Several people were injured when a Hindu mob attacked a Christmas worship service in India’s religiously volatile eastern state of Orissa Monday, December 24, destroying a crib as well as light and sound equipment, Christians told BosNewsLife.
Chinese police detained and tortured a key official of an umbrella group representing the rapidly growing underground house churches in China, as part of a Christmas season crackdown on devoted Christians, an advocacy group with close knowledge about the situation said Wednesday, December 19.
Indonesian security forces have prevented an attack by about 50 Muslim militants on the troubled Pasundan Christian Church in West Java Province, the second act of violence against the Protestant congregation in two weeks, a well-informed Christian rights group said Thursday, December 13.
A search continued Thursday, December 13, for the General Secretary of the Churches of Pakistan, Dr. Rejinald Humayun, who was kidnapped last week following clashes in the country involving Islamic militants that killed at least three Christians.
At least 150 house church pastors were believed to be behind bars Tuesday, December 11, after Chinese security forces broke up a Christian meeting in China’s Shandong Province, fellow believers said.
An advocacy group representing churches and mission organizations says Hindu militants backed by political parties and groups have carried out at least 500 attacks against mainly Christian missionaries in the past 23 months, and urged the central government to halt the violence.
Attacking the house of a Baptist pastor and protesting the presence of a Catholic temple, radical Muslim groups got authorities to close down two churches in the past two weeks.
Without discussion or compensation, the Kano state government has unilaterally decided to demolish four churches in this city to make way for roads and a hospital.
Pakistani Christians have played a prominent role in the struggle against harsh emergency laws established by the country’s president this month. And many of have paid the price.
About 40 leaders of one of China’s largest house church groups have been detained while at least one pastor received a prison term for writing and distributing Christian publications among Muslims, a major advocacy organization said Wednesday, November 28.
A mob allegedly led by a Hindu extremist group demolished a house church and beat the pastor and believers on November 19 in Chhattisgarh state’s Bastar district. The following day, a young relative of the pastor allegedly kidnapped by the extremists was found dead in a nearby jungle.
Police detained an Egyptian convert to Christianity on her wedding anniversary in Upper Egypt last week, her husband said.
Hundreds of Muslim militants stormed and destroyed a Protestant church in Indonesia’s province of West Java amid growing religious tensions in the region, a Netherlands-based Christian rights group reported Tuesday, November 27.
Two Indian evangelical pastors were free on bail Tuesday, November 27, after being detained over the weekend for allegedly “forcing” Hindus to accept Christianity, amid reports that India’s most influential Hindu organization has stepped up efforts to crackdown on devoted Christians.
A Baptist pastor serving two years imprisonment in Azerbaijan for “illegal religious services” is forced by officials to provide “high payments” for food, other basic needs and to meet relatives, BosNewsLife learned from investigators and family Thursday, November 22.
Dozens of Islamic militants raided a house church in the Indonesian province of West Java on Monday, November 19, the latest in a series of attacks against perceived “illegal” places of worship, local Christians reportedly said.
Just days after two Christian activists from a human rights group were released from jail, Egyptian authorities took three of their colleagues into police custody over the weekend.
After reports emerged of a bloody crackdown on Christians and other activists, Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf pledged Sunday, November 11, that he would organize elections before January 9, next year.
A rash of violence in Maharashtra state last weekend, Christian leaders say, is typical of a growing history of unchecked, Hindu extremist crimes against Christians in Thane district.
A young Indian evangelist and shepherd has been killed by Hindu priests seeking human sacrifices for a Hindu ‘goddess’, the latest in a series of violent attacks against Christians in India, BosNewsLife learned Wednesday, November 7.