Iran on Monday, January 7, released Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who was jailed on Christmas Day to serve the remainder of a sentence for evangelism among Muslims, his evangelical house church movement confirmed.
Beleaguered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was to deliver a speech on Sunday, January 6, a day after rights activists said a shell hit a Christian area of Damascus and a car bomb exploded elsewhere in the Syrian capital.
In Iran, an Iranian-born American pastor with dual citizenship remains behind bars in Evin prison for the holidays.
Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who was recently acquitted of apostasy, has been returned to prison on an earlier charge, rights activists told Worthy News.
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the state, not a Christian was stirring, because those who dared attend services in Nigeria that night risked their very lives.
At least twelve Christians were killed by gunmen in separate attacks; the assailants are suspected to be militant members of Boko Haram, an Islamist group that has already killed nearly 100 Christians around Christmas in Nigeria over the past three years.
Iranian Church leaders have urged prayers for Christians in Iran amid concerns authorities will raid more house churches and detain believers over the Christmas and Western New Year period.
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.
Christian groups have petitioned the U.S. government to designate the African Islamist group Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, but that designation is opposed by Nigeria’s own government.
In Islamabad Sunday, a man accused his own uncle of disrespecting the Prophet Muhammad, prompting local authorities to register the case under Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws as determined by the legal personnel at Police Station I-9.
Minority Christians in Syria’s largest city Aleppo said they face starvation after dozens of believers already died in targeted attacks rocking Christian areas of the war-torn country.
A Protestant missionary remains in critical condition in Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, after she was shot by gunmen multiple times Tuesday.
Suspected Islamic militants have killed at least ten Christians, including a pastor, and torched several churches in the latest anti-Christian violence to hit Nigeria, a well-informed human rights group confirmed.
On a Monday afternoon in October, Timar Shahzadi was returning from school with her friends when she was kidnapped by Muslims, but when her Christian family reported it to the Koral police station in Islamabad, they did nothing, according to the Pakistan Christian Post.
Gunmen have attacked a police station near Nigeria’s capital Abuja that holds members of the feared Islamic group ‘Boko Haram’, freeing prisoners and killing two police officers, officials said.
At least five people were killed and dozens injured Sunday, November 25, when a suicide bomber drove a car full of explosives into a church inside the Jaji military barracks in Nigeria’s northern Kaduna state, officials said.
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A Pakistani court has dismissed blasphemy charges against a Christian girl for allegedly burning pages of the Qu’ran.
The recent suicide bombing of a Catholic church in northern Nigeria was denounced by the Archbishop of Kaduna.
A Pakistani Pastor arrested for blasphemy in Sanghla Hill, Punjab Province, was denied bail Tuesday, according to the Pakistan Christian Post.
Arrested just before last Christmas, four Christian converts recently received a total of four years in prison at the Revolutionary Court in Ahwaz according to Christian news agency, Mohabat News.