Christians in Iran meeting mostly in secret house groups to avoid detection by police face new challenges as the Islamic government seeks more internet restrictions, according to sources familiar with the situation.
Jews and others believing in Jesus as the Messiah reportedly face attacks in southern Israel by followers of a strict Orthodox sect. Details of the incident in Arad emerged Thursday, with rights investigators blaming the Gur Hasidim group.
Around two-thirds of Syria’s Christians have had to escape the war-torn country over the last 10 years, Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reports. Prior to the start of the civil war in 2011, Christians constituted between 8%-10% of Syria’s population; they now make up about 3%.
Iran’s judiciary has granted itself powers that will likely make life substantially more harsh for Christian converts who are already persecuted in this predominantly Islamic country, International Christian Concern reports.
It is estimated that there are around 1.2 million Christians living in Saudi Arabia, although citizens’ conversion from Islam to Christianity is punishable by death, Christian Headlines reports. Most believers in Saudi Arabia are Filipino expatriates who are allowed to work in the country, but are not citizens.
A former Muslim who embraced faith in Christ has been ordered to begin a ten-month prison sentence for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic,” Worthy News learned Wednesday.
The wife and children of a Christian in Saudi Arabia have left the country after he was fined on charges such as “attempting to convert” Muslims to Christianity, Worthy News learned.
Three former Muslims in Iran are the first Christians to be given prison sentences under Article 500, a new amendment to Iran’s penal code that aims to block the spread of the Gospel in the country, Morning Star News reports. Iran ranks 8 on the US Open Doors Watch List of countries that persecute Christians.
An Iranian court has sentenced three Christians from the evangelical Church of Iran denomination to five years imprisonment each for “engaging in propaganda against the Islamic regime,” trial observers say.
As Iran continues a relentless campaign of persecution against Iranian believers, on June 26 the Revolutionary Court in Karaj, northern Iran sentenced three Christians to five years in jail for “engaging in propaganda against the Islamic regime,” Christians Worldwide Solidarity reports.
Iranian Christians have urged prayers for a Christian convert after an appeals court upheld his 10-month prison sentence for “propaganda against the regime,” Worthy News learned.
Christians said Thursday they fear that the election of Ebrahim Raisi as Iran’s president will lead to more persecution of religious minorities.
Iran is persecuting Christians in the country by wielding against them a new law that severely punishes “any deviant education that contradicts sacred Islamic shari’a,” Christian Today reports.
Saudi Arabia has reportedly imposed a hefty fine on a Christian man for allegedly evangelizing among Muslims and helping his Christian sister to escape the Islamic nation.
Iranian Christians requested prayers Monday for a Christian convert after he turned himself in to start serving a nine-month prison term in Iran for evangelism and leaving Islam, sources told Worthy News.
A Saudi man who abandoned Islam and turned to faith in Christ has a court hearing in Saudi Arabia while his wife is pressured to leave him, Christians told Worthy News.
Christian converts and evangelists in Iran attend ‘persecution preparedness’ meetings to share practical and psychological ways of coping with the threat of government raids on underground churches and the prospect of being jailed in notoriously appalling prisons on the grounds of ‘national security,’ Open Doors UK reports.
Four devoted Christian men mistreated while in detention in Iran have been temporarily released due to the coronavirus pandemic, activists confirmed Thursday.
While Christian convert Majidreza Souzanchi was released from Iran’s Greater Tehran Penitentiary on April 8, four other Christians were arrested and detained by Iranian intelligence officials on April 19, International Christian Persecution reports. Iran currently ranks 8 on the Open Doors Watch List of countries where Christians are persecuted for their faith.
A former Muslim who became Christian in Saudi Arabia faced a court and possible jail Thursday for helping his sister, a fellow believer, to escape the Islamic nation, Worthy News learned.