It is estimated that there are around 1.2 million Christians living in Saudi Arabia, although citizens’ conversion from Islam to Christianity is punishable by death, Christian Headlines reports. Most believers in Saudi Arabia are Filipino expatriates who are allowed to work in the country, but are not citizens.
Ten people, including an infant, have died after armed Islamic Fulani militants continued attacks in areas of Nigeria’s Christian-majority southern Kaduna State, aid workers said.
Christians in Indonesia have been forced to pay for funerals of loved ones who died of COVID-19, sources say. At the same time, Muslims could bury coronavirus victims free of charge, Worthy News learned Wednesday.
A Virginia judge ruled at a hearing on Friday that Christian ministries must do more than make “speculative claims” about the harm they would suffer from a new state law prohibiting employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity if they want to prosecute a case against it, Just the News reports. The hearing took place in Loudoun County Court before Circuit Judge James Plowman.
As deadly violence against Christians in Nigeria continues unabated, militant Muslim Fulani herdsmen conducted attacks on 16 Christian farming villages in the Miango community of Plateau state last week, displacing over 11,000 people, International Christian Concern reports.
A new UK survey has shown that 43% of pastors reported an increase in attendance after their church services went online during the pandemic, Christian Today reports. Carried out by the Bible Society on behalf of the UK’s Ecclesiastical Insurance company, the poll surveyed 1,000 church leaders in May this year.
Christian pastors are among at least 100 people who have been beaten and imprisoned by the Cuban government amid nationwide protests against systemic rights violations, the severe economic crisis, and the surge in COVID-19 cases, the Christian Post reports. Pleading for help from the international community, the wife of an imprisoned pastor has called on Christians worldwide to pray for Cubans suffering government violence.
The wife of a pastor allegedly murdered in northern India for his Christian faith says she will continue his work.
Violence erupted as Lebanon plunged into political and economic turmoil Friday following the sudden resignation of the prime minister-designate.
An Algerian man jailed for abandoning Islam and accepting donations to spread Christianity plans to appeal the sentence, Worthy News learned Friday.
The wife of a Cuban pastor detained amid unprecedented protests against Cuba’s ruling Communists has expressed concerns about his whereabouts.
China’s government-controlled Protestant Church (known as the Three-Self Patriotic Movement) has told its pastors they must now preach sermons that include a July 1 speech given by President Xi Jinping in which he glorified the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and said “only socialism can save China”, Bitter Winter reports.
There is fresh concern for the welfare of Christians in Pakistan after two believers were poisoned to death by respective Muslim acquaintances earlier this year, International Christian Concern reports. Rights advocates report that the level of persecution against Christians in Pakistan is “extreme.”
Christian rights activists say Uzbekistan’s new Religion Law maintains restrictions despite state media claims that it extend freedoms.
Amid a catastrophic situation of relentless kidnappings in Nigeria’s Kaduna state, the local Schools Quality Assurance Authority (SQAA) has ordered the closure of 13, mostly Christian, schools which it identified as being “vulnerable” to attacks by Islamic militants who abduct students, Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports. Following the kidnapping of 140 pupils from Bethel Baptist High School on July 5th, CSW said Kaduna has become an “epicenter for kidnapping.”
The Church of England has confirmed it will officially apologize for the church’s involvement in the expulsion of Jews from medieval England, the Telegraph reports. Jewish groups have welcomed the move.
A former Muslim who embraced faith in Christ has been ordered to begin a ten-month prison sentence for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic,” Worthy News learned Wednesday.
Christian rights groups have recorded 154 incidents of persecution against believers in India for the first half of 2021 alone, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. Persecution against Indian Christians has intensified since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014.
Eighteen people have been killed in Nigeria’s, mainly Christian, southern Kaduna State by suspected Fulani Islamist militants, aid workers confirmed Tuesday.
Christian leaders are among those detained in Cuba amid “unprecedented” protests against the island’s Communist rulers, investigators told Worthy News.