BAGHDAD, IRAQ (ANS) — Iraqi Christians who have become targets of attacks by Muslim extremists and bandits are risking their lives to attend church services, ASSIST News Service (ANS) has established.
The body of a Muslim convert to Christianity who went missing in mid-July, has been returned to his family, slaughtered and cut into four pieces by Islamic extremists, according to a report from the Barnabas Fund which monitored the incident.
Turkmenistan’s most prominent religious prisoner, the Baptist Shageldy Atakov, has been freed before the end of his four-year sentence, Keston News Service has learnt. The US-based Russian Evangelistic Ministries and the German-based Friedensstimme Mission, which maintain close ties with Baptists in the former Soviet republics, have both confirmed that Atakov was released from prison in the Caspian port city of Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnovodsk) early on 8 January and has now been reunited with his wife Artygul and five children in the town of Kaakhka close to Turkmenistan’s southern border with Iran. “Jesus has given me a Christmas gift,” Atakov was quoted as saying (many Christians in the region celebrate Christmas on 7 January).
ISTANBUL, March 18 (Compass) — Unidentified terrorists hurled grenades into a Protestant worship service in the diplomatic quarter of Pakistan’s capital city yesterday, killing five worshippers and wounding another 40 members of the congregation.
Unidentified terrorists hurled grenades into a Protestant worship service in the diplomatic quarter of Pakistan’s capital city yesterday, killing five worshippers and wounding another 40 members of the congregation.
Adopting unusual language, Iran has issued a warning that if Israel were to attack Syria or Lebanon in reaction to Hizb’Allah cross-border actions, Tehran would retaliate in an “astounding and unexpected” way.
WASHINGTON (BP)–The State Department’s second report on global religious liberty presents a challenge for the U.S. government to act against persecution, the chairman of a federal commission said.
ISTANBUL, August 7 (Compass) — Canadian authorities issued written verification yesterday that its embassy in the Turkish capital of Ankara has begun the immigration application process for an Iranian Christian family stranded in eastern Turkey for more than two years.
Listening via television to evangelist Billy Graham’s stirring words of spiritual comfort and encouragement at the national prayer and memorial service in Washington DC on Friday, I recalled that the last time I saw the towering World Trade Center was the same day I spoke at his ministry headquarters in Minneapolis. It was a great honor to address his staff of over 300 dedicated workers last August 6 just before boarding a plane to Newark airport on my way back to my home at the center of the world, Jerusalem Israel.
Turkmenistan has moved to fifth place on the Open Doors World Watch List of worst persecutors of Christians, behind Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Laos and China, causing “great concern” to persecution watchers around the world.
An Assyrian Christian arrested a month ago for taking home videos in an ancient churchyard in Turkey’s heavily militarized Southeast was ordered released today by Diyarbakir’s State Security Court.
The wife and children of Baptist prisoner Shageldy Atakov in Turkmenistan have been told by the local mullah, administration officials and officers of the country’s political police, the KNB (former KGB), that they may not believe in Jesus Christ and must convert to Islam. According to a statement from local Baptists — passed on to Keston News Service by the German-based Friedensstimme mission — officials in the town of Kaakhka, close to Turkmenistan’s southern border with Iran, also warned Atakov’s wife, Artygyul, that the family home would be confiscated if Christians continue to meet there.
Syrian dictator Bashar Assad concluded his first official visit to Tehran on Thursday by agreeing with his Iranian hosts that Israel and her US ally currently are in a period of weakness that should be exploited on behalf of the Palestinians.
Saudi Arabia has once again taken the dubious distinction of being the country where Christians are more severely persecuted than any other in the world. This was revealed in the January 2001 release of the Open Doors “World Watch List” (WWL), which ranks countries according to their level of Christian persecution.