TIZI-OUZOU, Algeria (Morning Star News) – A judge in Algeria has reduced from five years to one year a prison sentence for a Christian convicted of offending Islam with cartoons on his Facebook page. Samir Chamek, a 33-year-old theater actor in Algeria’s northern area of Wilaya de Bouira, had been sentenced to five years and […]
Sri Lanka (Mission Network News) — Sri Lanka is known as the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean.” The moniker describes a beautiful picture, but the struggles reveal something darker. It’s considered the third most religious country in the world. Although the constitution guarantees religious freedom while favoring Buddhism, minority Protestants have experienced violent persecution as […]
(ChinaAid) — A Christian human rights defender is in need of urgent cancer treatment that she cannot afford after a Chinese medical team canceled a critical operation. Huang Yan, a 47-year-old Christian woman who has assisted many prisoners of conscience, including Gao Zhisheng, was refused a necessary operation for her ovarian cancer, despite previously having […]
(Christian Times) — A Turkish court has denied the appeal for release of an American pastor who was imprisoned for allegedly being a member of an armed terrorist organization. Pastor Andrew Brunson was initially detained with his wife, Norine, on Oct. 7 in the coastal city of Izmir. The couple, who have been living in Turkey […]
(Morning Star News) – After more than three years, the leadership of the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) remains in the hands of government-appointed committee members even after a court ruled in November that the appointments were illegal, sources said. Sudan’s Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowment appointed a group to run the SPEC offices […]
(World Watch Monitor) — While violent attacks on Christians at the hands of Islamist militants Boko Haram and the Fulani herdsmen in the northeast and Middle Belt of Nigeria have captured media attention, the persistent social pressures Christians face elsewhere go mostly unnoticed. Despite common misperceptions that they are a minority across the north of […]
WASHINGTON — Congress passed a bill this week that aims to give the White House and State Department improved tools to address religious persecution worldwide. The Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act had been introduced in the House last year by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and then in the Senate this year by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. […]
(Morning Star News) – The blasphemy trial of Jakarta Gov. Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama began on Tuesday, with the ethnic Chinese Christian breaking into tears inside the courtroom while hundreds of people protested outside. Some 2,000 police officers kept anti-Ahok and pro-Ahok protestors apart outside the heavily guarded court. Those opposing Ahok chanted, “Jail Ahok, […]
(Morning Star News) – Relatives of a former Islamic teacher attacked his 60-year-old mother on Thursday (Dec. 8) for becoming a Christian, wounding her head and breaking her hand, sources said. Aimuna Namutongi sustained a deep cut on her forehead. She and her son, 30-year-old Malik Higenyi, were trying to gather cassava at 10 a.m. […]
(World Watch Monitor) — A Turkish judge has sent Andrew Brunson to prison in Izmir, 64 days after the U.S. pastor and his wife, Norine, were detained on Oct. 7 under Interior Ministry deportation orders. Although his wife was released on 19 Oct. and given an extended permit to remain in the country, Andrew Brunson […]