Minority Christians in Iraq feared more violence Saturday, June 29, after several Assyrian Christian shops and one church were attacked, killing two people and injuring a dozen others, church representatives said.
In April, two senior clerics caught in the Syrian civil war were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen and remain in captivity, their whereabouts unknown.
Of the 15 worst violators of religious freedom in the world, 10 are Islamic states.
The wife of a jailed Iranian-American pastor has denied Iran’s claims that her husband will be released on bail as an attempt to “silence the international media.”
A Muslim cleric has issued a fatwa threatening Iraqi Christians unless they convert to Islam, but the country’s prime minister urged them to stay.
Syrian Christians are reportedly targeted by rebels linked to Islamic terror groups and it remained unclear whether everyone fleeing the violence would be able to reach neighboring Turkey.
Mosul is now one of the most violent cities in Iraq with Christians and other minorities singled out for attacks and thousands continue to flee from the troubled nation, a Christian group said Thursday, August 16.
Another church in Tehran was ordered to cease holding services in Farsi, the Iranian national language, otherwise it could be “bombed”.
Islamic militants with ties to terror group al-Qaida have launched the “ethnic cleansing of minority Christians” in Syria, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee the embattled Syrian city of Homs and other areas, aid workers confirmed Tuesday, March 27.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended that the Secretary of State name Pakistan as a Country of Particular Concern in its 2012 Annual Report.
Although President Bashar al-Assad’s counter-insurgency has already claimed the lives of at least 7,000 of his own people, his state represented a diverse society in which minorities and women enjoyed freedoms alien to other Arab nations.
Barnabas Aid is sending emergency relief to Christians trapped in Homs after the withdrawal of anti-government forces from the Baba Amr district.
The immigration status of thousands of Christians fleeing from persecution in Iraq are now in limbo thanks to new security measures.
Christians in Syria need prayer during that country’s current civil turmoil; at least 2,700 people have been killed and thousands more arrested in an effort to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Four people, three Christians and one of Turkish origin, were kidnapped on Sept. 21 according to Middle East Concern. They were returning from a hunting trip when their vehicle was stopped by armed men. The vehicle was found a short time later after it had been burned, with the bodies of the dogs inside.
Security forces on Wednesday, September 28, still searched for three Iraqi Christians, a week after they were reportedly kidnapped by suspected militants in Iraq’s northern city of Kirkuk.
Kirkuk police recently report that they deactivated an explosive device left near the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in the Almass district of Kirkuk.
Although security forces found and disabled two cars packed with explosives in northern Iraq Tuesday, a third exploded outside a Christian church, wounding 23 people.
Iraq’s first new church under the US occupation opened its doors in the northern city of Kirkuk, the region’s Chaldean archbishop told AFP.
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.