When Chinese house church historian Zhang Yinan applied for a passport in order to attend a prayer breakfast in Washington this month, police immediately surrounded his house and even followed his wife to the hospital where she works as a nurse.
Christianity is a major threat to Indian nationalism, organizers of a “reconversion” rally held last weekend in Gujarat indicated yesterday during the closing ceremony.
‘For your information, the state Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Sani, has ordered that your church should be demolished before his arrival in this town tomorrow. So, we shall carry out this directive tomorrow morning.’
Judges at Indonesia’s Constitutional Court on January 17 ruled that the Child Protection Act is in line with the constitution and should not be amended. The Rev. Ruyandi Hutasoit had challenged Article 86 of the Act, used as the basis for sentencing Dr. Rebekka Zakaria, Eti Pangesti and Ratna Bangun to three years in prison on September 1, 2005. The Christian Sunday School teachers were arrested in May 2005 after members of a local Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI or Muslim Clerics Council) in West Java accused them of trying to convert Muslim children. Judge Jimly Asshiddique said Rev. Hutasoit had no right to contest the Child Protection Act, since he had not experienced any ‘direct losses’ under it.
A so-called “documentary” televised regionally in Uzbekistan last summer has left entire communities convinced that a Protestant congregation is an “extremist” group worse than fundamentalist Islam.
Iranian Christians are mourning the death of Ghorban Dordi Tourani, an Iranian believer assassinated two weeks ago by an unnamed group of fanatical Muslims and the first Turkmen in Iran known to have been martyred for his Christian faith.
Christian missionaries struggled to provide aid to earthquake victims in northern India Wednesday, October 19, after Christians and an education minister were among those killed in ethnic violence which rocked Assam state and Indian controlled Kashmir, Christian aid workers said.
A Christian worker is in jail in Indore, in the north-central state of Madhya Pradesh, after authorities arrested him on October 7 for “converting young children from poor Hindu families to Christianity.”
Chinese police raided the house of a prominent Christian activist in Beijing shortly after other security forces first tortured and than expelled a Christian businessman from the hospital where he was treated for his wounds, church sources said Monday, September 10.
A member of a Pentecostal church in Indonesia’s tense province of Central Sulawesi was assassinated amid fresh concerns over new religious violence in the area where thousands of Christians were killed in recent years, human rights watchers said Thursday, October 6.
Government regulations aimed at curbing the growth of Christian house churches in Cuba took force on September 22, sparking fears that evangelical Protestants on the island could face a period of heightened persecution.
Chinese Christian Zhang Yi-nan was released from the Ping Ding Shan City Bailou Labor Camp in Henan Province, China on Sunday morning. Zhang’s wife, Ding Guizhen, and their son, Zhang Kairi, were waiting for him at the steel gate of the prison camp, but were not immediately allowed to welcome him home.
Three women accused of “Christianization” have appealed the conviction handed down by an Indonesian court on September 1.
His father sent him to Saudi Arabia from Nigeria when he was 3 years old to be trained as an Islamic cleric, but God had other plans for Ahmed Abdullahi.
Authorities in the Son Ha District of Quang Ngai Province incited a mob to burn down the home of evangelist Dinh Van Hoang on August 21 because he would not sign a paper denying his Christian faith.
A period of mourning was expected to continue Saturday, September 17, among Christians in his native Italy and the African Republic of the Congo, where thousands attended the funeral of Italian Franciscan missionary Angelo Redaelli, 40, who was lynched earlier in the week, missionary and church sources said.
Indonesian judges sentenced three women to three years in prison Thursday, September 1, for “attempting to convert” Muslim children by allowing them to a Christian Sunday School program, a Christian news agency reported.
Two Christian men of a non-governmental organization in Bangladesh have been “hacked to death” and officials believe Islamic extremists were “likely” responsible for the murders, news reports said Thursday, August 4.
At least 17 Christian men in Laos, including church leaders, have been detained by Communist authorities and are facing torture and possible death amid an apparent new government crackdown on Christians, missionaries said Monday, April 4.Christian Aid Mission (CAM), an organization supporting indigenous missionaries, said most of those arrested since last week are from Hueyhoy Nua village in Laos’ troubled southern Savannakhet province.
A leading evangelical pastor disappeared off the streets of Asmara four days ago, presumably detained by Eritrean security forces and jailed at some unknown location.