Sharofat Allamova, a Protestant from the Khorezm Region of Uzbekistan, has been sentenced to one and a half years of corrective labor for the “illegal production, storage, import or distribution of religious literature,” according to Forum 18 News Service.
Iranian agents closed Iran’s largest Persian-language Pentecostal church Monday, one week after arresting its pastor during worship services, according to Fox News.
Last year Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tasked Natan Sharansky to redesign the area of the Temple Mount so as to accommodate both traditional and liberal Jews wishing to pray at the Wailing Wall, considered by Judaism to be the last remnant of the Second Temple on Mount Moriah.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has called upon President Obama for a clear and direct response concerning countries that have egregiously violated religious freedoms, according to BarnabasAid.
The twisted cross of National Socialism flew for all to see over a mosque Monday in the West Bank, according to the Israel National News Service.
A pastor of the Central Assemblies of God (AoG) Church in Tehran was detained Tuesday, May 21, as part of Iran’s wider crackdown on evangelical believers, Christian rights activists confirmed. The arrest of Reverend Robert Asserian came as his church prepared for possible closure by the end of June due to pressure from the feared Iranian Intelligence Ministry, said advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).
A Christian prisoner suffering internal bleeding has been denied proper medical attention in Iran, according to Barnabas Aid.
In April, two senior clerics caught in the Syrian civil war were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen and remain in captivity, their whereabouts unknown.
The Executive Council of Pakistan’s Christian Congress issued a press release Saturday condemning the upcoming national election because 51 percent of Pakistani women and 18 percent of Pakistan’s population will not be voting for any candidates.
Of the 15 worst violators of religious freedom in the world, 10 are Islamic states.
A new report by the International Campaign for Human Rights shows that many Christian customs in Iran are criminalized by the authorities, according to Barnabas Aid.
An American pastor sentenced to eight years in an Iranian prison for planting house churches in the Islamic Republic a decade ago recently wrote that prison officials have told him to either deny Christ, or remain incarcerated indefinitely, according to the Christian News Network.
An appeals court in Kazakhstan has overturned a previous ruling to destroy Bibles and other Christian literature seized from a street evangelist, according to Barnabas Aid.
The Legal Evangelical Association (for) Development (LEAD) filed a bail petition Monday in the Session Court of Lahore on behalf of Sawan Masih, an imprisoned Pakistani Christian accused of blasphemy.
Within hours after Pakistan’s Supreme Court condemned police for not stopping rampaging Muslims from destroying nearly 200 Christian homes in the Joseph Colony of Lahore, another Muslim mob damaged Christian-owned shops and a church in the Francis Colony of Gujranwala on April 3.
Five Christian converts from Islam who were arrested in Iran last year for evangelistic activities had to post large bail amounts to be released from prison.
In Kazakhstan, anyone who shares their faith could be jailed under proposed new laws that would increase the penalties for those practicing their religion.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is suing the U.S. Treasury Department to remove “In God We Trust” from all its currency.
A court in Kazakhstan has ordered the destruction of Christian literature, including Bibles, seized from a street evangelist.
Although the government of Pakistan promised to rebuild nearly 200 Christian homes destroyed by a Muslim mob in Lahore on March 9, many doubt it will bring the rioters to justice because anti-Christian violence perpetrated in Pakistan often operates with impunity.