Iran has ordered three evangelical house church pastors to report to prison within a month and serve lengthy jail terms on charges linked to their Christian activities, a well-informed source told Worthy News late Tuesday, November 29.
Iranian officials are trying to convince an imprisoned pastor to return to Islam while he awaits word from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on whether he should be executed for converting to Christianity.
Islamic militants shouting “Allahu Akbar”, or ‘Allah is great’, carried out coordinated gun and bomb attacks on churches and police stations in northern Nigeria, killing at least 67 people and injuring some 100 others, aid workers and witnesses confirmed Saturday, November 5.
A believer of Muslim Background, Fariborz Arazm, has gone missing since his arrest last week by plain clothes security officers.
Sudanese leader Omer Hassan Al-Bashir is rewriting his country’s constitution in order to implement shar’ia (Islamic) law.
Already shell-shocked by attacks from Boko Haram, a hard-line Muslim group that seeks to impose Shariah (Muslim) law in the northern states of Nigeria, Christians again had to take cover after the August 27 shooting of Mark Ojunta, a 36-year-old evangelist from southern Nigeria ministering to the Kotoko people in one of Nigeria’s northeastern states. This murder comes less that three months after Boko Haram killed a Maiduguri pastor, the same city as Mr. Ojunta.
Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani learns early next week whether he will be executed for refusing to recant his faith in Jesus Christ and return to Islam, as the court needs more time to consult with the country’s leadership, trial observers told Worthy News Thursday, October 6.
Militants with suspected ties to Iranian security forces have threatened to kill nearly a dozen evangelical Christians who fled Iran unless they “repent” and return to Islam, well-informed sources told Worthy News early Sunday, October 2.
Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani faced tense hours early Saturday, October 1, after a government official said he should be executed for being a traitorous “Zionist” and committing “security crimes.”
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.
A young pastor of Iran’s largest house church movement has told an Iranian court he will not “recant” his faith in Christ despite facing execution as early as Thursday, September 29, for abandoning Islam, church sources said.
An Iranian court has asked the pastor of one of Iran’s largest house church movements to abandon his faith in Christ and return to Islam if he wants to avoid execution, a church official told Worthy News Sunday, September 25.
The Christian community in Nigeria’s central Plateau state are anxiously awaiting the arrival of some 1,300 additional riot police following weeks of sectarian violence that reportedly killed as many as 100 Christians.
Lawmakers in Kazakhstan have voted for controversial legislation that Christians and rights activists say will further limit religious freedom in the mainly Muslim Central Asian state.
A Christian accused of blasphemy died in a Pakistan prison from a treatable disease after he was denied medical care.
The body of a kidnapped Christian convert from Islam was found decapitated near Hudur City on Sept. 2.
Two Azeri converts from Islam were both released temporarily on $40,000 bail after appearing before two separate court hearings.
Iran on Tuesday, September 6, ordered five Iranian Christians, including a heavily pregnant woman, to report to prison on charges linked to their Christian activities, a mission group working in the region said.
Arrested on charges of blasphemy against Islam, Pastor Matthias Haghnejad is now free on bail, according to ASSIST News Service.
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.