Local authorities recently ordered 12 churches in the sub-district of Rancaekek, Bandung, Indonesia, to close their doors. The order came after Muslim clerics protested that the churches were meeting illegally.
An Islamic militant group that has been terrorizing non-Muslim communities in the northern Nigerian states of Boro, Yobe, and Kebbi since the beginning of the year struck again on September 20, burning villages, killing four policemen and kidnapping seven Christians.
Two years after seven Christians were gunned down at the Karachi headquarters of one of Pakistan’s established Christian welfare agencies, local police investigators have failed to identify a single suspect.
Protestant ministers in the United States generally believe that religious persecution is a major problem in today’s world, and they believe the U.S. should impose sanctions against countries where this is occurring. These findings have just been released from a research study conducted among Protestant clergy in America.
Eritrean security police pounced on five evangelical Christians holding a prayer meeting in their church office in Asmara last week, hauling them off under arrest to a local police station.
Protestant church leaders in Iran learned this morning that one of 10 evangelical pastors reportedly released from detention by police authorities on September 12 is still being held incommunicado.
Ten evangelical church leaders arrested four days ago by Iranian police were released last night from their unknown detention site.
Buddhist monks from the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) party have launched an international campaign to win support for a proposed anti-conversion bill in Sri Lanka. The monks have met with representatives at the United States, United Kingdom, Canadian, Indian, Australian, French and German embassies in Sri Lanka, according to local press reports.
Iranian police invaded the annual general conference of Iran’s Assemblies of God Church yesterday, arresting at least 80 church leaders gathered at the church’s denominational center in Karaj, 20 miles west of Tehran.
Gospel for Asia (GFA) said late Friday, September, 10, that three of its native missionaries who were captured and threatened with death in India’s north-eastern state of Bihar have been released by anti-Christian militants “in a miraculous turn of events.”
Overwhelmed with messages of prayer and support, two pastors in Beslan, North Ossetia in southern Russia, have expressed their heartfelt thanks to all those who have written to them since the siege at the school in which hundreds, mostly children, were killed.
Anti-Christian elements in Bihar have captured, severely beaten and are threatening to kill Gospel For Asia (GFA) native missionary Pastor Manrathan and his wife. GFA Bible woman Sarita is also being held hostage.
Five Afghan men who had converted to Christianity have been killed in separate incidents since late June near the borders of eastern Afghanistan.
The Washington, DC, based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) www.persecution.org, has received new information concerning the expulsion of 96 Christian families totaling about 600 people from their village in Lao Cai Province to Binh Thuan Province about 800 miles to the south.
Three people were killed and 14 seriously injured on September 4 when masked men opened fire on a church in southern Colombia during a prayer service, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reports.
Another Christian has died in Pakistan as a result of severe torture at the hands of the police. This is the third murder of a Pakistani Christian this year, and the second carried out by the police.
We just received exciting news that GFA native missionary Besh has been freed from the Maoist group that abducted him in mid-August. Another missionary had been sent to search for him, but in the meantime Besh was safely returned, physically unharmed. This is nothing short of a miracle when we consider that Maoists in this district typically kill those they abduct.
Eight days after his arrest, prominent Vietnamese house church leader Rev. Tran Mai walked back into his house in Ho Chi Minh City at 11 p.m. on September 6. However, he arrived home with orders to appear for further interrogation just nine hours later at the city headquarters of the Ministry of Public Security.