(World Watch Monitor) — Amnesty International (AI) has launched an Urgent Action calling for the release of four Iranians sentenced to a combined total of 45 years in prison “solely for practicing their Christian faith.” Its report calls for urgent action from the Iranian government to “quash the convictions and sentences of Victor Bet-Tamraz, Shamiram […]
GUANGZHOU, Guangdong (China Aid) — A repeatedly persecuted house church in China’s southern Guangdong province was holding a service Sunday morning when more than 10 law enforcement officers broke into it without permission and ordered the pastor, Huang Xiaoning, to stop preaching. In reply, Huang asked that they show respect rather than cut off his […]
(World Watch Monitor) — A Mexican pastor who survived an assassination attempt in the notorious border city of Juarez in June says he was targeted because his church’s work is seen to negatively impact upon the efforts of drug cartels. A hitman entered the pastor’s home on 12 June, making him kneel down on the […]
Nepal (Mission Network News) — Anti-conversion laws are going into effect this month in Nepal. According to David Curry of Open Doors USA, it’s part of a bigger push by India to “Hinduize” their neighbors. “[India is] trying to ‘Hinduize’ their country, and Nepal has been under great pressure from India to strengthen their Hindu […]
(World Watch Monitor) — An Iranian convert to Christianity serving ten years in prison for “missionary activities” has written an open letter to the Iranian authorities, asking how his Christian activities could be perceived as anti-state. “Would it even be possible for a committed Christian – who was born and raised in Iran and whose […]
NANYANG, China (Associated Press) — The 62-year-old Chinese shopkeeper had waited nearly his entire adult life to see his dream of building a church come true — a brick house with a sunny courtyard and spacious hall with room for 200 believers. But in March, about a dozen police officers and local officials suddenly showed […]
(Mission Network News) — In a virtually unprecedented move, 35 Eritrean Christians have been released from prison. It’s welcome news in the often disheartening story of persecution in Eritrea. Greg Musselman of Voice of the Martyrs Canada says it all started almost two decades ago, when the Eritrean government decided that evangelical Christians could no […]
(Morning Star News) – Pastor Sagar Baizu, 46, had finished one meeting and had an hour before the next one, so he decided to stop at a café on a major thoroughfare in Kathmandu, capital of Nepal, on July 19. As he was about to sip a coffee in the crowded café at 2 p.m., […]
SANGAMESHWAR, Maharashtra — (International Christian Concern) – “All that the Hindu radicals want is for Sangameshwar to be a ‘Christian-free’ village,” Pastor Srinivas Sapa, a 42-year-old Christian resident of Sangameshwar, told International Christian Concern (ICC). “Of all the 50 odd Christians who are native to Sangameshwar, most were born in the village and are now panicked […]
(World Watch Monitor) — The Rwanda Governance Board continues to close churches it says fail to meet requirements laid down at the beginning of the year. New requirements set in place for those congregations that want to continue ministry are also complicating efforts to comply. Many see the closures as part of an effort by […]