A 200-strong mob prevented a church here from holding a Christmas Eve service in what was an otherwise peaceful holiday season in Indonesia. Some Muslim groups even provided protection for churches alongside police and army personnel.
Seven youths beat Pastor Robert Kennedy of Bangalore in Karnataka state on Sunday (January 7), after asking him to “pray for a sick friend.†The pastor required 16 stitches to his head and back after the assault.
Missionaries and church leaders warned Thursday, August 11, that Russia’s new law on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) could lead to persecution of devoted Christians “reminiscent of the Soviet era.”
A leading Vietnamese human rights lawyer and pro-democracy activist has been forcefully injected with unknown drugs in a mental hospital where she has been confined since last year, fellow dissidents said Tuesday, January 9.
Vietnamese security forces raided several prayer meetings of Montagnard Christians in the Central Highlands injuring dozens of believers, and at least one Montagnard Christian was fighting for his life Friday, January 5, following torture in prison, representatives said.
After launching several anti-Christian attacks during the last week of 2006, Hindu extremists went on to beat more Christians, vandalize vehicles and organize a protest rally against a church, dampening New Year celebrations.
There was concern Wednesday, January 3, about reports that at least nearly a million impoverished men, women and children, most of them Christians, have been “illegally enslaved” on the outskirts of Pakistan’s major cities and towns.
Iraq was named Wednesday, January 3, as the world’s “second-worst persecutor of Christians” after North Korea in an influential report expected to underscore concern about sectarian violence in the war-torn county.
One of eight Iranian house church leaders arrested last month for “evangelization” and threatening security remained detained Thursday, January 4, on new charges that he must pay “an outstanding debt,” Iranian Christians reportedly said.
Devoted Christians in India’s northern state of Himachal Pradesh, including missionary workers and church leaders, ushered in the New Year Monday, January 1, amid fears of persecution after law makers introduced legislation banning “forced” religious conversions.
Traumatized Christian Degar Montagnards in Vietnam’s Central Highlands were preparing for a difficult New Year on Thursday, December 28, after security forces arrested believers in several villages and raped at least one 11-year old girl in the region, local Christians said.
Evangelical Christians in central and eastern India were recovering from injuries Wednesday, December 27, after Hindu militants attacked them for singing Christmas carols while elsewhere a church was completely destroyed, Christian leaders said.
Chinese security forces have raided a house church in Beijing to prevent it from holding Christmas season worship services while re-arresting an influential house church leader, a religious rights group said Thursday, December 28.
A court in Havana has found the Rev. Carlos Lamelas not guilty of “trafficking in human beings†but convicted him on previously unannounced charges of falsification of documents.
Most, if not all, eight prominent house church Christians in China’s eastern Zhejiang province prepared to spend Christmas behind bars Saturday, December 23, after they were sentenced to prison sentences of up to 3.5 years, fellow believers said.
Hindu extremists launched two known attacks against Christians this week, beating a couple in the northern state of Haryana yesterday and assaulting pastor in the central state of Chhattisgarh on Sunday (December 17).
Chinese police and an angry mob raided the home of a key house church missionary in Beijing and detained about a dozen believers after beating them and destroying furniture, family and investigators said Thursday, December 21.
There was concern Tuesday, December 19, that members of an evangelical church in Nigeria’s volatile Kano State would not be able to return to their building after local authorities offered a small compensation of about $6,000 in local currency for the seizure of their premises.
A caller identifying himself as an Islamic terrorist has threatened to kill a Christian convert from Islam in the southern state of Kerala.
The largest-ever delivery of Bibles by sea to China, known as ‘Project Pearl’, has contributed to a major underground house church movement in the country and an unprecedented growth of Christianity here, despite reports of persecution, BosNewsLife established Sunday, December 17.