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.
A Cuban Court has dropped charges against a Protestant pastor who went on trial this month for alleged involvement in “human trafficking”, but the church leader cautioned he may still be prosecuted in the near future, activists told BosNewsLife Thursday, December 14.
Two Christian pastors, who had been found guilty in Australia’s Victoria State of “vilifying Muslims”, have had a ruling in their favor Thursday, December 14, from the Court of Appeal.
A Beijing court convicted human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng of “inciting subversion” on Tuesday (December 12) after he mysteriously entered a “guilty” plea, according to reports.
Iranian secret police began to raid and arrest leaders of the Islamic republic’s indigenous “Jesus Only†movement last Sunday (December 10), arriving unannounced in the early morning hours to search their homes in Tehran, Karaj, Rasht and Bandar-i Anzali.
Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer has blocked a key piece of reform legislation passed last month to broaden religious freedoms in Turkey.
Tensions were rising Wednesday, December 13, in the Iraqi town of Mosul after an Islamic group reportedly threatened to attack Christian female students.
Christians at Nairobi Pentecostal Church (NPC) began a three-day fast yesterday after a letter written to their bishop warned of an imminent attack on Christian radio station Hope FM. The threat comes seven months after a raid on the station, located on church property, left one person dead.
Authorities in China’s Anhui province have closed down a house church and force believers to join the government backed Three-Self Church denomination, a religious rights group said Monday, December 11.
Thousands of people belonging to the predominantly Christian Karen as well as Karenni and Shan ethnic groups were hiding in Burma’s jungle areas Saturday, December 9, as government forces continued their largest offensive in a decade, killing at least dozens of people in recent months, several sources told BosNewsLife.
Police in Honavar, a coastal town in Karnataka state on Tuesday (December 5) arrested Chandrashekar Naik, a member of the Hindu extremist group Bajrang Dal, for assaulting a Christian evangelist. Later that day, Bajrang Dal members seized two other Christians in the town, marched them to the police station and accused them of attempted forcible conversion.
A prosecuting attorney in Havana on Monday (December 4) recommended that the Rev. Carlos Lamelas be acquitted of all charges of trafficking in illegal emigrants.
There was mounting concern Tuesday, December, 5, about what at least one advocacy group described as a “huge increase” in attacks against Christians in India, where Hindu and some Muslim groups are apparently fighting the spread of Christianity.
Evangelical Christians in Uzbekistan faced another tense day Wednesday, December 6, amid an ongoing media campaign against them, police raids in churches and reports that Bibles and other literature are burnt by authorities.
Grieving Christians in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul completed three days of mourning for a murdered Presbyterian Church elder yesterday, only hours before another Iraqi clergyman was grabbed off the streets of Baghdad this morning.