Malaysia’s best known Christian convert, Lina Joy, on Wednesday, May 30, lost her six-year battle to be recognized as a Christian in a landmark case that tested the limits of religious freedom in this mainly Muslim nation.
Vietnamese security forces have tortured and killed at least two Christian Degar Montagnards in Vietnam’s Central Highlands in recent months and allegedly murdered relatives of religious prisoners, representatives said Monday, May 28.
Anti-Christian activists from two Hindu radical groups — Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bajrang Dal — attacked a Pastor and an elder of a church in Bangarpet in Kolar district of Karnataka on May 21 2007 for distributing gifts at a VBS (Vacation Bible School).
The trial of an 84-year old Christian accused of blasphemy was to start Saturday, May 26, amid fears he could face the death penalty, the group defending him told BosNewsLife.
A report of an advisory panel favoring affirmative action benefits for Dalit converts to Christianity has raised the hopes of India’s 16 million lowest-caste believers as they await a Supreme Court hearing in July.
Four Degar Montagnard Christians remained imprisoned in Vietnam’s Central Highlands Tuesday, May 15, after they were arrested for collecting names for a statement which denies the growing house church movement of Degar Montagnards seeks independence from Vietnam, fellow believers told BosNewsLife.
The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to enact an anti-conversion law in the northern state of Uttarakhand, as it promised during its election campaign in February.
A key human rights group in Pakistan has expressed “grave concern” over government plans to introduce an anti-apostasy law under which those leaving Islam, including Christian coverts, could face the death penalty or life imprisonment.
Christians in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, May 13, worshiped amid heightened tensions after they received threatening letters warning them to shut their churches and convert to Islam within the next few days as anti-Christian violence spreads across Pakistan, officials confirmed to BosNewsLife.
A Degar Montagnard who worshipped in a house church in Vietnam’s Central Highlands was free Monday, May 7, after weeks of imprisonment and torture in March and April, fellow believers said.
Several arrested missionaries and church leaders were recovering from injuries in Western India late Tuesday, May 8, after they were attacked by Hindu militants and dragged to local police, the latest in a series of violent incidents against Indian Christians.
A Christian woman accused of blasphemy against Islam has been released on bail but concerns remain over her safety amid death threats, a human rights official involved in the trial confirmed to BosNewsLife Friday, May 4.
The whereabouts of several predominantly Christian Karenni villagers in Burma were unknown Saturday, May 5, after government backed forces reportedly executed a humanitarian aid worker in Burma’s Karenni State.
A tense calm returned to a small town in the southern Indian state of Karnataka after at least six people were injured Sunday, May 6, when suspected Hindu militants demanding the closure of a new church attacked evangelical Christians following a worship service, investigators told BosNewsLife.
Two Degar Montagnard Christians have been detained and tortured in Vietnam’s Central Highlands after security forces discovered they had been collecting names of the most impoverished people apparently to better target aid, fellow believers told BosNewsLife Thursday, May 3.
There was increased concern Wednesday, May 2, about the plight of Christian Dalits after India’s Supreme Court again postponed action in a landmark equal rights case, Christian rights workers said.
Dozens of Hindu militants on Sunday, April 29, nearly killed an independent pastor in Jaipur, the capital of India’s western Rajasthan state, while his small ill daughter watched the attack, a senior human rights investigator told BosNewsLife.
One of India’s main advocacy organizations representing churches and mission groups expressed shock Saturday, April 28, that the Hindu-led government of Andhra Pradesh “banned Christianity” in several parts of the volatile state.
Hindu extremists in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh have raised the incidence of attacks on believers to an unprecedented high, including a slander campaign against the state’s chief minister, Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, a Christian.
An influential Christian politician was in hiding in Vietnam Tuesday, April 24, after being harassed by Vietnamese security forces who also attacked other dissidents planning to meet US officials, a leading human rights activist confirmed to BosNewsLife.