ZHUMADIAN, Henan (China Aid) — Elderly Christians, incapable of traveling the long distance to a state-run church, were forced to meet illegally in their homes after officials banned their gathering place in China’s central Henan province. Last May, authorities falsely accused a house church in a village in Zhumadian, Henan, of “heresy” and belonging to a […]
SHANGQUI, Henan (ChinaAid) — Officials in China’s central Henan province closed down a Christian-run institution dedicated to bringing children up with good morals, saying its religious component “brainwashed” its students, ChinaAid learned recently. Ms. Zhu, a Christian woman, told a ChinaAid reporter on Sept. 14 that national security officers arrived at her house in July […]
CHENGDU, Sichuan (ChinaAid) — Chinese authorities barred a pastor from traveling to Hong Kong to attend a Christian training conference today, echoing a growing trend that keeps church leaders from participating in overseas religious meetings. At 6:00 a.m. on Sept. 12, Wang Yi, a pastor of Autumn Rain Blessing Church, and Jiang Rong, a pastor’s […]
ANCHA, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Muslim Fulani herdsmen in central Nigeria’s Plateau state massacred 20 Christians, including children, as they slept in the hours after midnight on Friday (Sept. 8) in an apparent reprisal attack that mystified villagers, sources said. Police reportedly said the attack was an act of vengeance after the discovery last week of […]
BEIJING (Reuters) — China’s cabinet on Thursday passed new rules to regulate religion to bolster national security, fight extremism and restrict faith practiced outside organizations approved by the state. The document passed by Premier Li Keqiang updates a version of rules put into place in 2005 to allow the regulation of religion to better reflect […]
Bangladesh (Mission Network News) – Just over a week ago in Bangladesh, men from an electric company arrived at FMI supported Pastor Rajib’s home, claiming they were there to make improvements to his power, only to purposefully destroy Rajib’s property. But, when Rajib confronted the men, they turned violent. “[When] he confronted the workers about […]
HYDERABAD, India (Morning Star News) – A band of Hindu extremists who had snuck into a house-church service beat a pastor with steel rods and sticks, one of them yelling that they would stop if he shouted, “Hail, Lord Ram (Jai Sri Ram)!” “I remained mum,” pastor Harjot Singh Sethi, 26, told Morning Star News. “I did […]
ANKARA, Turkey — An American pastor who has been imprisoned in Turkey for nearly a year on an accusation that he is a member of a “terrorist organization,” is now facing four new criminal charges, including espionage and attempting to overthrow the government. “These ‘new’ charges, coming 322 days after his initial arrest in October of […]
(World Watch Monitor) — After a period of relative calm, the Far North region of Cameroon, along the Nigerian border, has witnessed an upsurge of attacks by Boko Haram in recent days. On Aug. 17, a church elder was killed in a night raid carried out by the radical Islamist group on Moskota village. Adamu […]
(World Watch Monitor) — Three Kenyan Christians were hacked to death by Al-Shabaab militants on Friday night (Aug. 18) after they refused to recite the Islamic prayer of faith. A fourth Christian—the mentally challenged older brother of one of the three—was also killed. At around 9pm, Changawa Muthemba, who was in his forties, was dragged […]