A mentally challenged Christian girl who was detained in Pakistan on charges of ‘blasphemy against Islam’ has fled to Norway with family members, a Christian official involved in the operation confirmed.
A congregation of evangelical Christians in Russia’s capital Moscow were without a church building Tuesday, September 11, after workers with bulldozers and other equipment destroyed their Holy Trinity Pentecostal Church complex, protected by local police, witnesses said.
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 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.
Muslims torched Christian homes and “destroyed” a church in a slum area of Islamabad while suspected militants shot at another church outside Pakistan’s capital, after the jailing of a mentally handicapped Christian girl for “blasphemy”, witnesses said Tuesday, August 21.
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.
Arizona Pastor Michael Salman is looking at more than three years of probation along with monthly inspections because of the Bible study he led in his Phoenix home.
A Saudi who recently embraced Christianity and fled to Lebanon said she was tired of performing prayers and fasting for Ramadan.
The government of Mengka Township in Yunnan Province has a long history of suppressing the spread of Christianity by persecuting missionaries and banning personal Bibles.
An Iranian house-church leader has been released after spending 560 days in prison “because of his Christian faith,” Iranian Christians told Worthy News.
There was mounting concern Tuesday, July 17, about the health situation of jailed and mistreated Iranian Pastor Behnam Irani after he became unconscious and was hospitalized, an official assisting him with advocacy said.
The President of the Pakistan Christian Congress demanded the immediate release of Asia Bibi Saturday.
Both the Central Assembly of God Church in Tehran and its summer campsite have been closed by the Islamic authorities, according to the Farsi Christian News Network.
Thousands of Christians have fled their homes in Syria where news emerged Tuesday, July 3, that intelligence agencies run dozens of torture centers where detainees are beaten with batons and cables, burned with acid, sexually assaulted, and have fingernails torn out.
The rise of Christianity and the accompanying spread of its clandestine house churches in Iran is seen as a serious threat by the Islamic state’s senior clerics.
Suspected members of the Islamist Al-Shabaab killed 17 worshipers in coordinated attacks on churches in Garissa, Kenya, according to International Christian Concern.
Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court has acquitted an evangelical pastor on charges of “severe damage to health due to negligence” after praying for an ill man, but devoted Christians in another former Soviet republic, Azerbaijan, were awaiting whether a high court would ban their church.
Christians are being targeted by Muslim rebels according to the Vatican and other sources amongst besieged Syrian Christian communities.
Evangelical Christians in Iran’s capital Tehran were without a church building Sunday, June 10, after Iranian security forces closed it down as part of a wider crackdown, Iranian Christians and activists told Worthy News.
Iranian authorities recently told church leaders to submit the names and National ID numbers of their members, threatening the security of Christian converts.