(World Watch Monitor) — The Indian state of Jharkhand passed an “anti-conversion bill” at its Assembly meeting on 12 August, despite demands that the bill should be sent to a select committee for further scrutiny. “This is not normal,” Indian journalist Anto Akkara told World Watch Monitor. “It shows the growing arrogance of the Hindu […]

(World Watch Monitor) — The ongoing civil war in Yemen has claimed thousands of lives, but, away from the conflict, the country’s Christian minority has also faced targeted attacks by the insurgent Islamist group Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation, with 26 million people, is “the last bastion on the Arabian […]

(World Watch Monitor) — In the first six months of 2017, Indian Christians were harassed, threatened or attacked for their faith in 410 reported incidents (248 in the first quarter) – almost as many as the total for the whole of 2016 (441). This is according to figures compiled by partners of Open Doors, the […]

(World Watch Monitor) — An Ethiopian Christian suffered deep wounds to the back of his head when he was attacked while alone in his home by a group of local Muslims with machetes. The attack on July 16 left the 27-year-old man needing life-saving surgery. The man—who, for security reasons, cannot be named—was attacked in […]

(World Watch Monitor) — Vietnam has released a Lutheran pastor and deported him to the United States, reports UCA News. Nguyen Cong Chinh, was serving an 11-year prison sentence for “undermining national solidarity” through religious activities with ethnic groups in the country’s Central Highlands. He was also a director of the Vietnam-U.S. Lutheran Alliance Church. A […]

(World Watch Monitor) — The Indonesian government has ordered the disbandment of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir “to protect Indonesia’s unity,” according to Freddy Hari, director-general of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, as Al Jazeera reports. The decision follows a controversial presidential decree announced nine days earlier that gives the government more power to disband groups that […]

(World Watch Monitor) — Twelve years after his death, Martina has finally ‘buried’ her father. Not in the real sense – he is in a mass grave somewhere unknown – but by saying goodbye in her own way, thanks to help from trauma counsellors helping women and children in northern Nigeria. UNICEF estimates more than 2.7 […]

(World Watch Monitor) — Pakistan has ordered a South Korean man to leave the country, accusing him of involvement in “illegal preaching activities” after two of his students at an Urdu-language school were abducted and killed by the Islamic State group, which claimed they had been secretly preaching Christianity. “Investigations have revealed that [Juan Won-seo] […]

(World Watch Monitor) — Two-year-old Anita Sihotang cannot bear the sound of her father’s motorbike because it reminds her of the noise of the explosion last November, when a petrol bomb was thrown into a church park where children were playing, killing one child and seriously injuring Anita and two four-year-olds. Whenever her father turns […]

(World Watch Monitor) — There have been over 20 violent incidents against Christians so far this year, according to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka. Following a parallel surge in violent attacks on Muslims in the country, the alliance calls on the government to ensure the protection of minorities and their places of […]