JUBA, South Sudan (Morning Star News) – A pastor and another Christian serving a 12-year sentence in Sudan were freed today after they were granted a presidential pardon, sources said. Hassan Abdelrahim Tawor had been in prison since his arrest in December 2015, as was Abdulmonem Abdumawla of Darfur. They were convicted on baseless charges of […]
(Reuters) — Jakarta’s Christian governor has been sentenced to two years in jail for blasphemy, a harsher-than-expected ruling critics fear will embolden hardline Islamist forces to challenge secularism in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation. Tuesday’s guilty verdict for Basuki Tjahaja Purnama comes amid concern about the growing influence of Islamist groups, who organized mass […]
HYDERABAD, India (Morning Star News) – A pastor in eastern India’s Bihar state has lost his hearing after Hindu extremists assaulted him outside his home on church premises last month, sources said. Doctors at a Hajipur government hospital determined the loss of hearing and wounds on Sikandar Kumar’s body were a result of being beaten with […]
(Evangelical Focus) — Dozens of friends, neighbors and Christian leaders supported the relatives of an Afghan woman who was killed in front of her two children, last week in the region of Bayern (Germany). A 29-year asylum seeker (also from Afghanistan) has been accused of stabbing her with a kitchen knife outside of a supermarket, […]
DONGGUAN, Guangdong (ChinaAid) — Police officers raided a house church meeting in China’s southern Guangdong province on Wednesday evening, detaining 30 of the members in attendance including the pastor and an American couple with two children. More than 20 officers broke into Zhongfu Wanmin Church approximately a half hour into their evening service on May […]
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (WKMG) — An arson investigation is underway after a fire caused $5,000 worth of damage at a Volusia County church, the Daytona Beach Fire Department said. Someone intentionally set a fire in Master’s Domain Church around midnight Thursday then put it out, according to a news release. The pastor called the fire […]
DALIAN, Liaoning (ChinaAid) — Authorities in China’s northeastern Liaoning province conducted a massive raid against a gathering of house church pastors on April 26. Pastors in attendance said that there were more than 40 pastors from house churches across China at the “Unity in Christianity” event hosted by Pastor Guo Pingxi from Kunming, Yunnan. During the […]
Bangladesh (Mission Network News) — The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom released their 2017 annual report last week. The report described religious freedom violations in 37 countries, and made recommendations for the U.S. government to address them. Bangladesh, a 90 percent Muslim-majority nation, was included in the report. Since the nation’s general elections […]
GUANGZHOU, Guangdong (ChinaAid) — A pastor hailing from Virginia was summoned by police in China’s southern Guangdong province today for leading a Bible seminar. Paul Wang, a Chinese pastor who lives in Virginia and presides over a church there, was conducting a seminar entitled “Reformation and Life Change” while visiting China when a group of […]
(Morning Star News) – A pastor in eastern Uganda is without his home, farm and church building after Muslim extremists armed with swords and clubs rampaged through his property on March 27, he said. The band of nine Muslims, who also carried blunt metal objects, were shouting the jihadist slogan “Allahu Akbar [Allah is greater]” […]