A young pastor of Iran’s largest house church movement has told an Iranian court he will not “recant” his faith in Christ despite facing execution as early as Thursday, September 29, for abandoning Islam, church sources said.
A Christian accused of blasphemy died in a Pakistan prison from a treatable disease after he was denied medical care.
Arrested on charges of blasphemy against Islam, Pastor Matthias Haghnejad is now free on bail, according to ASSIST News Service.
Christians in Pakistan remained fearful Thursday, June 16, after a court in Pakistan acquitted 70 Muslims who were suspected of killing Christians in one of the country’s worst sectarian clashes in recent memory.
An Iranian court has once again adjourned a trial of Christians of a large evangelical “house” church movement who potentially face the death penalty for “blasphemy” against Islam, trial observers said Wednesday, April 13.
The father of a Christian executive kidnapped in Pakistan’s Punjab province said Sunday, November 28, he fears his son will be killed on orders of senior Muslim managers.
A Christian couple, were detained Thursday, March 11, as they began serving a 25-year prison term for blasphemy against Islam shortly after another Christian received a similar sentence, the latest in a series of cases that have worried the human rights community.
A young Christian man died of a heart attack after armed Muslim gunmen stormed his house in the outskirts of Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province, where Islamic attacks against minority Christians are increasing, two advocacy groups said Wednesday, March 10.
A Christian man has been languishing for over three years in a Pakistan jail on charges of “blasphemy against Islam” and his family has expressed concerns over his health, BosNewsLife established Monday, December 21.
A Nigerian Christian who was serving a three-year prison sentence since May 2008 on charges of “blasphemy” against Islam has been released, Worthy News learned Thursday, February 26.
The Christian head of a hostel and two Christian students from a nearby medical college in Pakistan’s Punjab province have been expelled after Islamic extremists wanted to kill them on “false” charges of “desecrating the Koran”, seen as a holy book by Muslims, Worthy News established Monday, February 23.
Pakistan’s Minister of Minorities Affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti,has launched a public campaign aimed at annulling controversial blasphemy legislation amid concerns Thursday, February 12, over Islamic extremism against Christians and other minorities in the country.
A 13-year-old girl who said she had been raped was stoned to death in Somalia on charges of “adultery” by supporters of an influential Islamic group which previously murdered Christian converts, BosNewsLife learned Sunday, November 2.
The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) www.persecution.org has learned that a blasphemy case brought against three Christians was dismissed on October 29, 2008 by a court in Algeria. The court is located in Ain Turk, a town 267 miles away from Algiers, the capital.
Two Pakistani Christians, a father and his teenage daughter, remained jailed Sunday, October 12, on charges of blasphemy against Islam after a local court refused to release them on bail, their legal representatives told BosNewsLife.
An evangelical pastor in Turkey faced a possible jail term Wednesday, June 18, just days after a prosecutor began investigating him on charges that included to blasphemy against Islam, Christian rights investigators said.
Christians in Pakistan’s volatile North West Frontier Province (NWFP) faced new tensions Wednesday, January 30, amid reports that a Pakistani pastor has been shot and killed because of his involvement in evangelistic work.
Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf announced Wednesday, January 2, that Britain will assist in an investigation into the assassination of opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who Pakistani Christians described as "the only hope" to end religious persecution.
Pakistani Christians have played a prominent role in the struggle against harsh emergency laws established by the country’s president this month. And many of have paid the price.
After reports emerged of a bloody crackdown on Christians and other activists, Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf pledged Sunday, November 11, that he would organize elections before January 9, next year.