A family of Iranian converts to Christianity faces jail time, the death sentence and the forced marriage of their daughter if Turkish authorities forcibly deport them back to Iran next week after nearly three years of failed attempts to obtain U.N. refugee status.
A member of a Pentecostal church in Indonesia’s tense province of Central Sulawesi was assassinated amid fresh concerns over new religious violence in the area where thousands of Christians were killed in recent years, human rights watchers said Thursday, October 6.
A Christian human rights group urged Indonesia’s government Tuesday, October 4, to immediately halt the activities of known Islamic militants who it claims have closed dozens of churches, threaten pastors and other believers, and promote the abduction of Westerners “in cooperation” with local authorities.
Judges in Malaysia’s Court of Appeal announced on September 19 that Lina Joy, a former Muslim who converted to Christianity in the late 1980s, must apply to a sharia court for permission to legally renounce Islam.
A Pakistani woman has charged three men with raping her earlier this month and threatening to kill her if she did not convert from Christianity to Islam, a Christian news agency reported Tuesday, September 27.
A human rights group has expressed concern about reports of wide spread persecution of Christians in rural Ethiopia where at least one evangelist has been killed “for refusing” to abandon his Christian faith, BosNewsLife monitored Thursday, September 22.
His father sent him to Saudi Arabia from Nigeria when he was 3 years old to be trained as an Islamic cleric, but God had other plans for Ahmed Abdullahi.
A mob of 200 Muslim protestors ransacked at least 16 homes of Christians in Lahore on Saturday, September 10, after a drug addict disrupted an Islamic service. Younis Masih, 35, was accused of insulting the Muslim prophet Mohammed.
Almost 600 Uzbek-language Christian leaflets for children distributed by Baptists have been destroyed in Uzbekistan after a court in Tashkent region ordered the destruction last month, BosNewsLife monitored Wednesday, September 7.
Indonesian judges sentenced three women to three years in prison Thursday, September 1, for “attempting to convert” Muslim children by allowing them to a Christian Sunday School program, a Christian news agency reported.
Eleven months after Iranian police arrested Hamid Pourmand for converting to Christianity, authorities at Tehran’s Evin Prison continue to pressure the former Muslim to return to Islam.
Two Christian men of a non-governmental organization in Bangladesh have been “hacked to death” and officials believe Islamic extremists were “likely” responsible for the murders, news reports said Thursday, August 4.
Sources have confirmed the murder by beheading on March 8 of Dulal Sarkar, a lay pastor and evangelist in Bangladesh.
Armed gunmen attacked Christian worshippers as they emerged from Easter Sunday services in a village church near the southern outskirts of Lahore yesterday, killing one young Christian man and injuring seven other congregants.
A leading evangelical pastor disappeared off the streets of Asmara four days ago, presumably detained by Eritrean security forces and jailed at some unknown location.
An Iranian Colonel who, despite Western protests, was jailed last month for his alleged “illegal” conversion to Christianity is held at Tehran’s notorious maximum-security prison with well-known political and religious dissidents, a Christian news agency reported late Friday, March 11.
The criminal trial of Egyptian Christian Shafik Saleh Shafik, begun in mid January, has been ordered postponed until February 20 by the presiding judge, who accepted defense petitions to summon key witnesses and police reports related to the case.
Another 31 Eritrean Christians have been jailed by police in towns north of the capital Asmara over the past 10 days. The latest police sweeps brings the total to 187 arrests for “illegal” Christian activities in Eritrea since the beginning of January.
Eritrea’s controversial President Isaias Afwerki ended a three day official visit to Pakistan Sunday, February 27, pledging to respect “democratic values” amid pressure at home to release hundreds of Christians, including children.
Two American Southern Baptist missionaries held under house arrest in Dubai for distributing Bibles and Christian literature are expected to be released this weekend, BosNewsLife learned Thursday, March 3.