Saudi Prince Orders Jailed Christians Released
Two Egyptian Christians jailed in the Saudi capital of Riyadh 10 days ago for leading a house church were ordered released this morning by Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud.
Prayer
Attackers Critically Injure Turkish Christian
A Turkish convert to Christianity who was severely beaten for distributing New Testaments last week in his hometown of Orhangazi in northwestern Turkey has slipped into a coma in critical condition.
Iraq’s Revival: Christians Risk Their Lives for Church
Iraqi Christians who have become targets of attacks by Muslim extremists and bandits are risking their lives to attend church services, ASSIST News Service (ANS) has established.
Arrested Chinese believers located; families still not notified
The location where two Chinese house-church Christians are being held has been revealed by a Voice of the Martyrs source within the Chinese government.
Christians Pray for Detained Aid Workers as US Launches New Air Strikes Against Afghanistan
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (ANS) — As the United States began a second day of air and missile attacks against Afghanistan Monday October 8, round the clock prayers intensified for twenty-four Christian aid workers held in a prison of the country’s ruling Taliban regime.
Afghanistan’s Regime Denies Prisoners Exchange
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (ANS) — The Foreign Minister of Afghanistan’s Islamic Taliban regime denied Thursday, September 6, that his hard-line movement was considering a prisoner swap with the United States to free eight detained Western Christian relief workers. Reports from the region said that relatives of blind Egyptian militant Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, currently serving a life term in the United States for terrorism, proposed the prison exchange.
Taliban Arrest 35 More Afghans In Alleged Missionary Probe
ISTANBUL, September 10 (Compass) — Taliban authorities arrested 35 more Afghan aid workers over the weekend, bringing the total to more than 50 Afghans jailed by the strict Islamist regime since early August on suspicion of aiding covert Christian missionary work.
The Taliban’s 2001 Calendar of Religious Intolerance
JANUARY
Taliban leader Mohammed Omar declares on Radio Shariat that any Afghan caught professing Christianity or Judaism would be executed, and that any non-Muslim found “trying to win converts” would also be killed.
Eight Aid Workers Free at Last
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (ANS) — In what was seen as an answer to the prayers of thousands of Christians around the world, eight Christian aid workers detained in Afghanistan arrived safely in neighboring Pakistan, Thursday November 15, after more 100 days in captivity.
More Evangelicals Arrested in Eritrea
Police in the Eritrean capital of Asmara continued the country-wide crackdown against independent Protestant congregations this month, arresting another 12 evangelicals on September 7 while they were meeting in a private house for prayer and worship.
Iraq’s Revival: Christians Risk Their Lives for Church
BAGHDAD, IRAQ (ANS) — Iraqi Christians who have become targets of attacks by Muslim extremists and bandits are risking their lives to attend church services, ASSIST News Service (ANS) has established.
UAE Formally Deports Filipino Pastor
Following lengthy judicial delays, the United Arab Emirates allowed Rev. Fernando P. Alconga to be deported back to Manila on July 23, more than nine months after he was arrested in Dubai for illegal Christian activities.
Sudanese Priest Released in Khartoum
Six weeks after a Sudanese court jailed an Episcopal priest for refusing to tear down his own church, the Rev. Samuel Dobai Amum has been set free, with the legal process set in motion for his Khartoum North parish to obtain official ownership of its land.
Eritrean Protestants Arrested at Prayer Meeting
Asmara Police Jail, Punish 56 Prisoners Special to Compass Direct LOS ANGELES, May 8 (Compass) — Eritrean security police arrested two full-time evangelists and another 54 members of the Rema Church last night in Asmara, hauling them off to a local police station for holding illegal prayer meetings in two homes of their members. The prayer meetings were in progress in the capital’s Kahawta district when security forces raided the homes about 6 p.m., forcing the Protestant believers to stop their worship. The jailed Christians, 21 women and 35 men, remained under detention today at the No. 7 Police Station … Read more
Eritrea Jails 170 Protestant Christians
A total of 170 Protestant Christians have been jailed, beaten and threatened with death by Eritrean security forces in a harsh crackdown during February and March.
Muslim Extremist Murders Kurdish Christian
Kurdish Christian Ziwar Mohammed Ismaeel was shot dead in front of his taxi stand last month in Zakho, the northern-most city in the Kurdish safe-haven of Northern Iraq.
Americans Freed in Afghanistan Ask Prayer For Philippine Hostages
WACO, Texas (Compass) — Imprisoned Christian aid workers Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry were freed from Afghanistan’s Taliban as the country fell, city by city, to opposition forces. But a homecoming worship service showed they haven’t forgotten believers still in captivity.
Azerbaijan: Two-Week Prison For Pentecostal Leaders
Amid growing pressure on Protestant congregations, two leaders of the unregistered Pentecostal church Living Stones have been arrested and given fifteen-day prison terms, Protestant sources in the Azerbaijani capital Baku have told Keston News Service. The two – Yusuf Farkhadov and Kasym Kasymov – were detained in Sumgait, a town close to Baku, when police and National Security Ministry officers raided a prayer meeting last Friday (18 January) held in a private flat in the town’s 9th micro-district. The two were given the two-week prison term under Article 310 of the Administrative Code, which punishes “petty hooliganism”. “All they were doing was praying,” one church member told Keston. They are serving their term in police detention cells in Sumgait.
Chinese Christian Family Beaten and Left in the Cold
At about 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 5, 2003, approximately 10 unidentified men burst into the home of Brother Hua Huiqi and his wife, Ju Mei in Beijing. Forcing all of the members of the household, including Hua’s elderly parents, to lay on the floor, the attackers savagely beat the family, breaking one of the legs of Hua’s 80-year-old father. They then confiscated all of the home’s portable heaters, leaving the family to suffer from the cold of winter. It is believed that the intruders were either sent by the police or could even have been plain-clothes policemen.
Missionary Martin Burnham’s life capped by joyous funeral in Kansas
ROSE HILL, Kan. (BP)–Every night, as he was being handcuffed to a tree deep in the Philippine jungle, Martin Burnham would look his armed captors in the eye and say, “Thank you very much.”