LAHORE, Pakistan — Five Muslim men have been sentenced to death in their part in murdering a couple who they mistakenly thought had committed blasphemy against Islam. On Wednesday, Judge Chaudhry Azam sentenced Irfan Shakoor, Muhammad Hanif, Mehdi Khan, Riaz Kamboh and Hafiz Ishtiaq to die by hanging for allegedly throwing Shama Bibi, 28, and […]
Sudan (Mission Network News) — Czech Christian aid worker Petr Jasek has been in a Sudan prison for 352 days — nearly a full year. He’s one of the people featured on Voice of the Martyrs’ Prisoner Alert system, and an example of the abuse of religious freedom in Sudan today. According to Open Doors […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — More than 10,000 Indonesians took to the streets of their capital to call for tolerance and unity in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, after police opened a blasphemy investigation into the city’s Christian governor. Earlier this month, Jakarta was rocked by a massive protest by conservative Muslims against the popular […]
(Morning Star News) – A pastor in southwestern China, jailed for nearly a year on fabricated charges and suffering a liver disease, focuses on trusting God in a letter of encouragement to his wife, according to China Aid. Authorities took pastor Li Guozhi, better known as Yang Hua, into custody after a raid on his […]
WENZHOU, Zhejiang (China Aid) — China’s two Christian, state-run organizations forcibly removed a pastor from his position in the coastal province of Zhejiang on Oct. 29 and prohibited him from preaching or evangelizing. The pastor, Zhang Chongzhu, was placed under “residential surveillance in a designated location,” otherwise known as a “black jail,” last September. On Feb. […]
(Time) — A man formerly convicted of terrorist offenses has been arrested for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at a Protestant church in Samarinda, in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province, on Sunday morning, killing a toddler and wounding three other children. On Monday, at around 3 a.m. local time, a Buddhist temple in Singkawang, West Kalimantan […]
Iran (Mission Network News) — Three Christian Azerbaijani men were just released from prison in Iran on bail. They were able to return to Azerbaijan and reunited with their families on November 6th. Emily Fuentes with Open Doors USA explains, “Several months ago, these men were arrested along with another Iranian national for Christian activities […]
(Metro) — A father-of-six has been forced to flee his home under police guard after he said he suffered ‘years of persecution’ for converting to Christianity. Nissar Hussain, who converted from Islam 20 years ago, was hospitalized after one attack when two men, armed with a pick-axe, left him with a smashed kneecap. Last week, […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (New York Times) — Tens of thousands of Indonesians marched in Jakarta on Friday, demanding that the city’s first Christian governor in decades be jailed for blasphemy. The rally was a show of strength by conservative Islamic groups, who were offended by his earlier remarks about the Quran and want to weaken him […]
(VOA News) — Christian groups are denouncing the jailing of an American pastor who has been detained for nearly a month in isolation in Turkey, accused of posing what officials call a “national security threat.” Authorities and the representatives of Protestant Christian community in Turkey say that Andrew Brunson, who has been a Protestant missionary […]