China (International Christian Concern) – On August 20, a Christian woman named Li Chunqing from Zhejiang province’s Wenzhou sent out an open prayer letter for her husband, Lin Xuesui, who was detained for attending Sunday worship. On June 14, Lin was criminally detained by the Public Security Bureau for “organizing and supporting illegal gathering” in […]
LAHORE, Pakistan (Morning Star News) – A two-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday granted bail to a Christian in a blasphemy case, with one of the justices expressing concern over blatant misuse of the law, the attorney of the accused said. Attorney Rana Abdul Hameed said this was the first time a […]
LAHORE, Pakistan (Morning Star News) – Refusing to review evidence from a Christian couple trying to recover their 12-year-old daughter after she was allegedly kidnapped and forced to convert and marry, a judge in Pakistan last week denied them custody, sources said. Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan of the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi Bench on Thursday […]
China (International Christian Concern) – Two heavily targeted house churches in Beijing and Taiyuan are relieved as their members were released this week after detention. On Aug. 18, Zong Fang Fang from Beijing Zion Church was released after being detained for three days. Pastor Yang Jun, who was also detained on the same day as […]
BANGLADESH (Open Doors USA) — What do you do when the only church in your village is burned to the ground? This is the question a group of believers in Bangladesh is now asking. Believers are relatively few in Chattagram Hill Tracts, the southeastern part of Bangladesh. The population is dominated by indigenous peoples, with […]
JEJU ISLAND, South Korea (ChinaAid) — In the last several months, options dwindled for the Mayflower Church and Pastor Yonggang. The South Korean government refused to grant them asylum due to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) influence. Church members sought resettlement options, and American partners visited the Chinese church to protect them from potential kidnapping. […]
Indonesia (International Christian Concern) – On Aug. 11, state prosecutors held a hearing in South Jakarta where they demanded a one-year extension of a jailed policeman’s sentence. The policeman, Napoleon Bonaparte, was convicted of bribery in March of last year. In August of that year, the former inspector general reportedly broke into a fellow inmate’s […]
Nigeria (International Christian Concern) – It was a cloudy night and villagers in one Christian farming community in Nigeria’s Benue state were about to go to sleep. Suddenly, militants arrived, scattering the villagers into the surrounding bush. Six villagers who could not run were killed. The militants were all armed with AK-47 rifles and machetes, […]
A secular court rules that Sharia court has the power to sentence and execute. Nigeria (International Christian Concern) – Nigeria’s Kano State High Court doubled down on a ruling that the Sharia court system has the power to hand down death sentences in blasphemy cases. The decision blurs the line between what can be tried in Sharia […]
(Article18) — An Iranian Christian with advanced Parkinson’s disease and his wife have been detained in Tehran. Homayoun Zhaveh, who is about to celebrate his 64th birthday, and Sara Ahmadi, 44, answered a summons to an administrative office of Evin Prison on Saturday, expecting to receive back their confiscated property. However, they were instead surprisingly […]