New Tribes Mission Venezula Forced to Relocate Personnel
In order to comply with a resolution ordering missionaries to leave tribal areas, New Tribes Mission of Venezuela has begun relocating personnel.
Month: January 2006
Nigerian Churches Marked for Demolition in Zamfara State
‘For your information, the state Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Sani, has ordered that your church should be demolished before his arrival in this town tomorrow. So, we shall carry out this directive tomorrow morning.’
India Christians Injured As Hindu Violence Rocks State
At least 18 Christians, including children, were injured when Hindu militants armed with sticks, rods and other sharp weapons broke up a Christian seminar in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, the fourth such incident in as many days, a Christian news agency reported Monday, January 30.
Major Rise in Attacks Against Christians in India State, Survey shows
A US-based religious rights group said Friday, January 27, that violence against the tiny Christian minority in India’s north-central state of Madhya Pradesh increased by 45 percent during the last two years.
Two Churches Attacked in Sri Lanka
Two churches in Sri Lanka were attacked last weekend as threats from Buddhist monks continued amid tensions between the government and Tamil rebels.
Azerbaijani Soldiers Desecrate Armenian Christian Cemetery
The Washington, DC-based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) www.persecution.org, has recently been informed that the government of Azerbaijan has destroyed an irreplaceable medieval Armenian Christian cemetery in the Djulfa region of Nakhichevan.
Christians Attacked, Houses Burned in Orissa, India
A pastor and his cousin charged with attempted forced conversion in Matiapada village, Orissa state, were released on bail yesterday, while five Hindu villagers charged with assault and setting fire to the pastor’s house are still in custody.
UK Evangelicals Warn Of Persecution Threats in Britain
The Evangelical Alliance United Kingdom (EAUK), an umbrella group representing one million evangelical Christians in the UK, prepared Tuesday, January 24, a major campaign to “alert” believers to “the dangers of the proposed religious hatred (law) and other legislation.”
Indonesian Court Rejects Legal Intervention for Jailed Teachers
Judges at Indonesia’s Constitutional Court on January 17 ruled that the Child Protection Act is in line with the constitution and should not be amended. The Rev. Ruyandi Hutasoit had challenged Article 86 of the Act, used as the basis for sentencing Dr. Rebekka Zakaria, Eti Pangesti and Ratna Bangun to three years in prison on September 1, 2005. The Christian Sunday School teachers were arrested in May 2005 after members of a local Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI or Muslim Clerics Council) in West Java accused them of trying to convert Muslim children. Judge Jimly Asshiddique said Rev. Hutasoit had no right to contest the Child Protection Act, since he had not experienced any ‘direct losses’ under it.
Romance Leads to Communal Hatred in Assam, India
At this time last year, Noor Jehan Ahmed, 55, lived peacefully in the village of Nagaon, in the northeastern state of Assam. She and her extended household of 29 people formed their own Christian enclave within the majority-Muslim community.
India Local Government OK’s ‘Anti-Christian’ Weapons Distribution
The government of India’s largest northwestern state, Rajasthan, has withdrawn criminal procedures against most militants of an influential Hindu nationalist organization involved in the massive distribution of ‘tridents’, three-sponged spears that have reportedly been used to intimidate the Christian minority, BosNewsLife learned Monday, January 23.
China Top Lawyers Start Association To Defend Christians
Prosecuted Chinese house churches on Saturday, January 21, were expecting more legal support after a group of top Chinese lawyers and legal scholars announced the establishment of an association dedicated to defending Chinese Christians.
Egypt Rocked By Religious Violence, One Christian Killed, 12 Injured
Funeral preparations were underway Friday, January 20, where at least one Christian and a dozen others were injured when Muslim militants set fire to a Christian community center in Upper Egypt, church sources and news reports said.
Eight House Churches Shut Down in West Java, Indonesia
Local government officials in Bandung, West Java, have ordered eight house churches in the Rancaekek Kencana housing complex to cease meeting in private homes starting last Sunday (January 15).
Christians in India Attacked at Bus Stand and at House
Hindu extremists attacked Christians in two incidents in the same district of Andhra Pradesh state on January 12 and 13, in one case dragging a pastor from a child’s birthday party and kicking him unconscious.
India Christians Attacked, Church Destroyed Amid Hindu Conversions
Christians in several tense Indian states were weighing their options Tuesday, January 17, after churches were attacked and believers apparently pressured to return to Hinduism.
Blind Christian Dissident in Cuba Surrounded By Violent Crowds, Trapped in House
Cuba’s influential blind Christian dissident, Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva, was facing another tense night Monday, January 16, after government backed crowds, armed with loudspeakers, reportedly threatened to storm his house and kill everyone inside.
Uzbek Television Slanders Protestant Church
A so-called “documentary” televised regionally in Uzbekistan last summer has left entire communities convinced that a Protestant congregation is an “extremist” group worse than fundamentalist Islam.
Ethiopia Evangelist Seriously Injured After Attack, Persecution Spreads
There was concern Sunday, January 15, over the health situation of an evangelist in Ethiopia, who was nearly killed by an angry mob in the latest of a series of Muslim militant attacks against the African nation’s evangelical Christians, a religious rights group said.
The Top 10 Christian Persecution News Stories of 2005
Read the top 10 Christian Persecution News Stories of 2005 according to Compass Direct.