An Iranian pastor, convicted of apostasy and sentenced to death, may have only hours or days to live, according to a US-based Christian ministry acquainted with the facts of his case.
At least 25 Nigerians were killed Sunday when motorcyclists bombed several outdoor beer gardens in Maiduguri; although no one claimed responsibility for the bombings, local police said the attacks bore the hallmark of Boko Haram, an Islamic group fighting for the implementation of shar’ia, which prohibits alcohol.
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.
The general director of comparative religious studies in Iran claimed the enemies of Islam donate approximately $50,000 a year to Iranian house churches that often have memberships of only 15-20 members.
Being a Christian in Uzbekistan can be costly. Just ask Galina Shemetova who was ordered to pay a fine of 2,486,750 som, 50 times the minimum monthly pay for giving a colleague a children’s Bible. This amounts to $60,320US, four times the yearly pre-tax salary of a 40 hour-a-week minimum wage earner. Miss Shemetova not only had to pay the fine, but she was also beaten physically by police, a fact known by the Tashkent Court of Appeals.
Sudanese Military agents killed one Christian and Islamic militants another last week after attacking churches in Sudan’s embattled South Kordofan state.
Uzbekistan continues to persecute Christians exercising their religious rights. Recently a Christian in eastern Uzbekistan was beaten by police, another was threatened with death by an axe while a Baptist congregation was promised prison for failure to co-operate in a pre-trial investigation of their pastor.
Poland has granted asylum to 16 Christian refugees who accompanied Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski on a flight back from Tunisia.The Foreign Ministry said Friday, June 17, that the six adults and 10 children were “political refugees” from Eritrea and Nigeria, whose lives have been upturned by recent turmoil in North Africa.
Christians in Pakistan remained fearful Thursday, June 16, after a court in Pakistan acquitted 70 Muslims who were suspected of killing Christians in one of the country’s worst sectarian clashes in recent memory.
An Indonesian court sentenced an Islamic cleric to one year in jail for provoking hundreds of people to riot, attacking police and burning churches.
Police in northern Nigeria have detained suspected Islamic militants who allegedly killed a pentecostal pastor, his assistant, and at least 10 other people, Worthy News monitored Saturday, June 11.
Hundreds of mainly Christian refugees from Eritrea are jailed or or held by kidnappers in Egypt, where they face torture, beatings and sexual assault, according to Christian aid workers who contacted Worthy News.
Two people suspected of planning to bomb a Nigerian church were killed before they reached their destination in the central city of Jos, adding to tensions in an area already troubled by deadly religious and ethnic violence, officials said Sunday, March 20.
A Christian mother of seven who last August was kidnapped, raped, sold into marriage and threatened with death in Pakistan’s Punjab province was free Sunday, March 13, after police rescued her, right activists and Christians said.
Police in Pakistan have filed murder charges against a Muslim employer who allegedly killed his Christian worker for staying at home one day because he was ill, BosNewsLife monitored Friday, February 18.
Tensions remained high in Nigeria’s Plateau State Wednesday, February 16, where up to eight people were killed and more injured in sectarian clashes sparked by the stabbing of a police officer.
Authorities in northern and central Nigeria tried to restore calm Saturday, December 25, after suspected Muslim militants targeted churches and other sites in Christmas Eve attacks that killed as many as 38 people, police and church leaders said.
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.
An Algerian court acquitted two Christians of breaking the Ramadan fast despite the prosecution’s demand that they be punished for “insulting Islam.”
A jailbreak of militant Muslims in northern Nigeria has raised fears that Boko Haram is planning a resurgence in murder and mayhem directed against a state already under seige.