KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (ANS) — The Foreign Minister of Afghanistan’s Islamic Taliban regime denied Thursday, September 6, that his hard-line movement was considering a prisoner swap with the United States to free eight detained Western Christian relief workers. Reports from the region said that relatives of blind Egyptian militant Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, currently serving a life term in the United States for terrorism, proposed the prison exchange.
ISTANBUL, September 10 (Compass) — Taliban authorities arrested 35 more Afghan aid workers over the weekend, bringing the total to more than 50 Afghans jailed by the strict Islamist regime since early August on suspicion of aiding covert Christian missionary work.
JANUARY
Taliban leader Mohammed Omar declares on Radio Shariat that any Afghan caught professing Christianity or Judaism would be executed, and that any non-Muslim found “trying to win converts” would also be killed.
In recent weeks, unknown assailants have targeted Christian churches in Indonesia with attempted bombings and bomb threats.
Authorities in Vietnam’s Kontum province have found a way to add cruel symbolism to their unwarranted persecution of Christians.
More than four years after the tragic murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, prime suspect Dara Singh and 12 others were convicted of the killings today by the district and sessions judge of Orissa state, India.
Nagaland, one of the world’s most mysterious lands tucked in the mountainous, jungle covered northeastern corner of India near the Burmese border, has 10,000 missionaries poised to take the Gospel to nearby lands.
Christians belonging to a small house church in northern Nepal were attacked by Buddhist and Hindu villagers on July 26, resulting in hospitalization for at least one church member. The mob attacked and destroyed houses and cornfields belonging to Christian villagers.
A group of 12 Christians in Laos are under extreme pressure to abandon their faith while being held in prison, according to a report from Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).
A Gospel for Asia church of 51 believers in Jharkhand, India, is under attack as anti-Christian leaders meet to decide its fate.
A High Court has upheld the decision of a lower court to sentence two Pakistani Christians to life imprisonment for allegedly burning a Qur’an.
Following last October’s bombing of a Bali nightclub, Christians and churches have made an effort to unite in their response to the tragedy.
HO CHI MINH CITY, March 19 (Compass) — In what may be a small breakthrough for religious liberty, Vietnam’s religion authorities invited five leaders of Protestant house church organizations and non-denominational missions to Hanoi for “informal talks†in early March.
AUSTRALIA (ANS) — On 1 October 2001, as U.S. and coalition forces were assembling in Pakistan in preparation for the bombing campaign in Afghanistan, Bangladeshis were heading off to vote in their national elections.
NEW DELHI, December 30 (Compass) — The government of India has rejected a demand that social benefits be extended to Dalit Christians and Muslims, compounding the problems faced by the most downtrodden social class in India.
LONDON (Compass) — Following last October’s bombing of a Bali nightclub, Christians and churches have made an effort to unite in their response to the tragedy.
January 7, 2004 (Christian Aid) — Following the disaster of December 26, native missionaries of Indonesia have been helping survivors on the northern tip of Sumatra Island, the single region with the most casualties.
November 24, 2003 (Gospel for Asia) — Deep in the forests of India, there lives an illiterate, isolated people group called the Gond. They consult witch doctors and worship the gods of nature. They have never heard of Jesus.
CARROLLTON, Texas, Dec. 27, 2004 (Gospel for Asia) — Gospel for Asia workers are rushing food, clothing, medical supplies-and the love of God-to millions of Asians still in deep shock from a disaster spawned by the most powerful earthquake in 40 years.
Police arrested a missionary and four church leaders after Christian groups in the state of Nagaland were accused of forcing people of other faiths to convert to Christianity.