The whereabouts of an evangelical pastor in Iran remained unknown Saturday, August 27, some 10 days after he was detained by Iranian security forces as part of a reported government crackdown on Christian converts, Worthy News established.
The Tajikistan Parliament recently adopted two new laws that could ban children from participating in religious activities.
Although a memo circulated by the Alliance Defense Fund assured scrupulous New York State license clerks that they can delegate the issuance of same-sex marriage licenses to another clerk, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice disagreed.
Two pastors arrested six months ago on charges of holding a “secret meeting” during a Christmas celebration without government approval languish in prison without a trial. Officials continue to offer them the option of renouncing their faith and walking free.
Christians in Iran have challenged news reports that the death penalty for Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani has been annulled pointing out that in reality the Supreme Court appears to have added a precondition requiring him to renounce his faith or face execution, according to an international Christian rights group.
Iran’s secretive supreme court has reportedly overturned a death sentence handed down to an evangelical pastor for leaving Islam, surprising trial observers who were earlier informed about an execution ruling.
Baptist Pastor Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso and his wife, Yoaxis, were part of the 23 Christians detained by Cuban police in Santa Clara, said Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a major religious rights group.
At least four incidents of Christian persecution were reported from the former Soviet country of Uzbekistan this week. According to an analysis and report researched and written by Fernando Perez for the World Evangelical Alliance – Religious Liberty Commission, a Christian woman was beaten into concussion, another woman was fined $1,465 by a court for giving the New Testament to a child, a Christian man was threatened with axe attack by a police official and another man was assaulted by police.
An Indonesian court sentenced an Islamic cleric to one year in jail for provoking hundreds of people to riot, attacking police and burning churches.
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.
Cuba has released and dropped all charges of “threatening behavior” against a well-known church after his accusers gave contradictory evidence against him, a Christian human rights organization said Monday, September 7.
A respected church leader in Cuba was unexpectedly arrested on Monday on trumped up charges of “offensive behavior” and “threats” according to a Christian human rights organization.
Church leaders in India on Wednesday, June 30, welcomed a seven year jail sentence for a leader of an influential Hindu party who was seen as the mastermind behind anti-Christian violence in India’s eastern state of Orissa that killed scores of people in 2008.
Christian rights activists marked the 65th birthday of detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Saturday, June 19, and her supporters gathered in the country’s main city Rangoon, amid renewed calls for her release from house arrest and an end to military rule.
Kyrgyz Christians were risking their lives Thursday, June 17, to help and shelter Uzbek believers in southern Kyrgystan, where ethnic clashes killed at least 190 people, injured 1,800 others and uprooted some 400,000 residents, Christian aid workers said.
The wife of jailed Cuban Pastor Omar Gude Perez faced a difficult weekend after authorities reportedly told her that the family home is to be confiscated. The family will be relocated to a significantly smaller apartment in poor conditions outside the city of Camaguey, said advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), which has closely monitored the case.
One of China’s best known Christian dissidents, missing for over a year and feared dead, is apparently alive and staying in mountains known for Buddhist pilgrimages, Worthy News monitored Tuesday, March 30.
The government of Pakistan’s most populous province announced an investigation Sunday, March 21, into reports that a Christian man was burned and his wife raped by local police and Muslim religious leaders for refusing to convert to Islam.
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.