant Christianity and restrict public Christian worship.
A court in Pakistan’s Punjab province has acquitted Dennis Albert, a Christian man who had spent nearly 19 months in custody in a blasphemy case, but concerns remained Wednesday over the safety of Christians in the region after reports that another Christian family’s home was torched in an alleged revenge attack.
Chinese underground church leader Ezra Jin Mingri has been released from prison in China and reunited with his family in the United States, less than two months after his incarceration was raised directly by U.S. President Donald J. Trump, Worthy News learned Sunday.
Christian advocates urged Pakistan’s government on Saturday to establish an independent commission to investigate what they describe as the “Blasphemy Business Group” following the death in custody of a Christian facing controversial blasphemy charges.