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.
Concerns among Russian Christians that the government’s antiterrorism legislation, adopted last year, would take away their religious freedom have been proven true.
Evangelical Protestants make up the majority of the 181 cases prosecuted by Russian authorities under the country’s notorious ‘anti-missionary’ laws, which came into force last July, according to a report. Christians were also prosecuted in Crimea, which Russia occupied in 2014.
Russia’s ongoing crackdown on religious minorities, foreign missionaries, and evangelists has earned it a spot among the worst countries in the world for religious freedom.
Russia has brought an administrative case against a religious leader under the country’s controversial new package of anti-terrorist laws.
An American man is among the first group of people to be targeted under new anti-evangelism laws in Russia.
Christians in Russia are grappling with a new law that effectively makes it illegal for them to share their faith, preach or pray outside of officially designated sites.
The Slavic Centre for Law and Justice, an affiliate of the American Center for Law and Justice, said a new manner of carrying out missionary work in Russia will have to be established.
Police raided a group of Christians gathered inside a private home in Gorki, Belarus on Dec. 22.
A Kazakh court in Astana has increased the severity of the sentence given a Christian convert from Islam.
A dozen Christians who had met last month in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, were detained after plain-clothed policemen broke up their gathering and confiscated their Christian literature.
An Uzbek court has fined 10 Christians for meeting without the permission of the Uzbekistan state.
Kazakh authorities recently raided a church-run children’s camp after claiming the children were being taught religion illegally and without their parents’ permission.
Christians in Uzbekistan are becoming “prisoners of conscience” just for exercising their religious rights.
Last month a court in the Russian city of Orel sentenced a pastor to five days in prison.
A drug and alcohol rehabilitation center run by Christians in the village of Sychevka in north-eastern Kazakhstan has been fined and closed down for three months after a court order last month, according to Barnabas Aid.
In separate incidents, two Kazakh Christians have been issued large fines for practicing their religion without the state’s permission, according to Barnabas Aid.
Two men were sentenced last month after Kazakhstani authorities confiscated the Christian books they were handing out near a market in Shchuchinsk, according to Barnabas Aid.
A Christian in Uzbekistan has been fined and threatened with further punishment after religious literature was seized from his home during a raid by Uzbek police in August, according to Barnabas Aid.