Iran has launched the “systematic persecution and prosecution” of “Protestants and Christian converts” with a Muslim background, closing churches, detaining believers and threatening some with execution, a new report claims.
Iran on Monday, January 7, released Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who was jailed on Christmas Day to serve the remainder of a sentence for evangelism among Muslims, his evangelical house church movement confirmed.
Beleaguered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was to deliver a speech on Sunday, January 6, a day after rights activists said a shell hit a Christian area of Damascus and a car bomb exploded elsewhere in the Syrian capital.
In Iran, an Iranian-born American pastor with dual citizenship remains behind bars in Evin prison for the holidays.
Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who was recently acquitted of apostasy, has been returned to prison on an earlier charge, rights activists told Worthy News.
Iranian Church leaders have urged prayers for Christians in Iran amid concerns authorities will raid more house churches and detain believers over the Christmas and Western New Year period.
A Muslim cleric has issued a fatwa threatening Iraqi Christians unless they convert to Islam, but the country’s prime minister urged them to stay.
Minority Christians in Syria’s largest city Aleppo said they face starvation after dozens of believers already died in targeted attacks rocking Christian areas of the war-torn country.
Arrested just before last Christmas, four Christian converts recently received a total of four years in prison at the Revolutionary Court in Ahwaz according to Christian news agency, Mohabat News.
An Iranian court has ordered the temporary release of a jailed devoted house church Christian and mother of two children, after her teenage son suffered a seizure, local Christians following the case.
An official of one of Iran’s largest house church movement says recently detained church members are tortured and otherwise pressured to confess to crimes they did not commit.
Massive arrests of evangelical Protestant Christians, including many former Muslims, are reported in Iran, with men and women being dragged to prisons across the Islamic nation.
Although Halloween isn’t celebrated in an Islamic Republic, state security agents have been scaring away potential parishioners from both St. Luke’s and St. Paul’s churches in Esfahan to prevent Iranians from following Christianity.
Five Christian converts will be tried in southwestern Iran on charges linked to their Christian activities, after spending eight months in prison, an Iranian Christian news agency reported.
Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who was sentenced to death and became a symbol of what his church called “suffering Christians” in this heavily Islamic nation, could embrace his wife and children Saturday, September 8, after he was unexpectedly released from prison, Worthy News learned.
A missionary living in Jordan was stabbed to death by a teenager Tuesday after she caught him stealing in her apartment, police said.
A jailed Iranian pastor, who may be executed for “apostasy”, already faces death as authorities continue to deny him medical care despite earlier promises, a church official and close friend told Bmay be Worthy News.
Syrian Christians are reportedly targeted by rebels linked to Islamic terror groups and it remained unclear whether everyone fleeing the violence would be able to reach neighboring Turkey.
Mosul is now one of the most violent cities in Iraq with Christians and other minorities singled out for attacks and thousands continue to flee from the troubled nation, a Christian group said Thursday, August 16.
A U.S. Congressman has recently introduced a resolution to the House of Representatives that would protect Christians and other minorities in war-torn Syria.