Authorities in Egypt have abetted the kidnapping and forcible conversion to Islam of a Coptic Christian woman, according to a widely published expert on the Middle East and Islam.
At least 17 of the more than 100 Christians arrested for their faith in a crackdown in Iran last summer received prison sentences of between three months and five years, or fines and floggings, by the end of 2023, advocacy group Article 18 reported.
Unchecked massacres and kidnappings in Nigeria, many of them targeting Christians, require more than the U.S. State Department designating it as a “Country of Particular Concern,” key leaders said at the International Religious Freedom Summit.
Russian soldiers and occupation officials have committed at least 76 acts of religious persecution in Ukraine since the invasion of February 2022 as part of an attempt to destroy national identity, official and church sources said at the International Religious Freedom Summit.
The Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for a shooting at a Catholic church service in Istanbul, Turkey on Sunday (Jan. 28) that killed a Muslim citizen, news agencies reported.
Authorities in Nicaragua have jailed nine pastors for more than a month on charges that they formed part of a criminal operation along with three U.S. missionaries, according to the mission organization.
Officials in Mauritania have released all Christians arrested after a video of a baptism ceremony in November prompted Muslims to call for their punishment, Christian leaders in the region said.
The killing of an elderly woman and her daughter in Gaza City’s Holy Family Church on Saturday (Dec. 16) was the sixth attack by Israeli Defense Forces on the compound since war in Gaza broke out, a relative told The Washington Post.
Authorities in Mauritania have arrested 15 Christian leaders since late November following calls for punishment by Muslims outraged over a video showing a baptism ceremony, sources said.
Noting a widespread wave of arrests of religious minorities in Iran since June, the U.N. General Assembly last month adopted a resolution calling on the Islamic regime to “cease the widespread and systematic use of arbitrary arrests and detention.”
The Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for a blast that killed four worshippers at a Catholic Mass on Sunday (Dec. 4) in an area of the Philippines that had become an autonomous Muslim region in an attempt to end such violence.
New regulations for “religious activity venues” in China advance officials’ desire to replace spiritual instruction with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) political teaching, rights experts say.
