
Christian in Indonesia arrested for comments on Muhammad
A Christian leader in West Kaliman Province was arrested on Feb. 18 for comments he made about Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, sources said.

A Christian leader in West Kaliman Province was arrested on Feb. 18 for comments he made about Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, sources said.
The Hindu nationalist organization, widely regarded as the ideological backbone of India’s ruling party, has launched an international outreach campaign aimed at countering growing criticism over its role in religious persecution and sectarian violence. It can try to dodge, but it cannot hide the robust and verified experience of Indian Christians.
It is widely understood that Nepal has a rapidly growing Christian population. As it starts to stabilize and mature, the Church in Nepal is seeking official status and protections for their many congregations. The Nepal Christian Grand Trust now provides a pathway for official recognition, while theological, spiritual, and practical leadership development remains an urgent need.
The suffering of women and children often hides in plain sight, but they are not created for silence, fear, exploitation, abandonment, or shame. They are created with dignity, worth, courage, and humanity. Dr Winnie Fung is championing a wholistic approach to elevating the vulnerable and alleviating their suffering, with the local church integrally involved.
A new federation of churches in India has been launched to help protect church assets from being taken under amended laws giving authorities new powers that will negatively affect Christian witness. But the new group is already mired in controversy, for which groups it includes and which have been excluded.

When Ahnaf Jazeem wrote poetry condemning violence and promoting peace in Sri Lanka in 2017, he never imagined his verses would lead to 19 months in detention without trial.

The Allahabad High Court ruled on February 10 that a person’s caste, as determined at birth, cannot be altered by marriage or religious conversion, dismissing a criminal appeal that sought to strip a Scheduled Caste woman of her legal protections on the ground that she had married outside her community.

A high court in Pakistan this month rejected bail for a blind Christian charged with blasphemy despite significant discrepancies in the police report and prosecution testimonies, his attorney said.

Joseph Francis, a distinguished Pakistani minorities rights defender, passed away on Wednesday, Feb. 11, after a prolonged illness. He was 81.

India’s Supreme Court has set the stage for a landmark constitutional review of anti-conversion laws across 12 states, as Christian bodies mount parallel legal challenges to legislation they say has been systematically weaponized against religious minorities.

In a landmark move welcomed by Christian rights advocates, the governor of Pakistan’s Punjab Province on Wednesday (Feb. 11) signed into law an ordinance raising the minimum legal age of marriage to 18 and making child marriage a non-bailable offense punishable by up to seven years in prison.