A Catholic couple in Pakistan received the best Christmas gift they could imagine this week – the return of their kidnapped daughter after she escaped from a Muslim who forcibly converted/married her, sources said.
The situation for Iranian people is more dangerous now than before the recent war with Israel and the United States of America. Even more so for Christians who represent a growing minority religion in the staunchly Shia theocracy. Under threat, the ruling regime has increased its morality terror with brutal force.
In a perfect world, where legal systems hold political power to account and protect minorities against human rights abuses we might expect an end to persecution. But we do not live in a perfect world. People with power continue to act with impunity against those who think and live differently to them. Christians have a way to cope with this reality and a real and living hope for a future free of persecution.
New political winds are blowing with increasing force as the push-back against globalization grows with increasing nationalisms. The demand to pledge allegiance to something other than God in Christ will put renewed pressure on the Church and we need to be prepared to hold true to our faith. Here is a stern warning that Christians must take to heart.
Peace studies students witness locals spitting on a Christian holy site in Jerusalem prompting this response from a respected Christian leader whose family has lived in the city for millennia.
Christians in Syria confront an uncertain and perilous future under the control of Islamist-led rebel forces, a human rights group has warned. The city’s minority Christian population, significantly diminished by years of civil war, now grapples with fears of escalating threats and restrictions.
Fulani herdsmen killed 48 Christians in central Nigeria’s Benue state between Nov. 24 and Dec. 1, sources said.
Religious freedom and human rights have not improved “in hardly any region of the world” in the past decade, with numbers of persecuted Christians steadily increasing, former World Evangelical Alliance Sec. Gen. Thomas Schirrmacher said on Thursday (Dec. 5).
Muslims in a village in Indonesia stopped a church choir from rehearsing on Sunday evening (Dec. 1) for a Christmas service on the false premise that the Christians needed permission from community leaders, sources said.
Fulani herdsmen attacked villages in central Nigeria on Sunday (Dec. 1) and the days prior, killing two Christians, wounding another and kidnapping a pastor among others, sources said.
Members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan severely wounded a Catholic bishop over the weekend (Nov. 30-Dec. 1), shortly after soldiers from the rival Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) had harassed and robbed him, sources said.
The situation for Iranian people is more dangerous now than before the recent war with Israel and the United States of America. Even more so for Christians who represent a growing minority religion in the staunchly Shia theocracy. Under threat, the ruling regime has increased its morality terror with brutal force.
