25 June 2000 (Newsroom) — Indonesia’s top military leader wants martial law imposed on the eastern province of Maluku to stem growing anarchy in the wake of last week’s slaughter of 156 Christians by Muslim militia, the Jakarta Post reported. Since Wednesday, at least 47 Muslims and Christians have been killed and hundreds have been injured in clashes in the provincial capital of Ambon.
A resurgence of violence between Muslims and Christians erupted on May 23 and 24 in Kaduna city of northern Nigeria, but sources dispute the extent of the carnage.
22 June 2000 (Newsroom) — Seventeen resolutions concerning gays and lesbians will confront delegates to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) when they gather for a week in Long Beach, California, beginning Saturday.
JERUSALEM, Israel, 22 June 2000 (Newsroom) — Maronite Christians are openly challenging Syria’s presence in Lebanon in protests that are unprecedented since their Arab neighbor crushed the Lebanese Forces Christian militia at the end of Lebanon’s civil war in 1989.
Hindu militants in Orissa have announced that the man accused of masterminding the brutal killings last year of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons will be the chief minister candidate of their newly formed political party in the eastern state.
More than a year after Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, Timothy and Phillip, were brutally murdered in Orissa state, Christians in India continue to be harassed and persecuted. And according to church leaders, the Sangh Parivar (family of Hindu fundamentalist groups) sponsors much of it in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. These states have become the laboratory of “Hindutva” (cultural nationalism).
Christians in Laos continue to suffer persecution from a government crackdown on believers, and they cannot visit friends or travel freely because the secret police follow them every everywhere. Some have been forced to recant their faith.
5 June 2000 (Newsroom) — Two United States courts have upheld judicial orders to remove wall displays with the Ten Commandments from a public school district and two county courthouses in Kentucky. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and a U.S. District Court denied motions to stay the preliminary injunctions issued last month by federal judge Jennifer B. Coffman.
2 June 2000 (Newsroom) — A local official in Uzbekistan has denied registration to a Baptist church and barred its denomination from using a collective farm to hold a summer camp, the Keston News Service reported.
25 May 2000 (Newsroom) — Two Chinese Protestant pastors accused of organizing an unauthorized Christian meeting are being held in labor camps near Beijing, a London-based religious rights group reported Thursday. Wang Li Gong, 34, and Yang Jing Fu, 36, are in two separate camps in Tianjing serving administrative sentences of one year, and one and one-half years, respectively, Christian Solidarity Worldwide said.
Two Chinese Protestant pastors accused of organizing an unauthorized Christian meeting are being held in labor camps near Beijing, a London-based religious rights group reported Thursday. Wang Li Gong, 34, and Yang Jing Fu, 36, are in two separate camps in Tianjing serving administrative sentences of one year, and one and one-half years, respectively, Christian Solidarity Worldwide said.
24 May 2000 (Newsroom) — The United States House of Representatives approved a China trade bill on Wednesday that has divided human rights and religious freedom advocates. The House voted 237-197 to grant permanent normal trade relations to the communist nation, taking the place of Most Favored Nation (MFN) status, which required an annual review of China’s adherence to international standards. The Senate is expected to approve a similar pact in early June.
23 May 2000 (Newsroom) — Turkmen police have expelled the last remaining Russian Baptist missionary in the country, the Keston News Service reported. Authorities ordered the deportation of Vitali Tereshin in March, but the missionary went into hiding to continue his work. He was located in April by Turkmenistan’s political police, the National Security Committee (KNB).
Turkmen police have expelled the last remaining Russian Baptist missionary in the country, the Keston News Service reported. Authorities ordered the deportation of Vitali Tereshin in March, but the missionary went into hiding to continue his work. He was located in April by Turkmenistan’s political police, the National Security Committee (KNB).
LAGOS, 22 May 2000 (Newsroom) — Nigeria’s Federal High Court will hear arguments next month on the legality of Sharia law, which has sparked violent conflicts between Christians and Muslims in northern states where it has been introduced.
Reports from Laos say the number of Christians held by the government has dropped in recent months. Although the Lao Constitution provides for freedom of religion, the government continues to restrict the right to practice religion.
18 May 2000 (Newsroom) — A U.S. federal court in Kentucky has ordered state officials to remove wall displays that include the Ten Commandments from classrooms in a public school district and two county courthouses. Judge Jennifer B. Coffman issued three nearly identical preliminary injunctions on May 5, arguing that the wall displays amounted to government endorsement of a particular religion, in conflict with the First Amendment.
18 May 2000 (Newsroom) — A Pentecostal church in the Kosovo capital was raided by self-proclaimed Islamic militants, according to the Keston News Service. Christians in the Muslim-majority province of Serbia say they have been the targets of attacks since Serbian troops withdrew last June.
A Pentecostal church in the Kosovo capital was raided by self-proclaimed Islamic militants, according to the Keston News Service. Christians in the Muslim-majority province of Serbia say they have been the targets of attacks since Serbian troops withdrew last June.
17 May 2000 (Newsroom) — Two colleagues of prominent Chinese evangelist Li Dexian have been sentenced to 15 days in prison, an Australian-based monitoring group reported. Ah Yung and Ah Kong are among 13 Protestant house church members who have been arrested in the southern province of Guangdong since the weekend, according to the Sydney office of Voice of the Martyrs (VOM).