A young pastor of Iran’s largest house church movement has told an Iranian court he will not “recant” his faith in Christ despite facing execution as early as Thursday, September 29, for abandoning Islam, church sources said.
An Iranian court has asked the pastor of one of Iran’s largest house church movements to abandon his faith in Christ and return to Islam if he wants to avoid execution, a church official told Worthy News Sunday, September 25.
China has unexpectedly released a prominent house church leader from prison amid international concerns about his health, his family and rights activists confirmed Monday, September 19.
Lawmakers in Kazakhstan have voted for controversial legislation that Christians and rights activists say will further limit religious freedom in the mainly Muslim Central Asian state.
A Christian accused of blasphemy died in a Pakistan prison from a treatable disease after he was denied medical care.
Four Pentecostal pastors in Madhya Pradesh were recently beaten and arrested on charges of forced conversion, spending a night in jail before making bail.
The body of a kidnapped Christian convert from Islam was found decapitated near Hudur City on Sept. 2.
Two Azeri converts from Islam were both released temporarily on $40,000 bail after appearing before two separate court hearings.
Christians are regularly attacked in Karnataka by Hindu nationalists, while the authorities “turn a blind eye,” according to Sajan K. George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians, concerning yet another case of abuse against so called forced conversions.
Last Sunday five members of a house church in Fangshan tried to worship with members of the embattled Beijing Shouwang house church in a public square in Beijing.
Iran on Tuesday, September 6, ordered five Iranian Christians, including a heavily pregnant woman, to report to prison on charges linked to their Christian activities, a mission group working in the region said.
Arrested on charges of blasphemy against Islam, Pastor Matthias Haghnejad is now free on bail, according to ASSIST News Service.
According to an unconfirmed report from the Farsi News Network, after almost one year in prison, Pastor Vahik Abrahamian was released Aug. 29 and has rejoined his family.
Muslim extremists with the alleged aid of Nigerian soldiers killed 24 Christians this month in Nigeria’s central Plateau.
Police who raided a Protestant family’s home in Fergana also assaulted the husband as they confiscated a Bible, an Uzbek New Testament, the Proverbs of Solomon and a Koran.
The whereabouts of an evangelical pastor in Iran remained unknown Saturday, August 27, some 10 days after he was detained by Iranian security forces as part of a reported government crackdown on Christian converts, Worthy News established.
Authorities backed by Hindu militants have halted the reconstruction of a Baptist church that was destroyed in deadly anti-Christian violence in India’s volatile state of Orissa, local Christians said.
Kirkuk police recently report that they deactivated an explosive device left near the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in the Almass district of Kirkuk.
Christians who were recently relocated to Nandagiri have been ordered to suspend construction of their small church to satisfy the region’s radical Hindus.
Bogor’s mayor has a new reason not to allow the Yasmin church to open: the name of the street on which it is built bears an Islamic name.