From http://www.politicalislam.com/http://www.politicalislam.com/.
Bulletin of Christian Persecution
December 13, 2009 - January 14, 2010
GlobalDecember 13, 2009
The epidemic of Christian persecution in Muslim countries.
January 5, 2010
Pew Foundation finds 70% of world's religious population is discriminated against.
Asia
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Pakistan
A Christian sanitation worker was struggling for his life after two Christian co-workers already died because Muslim employers apparently poisoned them, police and family confirmed.
December 17, 2009
Karaj, Iran
Security police and undercover officers attacked a Christmas gathering of more than 70 newly converted Christians who remain in detention in an undisclosed location.
December 17, 2009
Indonesia
A mob of close to 1,000 Muslims attacked and destroyed a Christian church under construction.
December 21, 2009
Pakistan
Muslims ordered a Christian friend to convert to Islam or die after accusing him of murder and shot him when he would not convert.
December 24, 2009
Iran
Christians in Iran are anticipating a difficult Christmas after security forces reportedly raided a worship gathering and have detained two of the group's leaders at an unknown location. There has been concern among authorities about the spread of Christianity in the strict Islamic nation.
December 29, 2009
Indonesia
An attack by unknown assailants on a Christian house of prayer occurred in early December in the village of Tlogowero, Bansari sub district (Java). Police issued a statement on the matter only yesterday. For residents, the incident was caused by Muslim objection to the presence of Christian buildings in their villages.
December 29, 2009
Pakistan
As many as 50 Muslim villagers armed with clubs and axes recently attacked a showing of the 'Jesus' film near Sargodha,Pakistan, injuring three part-time evangelists and four Christians in attendance.
December 31, 2009
Philippines
A Filipino migrant worker in Saudi Arabia was exploited and mocked for her faith. She escaped after 7 months of constant harassment.
December 30, 2009
Bangladesh
To prevent attacks of Muslims during the celebrations of Christmas, the government deployed more than 12 thousand policemen to guard the churches. Archbishop of Dhaka: "Christians alarmed by the growing climate of violence."
January 2, 2010
Pakistan
Christians in Pakistan faced a bloody New Year as local tribesmen prepared for funerals shortly after the deadliest suicide attack in Pakistan's history killed at least 95 people.
January 4, 2010
Pakistan
Muslim mob wounds a Christian family. Assailants threaten to charge the mentally ill son with ‘blasphemy’ if the victims pursue justice.
January 8, 2010
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Two Malaysian churches have been attacked, leaving one badly damaged, in an escalating dispute over the use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims. Update here.
January 12, 2010
Maylasia
Malaysian police said Tuesday, January 12, they have identified their first suspect in attacks on some 10 churches and Christian buildings amid a dispute over the use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims.
January 14, 2020
Pakistan
Two Christians in Pakistan were recovering of their injuries of January 14, saying they were were shot at a wedding party for refusing to convert to Islam.
Mid-East
December 30, 2009
Iraq
A Christian student is kidnapped at the University of Mosul. Over the past two months in Mosul four churches and a convent of Dominican nuns have been targeted in attacks, several Christian and Muslim homes have been destroyed. Five Christians have been murdered, others are victims of kidnappings.
December 31, 2009
Iraq
More attacks against Christians in Mosul. Nearly two thousand Christians have been killed in the past six years.
North Africa
December 31, 2000
Algeria
Nearly 50 Muslim members of a community in northern Algeria blocked Christians from holding a Christmas service on Saturday (Dec. 26) to protest a new church building in their neighborhood. Protestors also reportedly threatened to kill the church pastor.
January 6, 2010
Egypt
Gunmen killed eight people in a drive-by shooting outside a Coptic church in southern Egypt as worshippers left a midnight Christmas mass. UPDATE
January 11, 2010
Algeria
Muslims looted and burned a Protestant church. The minister said the attack was fueled by the recent murders of the Coptic Christians in Egypt.
Bulletin of Christian Persecution
October 23, 2009
Facts without comments-- We Collect the Dots; You Connect Them
Please spread this bulletin and send us events that you find.North America
September 23, 2009United States
Ex-Muslims in the US want civil rights assurances.
September 24, 2009
California, USA
Schoolhouse Sharia: Christianity banned and Islamic studies are mandatory.
September 24, 2009
Florida, USA
Christians and rights group expressed concerns about the accuracy of the FDLE report of Rifqa Bary.
October 7, 2009
Washington, DC
Rights activists are concerned about the adoption of a US-Egypt anti-free speech resolution because it threatens freedom to challenge religious views.
October 9, 2009
USA
The American Library Association’s stealth jihad against free speech.
October 10, 2009
Washington, DC
An Obama adviser defended Sharia law on British television, where she appeared with a Hizb ut Tahrir spokesperson.
October 12, 2009
Walled Lake, Michigan, USA
A Muslim threatens Christians for speaking about Muhammad. (Video.)
October 13, 2009
Florida, USA
A judge ordered Christian convert Rifqa Bary to return to Ohio to live under the care of child protective services.
October 15, 2009
Florida, USA
Throwing Rifqa to the wolves .
October 16, 2009
California, USA
Public school students must endure two weeks of whitewashed Islamic education, but only two days of Christianity.
October 17, 2009
Florida, USA
Christian convert Rifqa Bary will be returned to Ohio and placed in the state’s custody.
October 22, 2009
Toronto, Canada
A local imam calls on Allah - and Muslims - to kill Christians and Jews. Video here.
Africa
September 16, 2009Somaliland
Converts from Islam are jailed, pursued, and kidnapped.
September 17, 2009
Eritrea
At least seven Christians recently died in a military prison. More than 3000 Christians are currently imprisoned for their faith in Eritrea.
September 18, 2009
Al-Bagur, Egypt
Copts protested after a Muslim man went on a rampage, killing one man by beheading him and severely injuring two others.
September 18, 2009
Eritrea
The EU called on Eritrea to free its political prisoners.
September 18, 2009
Merca, Somalia
Al-Shabaab militants killed a 69-year-old Christian man after finding Bibles in his possession at a checkpoint.
September 19, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
Cairo suffers after the big pig cull last May.
September 21, 2009
Qena, Egypt
A 19-year-old Coptic girl was abducted to force her father to “reconcile” with the families of the men who killed his son.
September 23, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
Mourners turned out to protest attacks against Christians after two were killed and one was attacked in a single day.
September 24, 2009
Egypt
Father Zakariah Botros discusses Christian persecution with Michael Coren. (Video playlist.)
September 25, 2009
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
A court upheld the prison sentences of two Christians accused of evangelism.
September 25, 2009
Nigeria
Lee Jay Walker on Nigeria and Christian martyrs.
September 25, 2009
Ezo, Sudan
Seven Christians were crucified in a series of raids. 17 were abducted in one of the raids.
September 26, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
A Muslim convert to Christianity and his daughter were prevented from leaving the country due to an identity card issue.
September 30, 2009
Egypt
“The Myth of Islamic Tolerance and Peaceful Existence:” a lecture at the Hudson Institute. (Video playlist.)
September 30, 2009
Delga, Egypt
A Muslim brutally murdered a Christian and then a mob attacked mourners at his funeral.
September 30, 2009
Somalia
Hunting Christians in Somalia.
September 30, 2009
Sudan
A new North-South civil war may be in its early stages. More here.
October 1, 2009
Marerey, Somalia
Islamic militants killed a church leader execution-style after confirming that she possessed a Bible.
October 2, 2009
Senbete, Ethiopia
A Muslim mob ransacked two churches and severely injured three Christians.
October 5, 2009
Alexandria, Egypt
Police arrested a Christian father for trying to get his kidnapped daughter back.
October 6, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
A Christian man was arrested for handing out gospel leaflets and held without charge for four days.
October 6, 2009
Kenya
Islamic militants from Somalia are expanding their influence into Kenya, targeting children.
October 8, 2009
Amhara, Ethiopia
Two Christians who were sentenced to six months in prison on false charges have successfully appealed their sentences but are still being held on a new charge.
October 9, 2009
Egypt
Interview with an Egyptian Muslim who converted to Christianity.
October 12, 2009
Khartoum, Sudan
Outrage as a court defies Islamic law and sentences four Muslims to death for killing Christians.
October 12, 2009
Egypt
Forced Islamization and murder of Christian conscripts in the Egyptian army.
October 16, 2009
Hargeisa, Somalia
A man who was jailed for distributing Christian literature has staged a hunger strike.
October 17, 2009
Egypt
Can Egypt protect its Copts?
October 17, 2009
Sudan
Sudanese churches warn of return to war.
October 18, 2009
Egypt
Where to bury a dead Copt?
October 19, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
A Christian was killed over a rumor of his son’s affair with a Muslim woman.
Asia
October 21, 2009Asmara, Eritrea
Security forces raided the home of a pastor and arrested three people, then seven more the next day.
September 17, 2009
Gojra, Pakistan
A judge granted bail to 13 Muslims accused of inciting mob attacks against Christians in August.
September 17, 2009
Pakistan
Human rights groups accused police of colluding with jihadists who kill Christians with impunity.
September 18, 2009
Pakistan
A Muslim man kidnapped and raped a Christian 8th grader for two days. Officials are not investigating.
September 18, 2009
Sialkot, Pakistan
The police who killed Robert Danish on 9/15 will be reinstated.
September 18, 2009
Middle East
The Pope met with Patriarchs to discuss the future of the Christian community in the Middle East.
September 18, 2009
Jolo, Philippines
The Catholic church joined a protest against gang-rape jihad.
September 21, 2009
Middle East
A Kuwaiti liberal says that persecution of Middle Eastern Christians is tantamount to ethnic cleansing.
September 22, 2009
Kirkuk, Iraq
A Christian doctor was freed after being abducted and then tortured for 29 days.
September 22, 2009
Istanbul, Turkey
An historic Christian cemetery was desecrated.
September 23, 2009
Faisalabad, Pakistan
Christians deny provoking violence against themselves after being accused of doing so.
September 23, 2009
Manila, Philippines
Three teachers were freed after being held by militants for seven months.
September 24, 2009
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Police and the victim’s family seek a motive in the slaying of a church worker at Dhaka University.
September 24, 2009
Niveneh, Iraq
Official estimates indicate that 30,000 families have been displaced since 2003, a majority of whom are Christians.
September 24, 2009
Philippines
The Philippine national flag is set to be altered in order to have a ninth ray for Muslims.
September 26, 2009
Pakistan
All students must now study Islam in school.
September 28, 2009
Mosul, Iraq
A doctor who was kidnapped by militants was released.
September 28, 2009
Lebanon
Christians are fleeing the country as it becomes increasingly Islamized.
September 28, 2009
Ankara, Turkey
British women sent a petition to Turkey’s PM condemning the release of a prisoner who raped three British women and one Finnish woman.
September 29, 2009
Depok City, West Java, Indonesia
A church won their legal battle to worship in their building.
September 29, 2009
Iraq
Is nowhere safe for Iraqi Christians?
September 29, 2009
Gaza
Islamic law is imposed in Gaza.
September 29, 2009
Manila, Philippines
Two US soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb.
September 30, 2009
Dhaka, Bangladesh
A Christian convert from Islam and his family were threatened with death and their house was burned down.
September 30, 2009
Iran
A wave of arrests of Christians in Iran. (Video.)
October 1, 2009
Pakistan
The Pope urged the nation of Pakistan to protect its Christians from Islamic extremists.
October 1, 2009
Pakistan
Pakistani Christian organizations called for a national conference on October 24 to demand the abolition of the blasphemy law.
October 2, 2009
Dhaka, Bangladesh
A Catholic university student was attacked in a park over a rumor.
October 3, 2009
Kochi, India
The Eastern Catholic Pope met with the Pope to discuss the exodus of Christians in the Middle East and South Asia.
October 4, 2009
Pakistan
“The rising intolerance and violence against Christians is a result of the Talibanization and promulgation of Shariah law in the country.”
October 4, 2009
Pakistan
Attacks on Christians seem to be part of a “well-organized campaign,” achieving the desired effect threatening their security.
October 4, 2009
Turkey
Turkey made USCIRF’s watch list.
October 5, 2009
Indonesia
A call for the rights of religious minorities in Indonesia, who face many obstacles to worshipping.
October 5, 2009
Jakarta, Indonesia
Islamic organizations stopped a congregation from worshipping in a house, resulting in an order from city officials to cease holding services.
October 5, 2009
Kirkuk, Iraq
A Christian nurse was tortured and killed, and his body was dumped on a road by militants. The Iraqi prelate has sought out government protection for the community.
October 5, 2009
Faisalabad, Pakistan
Pakistani Christians call upon the US to bring justice to Pakistan rather than monetary aid. Update 10/21: Gojra Christians rejected US aid and reiterated their demand.
October 5, 2009
Faisalabad, Pakistan
Christian accused the government of condoning the Gojra attacks.
October 6, 2009
Islamabad, Pakistan
Muslims attacked the home of a Christian family after warning them to convert to Islam to avoid being killed.
October 6, 2009
Lebanon
Lebanon’s Armenians are upset over a planned deal with Turkey.
October 7, 2009
Gaza, Jerusalem
Palestinians remembered a murdered Christian bookstore owner and local religious leader.
October 8, 2009
Tehran, Iran
“Anti-state” charges against two Christian converts who have been imprisoned since March were dropped. They will still be charged with the propagation of their Christian faith and apostacy, which is punishable by death.
October 8, 2009
Kirkuk, Iraq
Christian Iraqis fear more violence after the abduction and murder of a health worker.
October 8, 2009
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan stands poised to introduce very restrictive laws regarding religious practice.
October 9, 2009
Kazakhstan
Authorities closed a Christian-run rehabilitation center and fined the owner.
October 9, 2009
Middle East
A Christian man was attacked by a Muslim with a screwdriver, who first elicited Christian literature.
October 9, 2009
Pakistan
Christian Pakistanis spoke about their plight at the United Nations.
October 9, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
The ruling party in Pakistan says it is unable to abolish the blasphemy law.
October 11, 2009
Punjab, Pakistan
An 11-year-old Christian schoolgirl was attacked by a teacher for saying that she’s Pakistani.
October 11, 2009
Mindanao, Philippines
An elderly Irish priest was kidnapped by militants while taking a walk. Update 10/14: He is believed to be with the MILF. Update 10/15: He is ill but may be able to get medicine.
October 12, 2009
Mosul, Iraq
“Mosul, the capital of Ninewah province, has struggled by comparison and remains a devastated cityscape, in many ways a war zone in appearance and atmosphere more than a post-war zone.”
October 12, 2009
Pakistan
The Pakistani Minorities Minister vowed to end persecution of Christians by eradicating the blasphemy law.
October 13, 2009
Kerala, India
Christians and Hindus find common cause in dealing with the “love jihad” racket.
October 13, 2009
Jakarta, Indonesia
Two churches received bomb threats.
October 13, 2009
Kirkuk, Iraq
The Archbishop of Kirkuk says that for 1600 years Iraq has been a “country of martyrs.”
October 14, 2009
Iran
USCIRF called upon Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to address religious freedom in Iran.
October 14, 2009
Iraq
British Parliament put forth a motion calling for investigations into targeted assassinations of Assyrians in Iraq’s North.
October 14, 2009
Malaysia
Malaysia’s parliament is trying to pass a law which would mandate death for apostates from Islam.
October 14, 2009
Pakistan
A prominent leader of the Pakistani Christian diaspora says that the blasphemy law is the root cause of violence against Christians, who do not enjoy equal rights in Pakistan.
October 15, 2009
Bethlehem
Christians flee Bethlehem’s Muslim majority. (Video.)
October 15, 2009
Iraq
Iraqi Christians are facing extinction. (Video.)
October 15, 2009
Gaza
Christians under siege in Gaza. (Video.)
October 16, 2009
Istanbul, Turkey
A defense lawyer for two Christians on trial for “insulting Turkishness and Islam” called the trial a “scandal.”
October 17, 2009
Mosul, Iraq
Six were arrested for attacks on Assyrians. At least three homes were bombed.
October 17, 2009
Gojra, Pakistan
A judge released six or more suspects in a series of deadly attacks on Christians. Pakistani Christians live in fear of more deadly violence.
October 17, 2009
Punjab, Pakistan
The Taliban has threatened to kill more Christians if they refuse to leave, convert to Islam, or pay the jizya.
October 19, 2009
Pakistan
Militant groups continue to try to take over Pakistan. The security situation is dire, and a failure would be a disaster for Christians.
October 20, 2009
Indonesia
Lee Jay Walker discusses the threat that Islamic terrorism poses to Christians and other minorities in Indonesia.
October 20, 2009
Jakarta, Indonesia
Theology students stand to be evicted from a campground to which Muslims drove them last year.
October 20, 2009
West Java, Indonesia
Authorities have blocked the construction of a Catholic church after rescinding construction permits.
October 20, 2009
Najaf and Basra, Iraq
Sharia is being enforced and is expanding in Iraqi cities.
Europe
September 19, 2009Lomdon, England
Home Office staff were warned not to eat in front of Muslims during Ramadan.
September 20, 2009
Exeter, Britain
A hospital banned a nurse’s crucifix.
September 21, 2009
Liverpool, England
Christian hotels owners were charged with a criminal offense for saying that the hijab is oppressive to a Muslim couple.
September 23, 2009
Belgrade, Serbia
Nine Kosovar rebels were charged with war crimes for killing at least 80 Serbs and other non-Albanians.
September 25, 2009
UK
A Christian convert couple from Pakistan won the right to asylum in the UK.
September 28, 2009
Kosovo
Ethnic Albanians threaten to vandalize an ancient Serbian monastery.
October 2, 2009
Kosovo
An EU court convicted four ethnic Albanian terrorists of beating and torturing Serbs.
October 5, 2009
Germany
An al-Qaeda message threatens the “Crusader German nation,” promising October attacks.
October 6, 2009
A Christian group launched a campaign to protect Christians from the UN’s Defamation of Religions Resolution. More on the UN’s assault on free speech here.
October 11, 2009
Cernice, Kosovo
A Serbian family was attacked with a hand grenade.
October 13, 2009
London, England
A church’s congregation has dwindled after Muslim protested the singing of hymns.
October 15, 2009
UK
Muslims in the UK demand full Sharia law.
October 20, 2009
Turin, Italy
An imam’s engagement to a Catholic woman angers fundamentalist Muslims.
Bulletin of Christian Persecution, September 18, 2009
Facts without comments-- We Collect the Dots; You Connect Them
Please spread this bulletin and send us events that you find.August 20, 2009
Washington, D.C., USA
ICC, a human rights group, calls on Florida Social Services to not return Rifqa Bary to Ohio, as she may likely be executed for apostacy.
August 21, 2009
Canada
According to Mohammed Elmasry, Islamic slavery was a good thing, unlike Christian slavery. Islamic slavery also no longer exists.
August 25, 2009
Orlando, FL, USA
Rifqa Bary, teenage Christian apostate from Islam, fears for her life. (Video). Update 9/6: She will remain with her Florida foster family for now.
September 3, 2009
San Francisco, CA, USA
Rifqa Bary is being defamed and digitally stalked by the SF Muslim Examiner, who claims that her pastor was never a Muslim, nor was bestselling author Ergun Mehmet Caner. Update 9/12: The Indy Political Buzz Examiner defends her.
September 6, 2009
USA
Muslim groups trying to have it both ways on Rifqa Bary.
September 7, 2009
USA
‘Sharia-Sanctioned Death vs. Western Toleration.’
September 8, 2009
USA
Rifqa Bary faced death threats from a Facebook group set up for that very purpose. The group was removed hours after Pamela Geller reported about it.
September 14, 2009
California, USA
California public schools ban Ave Maria but allow Islamic prayers.
September 17, 2009
Florida, USA
Florida law enforcement: apostates from Islam have nothing to fear. (Video.)
Africa
August 15, 2009
Egypt
Christian churches are attacked and burned while Christians are arrested on suspicions of being behind the attacks.
August 20, 2009
Al-Fashn, Egypt
Two Copts were imprisoned and held without charge after reporting having been beaten by a mob. Another victim of the assault remains hospitalized.
August 21, 2009
Minya, Egypt
A Coptic priest was banned from his village under threat of death for wanting to convert part of his home into a church. His congregation of 800 has no place to worship. He continues to risk his life for his congregation.
August 22, 2009
Somalia
A Somali Christian was shot dead for apostacy near the Kenyan border.
August 23, 2009
Alexandria, Egypt
Maher El Gohary, a Christian convert from Islam, is still on the run from Islamic fundamentalists, along with his daughter.
August 24, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
Police detained the family of an abducted Coptic girl on orders from State Security after they complained about falsification of documents, rape, and the abduction of the 14-year-old girl.
August 25, 2009
Somalia
Islamists beheaded four Christian orphanage workers. (Video).
August 26, 2009
Nigeria
Christians accuse the government of complicity in the murders of 12 Christians by Boko Haram.
August 27, 2009
Sudan
The Center for Security Policy interviews Simon Deng about the extermination of Sudan’s Christians.
August 28, 2009
Egypt
Continuing threats against and harassment of Christians and their supporters due to Egypt’s Constitution, under which Christians are second-class citizens.
August 31, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
Building a church is a sin against God, according to a fatwa from an Al-Azhar-affiliated fatwa council.
August 31, 2009
Egypt
Egyptian Copts called for a national strike for equality on September 11th. Update 9/15: Thousands showed up and the gathering was peaceful.
August 31, 2009
Nigeria
The challenge of Islamic extremism in Nigeria.
September 3, 2009
Southern Sudan
“Armed groups” are killing southern Christians in order to disrupt the peace agreement before the 2011 referendum for independence. 25 were reported to have been killed.
September 3, 2009
Zanzibar
Persecution of Christians and apostates is on the rise along with Islamic fundamentalism. (Video.)
September 7, 2009
Sudan
Sudan’s Muslim north may owe the south hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen oil revenue.
September 8, 2009
Khartoum, Sudan
Lubna Hussein, the journalist who was arrested for wearing pants, was spared lashing but fined and 40 were arrested for protesting in support of her. She was then jailed for refusing to pay the fine.
September 8, 2009
Abjua, Nigeria
Christians held prayer services to remember the 1000+ victims of last month’s violence in Nigeria. A twinning vigil was also held in London.
September 9, 2009
Egypt
Egyptian border guards have killed 8 Ethiopian migrants this year who were crossing into Israel to escape poverty and racism in Egypt.
September 10, 2009
Mogadishu, Somalia
Al-Shabaab members chop off hands as Sharia takes hold.
September 10, 2009
Egypt
Christians demand religious freedom after 150 of them were unconstitutionally arrested for eating during Ramadan. (Italian source).
September 10, 2009
Sudan
A Facebook group was launched in support of Sudanese journalist Lubna Hussein.
September 12, 2009
Shebin el Kom, Egypt
A Coptic church was burned down as Muslim neighbors cheered. Police claim that it was an act of arson, but Christian witnesses claim otherwise.
September 14, 2009
Shebin El Kom, Egypt
Muslims firebombed a church, harassed priests, and threatened locals.
September 16, 2009
Somaliland
A convert from Islam was jailed for distributing Christian materials and another is on the run from his family.
September 15, 2009
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
A convert to Christianity is languishing in jail after being arrested for handing out Bibles in May. He has yet to be charged.
September 17, 2009
Bagur, Egypt
A Christian shopkeeper was killed and two others stabbed, prompting clashes.
September 17, 2009
Hegaza village, Egypt
A Catholic Coptic girl was abducted to force “reconciliation” in the case of her murdered brother.
Asia
August 19, 2009
Iran
A bishop pleads for the release of Christian prisoners Maryam and Marzieh, who have been imprisoned since March.
August 20, 2009
Indonesia
Christians call for the rejection of two Sharia bills before the parliament.
August 20, 2009
Iraq
Iraqi bishops expressed concern for people’s security after blasts that killed 95 people and damaged a church in Baghdad.
August 20, 2009
Malaysia
Catholics lodged a protest over police inaction against an Islamic magazine.
August 20, 2009
Islamabad, Pakistan
2000 displaced Christians are living by the roadside in fear of typhoid. Two have died, despite being 10 minutes from a health center.
August 20, 2009
Pakistan
An interfaith network demands an end to the persecution of Pakistani Christians. Their petition is here and R.E.A.L.’s petition demanding an end to Pakistani blasphemy laws is here.
August 20, 2009
Istanbul, Turkey
Erdogan visited the island housing buildings owned by the Patriarchate and seized by Turkey; he gave lip service to minority rights but also lauded Turkish nationalism.
August 21, 2009
Dubai
Non-Muslims must submit to Sharia as all female bank staff are forced to wear abayas.
August 21, 2009
Iran
Christians call on MPs to help release Christian converts held in Iranian jails.
August 21, 2009
Pakistan
‘Pakistani Christians Under Attack.’
August 21, 2009
Pakistan
75% of human rights violators go unpunished in Pakistan.
August 24, 2009
Pakistan
Intolerance sweeps across Pakistan. “These infidels, killing them is permitted.”
August 24, 2009
Mindanao, Philippines
Sharia makes inroads as Christians cannot sing hymns or display crosses.
August 25, 2009
Pakistan
Lee Jay Walker on burning Christians alive in Pakistan.
August 25, 2009
Istanbul, Turkey
Protests as renovations take place to turn a 178-year-old Greek Orthodox church into a mosque.
August 25, 2009
Malatya, Turkey
A murder defendant again admits to having committed perjury in his trial over the murders of three Christians.
August 26, 2009
Gujranwala, Pakistan
A teenager was jailed on blasphemy charges. He had originally been accused of rape but villagers changed their story.
August 26, 2009
Faisalabad, Pakistan
Police issued a warrant for the Bishop of Faisalabad and 128 other Christians charging them with ‘conspiracy’ in the July 31 massacre by Islamic militants. PCP reports that 129 Christians had cases registered against them.
August 26, 2009
Islamabad, Pakistan
Pakistani Christians shall launch a movement if the blasphemy law is not repealed.
August 26, 2009
South Korea
The government is restricting the activity of Christian missionaries in the Middle East after Islamic countries expelled several of them.
August 27, 2009
Waziristan, Pakistan
Eight Christians were kidnapped by the Taliban.
August 27, 2009
Dewtola village, Bangladesh
Muslims threaten Catholic women. “[W]e live in a situation of deep insecurity and despite having alerted the local authorities nothing has happened."
August 28, 2009
Iraq
The struggle of Christians to survive in Iraq intensifies as security deteriorates.
August 28, 2009
Faisalabad, Pakistan
An advocate of blasphemy law victim Imran Masih survived a gunshot attack.
August 29, 2009
Pakistan
Christians gave the government an ultimatum regarding the blasphemy law.
August 29, 2009
Middle East
“Today, Christians in Bethlehem constitute less than 15 percent of the population...Five or six decades ago, the Christians living in the birthplace of Jesus made up more than 70 percent of the population.”
August 30, 2009
Kurdistan, Iran
Several Christians were detained and summoned to the Kurdistan Ministry of Information for questioning.
August 30, 2009
Pakistan
A petition asks the UN to pressure Pakistan over attacks against Christians.
August 31, 2009
Malaysia
‘The Myth of a Moderate Malaysia.’
August 31, 2009
Quetta, Pakistan
Islamic extremists gunned down 6 Christians and injured seven after threats to “convert to Islam or die.” Video here.
August 31, 2009
Pakistan
The Talibanization of Pakistan takes its toll on Christians.
September 1, 2009
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Muslims have seized 5 acres of land and falsely charged Christians with damaging it. They have taken over the church building and are now extorting and threatening the Christians.
September 1, 2009
Silanwali, Pakistan
Pakistani police arrest two Christians for eating during Ramadan.
September 1, 2009
Tajikstan
The study of Islam becomes compulsory in secular schools.
September 2, 2009
Islamabad, Pakistan
A school principal is denied proper pay because she is a Christian.
September 3, 2009
Pakistan
Christians in Pakistan live in fear, says the World Council of Churches. The Pope speaks out.
September 4, 2009
Iraq
The plight of Iraqi Christians.
September 4, 2009
Tel Aviv, Israel
An art exhibit featuring a painting of a suicide bomber Virgin Mary with baby Jesus has sparked outrage.
September 5, 2009
Pakistan
Pakistan reviews the blasphemy law instead of repealing it.
September 5, 2009
Sana’a, Yemen
Intense fighting continues to hamper efforts to locate nine foreigners who were abducted, having been targeted for their Christian faith, real or imagined.
September 7, 2009
Solepur, Bangladesh
Crimes against Christians are on the rise due to violent Muslim gang activity and Christians are scared to report them for fear of retaliation.
September 7, 2009
Mosul, Iraq
More Christians were kidnapped and murdered in order to force them out of Mosul.
September 7, 2009
Manila, Philippines
A priest was killed and two others seriously injured in an ambush. A church-backed rights group with which he was affiliated called the murder another “of the extra-judicial killings of church people that was perpetuated by the state,” now numbering 26.
September 7, 2009
Iraq
Iraqi political groups use the dwindling Christian population as pawns in power grabs.
September 7, 2009
Pakistan
Rome Reports on Pakistan’s blasphemy law and violence against Christians. (Video.)
September 8, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
Unidentified men tried to provoke an attack on Christians. Christians remain fearful after 7 were burned alive last month in Punjab.
September 8, 2009
Gojra, Pakistan
Muslim leaders blame three Catholic priests and a layman for the violence in Gojra as the government cuts off the compensation originally allocated for the victims.
September 8, 2009
Middle East
Arab Christians face a new wave of violence.
September 9, 2009
Punjab, Pakistan
Four militants believed to be responsible for last month’s burnings of Christians have been arrested.
September 10, 2009
Iran
A “wave” of arrests of Christians is sweeping Iran. 27 converts were arrested last month and 7 are still being detained. FCNN reports that the 7 were released on bail after being held in solitary confinement and interrogated under harsh conditions.
September 10, 2009
Islamabad, Pakistan
Islamic extremists continue to threaten the life of Minorities Minister and Catholic Shahbaz Bhatti, who is leading the fight against the blasphemy law.
September 10, 2009
Uzbekistan
A Baptist leader and his colleagues face up to 3 years’ imprisonment as officials clamp down on religious activity.
September 11, 2009
Indonesia
Children orphaned in the Maluku conflict receive help and education from Open Doors USA.
September 12, 2009
Sialkot, Pakistan
An angry mob torched a church over a rumor that children desecrated a Koran. Asia News reports that the attack stemmed from anger over a Muslim girl who fell in love with a Christian man. Update 9/15: The young man was arrested, then killed in prison. Rights groups seek answers. His funeral procession was beaten and teargassed by police after his family was not allowed to bury him in their cemetery of choice.
September 13, 2009
Islamabad, Pakistan
Islamabad authorities destroyed the homes belonging to 200 Christians and PCC urges the Prime Minister to provide them with land for homes, since they are living in makeshift camps.
September 14, 2009
Dhaka, Bangladesh
A wife and daughter were tortured for converting to Christianity. They received no police protection.
September 15, 2009
Dhaka, Bangladesh
A Baptist died after a severe beating by college students over a cellphone, although police question that motive. His wife was blackmailed and threatened for reporting the incident.
September 16, 2009
Dubai
One Muslim and two infidels were arrested for eating during Ramadan.
September 16, 2009
Aceh, Indonesia
The Catholic Church protests as a law which would punish adultery with stoning was passed.
September 16, 2009
Kirkuk, Iraq
A Christian doctor, held for a month after being kidnapped, was freed.
September 16, 2009
Pakistan
Burning and killing Christians is a shameful act.
September 17, 2009
Pakistan
A human rights group says that police are colluding with Muslims who murder Christians with impunity.
September 17, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
A mentally challenged woman who was jailed for blasphemy 13 years ago has yet to go to court to present her case.
September 17, 2009
Pakistan
A court granted bail to 13 Muslims accused of burning Christians alive.
Europe
August 21, 2009
UK
An Algerian Christian family was denied asylum and will likely be tortured or worse back in their home country.
August 21, 2009
London, England
Members of the Pakistani Christian diaspora protested in front of 10 Downing Street demanding intervention in repealing the blasphemy law.
August 23, 2009
UK
Lloyds TSB charges Muslims a £15 overdraft fee and non-Muslims £200 for the same.
August 25, 2009
Belarus
Protestants protest religious restrictions after Baptists were fined a month’s wages for worshipping in their homes.
August 25, 2009
Kosovska Mitra, Kosovo
Seven were wounded when minority Serbs and ethnic Albanians clashed after Serbs protested the rebuilding of Albanian houses destroyed during the war.
August 26, 2009
Bosnia
Former Bosnian Serb leader Karadzic told the AP that the US, under Bill Clinton, may have facilitated arms shipments from Iran to Bosnian Muslims during the Bosnian war.
August 26, 2009
Pristina, Kosovo
Albanians attacked EU headquarters in Kosovo over EULEX’s agreement with Serbia to exchange information on war crimes.
August 27, 2009
Europe
The European Center for Law and Justice has issued a petition to the U.N. to stop Muslims from killing Christians and punish the killers.
August 27, 2009
Belarus
European ambassadors have met with the leader of Belarus to discuss threats to close a megachurch. Threats of church closures for “unauthorized worship” are common in Belarus.
August 28, 2009
Bosnia-Herzegovina
‘Sbrebrenica: More Myth Than Massacre.’
August 28, 2009
Great Manchester, England
A Muslim raped two 13-year-old girls after taking them to a church.
August 28, 2009
Sweden
The Swedish government may have illegally deported Iraqi refugees.
August 28, 2009
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
A poet/dissident was abused in prison after being arrested for “insult” after criticizing the nation’s human right record.
August 29, 2009
Kosovo
‘Kosovo and Ongoing De-Christianization:’ ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide.
August 31, 2009
Cyprus
It has come to light that Turks killed 300 Greek-Cypriot civilians in 1974 during the invasion of Cyprus.
September 3, 2009
Kosovoska Mitrovica, Kosovo
Serbs and ethnic Albanians clashed again.
September 5, 2009
Moscow, Russia
Patriarch Kirill met with the ambassadors of 20 Arab states and urged them to respect their Christian minorities.
September 8, 2009
Serbia
Four Muslims were sentenced on terrorism charges.
September 11, 2009
London, England
Women held a prayer vigil outside of the Iranian Embassy for the release of two Christian converts who have been imprisoned since March.
September 13, 2009
London, England
Tensions flared outside a mosque where SIOE was to hold a protest before being forbidden to.
September 14, 2009
Kosovo
Kosovo Albanians protested against the EU because EULEX is investigating war crimes.
September 14, 2009
Kosovo
The US agreed to give money to Kosovo separatists.
September 16, 2009
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Four Bosnian Muslims were arrested for war crimes.
September 16, 2009
UK
Institutionalized double standards against Christians.
Everywhere
September 2, 2009
‘Whoever Changes His Religion – Kill Him.’ (Video playlist).
September 6, 2009
‘The Scandal of International Religious Persecution.’
September 12, 2009
Islam is Fire: “Allah thus enlists Muslim believers to eradicate by force those who offend him and by disbelieving, prevent his rule.”
Bulletin of Christian Persecution, August 21, 2009
Facts without comments-- We Collect the Dots; You Connect Them
Please spread this bulletin and send us events that you find.July 24, 2009
Washington. D.C., USA
Reps. Frank Wolf and Anna Eshoo expressed concern for the security of Iraq’s Christians in a letter to Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki.
July 27, 2009
Dearborn, MI, USA
A Muslim high school principal fired the hall-of-fame Christian wrestling coach because a student wrestler converted from Islam to Christianity.
August 2, 2009
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
An airport chapel removed Christian symbols and installed a large compass facing Mecca on the floor.
August 3, 2009
Fairfax, Virginia, USA
The Islamic Saudi Academy’s expansion plans were approved. When the Academy was a Christian school such plans were denied, citing zoning ordinances. Many are concerned that the school’s teaching materials still incite hatred and violence.
August 10, 2009
Washington, D.C., USA
USCIRF issued a letter to President Obama urging him to raise concerns over religious freedom and human rights during his visit with Egyptian President Mubarak. The Institute on Religion and Public Policy issued a similar letter (8/16).
August 11, 2009
Orlando, FL, USA
A teen girl from Sri Lanka who converted to Christianity ran away from her Ohio home for fear of being killed by her father for apostasy. Video here .
UPDATE: The girl's father speaks out.
August 10, 2009
Washington, D.C., USA
Rep. Janice Schakowsky sent a letter to the Secretary of State asking her to address the "ongoing ethno-religious cleansing of Iraq's Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac Christian community” in Iraq.
August 13, 2009
Washington, D.C., USA
Coptic Americans announced plans to hold a rally in Washington, D.C. during Mubarak’s state visit on the 18th.
August 13, 2009
Egypt
The Coalition of Coptic Organizations issued a letter to President Obama, stating that peace in the Middle East is inseparably linked to peace for the Copts of Egypt. The Alliance of Egyptian Americans echoed their call to confront Mubarak over human rights issues on 8/17.
August 18, 2009
Washington, D.C., USA
A heated debate broke out at a press conference between Egyptian Copts and Muslims when a Coptic panelist decried human right abuses under Sharia.
Africa
July 17, 2009
Minya, Egypt
Police are suspected of collusion in an arson attack on a church. Two Copts were arrested after the incident and police stood by while the fire raged.
July 20, 2009
Mahadday Weyne, Somalia
Muslims shot to death a convert to Christianity who had been leading an underground congregation.
July 22, 2009
Somalia
Christians and beheading: an obvious pattern.
July 23, 2009
Beni Suef, Egypt
Three terrorist attacks against Christians in one province in one month have prompted suspicions of state-sponsored terror rather than mere vigilantism.
July 25, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights sent a letter to the Arab League, the Middle East Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches condemning the latest church bombings in Iraq. Since 2004 58 churches have been bombed in Iraq
July 26, 2009
Minya, Egypt
Hundreds of Muslims tried to set fire to the home of a Copt after he announced plans to turn it into a church. 20 “protesters” were arrested and two Copts were injured .
July 27, 2009
Eritrea
A third Christian died this year in a military prison. He had been jailed for his faith and buried in the camp.
July 27, 2009
Borno, Nigeria
Boko Haram staged 3 attacks in Nigeria, killing 150 in two days, in a campaign of terror against education. Another attack took place in Wudil.
July 29, 2009
Somalia
It is “open season” for killing converts to Christianity.
July 29, 2009
Potiskum and Maiduguri, Nigeria
Islamic militants hacked a pastor to death and razed 5 churches. Boko Haram seeks to impose Sharia over the whole country even though Muslims already live under Sharia. Update 8/6 : 12 Christians were killed in total, including 3 pastors , and 20 churches were razed. 1000 are estimated to have been killed in Maiduguri.
July 29, 2009
Bauchi, Nigeria
Police freed 180 abducted women and children from Boko Haram. Video at link. Update http://www.mnnonline.org/article/13010
August 3, 2009
Tanta, Egypt
An Egyptian father has appealed to Mubarak in demanding justice for his son, who was brutally murdered. He also created a Facebook group.
August 6, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
Christian garbage collectors suffer after the pig cull.
August 7, 2009
Kenya
Muslim leaders are calling for Sharia to be inserted into the constitution. Kenya has drafted a new constitution which expands the powers of Islamic courts.
12 Christians, including 3 pastors, were killed in riots sparked by Boko Haram. 20 churches were also burned.
August 11, 2009
Egypt
Abduction and forced Islamization of Coptic girls continues in Egypt.
August 11, 2009
Alexandria, Egypt
Religious intolerance erodes a once multicultural paradise in favor of Islamic uniformity.
August 12, 2009
Somalia
Four Christians were beheaded by al-Shabaab, The were working for an NGO which aids orphans.
August 16, 2009
Minya, Egypt
The Fawzy brothers were released after a year’s unjust detention. They were arrested for allegedly killing a Muslim man while doing construction at the monastery of Abu-Fana when it was attacked.
August 18, 2009
Minia Governate, Egypt
Muslim village elders issued a death fatwa against a Coptic priest for requesting to convert part of his home into a prayer hall for his congregation of 800 which has no place to worship.
Asia
July 17, 2009
Sana’a, Yemen
Ethiopian Christians are denied funerals and burials in Yemen.
July 20, 2009
Baghdad, Iraq
The Bishop of Baghdad urges believers to not be afraid the fear of a new exodus remains, particularly in Mosul, where the Nineveh Plain is being disputed by various factions.
July 21, 2009
Faridpur, Bangladesh
A Christian convert, a minor who was subjected to months of rape by her teacher, is being forced to marry him, and was sentenced to 101 lashes in addition to the 25 beatings she has suffered. She is pregnant.
July 22, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
Muslims shot a Christian businessman eight times in the legs while he was driving because he refused to pay protection money.
July 22, 2009
Iran
Religious cleansing in Iran continues through state-imposed discrimination, repression, and imprisonment.
July 22, 2009
Iraq
As US troops withdraw, Islamic militants are trying to drive out the last of the Christian minority.
July 23, 2009
Gaza
A church official and his wife were beaten and robbed in their home, part of a patterns of attacks on the small Christian community.
July 23, 2009
Punjab, Pakistan
A minority rights leader has been jailed by those opposed to his work on behalf of Christians.
July 23, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
150 Muslims with guns attacked a Christian apartment building, looted it, then demolished it in a land-grab. Incidents of Muslims demanding protection money from Christians have increased.
July 23, 2009
Ankara, Turkey
The State continues to waver regarding the re-opening of the Halki Theological School, closed since 1971, as recognition of the Ecumenical Patriachate continues to stall.
July 23, 2009
West Java, Indonesia
Local government demolished a Protestant church because it had no permit, even though parishioners had tried several times to obtain one and had gotten the consent of the Muslim community.
July 23, 2009
Nineveh, Iraq
Security forces are building trenches and checkpoints to protect Christians.
July 26, 2009
Mosul, Iraq
Gunmen killed a young Christian factory owner outside of his business after beating the guard.
July 27, 2009
Sikendarabad, Pakistan
Armed men attacked a Christian colony, beat people with sticks, overtook a primary school building, and demanded protection money, all with the knowledge of the police.
July 28, 2009
Tashkent City, Uzbekistan
A children’s holiday camp is in peril as the Baptist Union faces charges for unlawfully teaching children religion and allegedly misusing their property.
July 29, 2009
Tehran, Iran
A final decision on the apostasy law, which has so far been practiced arbitrarily, is to be reached this fall. It would obligate courts to enforce the death penalty.
July 30, 2009
Jakarta, Indonesia
The jihadists behind the Jakarta bombing were targeting the UK soccer team: “These players are Christians, so Muslims should not honor and respect these enemies of Allah.”
July 31, 2009
Uzbekistan
A Baptist’s home was raided by police, who confiscated his library and charged him with "illegally producing, storing, importing and distributing of materials of a religious nature."
August 1, 2009
Gojra, Pakistan
A Muslim mob attacked a Christian town, gunning down 9 and burning 75 homes (many using chemical bombs ) and two churches after an accusation of blasphemy. Christians fled the town after the violence. Compass reports that 14 were killed and 100 homes burned.
August 2, 2009
Iraq
Christians are forming militias to protect themselves from a systematic campaign by Muslims to drive them out. (Video.)
August 2, 2009
Gojra, Pakistan
Eight Christians were burned alive and 20 injured by militant Muslims amidst fresh violence in the town. Three later died of injuries.
August 5, 2009
Dhaka, Bangladesh
The family of a man who converted to Christianity has been ostracized and threatened with death.
August 5, 2009
Gojra, Pakistan
Muslim leaders threatened to hang Christians charged with blasphemy and demanded the release of clerics who incited violence at a press conference to discuss the earlier attacks in Gojra.
August 5, 2009
Pakistan
Christian leaders agree that burning Christian women and children alive is damaging to Pakistan and the Muslim faith.
August 5, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
Three Christians were killed after a rumor spread that they desecrated a Koran.
August 6, 2009
Pakistan
A concise history of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws since 1990.
August 6, 2009
Istanbul, Turkey
A Christian was held hostage and threatened at knife point in “a bizarre show of Turkish nationalism.”
August 6, 2009
Sargodha, Pakistan
A Christian man was tortured to death by police after being picked up for “bootlegging.”
August 7, 2009
Faisalabad, Pakistan
A young Christian shopkeeper was beaten and arrested on a spurious blasphemy charge.
August 7, 2009
Ankara, Turkey
The Turkish government denied the Pope’s request for a church in Tarsus. Tarsus’ only church was confiscated in 1943 and is now a museum.
August 9, 2009
Zamboanga City, Philippines
Residents of Zamboanga City live in constant terror.
August 10, 2009
Tehran, Iran
Iranian authorities told two Christian converts who have been detained since March to recant their faith during a hearing on 8/9.
August 10, 2009
Gojra, Pakistan
80 Muslims were arrested for attacking Christians.
Agust 10, 2009
India/Pakistan
A Muslim scholar says the sharia blasphemy laws should be scrapped and expresses full solidarity with Christian communities who have been victimized by violence.
August 11, 2009
Middle East
Muslims chase the remaining Christians from the Middle East while blaming Jews for their exodus.
August 11, 2009
Islamabad, Lahore, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Multan, Hyderabad, Karachi, and Lahore Pakistan
Pakistani Christians observed “Black Day” instead of Independence Day on August 14, with solidarity protests in the UK, USA, Canada, and Holland.
August 11, 2009
Rasht, Iran
More than 30 Christians were arrested in a two-week period in the town of Rasht and 8 remain in prison. Two women have been imprisoned since March.
August 13, 2009
Kyrgyzstan
Unregistered communities of believers are forbidden from worshipping, but cannot get registered. One Protestant church has been trying for two years.
August 14, 2009
Jakarta, Indonesia
A congregation finds it hard to worship and pray in peace “as medieval-style pitchfork-wielding mobs give vent to the insecurity of their ‘majority religion.’”
August 16, 2009
Pakistan
A Muslim TV evangelist claimed that the violence against the Christian community in Gojra was a Western conspiracy to make Pakistanis question their blasphemy laws.
August 17, 2009
Gujrat, Pakistan
A pregnant Christian woman was beaten and dragged naked through a police station. She later miscarried.
August 19, 2009
Kirkuk, Iraq
“A climate of concern and fear” grips the Christian community as a man was killed in front of his home and a doctor was abducted while returning home. A Christian passerby was also killed in the latter incident.
Europe
July 18, 2009
London, UK
A teacher claims that he was fired for reprimanding students who made “racist” remarks about his being Christian.
July 24, 2009
Cyprus
Turkey has illegally occupied northern Cyprus for 35 years and has forcibly expelled 142,000 Greek Cypriots, converted 55 churches into mosques and 50 churches into other buildings.
July 24, 2009
UK
70 or so Muslims unfurled a huge banner which read “Jesus was a Muslim” in a shopping center. A row ensued and police were called.
July 25, 2009
Glasgow, Scotland
A publicly funded exhibit by a group representing gay Christians and Muslims encouraged a Bible to be defaced. Update 7/28 : The Pope condemned the actions.
July 31, 2009
UK
Britain’s war on Christianity: a blogger describes being the victim of the UK’s equivalent of blasphemy laws. (Video.)
August 9, 2009
Cologne, Germany
Germans are wary as a mega-mosque is being built which rivals the city’s cathedral, the world’s biggest.
August 10, 2009
Sweden
Assyrian asylum seekers are frequently deported back to Iraq and most of them end up on the run in neighboring countries. Criticism mounts against Sweden’s deportation policy toward Iraqis.
August 14, 2009
UK
Muslim students outnumber Christians in 24 Roman Catholic schools.
August 17, 2009
Sarajevo, Bosnia
Bosnia’s spiritual leader called for Sharia to be incorporated into the Bosnian constitution. Christian leaders protest.
August 17, 2009
Manchester, UK
A street preacher faces arrest for “inciting hatred with homophobic and racial comments” because he was reading the Bible in public.
August 18, 2009
Amsterdam, Holland
Orthodox Islamic schools are being accused of instituting an apartheid system whereby non-Muslim teachers are treated as “inferior beings” and forced to teach that Christianity “would be abolished.”
Australia
August 13, 2009
New South Wales, Australia
A large conference was held to call attention to the endangered Assyrians of Iraq.
Bulletin of Christian Persecution August 6, 2009
Asia
July 26, 2009Turkey
Christians fear there will be no justice for the killers of Bible publishers.
July 28, 2009
Turkey
A German was murdered in Turkey for being a Christian.
Aug 1, 2009
Pakistan
Six Christians were killed in Pakistan over a Koran "insult."
Aug 1, 2009
Punjab, Pakistan
Muslims burned 75 Christian homes and 2 churches
Aug 2 2009
Pakistan
7 Christians were burned alive in riots Gorja.
Aug 4, 2009
Bangladesh
Local Muslim leaders prompted officers to arrest and torture a pastor and his evangelistic team.
August 6, 2009
Istanbul, Turkey
A young Muslim threatens to slit throat of a Christian convert and police arrest him after a short standoff.
Africa
July 27, 2009
Eritrea
A third Christian this year died in military prison.
July 28, 2009
Somalia
Muslim converts to Christianity are targeted in Somalia.
July 30, 2009
Sudan
A Christian Sudanese woman faces 40 lashes for wearing trousers. Update: Police fire tear gas at women protesting the lashing of a woman for wearing trousers. The judge adjourns her case until September.
July 30 2009
Egypt
Muslims kidnapped two Christian Coptic Girls.
July 31, 2009
Egypt
Two Copts were wounded in Minya province over plan to use building as church venue.
August 5, 2009
Nigeria
A thirteen-year-old was forced to watch Pastor hacked to death in Boko Haram deadly violence.
Bulletin of Christian Persecution July 16, 2009
Facts without comments-- We Collect the Dots; You Connect Them
Please spread this bulletin and send us events that you find.June 8, 2009
San Diego, CA, USA
A Muslim man shot a Christian five times after an argument over religion.
June 12, 2009
Adams, NY, USA
A Muslim forced a Harley-Davidson dealer to take down a sign saying that America is a Christian nation.
June 13, 2009
USA
US companies quietly lobby on an Armenian genocide bill as they do business with Turkey.
June 19, 2009
USA
The Refugee Admissions Program is failing at-risk Iraqi Christian refugees.
June 21, 2009
Dearborn, MI, USA
An Arab Christian group was stopped by security from asking questions of people manning an "Islam: Got Questions?" booth at Arabfest. The Christians were then assaulted by security. (Video.) The group was also prohibited from handing out leaflets and filed a lawsuit against the city, before being denied a restraining order preventing them from being restricted.
June 25, 2009
Maine, USA
The state of Maine fined the Christian Action Network and tried to coerce them into signing away all rights to appeal and to fundraising over their "inflammatory anti-Muslim message" after they sent out a mailer advertising Homegrown Jihad.
June 27, 2009
USA
NGOs and religious leaders call on the US to halt the deportation of a Copt to Egypt, where he will likely be tortured or worse.
June 28, 2009
USA
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is concerned at reports of attacks targeting Coptic Orthodox Christians in the small Egyptian village of Ezbet Boshra-East.
July 3, 2009
PA, USA
A Pennsylvania pastor was asked to pray before the state's House of Representatives, but his prayer was rejected because it contained an offensive word: "Jesus."
July 3, 2009
USA
The Pentagon denied the flyover of the God and Country Rally for the first time in 42 years because of its "Christian nature."
July 7, 2009
Newton Square, PA, USA
A Christian mother was forbidden from reading King David's Psalms at her son's kindergarten. The case may go before the Supreme Court.
July 7, 2009
USA
The US is to take on 1,350 Iraqi Palestinians who were former guests of Saddam Hussein. Christians, both Iraqi and Palestinian, are stuck being massacred in the Middle East.
South America
July 5, 2009
Brazil
FIFA, the worldwide soccer organization, sent an official admonishment to the Brazilian Federation because its players prayed and thanked God in the middle of the field after their win. The Egyptian team performed an Islamic prayer in the middle of the field after their win against Italy but were not similarly admonished.
Africa
June 4, 2009
Eritrea
Four Christians died in an underground dungeon, where they were kept for almost six years. Four others went blind after exposure to "piercing sunlight" following months in darkness.
June 8, 2009
Giza, Egypt
Two policemen who were convicted of murder for pushing a Coptic man out of a window were sentenced to only five years.
June 8, 2009
Egypt
A report by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada’s Religious Liberty Commission details the oppression of and discrimination against Christians in Egypt, both modern and historical.
June 9, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
A mob of 150, armed with clubs and swords, assaulted the family of a Coptic girl who was abducted and then recovered the same day. The police then arrested 11 Copts, including the assaulted family.
June 10, 2009
Banjul, Gambia
A British missionary jailed on trumped-up sedition charges has been delayed because prosecutors failed to attend his hearing. His wife is also jailed and Christian Solidarity Worldwide is worried for their health.
June 14, 2009
Deir Abu Hennis, Egypt
The cultural genocide of Egypt's Copts continues as the Egyptian government changes the name of a village whose inhabitants are 100% Coptic.
June 16, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
A judge denied a second Christian convert identity documents stating his religion, effectively denying him the right to convert.
June 17, 2009
Toma, Egypt
Two Christians have been detained for nearly a month after riots broke out following the abduction and retrieval of a Coptic girl. Reuters’ version, issued by the Egyptian government, was a little different.
June 17, 2009
Nigeria
A pregnant Christian woman lost most of her family, got shot, and lost her unborn baby in attacks by Muslim militants. (Video.)
June 18, 2009
Sudan
232 Sudanese slaves who were abducted during the North-South Civil War (1983-2005) were finally liberated. They had been subjected to "a clear pattern of physical and psychological abuse."
June 20, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
Twin Coptic boys who have been caught in a custody dispute for five years were finally given to their Coptic mother but were forced to remain Muslims despite declarations that they are Christians.
June 22, 2009
Egypt
A Muslim mob attacked a church and assaulted Copts with clubs, instigated by State Security. A village priest was charged with sedition.
June 22, 2009
Ezbat Bsharreh, Egypt
18 were wounded in Muslim-Christian clashes when Muslims threw rocks at Copts to prevent them from going into the home of a priest to join the Mass in progress.
June 22, 2009
Zanzibar
Government officials evicted a congregation from the building they were renting, ostensibly for renovations. No renovations were performed but the building now houses a business.
June 24, 2009
Ezbet Boshra, Egypt
Copts were placed under curfew and confined them to their homes, in fear of an impending massacre following mob attacks two days earlier. Security forces destroyed crops for three consecutive days, but charges were dropped against the reverend who was charged on 6/22/2009. Update 6/29: Authorities released all suspects who had been arrested.
June 26, 2009
Noaukchott, Mauritania
An American aid worker was killed by Al-Qaeda militants for "spreading Christianity." Update 7/01: Christians in the town have fled to Europe in fear, escorted by police.
June 26, 2009
Uganda
A woman’s parents threw her out when she converted to Christianity. She married a Christian man and fled with him after her family threatened to kidnap her, but they were thrown out of their new home. Muslims have threatened to harm her family.
June 30, 2009
Zanzibar
Muslims burned down two church buildings following services "as a fierce warning," before threatening to burn down the houses of the congregants.
June 30, 2009
Mogadishu, Somalia
"I'm telling the people that it's time we attacked Ethiopia, who are our Christian neighbours."
July 1, 2009
Meet El-Korashy, Egypt
After a young man died in a fight with a Coptic shopkeeper mobs attacked, torched, and looted Christian homes and businesses.
July 1, 2009
Egypt
"[I]mpunity fuels persecution - the terrible consequence of forced 'reconciliation' in the absence of truth or justice." Copts are denied the right to practice their faith and are subject to "Muslim mob justice."
July 1, 2009
Dessie, Ethiopia
Police shot two people who were building a church, killing them both. Another "fell off a cliff."
July 1, 2009
Somalia
Militants beheaded two young boys because their Christian father refused to give up information about a church leader. They are still looking for the pastor in refugee camps in Kenya.
July 3, 2009
Guirgis Bey, Egypt
Copts appealed to Mubarak for protection after two houses were burned down and mobs tried to burn a priest and two cars.
July 7, 2009
Asmara, Eritrea
Fifteen monks were detained for allegedly planning actions against the "government's interference." 2,800 Christians are believed to be imprisoned in Eritrea.
July 8, 2009
Egypt
Security forces are in collusion with Muslim mobs in carrying out acts of violence and forced displacement all over the country. "The Coptic persecution issue has become a permanent source of livelihood for them…"
July 8, 2009
Egypt
A Dubai imam has called upon the Egyptian government to give Christians more land to build churches and to allow them to do so with the same ease with which Muslims build mosques.
July 9, 2009
Algiers, Algeria
A GIA founder admitted to killing 7 monks in 1996.
July 10, 2009
Mogadishu, Somalia
Islamist rebels beheaded seven "Christians" and "spies."
July 10, 2009
Egypt
"Many Muslim scholars issued a fatwa, saying I must be killed," says a convert from Islam to Christianity.
July 12, 2009
Ezbet Bassilious, Egypt
Muslims burned down a church and State Security, who watched the church burn down but did nothing, charged a Copt for the act of arson.
July 14, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
Coptic church security thwarted an attempted attack by a veiled woman carrying several weapons, rope, and anaesthetics just after children's religion classes ended.
July 15, 2009
Khartoum, Sudan
Police flogged and fined 10 girls for wearing pants because it violates Sharia, to which Christians are supposedly not subject.
Asia
June 4, 2009
Middle East
The War on Christianity in the Middle East. Christians suffer horribly under radical Islam and the perpetrators get a free pass.
June 8, 2009
Punjab, Pakistan
A Christian man was raped and murdered for refusing to convert to Islam after he was caught with a Muslim girl.
June 8, 2009
Iran
Iran has been severely persecuting Christians, particularly converts from Islam, who are often imprisoned for apostasy. Ordinances which have existed for 30 years are now more strictly enforced than ever.
June 9, 2009
Gaza
Christians found at least 70 graves and several religious symbols vandalized at their 200-year-old church
June 11, 2009
Dhaka, Bangladesh
A Catholic chef "has a really rough time" in jail after being picked up for allegedly possessing illegal alcoholic beverages.
June 11, 2009
Punjab, Pakistan
Authorities attacked a Christian cemetery and seized a church, after Railway authorities confiscated a church building. They are reportedly trying obtain permission to demolish it.
June 11, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
A church center was threatened with a bomb attack if Christians did not convert to Islam and pay a ransom.
June 12, 2009
Punjab, Pakistan
A Christian man was beaten and stabbed to death for drinking from a "Muslim cup."
June 12, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
After a traffic accident, assailants attacked a pastor’s home, beat his mother and sister-in-law with rifle butts, and threatened more violence if they did not drop assault charges.
June 12, 2009
Singapore
A Protestant couple was found guilty of sedition for mailing religiously offensive material to Muslims and has been sentenced to 8 weeks of jail time.
June 12, 2009
Philippines
The President announced that the Malaysian government was working to "reopen talks [with Muslim separatist guerrillas] that stalled after rebel commanders attacked Christian communities."
June 13, 2009
Hasilpur, Pakistan
A parcel bomb injured at least 10 Christians.
June 14, 2009
Manila, Philippines
A bomb placed in front of a school exploded, but nobody was injured, and another, also placed in front of a school, was safely detonated.
June 14, 2009
Tiasar Town, Pakistan
Taliban militants shot an 11-year-old boy in the head during an attack on a church.
June 15, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
Taliban factions threatened to rape, kill, and enslave non-Muslims unless they paid the jizya.
June 15, 2009
Istanbul, Turkey
An Iranian Christian refugee was beaten for his faith.
June 15, 2009
Yemen
Seven of nine foreign hostages from an international relief group were found murdered.
June 16, 2009
Sana'a, Yemen
Christian expats "review[ed] their arrangements" following the kidnapping and murder of foreigners. The foreigners, it was later learned, were Christian aid workers. Update 7/20: The murders seem to be the work of a former Gitmo detainee.
June 16, 2009
Middle East
Islamic extremism is diminishing the presence of Christians in several Middle Eastern countries.
June 17, 2009
Mianwali, Pakistan
A talented Christian student was denied admission to study science at a high school for being "too ugly."
June 18, 2009
Gaza, Judea and Samaria
Muslims harm Palestinian Christian Arabs, then blame Israeli Jews, as do the media.
June 18, 2009
Pakistan
Muslims have tried to stop the construction of a wall around their church because Muslims use the church’s land for livestock.
June 19, 2009
Kharian, Pakistan
Muslims accused a mentally challenged girl of blasphemy and interrogated her for 16 hours.
June 21, 2009
Mindanao, Philippines
Separatist guerrillas killed one and injured 32 with grenades at a festival.
June 22, 2009
Bangladesh
A woman who converted to Christianity from Islam has been subject to "a climate of exclusion" and pressured to divorce.
June 23, 2009
Maldives
Migrant workers, like natives, may only practice Sunni Islam, to the exclusion of other faiths. They are subject to search and seizure of religious materials.
June 23, 2009
Sialkot, Pakistan
A Christian man is languishing in jail on false charges after police broke his backbone and they refuse to admit him to a hospital.
June 23, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
Co-workers beat a man after learning that he was a Christian.
June 24, 2009
Dushanbe, Tajikistan
A 12-year-old Protestant church was told that it must remove the extensions it added onto it and vacate within 7 days. Minimal compensation was "offered." Another church was bulldozed 10 months prior and the promised compensation has not been paid.
June 24, 2009
Midyat, Turkey
Mor Gabriel Syriac Monastery lost its "forestry" case against the State. Video backstory here.
June 25, 2009
Mosul, Iraq
Christian families left a building belonging to a church where some had lived for 20 years due to fear of it being bombed because police are using it as a guarding point.
June 25, 2009
Islamabad, Pakistan
Two Christians were beaten and detained on charges of blasphemy.
June 25, 2009
Manila, Philippines
Abu Sayyaf militants who continue to hold a Red Cross worker demanded a "ridiculous amount" for his ransom.
June 25, 2009
Malatya, Turkey
The state failed to set aside funds to transport a key witness in the trial over three stabbings of Christians. The man is one of two alleged masterminds connecting the murders to a "deep-state" conspiracy.
June 26, 2009
Baku, Azerbaijan
Police warned Jehovah's Witnesses that their church would be shut down if children were allowed to attend. Two women complained of being forcibly converted during police interrogations.
June 27, 2009
Karachi, Pakistan
All five suspects apprehended for the murder of a Christian leader were acquitted for the second time after the court ruled that there was a lack of evidence.
June 30, 2009
Baghdad, Iraq
Iraq witnesses the withdrawal of US troops. "Christian families did not send their children to catechism classes for first communion, nor will they in the coming days. They are waiting to see what will happen, they have little confidence."
July 1, 2009
Iran
The growing Church will likely face persecution, but believers are uniting under mounting pressure.
July 1, 2009
Karachi, Pakistan
A Presbyterian pastor was attacked and kidnapped at gunpoint. His family was reported to still be in danger.
July 2, 2009
Kasur, Pakistan
100 Christian families fled after angry mobs attacked and threatened to burn their homes, accusing them of blasphemy. The mob then petrol-bombed their homes and the nearby utilities. 9 women and 4 children were sent to Lahore for treatment after being burned with acid -- and it still says so at Persecution.org. Update 7/03: 8 Christians were charged for the rampage.
July 2, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
Police allegedly tortured a 16-year-old Christian boy to death. The police are denying both the torture and any role in his death, claiming that he probably died of cardiac arrest.
July 3, 2009
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
An American missionary was deported without cause.
July 3, 2009
Faisalabad, Pakistan
A Christian was tortured extensively and then detained on false blasphemy charges.
July 4, 2009
Iraq
Christians face grave security concerns as US troops withdraw.
July 4, 2009
East Java, Indonesia
Muslims blocked the construction of a home for disabled children by a prominent secular charity out of fears that it would be a "front for proselytizing."
July 4, 2009
Jerusalem, Israel
A poll showed that PA Arabs are unwilling to grant land rights to Jews or Christians in Jerusalem.
July 5, 2009
Cotabato, Philippines
A bomb blast by the Moro Liberation Front killed 5 and injured 35 at a Catholic church. Video here.
July 7, 2009
Jakarta, Indonesia
Christians fight discrimination as they protest the revocation of their church's permit and demand that the promise of a new seminary school's campus be fulfilled.
July 7, 2009
Tehran, Iran
Two Iranian women continue to be held in Evin prison because of their faith, unfairly labeled as "anti-government activists." They have been jailed since early March and fear execution for apostasy.
July 7, 2009
Kasur, Pakistan
A Christian man who was jailed for blasphemy is suffering due to harsh treatment in prison and is not receiving medical care for heart disease.
July 7, 2009
Jolo, Philippines
Four explosions rocked Mindanao, killing at least 6 and wounding 56. The terrorist acts are believed to be the work of Abu Sayyaf.
July 7, 2009
Iligan City, Philippines
A car bomb went off, injuring 9, including 3 soldiers. Undetonated bombs similar to those used in Jolo the same day were found strapped to the National Grid Corp tower.
July 7, 2009
Uzbekistan
A Baptist man has been banned from meeting fellow believers and his books and audio tapes were confiscated. A Protestant family was also punished for worshipping and threatened with jail if they protested because "You are Forum 18 and I am Barack Obama."
July 9, 2009
Malaysia
Muslims have been spying on Catholic churches in order to determine if Christians are trying to convert Muslims.
July 10, 2009
Aktau, Kazakhstan
State security and the justice system are targeting a Pentecostal church and its members.
July 10, 2009
Cotobato, Philippines
Christians are organizing into militias after waves of terror attacks and the their abandonment by UN, who suspended all aid to the local population and withdrew its troops.
July 11, 2009
Swat, Pakistan
A prominent Islamic leader has threatened a "bloody revolution" if Sharia is not implemented.
July 12, 2009
Baghdad, Iraq
Six churches were bombed on Sunday, killing 4 and inuring 32. Video here. Update: Make that seven.
July 12, 2009
Kirkuk, Iraq
A Christian municipal leader was assassinated in a predominantly Christian neighborhood.
July 13, 2009
Mosul, Iraq
A car bomb exploded near a church, seriously damaging the building. Some areas imposed curfews as the wave of bombings stretched into its third day.
July 14, 2009
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Nine Christians were arrested for allegedly trying to convert Muslims.
July 14, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
Despite threats from the Taliban, Pakistani Catholics continue to work for the good of the country.
July 14, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
A prominent minority rights leader and two others were jailed on false assault charges against a woman whose parents had brought her in to explain the consequences of converting to Islam.
Europe
June 4, 2009
Milan, Italy
A terror cell which planned attacks against a subway system and the San Petronio Cathedral in Bologna was apprehended.
June 4, 2009
Kosovo
"In Kosovo, a Muslim state has been allowed to spring up in the heart of Europe," says the Prime Minister of Republika Srpska. (Video.)
June 9, 2009
Moldova
A new administrative code punishes "unregistered religious activity," making life difficult for Protestants. Update 6/16: The European Court of Human Rights judged that Moldova must provide more religious freedom, but registration applications continue to be denied.
June 18, 2009
Bologna, Italy
A MP and women's rights activist has had a death fatwa issued against her after she was "exposed as a Christian."
June 18, 2009
Netherlands
"Christians face submission or persecution," says a pastor.
June 18, 2009
Södertälje, Sweden
Assyrian refugees suffer at the hands of neighboring Muslims.
June 20, 2009
UK
The Church of England will confront the BBC over its treatment of Christianity.
June 21, 2009
Birmingham, UK
Muslim prisoners complained about sharing cells with and eating near infidels, so now they get their own cells.
June 22, 2009
UK
"The BBC supports Islam and attacks Christianity, claims Radio 2 stalwart Don Maclean."
June 26, 2009
London, UK
British Parliament discusses the humanitarian disaster affecting the Christians of Iraq. (Video; Part II: Discussion of Kurds stealing Assyrians' land.)
June 29, 2009
Gnjilane, Kosovo
Ethnic Albanians bulldozed and razed a monument dedicated to the Christian saint Lazarus and his knights.
July 4, 2009
Sussex, UK
A Coptic family who suffers persecution back in Egypt is being deported after receiving inadequate representation. Petition at link.
July 11, 2009
UK
Church leaders accuse the government of favoring Muslims and starving them of state funds, making smaller churches' continued existence difficult in poorer parts of the country.
July 13, 2009
UK
"Why is Britain deporting persecuted Christians?"
Everywhere
July 2, 2009
Q: "How is a [Muslim] woman to be punished if she marries a Christian? How often is it carried out and in what countries is it most common?"
July 7, 2009
"[W]ith regard to non-Muslims who are at war with the Muslims and do not have a peace treaty with the Muslims or are not living under Muslim rule, then Muslims are commanded to kill them, because Allaah says…"
Bulletin of Christian Persecution
Facts without comments-- We Collect the Dots; You Connect Them
Please spread this bulletin and send us events that you find.April 9, 2009
USA
Textbook bias and falsehoods in the classroom. (Video).
April 15, 2009
Washington, D.C., USA
Obama bans Jesus at Georgetown. Update 4/17 : The Christian Defense Coalition is 'appalled' at the move.
April 17, 2009
Orlando, FL, USA
The Council of American-Islamic Relations was caught selling jihadist literature advocating genocide, violence, and the overthrow of non-Sharia governments. (Video).
April 21, 2009
USA
A hate speech law, HR 1913, could restrict religious freedom and freedom of speech. The law has since passed the House.
April 24, 2009
Washington D.C., USA
Obama's Armenian genocide dilemma. He chose not to brand it as such, possibly because Erdogan does not "support apologies to Armenians".
April 24, 2009
Vallejo Co., CA, USA
Missionary author to recount her year in captivity in the Philippines at the hands of Abu Sayyaf militants.
April 27, 2009
Seattle, WA, USA
A militant who is to testify in a high-stakes terror trial admits to having tried to carve out no-go zones and institute Sharia.
April 30, 2009
Arlington, VA, USA
Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., awards "Muslim Democrat of the Year" to the President of the Maldives, a nation in which Christianity is illegal and which ranks 6th on the list of the worst oppressors of Christians.
May 1, 2009
USA
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom named 13 countries as serious violators of religious freedom, 8 of which were Muslim countries. (Video ).
May 18, 2009
USA
Newsweek's cover story on April 4 was 'The Decline and Fall of Christian America.' Meacham: halving the magazine's circulation "is a good thing."
May 27, 2009
Los Angeles, CA, USA
"A Message to President Obama From Christian Copts of California: Reconciliation With the Islamic World is a Two-Way Street."
June 2, 2009
USA
Obama: The US is“one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” Video here .
June 3, 2009
Arkansas, USA
The Arkansas jihadist had maps to a Baptist church, Jewish organizations, a daycare center, and a post office.
June 3, 2009
USA
US lawmakers call upon Saudis to stop using hate speech in their textbooks.
June 4, 2009
USA
Sharia’s inroads in the US. (Video).
June 5, 2009
USA
US tax dollars fund madrassas in Gambia.
June 6, 2009
San Diego, CA, USA
A Muslim and a Christian got into an argument about religion so the Muslim shot the Christian 5 times.
South America
May 7, 2009
Colombia
Colombia has detained and expelled an ethnic Albanian war crimes suspect who was the commander of the KLA because of an Interpol warrant for war crimes.
Africa
April 13, 2009
Eritrea
Eritrea's government is involved in attacking rights activists abroad, claims Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
April 14, 2009
Minna and Gwada, Nigeria
Churches were burnt and scores injured in Easter violence.
April 14, 2009
Khartoum, Sudan
Converts from Islam struggle to survive; some are beaten and imprisoned by family members.
April 17, 2009
Eritrea
Human Rights Watch says that Eritrea is becoming a giant prison, particularly for religious minorities.
April 19, 2009
Qena, Egypt
Two Copts were gunned down leaving an Easter vigil.
April 19, 2009
Mogadishu, Somalia
Two aid workers were 'seized' by al-Shabaab militants. Last year 35 aid staff were killed and 16 abducted in Somalia, according to UN estimates.
April 20, 2009
Hagaza, Egypt
Two Copts were killed and another seriously injured on the eve of the Orthodox Easter while returning from church.
April 20, 2009
Somalia
Somalia: Land of jihad, piracy, and Christian persecution.
April 21, 2009
Tripoli, Libya
Libya released four Christians who were detained for three months for converting from Islam.
April 23, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
A convert was arrested for marrying a Christian, which is not illegal in Egypt. Her family burned off the bride's cross tattoo.
April 23, 2009
Algiers, Algeria
Twenty-two Christian churches reopen after having been closed by authorities last year.
April 24, 2009
Egypt
Copts criticized the Muslim Brotherhood platform which bans women and Copts from being President.
April 27, 2009
Egypt
'Are Egypt's Christian Copts Equal Citizens Under the Law?' (An open letter).
April 28, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
Targeting of apostates and Christians is on the rise.
April 28, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
An ex-Muslim who converted to Christianity and her Christian husband had to go into hiding after her family and the police threatened their lives amidst a series of attacks upon the Coptic community.
April 29, 2009
Egypt
Christians riot after the government's decision to kill all the pigs.
April 29, 2009
Egypt
A Coptic priest was unjustly tried and imprisoned for helping a woman obtain an ID card. Update 5/22 : The woman he was helping aired a declaration of the priest's innocence.
April 29, 2009
Khartoum, Sudan
President Bashir's Islamist supporters intensify their attacks on Christians.
April 30, 2009
Marsah Matrouh, Egypt
Egyptian state security forces demolished the Coptic Church's services building and assaulted women and clergy.
May 3, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
Coptic farmers clash with police over pig culling, which is more "linked to religion that fear of the disease [swine flu]," part of forced Islamization, and a threat to the Coptic-run industry .
May 3, 2009
Egypt
Egyptians Against Religious Discrimination Group discusses discrimination in education.
May 4, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
The right to convert from Islam is again spotlighted in Egypt as another family is on the run.
May 7, 2009
Libya
An Egyptian Christian was imprisoned in Libya on charges of proselytizing on his website.
May 8, 2009
Asmara, Eritrea
Eritrea has released three Christian women from a notorious prison camp after 6 months' detention.
May 8, 2009
Somalia
A Kenyan pastor was beaten and threatened with death by immigration officials at the Somaliland border.
May 11, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
A bomb went off right in front of a highly-revered Coptic church, "one of the holiest sites for Egypt's Coptic minority."
May 12, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
An Egyptian convert's case over his right to convert to Christianity poses a "threat to societal order."
May 13, 2009
Alexandria, Egypt
An Egyptian Christian was kidnapped from his home, pressured to convert to Islam, and pressured to marry a Muslim girl. Police refused to file a report but detained him in state security.
May 13, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
A 16-year-old Coptic girl was abducted.
May 13, 2009
Somalia
The President signed into law a bill introducing Sharia.
May 14, 2009
Giza, Egypt
"'Hurling a Stone at a Mosque' Rumor Leads to Attacks on Christians," and the arrest of a paralyzed Copt who disappeared while in police custody.
May 16, 2009
Egypt
'Plea: Save Egypt's Children From Forced Islamization.'
May 18 (?), 2009
Egypt
The mass slaughter of the pigs in Egypt as they are picked up by a bulldozer and thrown into quicklime. (Video). Not for sensitive viewers. Update: the video has sparked outrage .
May 18, 2009
Egypt
Copts describe being tortured. (Video).
May 22, 2009
Minya, Egypt
A Copt leaving a sanctuary was stabbed by three men, injuring him severely. Three Copts have been arrested illegally and tortured.
May 22, 2009
Jos, Nigeria
A Christian pastor discusses the destruction of his church. (Video).
May 26, 2009
Eritrea
A woman was arrested for practicing Christianity and died from torture.
May 26, 2009
Ungunja Ukuu, Tanzania
Muslims drove worshippers from a makeshift church three weeks in a row by using threats and gathering to attack.
May 27, 2009
Ethiopia
A young Christian convert learned that the body of her deceased infant son had been dug up and left at the doorstep of a church leader.
May 28, 2009
Giza, Egypt
Two police officers who threw a Copt out of a window received five-year sentences. The third was not sentenced at all. Update 6/01 : Christians demand harsher sentences.
May 29, 2009
Sudan
232 Sudanese slaves were liberated from their Muslim masters.
May 29, 2009
Egypt
Two Copts were detained for a third time for defending themselves during an attack on a monastery.
June 1, 2009
Egypt
A former Muslim was arrested for marrying a Christian man. (Video).
June 6, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
The Swine Flu pig cull destroyed a way of life for Christian Cairo rubbish collectors.
Asia
April 12, 2009
Baghdad
Christians in Iraq publically celebrated Easter for the first time in three years.
April 13, 2009
Basilan Island, Philippines
Abu Sayyaf claims the lives of two Christian farmers.
April 13, 2009
Doha, Qatar
A church doubles its congregation after facing great difficulties opening in the first place.
April 13, 2009
Manila, Philippines
Aby Sayyaf militants beheaded a hostage captured in a raid on a Christian community.
April 13, 2009
Iran
Iran recognized as a threat to religious freedom in a US State Department report. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "has said that he will eliminate Christianity from Iran."
April 14, 2009
Iran
Iran makes excuses to keep two Christian women in jail.
April 14, 2009
Middle East
'Iraqi Refugees Live Life of Desperation.' Update 5/26 : Iraqi refugees in Syria staged a protest at the UN.
April 14, 2009
Middle East
Holy Land: Christians in Peril (trailer). Why Bethlehem is no longer a Christian town.
April 15, 2009
Tamergara, Pakistan
Upper and Lower Dir. Pushtons demonstrated for Sharia law.
April 15, 2009
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
A deacon was given a 15-day jail term for teaching Baptist beliefs.
April 16, 2009
Iraq
Iraq's minorities have issued a joint statement on Kurdish expansion plans, which would encroach upon Christian areas.
April 16, 2009
Pakistan
The struggle of Pakistan's Christians. (Video).
April 16, 2009
Malatya, Turkey
The role of local officials in the Malatya murders emerges. Update 5/28 : Efforts to tie the murders to a 'deep state conspiracy' fizzle.
April 17, 2009
Iraq
The vice president of Iraq urged the country’s Christian population to resist fleeing Iraq and called on the international community to help protect them from extremists.
April 17, 2009
Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Ironic persecution: Islamic scholars meet to discuss religious tolerance under Sharia in Mecca, where non-Muslims cannot enter.
April 17, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
High court clears two Christians of unfounded blasphemy charges after three years' imprisonment.
April 18, 2009
Jolo, Philippines
A Red Cross hostage was freed, but an Italian worker was reported to still be held by kidnappers.
April 19, 2009
Gaza, Judea and Samaria
Persecution of Palestinian Christians under Islamic law. (Video, part 2 here ).
April 19, 2009
Amman, Jordan
The Muslim Brotherhood warned Pope Benedict to cancel his trip to the Middle East unless he apologized for quoting a 14th-century Byzantine emperor three years ago.
April 19, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
Two elderly Christian men were released from prison after two years for blasphemy charges.
April 20, 2009
Kirkuk, Iraq
The Archbishop of Kirkuk says that the plan for a ghetto for Iraqi Christians is an illusion.
April 21, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
The Archbishop of Lahore says that Sharia in the Swat Valley is contrary to Pakistan's founding principles. "Special concern has been prompted by the creation of a 'parallel legal system.'"
April 21, 2009
South Sumatra, Indonesia
Four militants were jailed for the murder of a Christian school teacher and plots to kill a priest and bomb a café.
April 21, 2009
Gaza, Judea and Samaria
Christians face persecution from Islamic extremists. "Palestinian official says they need to be watched, prevented from evangelizing, converting Muslims."
April 21, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
A Pakistani Christian girl who was raped in December struggles to get justice.
April 21, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
A 14-year-old Christian girl was kidnapped, raped, and forced to convert to Islam.
April 21, 2009
Shiekupura, Pakistan
Muslims gang raped a 13-year-old Christian girl.
April 21, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
The Taliban persecutes Christians as they spread out from Swat. Mission workers have been kidnapped, beaten, and mistreated.
April 22, 2009
Islamabad, Pakistan
Two Christian brothers who were jailed for blasphemy were freed but activists are concerned for their safety.
April 22, 2009
Karachi, Pakistan
Taliban militants killed two Christians in an armed attack on a Christian colony.
April 22, 2009
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Islamic fundamentalists threaten UN agencies and the Red Crescent.
April 22, 2009
Cotabato, Philippines
Three civilians were killed, five injured in an ambush by Islamic militants.
April 22, 2009
Manila, Philippines
Rescue operations to recover the last of the three Red Cross hostages started. He was reportedly suffering from poor health and unable to walk. Update 4/23 : Troops clashed with the militants, sustaining casualties. The hostage's fate was unclear.
April 24, 2009
Karachi, Pakistan
The Taliban executed two Christians after attacking a Christian neighborhood and vandalizing a church.
April 24, 2009
Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Christians worship in secret churches and on the Internet.
April 24, 2009
Adana, Turkey
Armenians remember the Adana massacre 100 years ago.
April 24, 2009
Istanbul, Turkey
The Armenian genocide was commemorated in Turkey by the Istanbul branch of the Human Rights Organization of Turkey.
April 25, 2009
Basilan, Philippines
40 Muslim militants raided a Christian village, killing two. One man remains missing.
April 26, 2009
Kirkuk, Iraq
Attacks on Christians left three dead and two seriously injured. Update 4/27 : An archbishop has called it an act of terrorism and a police lieutenant believes that it was al-Qaeda-linked.
April 26, 2009
Karachi, Pakistan
"You infidels have to convert to Islam or die."
April 26, 2009
Judea and Samaria
The Christian mayor of Bethlehem's car was firebombed by Islamic militants.
April 26, 2009
Malaysia
Malay Christians oppose the “non-Allah” Bible.
April 26, 2009
Taiser, Pakistan
The Taliban attacked and killed Christians, shooting an 11-year-old boy execution-style.
April 27, 2009
Iran
The crackdown on Christians is worsening in Iran.
April 27, 2009
Iraq
'The Slaughter After the Pull-Out in Vietnam May Happen to Iraqi Christians.' Update 5/3 : US troops may have to stay in Mosul.
April 27, 2009
Iraq
Four Christians were killed in 48 hours. Christians are urged not to flee in the wake if the murders.
April 27, 2009
Sulawesi, Indonesia
A Christian priest and his wife were murdered by militants.
April 27, 2009
Pakistan
Taliban-inspired attacks hit Christians. Armed militants fired into a crowd, harming three, and the jizya has been imposed in Orakzai.
April 27, 2009
Ankara, Turkey
The Turkish PM has stepped into the Mor Gabriel Monastery dispute.
April 28, 2009
Iraq
"The Iraqi government is happy if all Christians leave."
April 28, 2009
Swat, Pakistan
Religious minorities complain about having the jizya imposed upon them and having court cases heard before Sharia judges. Update 5/1 : The Taliban forced Sikhs and Christians out for non-payment.
April 28, 2009
Karachi, Pakistan
A Christian boy who was wounded in a Taliban attack on April 22 died.
April 28, 2009
Uzbekistan
Baptists are persecuted and the practice of Christianity is severely restricted. (Video).
April 29, 2009
Nazareth, Israel
Islamists welcome Pope Benedict to Jesus' childhood home by unveiling a banner condemning him for 'insulting the Prophet.'
April 30, 2009
Jakarta, Indonesia
A Muslim mayor has rescinded a construction permit for a Protestant church.
April 30, 2009
Ankawa, Iraq
An Assyrian church security guard was severely beaten by Kurds at gunpoint.
April 30, 2009
Baghdad, Iraq
Muslim militants attacked Mandaeans, killing at least 3. "Since 2003 the group suffered numerous incidents of targeted attacks including 167 killings, 275 kidnappings, and 298 assaults and forced conversions to Islam."
April 30, 2009
Pakistan
The government has been urged to ban forced conversions after a 14-year-old Christian girl was raped and forced to convert to Islam.
May 1, 2009
NWFP, Pakistan
Five hundred thousand Christians in the NWFP face hardship and fear.
May 1, 2009
Philippines
The Philippines had the most internally displaced people in 2008, according to a UN study.
May 1, 2009
Gaza
Christians are“desperate to leave Gaza.”
May 2, 2009
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The Malaysian Cabinet slammed a ban on forced conversions of children for being un-Islamic.
May 2, 2009
Pakistan
Blasphemy laws in Pakistan. (Video).
May 2, 2009
Punjab, Pakistan
Christian families fled the Punjab after a presumed blasphemy case out of fear for their safety.
May 3, 2009
Sahiwal, Pakistan
Christians fled their homes in fear after five were arrested for blasphemy.
May 4, 2009
Nagorno-Karabakh
Protestants are denied legal status and cannot meet together to worship.
May 4, 2009
Karachi, Pakistan
Christians are locking themselves in their homes for fear of the Taliban. Others flee .
May 4, 2009
Manila, Philippines
Church workers and associates have been targeted for torture and execution.
May 4, 2009
Pakistan
Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan: "Agents of Jews And Christians Want To Create Sectarian [Sunni-Shi’ite] Conflict"
May 5, 2009
Jaranwala, Pakistan
A nine-year-old Christian girl was raped and murdered before being dumped in a canal.
May 5, 2009
Mecca, Saudi Arabia
The first black Saudi appointed as imam of the Haram Mosque in Mecca discusses the driving out of the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula. (Video).
May 6, 2009
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
A lawyer threatened to kill a Christian charged with blasphemy.
May 6, 2009
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Taliban militants murder and rape Christians.
May 7, 2009
Iraq
The UN has altered its Iraq refugee guidelines, but still recommends asylum for all ethnic and religious minorities.
May 7, 2009
Iraq
Fear keeps Christians quiet about the extent of the persecution they suffer.
May 7, 2009
Amman, Jordan
Islamists have called the Pope's Mideast visit a provocation.
May 7, 2009
Jordan (?)
Members of an Islamist forum called upon members to assassinate Pope Benedict.
May 7, 2009
Kabul, Afghanistan
Afghan Taliban threatens "harsh reprisals" if the Pope does not stop Christian conversions.
May 7, 2009
Manila, Philippines
The jihadists who are holding the Red Cross worker hostage murdered a police chief. Seven others were killed in the clash.
May 8, 2009
Iraq
The destruction of the Mandaean religion.
May 8, 2009
Iraq
'Iraqi Suffering: The Untold Story.' (Video).
May 8, 2009
Dushanbe, Tajikistan
A church is struggling to retain its building as authorities target religious property.
May 9, 2009
Amman, Jordan
Islamic clerics: "We want [the Pope's] apology to be clear just like the insults to Islam were clear. He should acknowledge his mistakes. That's our position and the position of all Jordanians."
May 9, 2009
Swat, Pakistan
Christians flees from the Taliban as military strikes continue.
May 9, 2009
Amman, Jordan
Pope Benedict urged the world to protect Iraq's Christians. He also praised them for persevering.
May 10, 2009
Lahore, Punjab
A Christian councilor was imprisoned in iron chains by a Muslim man in his home.
May 11, 2009
Mosul, Iraq
A five-year-old Christian boy was kidnapped and killed.
May 11, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
Muslim fanatics threatened a Christian journalist and his family.
May 11, 2009
Turkmenistan
Old "offences" are used to punish current religious activity.
May 12, 2009
Middle East
'Tony Blair Has helped Destroy One of the Oldest Churches on Earth.'
May 12, 2009
Pakistan
Pakistani Christians face discrimination in relief camps.
May 12, 2009
Uzbekistan
Concerns mount over a pastor who has been imprisoned since 2007.
May 12, 2009
Turkmenistan
Severe censorship and import laws restrict religious literature.
May 12, 2009
Turabdin, Turkey
The continuing legal battle over Mor Gabriel Monastery.
May 13, 2009
Jerusalem, Israel
Christians in the Middle East are losing numbers and influence.
May 13, 2009
Gaza, Judea and Samaria
“[W]e are the beaten and forgotten church.”
May 13, 2009
Ankara, Turkey
Ankara's General Directorate for Foundations has appropriated Orthodox church properties for gaming halls and other uses.
May 14, 2009
Ouroumieh, Iran
A retired Christian woman is being intimidated and her pension withheld.
May 14, 2009
Kirkuk, Iraq
An armed band kidnapped a teacher.
May 14, 2009
Pakistan
Christians in the crossfire: blasphemy charges, jizya payments, exile, displacement, violence, and discrimination.
May 15, 2009
Iraq
Christian emigration redraws Iraq’s demographic map.
May 15, 2009
Karachi, Pakistan
The Taliban have turned on Christians with a vengeance. Video here .
May 15, 2009
Pakistan
Spiraling violence targets religious minorities.
May 15, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
A Muslim mob attacked Christians in court.
May 15, 2009
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
A blogger and Christian convert was released from prison after being arrested "for choosing Jesus."
May 16, 2009
Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan
Christians face new religious restrictions, such as censorship of religious literature and harsher punishments for unregistered religious activities.
May 17, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
A Muslim man raped a Christian woman for four years, keeping her as a slave.
May 18, 2009
Basilan Island, Philippines
Muslims beheaded a Christian farmer whom they had abducted when his family failed to pay the ransom.
May 18, 2009
Jakarta, Indonesia
A Catholic politician won a seat in a parliamentary election; Islamists promptly attacked his home and demanded that he convert to Islam.
May 18, 2009
Ankara, Turkey
An author is again on trial for “insulting Turkishness” by writing about the Armenian genocide.
May 19, 2009
Zamboanga, Philippines
Villagers discovered the severed head of a Christian farmer who had been abducted by militants.
May 19, 2009
Tajikistan
A repressive religion law censors religious literature and controls religious teaching. (Video).
May 21, 2009
Baghdad, Iraq
A homicide bombing killed 12 at an Assyrian market.
May 21, 2009
Zamboanga, Philippines
Militants beheaded a retired Christian carpenter abducted nearly two months ago.
May 20, 2009
Afghanistan
The US military has burned a bunch of Bibles for fear that they would be used to convert Muslims.
May 20, 2009
Bandar Mahshahr, Iran
Authorities threaten and blackmail the father of a Christian convert who lives in England.
May 20, 2009
Gaza, Judea and Samaria
Why Palestinian Christian are 'disappearing.'
May 20, 2009
Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan
The Bible and a Mel Gibson film were banned in the town.
May 21, 2009
Karaj, Iran
Plain-clothes security officers invaded a home church and arrested new Christian converts.
May 23, 2009
Sarghoda, Pakistan
A young Christian was killed and another raped by a Muslim man.
May 24, 2009
Malaysia
A Malay court is now hearing the 'Allah' case. (Video).
May 24, 2009
Gaza, Judea and Samaria
Muslim against violence and intolerance toward Christians. (Video).
May 24, 2009
Manila, Philippines
Muslim lawmakers push for more Sharia courts in the 90% Christian nation.
May 25, 2009
Judea and Samaria
PA Muslims desecrated Christian gravestones.
May 26, 2009
Islamabad, Pakistan
Islamic militants attacked a historic church in a secure military zone, burned Bibles, and destroyed the altar and cross.
May 26, 2009
Manila, Philippines
MILF militants bombed a bridge and attacked a village in the southern Philippines, forcing hundreds to flee their homes.
May 27, 2009
Karaji, Iran
Iranian security forces arrested five Christian converts from Islam.
May 27, 2009
Pakistan
Nine pastors stand to serve prison time for using loudspeakers to broadcast prayers and sermons from their churches on Easter.
May 27, 2009
Islamabad, Pakistan
The homes of hundreds of Christian families were bulldozed by police.
May 28, 2009
Central Asia
Jihadism and Islamic extremism are on the rise.
May 28, 2009
Orumieh, Iran
A Christian convert from Islam has been summoned to the Revolutionary Court for “conspiring against the government.”
May 28, 2009
Telkepe, North Iraq
An Assyrian political activist was detained and threatened by Kurdish security.
May 28, 2009
Kyrgyzstan
A strict new religion law has led to a crackdown on religious organizations, particularly Christian ones.
May 28, 2009
Malaysia
The ban on the use of the name 'Allah' by Christians has been upheld by the high ruling court.
May 28, 2009
Pakistan
A man was beaten by his own family and imprisoned for converting to Christianity.
May 28, 2009
Singapore
A Christian couple was convicted of distributing a booklet which was critical of Islam and now faces possible jail time.
May 28, 2009
Telkepe, Iraq
An Assyrian politician was detained and threatened by Kurdish security personnel.
May 29, 2009
Mustafabad, Pakistan
Islamic radicals storm a Christian couple’s blasphemy hearing and a member of the prosecution team threatened to kill the wife.
May 30, 2009
Punjab, Pakistan
A 9-year-old girl was gang-raped and murdered and police are not carrying out a sincere investigation. (Video).
May 31, 2009
Turkey
Study: 52% do not want Christian neighbors.
June 1, 2009
Fulgazi, Bangladesh
Muslim villagers beat Christian evangelists for showing the “Jesus Film.”
June 3, 2009
Lebanon
“The Crisis of the Christians is the Crisis of Lebanon.”
June 4, 2009
Landikotal, Pakistan
Christians are denied housing.
June 4, 2009
Peshawar, Pakistan
Christians, Sikhs, and Hindus agree to pay the jizya after threats to destroy their homes.
June 5, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
A 12-year-old girl was kidnapped, forced to convert to Islam, and then to marry a 37-year-old Muslim as police and others mock and extort her mother.
June 5, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
Catholic leaders denounce the imposition of the jizya upon non-Muslims.
Europe
April 12, 2009
Kosovo
Evidence of NATO wrongdoing and KLA murder chambers. (Video).
April 15, 2009
Luton, U.K.
Double standards regarding freedom of expression: spitting on returning troops is allowed but not celebrating St. George's Day. Allowed (video). Not allowed (video).
April 16, 2009
Kosovo
More evidence of kidnapping, murder, and organ theft during the civil war in 1999. (Video; part 2 here ).
April 18, 2009
Sodertalje, Sweden
Iraqi immigrants gang raped Swedish teens. (In Swedish; English auto-translation here ).
April 20, 2009
The Hague, Netherlands
The International Court of Justice tackles the issue of the legality of Kosovo's independence as briefs by 18 states are submitted.
April 20, 2009
East London, U.K.
Manchester schools to close down on Muslim holidays in an officially Christian nation.
April 22, 2009
Kosovo
Serbia, along with UNESCO, has condemned an attempt to register monasteries and Orthodox churches as belonging to medieval Kosovar culture.
April 23, 2009
Holland
The Seyfo ("sword") Center, which works for international recognition of the Assyrian genocide, has launched a website: http://www.seyfocenter.com/
April 23, 2009
Kosovo
Serbian heritage has been renamed in Kosovo.
April 23, 2009
Netherlands
An Egyptian-American professor, Christian, apostate from Islam, and Islam critic was forced to cancel his trip due to death threats.
April 25, 2009
Malta
An MEP hopeful accused Gaddafi of pushing for a Muslim invasion of the tiny, Christian island nation.
April 27, 2009
Europe
EU judges in 9 states want Sharia law applied across Europe.
April 27, 2009
Cologne, Germany
A demonstration for Mor Gabriel Monastery in Turkey. (Video; part 2 ).
April 27, 2009
Sweden
Sweden tops the list for proportion of rapes, largely due to its huge immigrant population. Sexual attacks against children are on the rise as well.
April 28, 2009
Kosovo
History books for Serbs are to be rewritten by ethnic Albanians.
April 29, 2009
Ireland
A defamation bill making blasphemous libel a crime has been proposed, which would restrict freedom of speech.
April 30, 2009
Rome, Italy
The OIC Sharia Law Academy debated the killing of apostates from Islam with predictable results.
May 4, 2009
Serbia
The EU probes a horrific organ claim.
May 4, 2009
London, UK
A preacher was attacked in London and threatened. (Video).
May 6, 2009
East London, England
A hospital has banned paintings of churches.
May 7, 2009
Netherlands
Dutch MP Geert Wilders ripped the country's ambassador to Indonesia for defending Islam rather than oppressed Christians.
May 8, 2009
Blackburn, England
A Muslim father demands that his son be removed from his grandmother's care because she is Christian.
May 8, 2009
UK
The UK has banned the Queen's medal of honour has been scrapped because it was too Christian.
May 11, 2009
UK
A British publisher has scrapped a high-profile Christian encyclopedia for being too critical of Islam. An American publisher pulped the same encyclopedia last February .
May 11, 2009
Novi Pazar, Bulgaria
Two 19-year-old Muslim men were arrested for raping a boy.
May 12, 2009
UK
A British Muslim was chosen as the BBC's head of religious programming.
May 13, 2009
UK
A Northern Ireland politician says that BBC's decision to appoint a Muslim to head up religious programming is an "insult to Christians."
May 17, 2009
Chechnya, Russia
Chechen Muslim leader endorses almost indiscriminate murder, including humanitarians.
May 20, 2009
UK
Nick Griffin discusses Muslim pedophile gangs in the UK.
May 22, 2009
London, UK
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband apologizes to Islamic world for the Crusades. More here .
May 29, 2009
UK
Parents allege that a teacher made children pray to Allah and punished those who refuse.
June 2, 2009
Minsk, Belarus
One of Belarus’ largest Evangelical church faces imminent eviction by security forces.
June 2, 2009
Dagestan, Russia
Islamic scholars have issued a fatwa forbidding Muslim men from marrying Christians and Jews.
June 2, 2009
UK
A TV drama featuring a fanatical Christian who beheads a moderate Muslim was backed by the taxpayer-funded BBC.
June 3, 2009
Geneva, Switzerland
Islamic states threatened a UN expert for defending freedom of expression.
June 3, 2009
London, UK
Poll: Christians in the UK face increasing official discrimination.
June 4, 2009
Blackburn Lancashire, UK
A British man urged fellow Muslims to “kill all the unbelievers,” starting with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Australia
May 28, 2009
Sydney
New legal defense:“At least he [a serial rapist] didn’t bash them.”
Everywhere
April 12, 2009
Jihad against history: The History Channel's distortions of the Crusades.
April 18, 2009
'A Christian World Under Islam's Rule.'
May 2, 2009
World update on the persecuted church. (Video).
May 15, 2009
'Muslim Persecution of Christians,' a video from the David Horowitz Freedom Center. (Video here ).
May 17, 2009
'Christians unwelcome here: The Muslim world is becoming more intolerant.'
May 18, 2009
'UN Human Rights Council: Friend of Jihadists.'
Bulletin of Christian Persecution
Facts without comments-- We Collect the Dots; You Connect Them
Please spread this bulletin and send us events that you find.March 26
New York, U.S.
A two-year-old girl answers questions, saying that Christians are "the misguided" and Jews "are stuck by Allah's wrath." (Video).
March 28, 2009
U.S.
The State Department released its religious freedom violator blacklist. Burma, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, the Peoples Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan were designated “Countries of Particular Concern.”
March 28, 2009
U.S.
Christian Science Monitor has come out with a list of ten terms which are inappropriate for use around Muslims, such as "religious freedom" and "tolerance."
March 30, 2009
U.S.
Obama nominated a judge who believes that Sharia law should apply to disputes in the U.S. for the State Department's legal advisory post.
March 30, 2009
Washington, U.S.
Americans are concerned about the growing influence of Islamic law.
March 31, 2009
U.S.
U.S. State Department overlooks "especially dire" and "appalling" religious freedom violations in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan.
April 1, 2009
Oakland, California, U.S.
Hundreds gathered at a mosque to mourn the death of a Muslim man who killed four police officers. His Christian cousin payed tribute to the fallen officers.
April 2, 2009
U.S.
The Society for Threatened Peoples International urged Obama to address issues of religious freedom in Turkey and Cyprus on his trip.
April 4, 2009
U.S.
International Christian Concern urges Americans to contact their representatives to defend the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Turkey in light of several abuses of religious freedom. Congresswoman Carol Maloney introduced a resolution to the same ends.
April 5, 2009
Vancouver, Canada
Two Iranian Christians who were on the run for 10 years found safe harbor in Vancouver. They had been imprisoned in Iran and Turkey.
April 5, 2009
U.S.
Historical revisionism of the conquests of now-Islamic lands and falsehoods regarding Islamic tolerance abound in U.S. textbooks .
April 6, 2009
U.S.
Obama backed off from his campaign pledge to declare the murders of 1.5 million Armenians in Ottoman Turkey to be "genocide" during his visit to Turkey. Update April 7 : An Armenian group which had endorsed him protested his decision.
April 6, 2009
U.S.
Obama: "We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation." (Video). Update April 9: The move has offended millions of Christians during the holy week.
April 7, 2009
Washington, D.C, U.S.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom expressed concern at the Orthodox Patriarch's non-invitation to the "Alliance of Civilizations" gathering in Istanbul, Turkey, and urged Obama to address issues of religious freedom during his trip.
Africa
March 24, 2009
Egypt
An imam declared that Christians who die in the service of their country are not martyrs because they are infidels.
March 27, 2009
Africa
The Arabization of Africa, and its killing fields.
March 27, 2009
Eritrea
Security forces use bondage, heat exposure, and beating to punish people whom they arrest for their faith. Some are kept underground in metal containers.
March 28, 2009
Aim Shams, Egypt
A Muslim man broke into a church for the second time in 12 weeks, assaulted a church worker, and tried to molest a young Coptic girl.
March 28, 2009
Egypt
A highly-qualified Coptic man was prohibited from receiving an appointment in the university system, ostensibly because of his surname.
March 29, 2009
Rabat, Morocco
Five Christian missionaries were expelled from the country for illegally inciting Muslims to convert.
March 30, 2009
Egypt
Copts implore the U.S. and Europe to stop giving aid to Egypt and other Arab nations, saying that much of the money will go toward funding terror groups and radicalism among youth.
March 30, 2009
Egypt
Muslims launched a Facebook campaign to boycott Coptic businesses, which the Muslim Brotherhood condemned, claiming that the move "will play into the hands of expatriate Copts to claim persecution of Copts in Egypt.”
March 31, 2009
Casablanca, Morocco
Five foreign Christians were deported for alleged proselytizing at a Bible study gathering.
March 31, 2009
Maghagha, Egypt
2000 Coptic families planned to protest the seizure and demolition of Coptic cemeteries by city officials.
April 1, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
Customs officials arrested a Turkish man at Cairo airport with ancient Coptic relics in his luggage.
April 1, 2009
Upper Egypt
Security services prevented funereal prayers from being held for a Coptic woman.
April 1, 2009
Eritrea
Christian groups are concerned that Eritrea will use a European aid package for nefarious purposes. The EU may give the funds "despite being aware of ongoing human rights abuses in the country."
April 1, 2009
Bauchi State, Nigeria
Murders and destruction of homes and churches. (Video)
April 2, 2009
Alexandria, Egypt
Kidnapping, attacks, land confiscation, rape, and forced conversions. (Video).
April 2, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies condemned the UN Human Rights Council's adoption of a resolution on "combating defamation of religions."
April 2, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
An anti-discrimination conference was held to discuss religious freedom, discrimination, and the removal of the "Sharia article" from the Constitution.
April 2, 2009
Deirot, Assuit, Egypt
A physically handicapped Coptic man was blackmailed into converting to Islam.
April 3, 2009
East Africa
Violence and murder from the Lord's Resistance Army in Sudan, Uganda, and Congo. (Video).
April 3, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
In a meeting called to establish an international Coptic entity the group's main demand was that of "full citizenship rights and equality in Egypt, without restriction or condition, and according to universal human rights standards."
April 3, 2009
Sudan
The UN assesses the impact of the ouster of aid groups on Southern Sudan, where recovery and development operations were halted.
April 4, 2009
Sebeah, Egypt
Police shut down a Coptic Evangelist church without providing a reason.
April 4, 2009
Egypt
Persecution in the courtroom in a case brought by a man who wished to change his and his daughter's religious affiliation from Islam to Christianity.
April 4, 2009
Sudan and Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Lord's Resistance Army continues to attack civilians in DRC and southern Sudan, displacing thousands. Southern Sudanese officials believe that the Khartoum government is resupplying them.
April 5, 2009
Alexandria, Egypt
Hundreds of Muslims attacked Christian-owned shops after a rumor spread about a Muslim man being killed by Christian landlords.
April 8, 2009
Sudan
“The government has always focused on the Islamisation process. I do not see any change on the part of the authorities,” says a bishop.
April 9, 2009
Sudan
Support for Bashir has mobilized into an orchestrated attack on Christians, their land, and churches.
Asia
March 6, 2009
Iraq
Christian Iraqis tell their stories. (Video).
March 27, 2009
Iraq
Christians are being "squeezed almost out of existence" in Iraq.
March 27, 2009
Iraq
Iraq is the "most dangerous place in the world for Christians."
March 28, 2009
Mindanao, Philippines
Jihadists clashed with the army, who attacked them to prevent the jihadists from ransacking Christian villages again. Seven soldiers were killed.
March 29, 2009
Tehran, Iran
Two Christian women were arrested for their faith and labeled "anti-government activists." They are being held without charge. Update April 11 : They have been declared "National Security Risks."
March 30, 2009
Manila, Philippines
Separatists set the time for the beheading of one of three Red Cross hostages. Update April 3: one hostage was freed. Update April 10 : One hostage is "not in good shape."
March 31, 2009
Shiraz, Iran
Three Christian converts were ordered to discontinue Christian activities after being declared guilty of cooperating with "anti-government movements." They were warned that they could be charged with apostacy.
March 31, 2009
Iraq
Mandeans and Assyrians are "endangered" and continue to flee the country.
March 31, 2009
Dohuk, North Iraq
The local government refused to grant the Assyrian National Movement permission to hold traditional New Year's festivities, but then allowed them to after the ADM apparently threatened to do so with or without permission. Update April 4 : The ADM held the celebration.
March 31, 2009
Uzbekistan
Officials have used a member of one Christian community to pressure members of another in a raid on a group of Baptists in a private home.
March 31, 2009
Sanaa, Yemen
Two Dutch tourists were kidnapped, probably by the same tribe that abducted three German tourists last year.
April 1, 2009
Azerbaijan
Three Baptists were detained and fined for "illegally spreading Christianity" after constitutional changes made it easier to crack down on "harmful religious groups." Police, who did this on camera, are denying the accusations.
April 1, 2009
Uttara, Bangladesh
A Bible student was attacked by a mob of Muslims. (Video).
April 1, 2009
Indonesia
Christians are worried about Islamist parties making gains in the April 9 elections.
April 2, 2009
Iraq
Iraqi Christians are fearful for their security situation once U.S. troops diminish their presence. 200,000 Christians have fled the country.
April 2, 2009
Kot Lakha Singh, Pakistan
A Muslim mob attacked a church, desecrated it, and dragged Christian women through the streets.
April 2, 2009
Faisalabad, Pakistan
A Christian man was killed by Muslim militants for refusing to convert to Islam.
April 2, 2009
Uzbekistan
Authorities penalize people who distribute religious literature. Baptists are facing fines, prosecution, and confiscations of literature. Another Christian has been heavily fined and her was Bible destroyed.
April 3, 2009
Baghdad and Kirkuk, Iraq
Four Christians were killed in two days.
April 3, 2009
Manila, Philippines
Terrorists killed 2 and injured 8 in a bomb blast across from a Roman Catholic cathedral. A 9-year-old boy who had been held for over 3 months was released under military pressure.
April 3, 2009
Sulu and Tawi Tawi Archipelago, Philippines
Christians, clergy especially, are living in fear due to violence. A curfew has been imposed.
April 3, 2009
Tajikistan
The new Religion Law has come into effect. A Protestant church has been given ten days to leave the building after losing a battle to retain its ownership.
April 5, 2009
Punjab, Pakistan
A mob killed a Christian mother and injured 17. A woman and her father were jailed for allegedly desecrating a Koran. (Video).
April 5, 2009
Sargodha, Pakistan
A young Christian was wrongly implicated for dealing drugs and was jailed. An asthmatic Christian inmate recently died due to negligence in the same prison after being jailed on similar charges.
April 6, 2009
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Muslim protests have halted construction of a church after they tried to destroy it altogether and threatened the pastor.
April 6, 2009
Indonesia
A recent study indicates that Arab extremists are infiltrating society, which is leading to extremism and a decline in tolerance.
April 6, 2009
Mosul, Iraq
A Christian repairman was shot to death in front of his workshop, bringing the number of murdered Christians to five in five days in Iraq.
April 6, 2009
Iraq
Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Sako warned that Christianity may soon disappear in Iraq. He also fears a security breakdown after U.S. troops withdraw.
April 6, 2009
Charnali, Pakistan
A Muslim employer fabricated a theft case against a Christian babysitter to get her to work for them free of charge.
April 6, 2009
Uzbekistan
Four Jehovah's Witnesses and a Pentecostal pastor are being jailed for their faith.
April 7, 2009
Sargodha and Johar Abad, Pakistan
Courts ordered a Christian man to relinquish his baby daughter to her Muslim mother on purely religious grounds.
April 8, 2009
Iraq
Internally displaced Iraqi Christians tell their stories. (Video).
April 8, 2009
Faisalabad, Pakistan
A Christian man was murdered and residents feel that the police are not conducting a serious investigation.
April 8, 2009
Anatolia, Turkey
"[F]or some of my Christians the Via Crucis is a living reality, it is not something from the past," says the apostolic vicar of Anatolia.
April 8, 2009
Uzbekistan
Baptists have been handed huge fines for congregating to worship. Two other Baptists have been arrested, questioned, and charged for carrying religious literature.
April 9, 2009
Gandja, Azerbaijan
The secret meeting spot of Jehovah's Witnesses has been discovered by police.
April 10, 2009
Sangla Hill, Pakistan
Three suspects in a case involving the gang rape of a 13-year-old Christian girl have been cleared of all charges despite eyewitness accounts and medical evidence.
April 10, 2009
Mindanao, Philippines
A bomb explosion rocked a small Christian town on Good Friday.
April 11, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
Muslims have threatened a Christian journalist and his family with violence, death, and forced conversion.
April 11, 2009
Zamboanga City, Philippines
Muslim separatists raided a farming community, killing one and abducting eight, six of them children.
Europe
March 16, 2009
Ljug, Kosovo
Two houses owned by Serbs were burned down. (Video).
March 23, 2009
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Tensions remain as Serbia demands that those responsible for a bombing be handed over, and Serbia refuses to hand over the Bosnian Serbs they are sheltering. (Video).
March 24, 2009
Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Cancer rates have increased significantly after NATO bombings with uranium-enriched weaponry found to have radiation levels higher than what is internationally allowed. Seven years later radiation is still detectable in the land, air, and water. Italian veterans also have increased cancer rates. (Videos).
March 28, 2009
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Radical Islam is expanding in the Serb Republic. Serbs cannot return to Gornja Maoca, where their property has been confiscated and security cannot penetrate.
March 28, 2009
Istanbul, Turkey
Two Christians who are on trial for "insulting Turkishness” plan to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights after they were fined for taking "illegal" church offerings.
March 28, 2009
Manchester, UK
A Pakistani nurse in a cancer ward was fired after refusing to provide basic care to patients, some in their dying hour.
March 28, 2009
Rochester, UK
The Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, has stepped down out of resentment toward the direction the Church has taken and in order to focus his attention on the persecuted church .
March 29, 2009
London, England
A borough council employee has been suspended from work for talking about God with a client and told that he will be fired if he does it again.
March 30, 2009
Belarus
A Christian alcohol rehabilitation program has been raided twice by police, who enforce segregation of religious and social activity
March 30, 2009
Kosovo
A Serbian man was beaten with pistols after running into a roadblock set by ethnic Albanians. A Serbian woman was attacked inside her house and beaten about the head.
March 30, 2009
Kosovo
Serbia’s state secretary for Kosovo warned that the situation will escalate after the UN refused to provide security services to visiting Serbian officials despite an institutional ban on all non-separatist officials.
March 30, 2009
Canterbury, UK
The Archbishop of Canterbury warned the BBC not to neglect Christianity in favor of "minority programming" as religious programming is continually downgraded.
March 30, 2009
UK
The BNP is “the only political party which genuinely supports Britain’s Christian heritage” and “will defend [the] ancient faith and nation from the threat of Islamification." Clergy are prohibited from joining.
March 31, 2009
Bologna, Italy
Muslims tried to blow up a 14th-century fresco in the church of San Petronio. Two terrorist attempts have been foiled.
March 31, 2009
Burel, Albania
The European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) will investigate evidence of an organized Albanian separatist organ trade of kidnapped Serbs.
March 31, 2009
Pristina, Kosovo
Italian troops, who protect the Decane monastery and other religious sites, will remain in Kosovo for the time being.
April 1, 2009
Burnley, UK
Two schoolchildren from Blessed Trinity Roman Catholic College were attacked and another was robbed by a gang.
April 3, 2009
Helsinki, Finland
The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights and the Yucom Committee have filed a lawsuit against Serbian author and former president of Yugoslavia Dobrica Cosic, claiming that his writing is "criminal."
April 5, 2009
UK
A government-funded cartoon strip for orphans portrays a Christian boy as an intolerant bully whose cross is "bling" while a Muslim girl's headscarf is a symbol of piety.
April 8, 2009
Albania
Evidence mounts of Serbs having been kidnapped and their organs harvested by KLA members. (Video).
April 9, 2009
Kosovo
Two thousand civilians are still missing.
April 10, 2009
Europe
The EU's anti-discrimination law has provoked outrage from religious organizations.
April 10, 2009
Manchester, England
British security thwarted what could have been Britain's worst Islamic attack ever, an "Easter spectacular" from al-Qaeda Manchester Airport employees .
April 10, 2009
Kosovo
A former prisoner of the camp in Kukes, Albania says that he witnessed Albanian forces torture Serbs to extract their organs while claiming to be victims of genocide to the Western press.
April 11, 2009
Spain
Descendants of the Moors who conquered Spain are demanding a formal apology from descendants of the Spanish who expelled their colonizers.
Australia
April 8, 2009
New South Wales
Royal North Shore Hospital has banned crucifixes, Bibles, and other Christian symbols from a chapel when it is not being used for services. The chapel contains a separate Muslim prayer room.
Everywhere
April 8, 2009
Muslims rejoiced over news of the earthquake that killed 260 people in Abruzzo, Italy.
Bulletin of Christian Persecution
Facts without comments-- We Collect the Dots; You Connect Them
Please spread this bulletin and send us events that you find.America
March 17, 2009
Washington, DC
Obama is backing off from his campaign pledge to declare that 1.5 million Armenians were the victims of genocide in Ottoman Turkey.
March 17, 2009
Fairfax, Virginia
A Saudi Islamic school has unsuccessfully revised its textbooks after facing criticisms that the texts promote murder and hatred of Christians and Jews. The texts remain "toxic."
March 19, 2009
Washington, DC
Both Turkey and the US seek to avert tensions during Obama's April 5 visit by playing down potential backlash from a renewed attempt by US lawmakers to declare the murders of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide.
March 19, 2009
Fairfax County, Virginia
Fairfax County residents and advocates resisted the Islamic Saudi Academy's expansion and contended with a "bullying mob." (Video ).
March 20 2009
Fairfax County, Virginia
Rep. Frank Wolf calls the State Department's inaction in response to his seven letters asking for an investigation into "very anti-Semitic, anti-Christian and pretty hate-filled" textbooks at two Islamic Saudi schools in Northern Virginia "inexcusable."
March 24, 2009
Fairfax County, Virginia
Double standards abound regarding the way an Islamic school and a Christian school are treated by the County Board of Supervisors.
March 27, 2009
Washington, DC
Obama's nominee for 7th Circuit Federal Judge, David Hamilton, forbade Indiana's House of Representatives from permitting "sectarian" prayers to be offered as part of official proceedings. Prayers that "use Christ's name or title" are sectarian, but not Muslim prayers to "Allah."
March 27, 2009
Washington, DC
Congressman Frank Wolf sent a strongly-worded letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regarding the perilous situation of Assyrians in Iraq.
Africa
March 14, 2009
Elbeyba village, Egypt
Muslim villagers are hounding their Coptic neighbors and the police, authorities, and hospital are complicit. The arrests and assaults stemmed from a family buying a house and obtaining a license for renewal and replacement.
March 15, 2009
Aswan, Egypt
The defendant in a murder case yelled "Get the infidels out of the courtroom!" during the trial, in reference to the family of the victim.
March 16, 2009
Egypt
An Egyptian lawyer has filed a lawsuit against the Minister of the Interior in order to try to gain legal acceptance for Christian reverts. The legal process of converting to Christianity is much more difficult than converting to Islam.
March 16, 2009
Egypt
The Coptic Youth of the Nation put out a press release for their Arabic-language film which shows the abuses suffered by Copts in Egypt. The film can be viewed here (part one) and here (part two).
March 16, 2009
Nigeria
Dutch MPs warn that Nigeria will become Islamic soon, resulting in hundreds of millions of refugees, mostly Christian. "Already, in twelve of the 36 states of Nigeria, Sharia has already become the law."
March 17, 2009
Egypt
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's statements during her first visit to Egypt were taken as encouragement by the Mubarak regime to kill more Egyptian Copts. "Afterwards, the regime didn't waste time, and immediately committed more crimes of killing Christian Copts."
March 18, 2009
Egypt
A lawyer for a US couple jailed in Egypt in an adoption case says that Egypt needs to pass a law allowing Christian families to adopt, as they are currently forced to do it in secret because Islamic law disallows the practice.
March 18, 2009
South Kordofan, Sudan
The expulsion of NGOs following Bashir's arrest is causing a humanitarian crisis where a refugee camp is located to aid those who were displaced by the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (from Sudan Radio Service ).
March 18, 2009
Egypt
The Coptic Church has accused an Arab Fiction Prize winner of attempting to destroy Christian doctrine, in addition to plagiarizing British novelist Charles Kingsley.
March 19, 2009
Yaounde, Cameroon
A Cameroon university center has expressed concern at the growing influence of Wahhabite Muslims. Father Krzysztof Zielenda says that political authorities are all that are maintaining harmony between Christians and Muslims.
March 19, 2009
Shobra al-Khayma, Egypt
A woman who filed an assault complaint at a police station was tortured and abused. She and her family have received death threats and are the targets of an harassment and intimidation campaign to make her rescind her later complaints of torture.
March 20, 2009
Al-Khosous, Egypt
A Muslim woman sought the help of a police chief to try to marry an already-married Coptic man. The police arrested his entire family, beat them, and sexually assaulted the man's wife in front of him.
March 20, 2009
Asmara, Eritrea
Three Christian men in their 80s were released from a military prison camp police facility. "There are some 360 prisoners held in Mitire [the prison camp], many of them in underground prisons or shipping containers, without enough food and medical care."
March 20, 2009
Sudan
The expulsion of 16 aid groups could worsen tenuous North-South relations. Update March 24 : The Netherlands will extend its UN peacekeeping mission for a year in order to help maintain stability.
March 21, 2009
Egypt
A member of the International Society for Human Rights in Germany has written an open letter to the president of Egypt regarding a priest who is imprisoned on charges of forging documents because he unknowingly performed a wedding ceremony between a Christian man and a Christian convert.
March 22, 2009
Egypt
The US State Department's human rights report stressed that the Egyptian government's respect for freedom of the press and religious freedom declined last year. "The report placed Egypt at the forefront in human rights abuse."
March 22, 2009
Alexandria, Egypt
A Coptic bishop ordained two twin boys as deacons, in defiance of their court-mandated Islamization. The boys' Islam-convert father was granted custody last year, and their mother contested it.
March 24, 2009
Egypt
A Coptic mother was arrested because she exposed government fraud in a lawsuit filed against the Minister of the Interior, which registered her two Coptic children as Muslims.
March 24, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
Blogger Karim Amer's imprisonment is a violation of international law, according to UN experts.
March 25, 2009
Madagascar
Pentecostal missionaries were evacuated to Nairobi, Kenya on the recommendation of the US State Department when Madagascar underwent a military coup.
March 25, 2009
Egypt
The head of the Egyptian Federation for Human Rights calls on Egyptian Christians to protest and strike in order to obtain their legitimate rights.
March 26, 2009
Luxor, Egypt
Representatives of the Egyptian Union Organization for Human Rights will visit the prime minister to hand over a complaint against the high chief of the city council, who stole land which was owned by the Coptic Orthodox Bishopric of Luxor.
March 26, 2009
Eritrea
Thousands of Christians are believed to be imprisoned in military prisons, labor camps, and in shipping containers in the open desert.
Asia
March 1, 2009
Iran
A Christian prisoner was released after 27 days in custody after being arrested on charges of "attending home churches, evangelizing, storing Bible& converting to Christian faith." He signed a statement that he would no longer participate in any Christian activities.
March 11, 2009
Middle East/North Africa
Amnesty International says that Mideast rights activists face persecution, torture, and repression for defending others, and that Iran, Syria, and Egypt were among the worst in this respect.
March 13, 2009
Selangor, Indonesia
The Selangor Islamic Religious Council has now banned the Indonesian song "Allah Peduli" (Allah Cares) because it contains the word "Allah" in reference to Jesus.
March 16, 2009
Mindanao, Philippines
Fighting between Philippine troops and separatist MILF rebels is causing a humanitarian crisis. (Video at link).
March 16, 2009
Iraq
A new book by the UN's media strategist accuses Kurdish officials of murdering an Assyrian leader.
March 17, 2009
Jordan
Jordan’s military court sentenced three men to 22 1/2 years in jail for a plot to bomb a Catholic church last May.
March 17, 2009
Kazakhstan
President Nazarbaev decided not to challenge the finding of the Constitutional Council that a new law amending various laws on religion is unconstitutional. "The Law violated the rights of Kazakh citizens, foreign citizens and people without citizenship in the area of freedom of religion," but more attempts to implement it are likely.
March 17, 2009
Pakistan
The Long March 's success will likely serve to encourage the Taliban insurgency in Pakistan.
March 18, 2009
Malatya, Turkey
The Malatya trial involving the slayings of Christians may reveal a "deep state" conspiracy. A poll reveals a "deep mistrust of Christians," who are often believed to be foreigners in their own country.
March 18, 2009
Iraq
Christians still face daily persecution, threats of violence, and "extreme deprivation."
March 18, 2009
Andijan Region, Uzbekistan
Four Protestants were jailed and three more were detained in a homeless center. A Baptist was also jailed in a separate incident. They were arrested in raids and told that they needed special permission to meet for church services besides those held on Sundays, but no requirement of the sort can be found in the legal code.
March 19, 2009
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Police and town authorities opposed a funeral for a man because his wife and son are Christians. They later allowed it in a concealed form. Christians are sent to prison for gathering and praying.
March 19, 2009
Pakistan
As Pakistan becomes a Taliban state, discrimination and violence against Christians have increased and many are displaced. "Christians are fighting for their lives and being put on trial for their beliefs." Blasphemy laws are used to legitimize violence.
March 20, 2009
Istanbul, Turkey
Last month Turkey decided to try two Christians under a revised version of a controversial law against "insulting Turkishness." Update March 27 : They may appeal the fine for illegally collecting funds.
March 20, 2009
Baghdad, Iraq
Armenians in Baghdad are staying put, being grateful for a homeland after their families were driven into Iraq by the Armenian genocide.
March 21, 2009
Sargodha, Pakistan
Pakistani police have detained five Muslim militants for their alleged involvement in a shooting/desecration spree at a Presbyterian church which killed one woman and injured several others. At least four others are still at large.
March 22, 2009
Gaza
The Hamas administration has banned a Christian school from holding an event to mark "Jerusalem Capital of Arab Culture" day (from www.palvoice.com, in Arabic).
March 22, 2009
Iraq
A nun discusses the decline of religious freedom, as well as violence and displacement faced by Christians in Iraq.
March 23, 2009
Kuala Lumpur
The Minister of Islamic Affairs issued a thinly-veiled threat of violence against a leading lawyers association if the word "Allah" were not removed from the website of the Catholic Herald .
March 23, 2009
Islamabad & Malukay, Pakistan
Courts have dismissed blasphemy charges against a Christian rights activist but he is still in jail. Two others were charged with blasphemy for defiling the Muslim statement of faith during a ceremony in a graveyard.
March 24, 2009
Iraq
A young man was abducted and tortured for seven months for converting to Christianity. (Video).
March 24, 2009
Isfahan, Iran
Two Christian converts were arrested after having been set up and there is no news of their whereabouts. They and one of their sisters had previously been arrested and beaten by police for Internet evangelism.
March 25, 2009
Shiraz, Iran
Three Christian converts were found guilty of cooperation with anti-government movements (a Christian TV channel) and the propagation of Christian gospel, and were sentenced to eight-month suspended sentences and five years of probation.
March 25, 2009
Manila, Philippines
A hostage crisis involving three Red Cross workers may force several relief agencies to stop bringing assistance to some areas. The situation in Mindanao has become "dramatically less secure." Update March 26 : A guerilla group with al-Qaeda ties, Abu Sayyaf, has threatened to behead a Red Cross hostage.
March 25
Iraq
Christians are living in peril in Iraq. (Video).
March 26, 2009
Andijan, Uzbekistan
A pastor was arrested in a raid for not being an authorized religious leader and was sentenced to four years in a labor camp. International Christian Concern received a letter from his daughter and started a petition .
March 27, 2009
Tehran, Iran
An Assyrian church was closed by the Islamic Revolutionary Court, largely due to the attendance of newly-converted Muslims.
March 27, 2009
Swat Valley, Pakistan
Christians brace themselves for Sharia as the Taliban takes over. 500 Christians remain in the area, living in terror, along with the Hindus.
March 27, 2009
Dushanbe, Tajikistan
A new law was signed by the president which bans religious education for young children, any religious instruction in private homes, censorship of religious literature, and restrictions on services.
March 27, 2009
Ankara, Turkey
A report by the Council of Europe has warned Turkey against wrongly interpreting the Lausanne Treaty and using it as a pretext for refusing to implement minority rights.
Europe
March 15, 2009
Scotland
A research network was launched by Scottish universities to reflect global awareness of the plight of Christians in the Middle East.
March 15, 2009
UK
A girl claims that her father, an imam, chased her with an axe after she converted to Christianity. She says that her story is fairly common and that Christian converts often live in secret and in fear for their lives.
March 15, 2009
Belgrade, Serbia
Opposition leader and former prime minister Vojislav Kostunica has warned that Serbia is undergoing spiritual and territorial ravaging at an address to his party's youth forum.
March 16, 2009
Ribnovo, Bulgaria
The mayor of the municipality and a teacher were arrested and are under investigation for forcing kids to visit a mosque and adhere to the laws of fundamentalist Islam. Those who complained claimed to have been threatened with exile from the village.
March 16, 2009
Rome
In Memoriam Martyrum, an initiative of the Italian section of Aid to the Church in Need, celebrated three days of prayer and reflection to remember the Christians who "witness to their faith to the point of martyrdom."
March 17, 2009
Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo
Serbs mark the 5th anniversary of riots which left 29 dead, 900 injured, and dozens of churches and monasteries destroyed or damaged. "Even five years later, there is no progress regarding our lives and our existence in this territory," said the deputy mayor.
March 18, 2009
Athens, Greece
Three Iranian and American pastors, apostates from Islam, at a Farsi-speaking church were threatened with murder by an Iranian Hezbollah group. The threatening letter can be read at the link.
March 19, 2009
Sarajevo, Bosnia
Croat groups have denounced the Islamization of the Muslim-Croat federation and have prepared a document demanding their own entity. Serbs have sided with them by threatening to hold a referendum on independence.
March 19, 2009
Germany
More than 100 Iraqi Christians arrived, some with tears in their eyes, to a new life away from the violence and persecution they suffered in their homeland and then in Syria. 15,000 Christians fled Mosul last year.
March 22, 2009
London, England
Londoners will be allowed to fly the flag of England's Patron Saint, St. George. The flag was previously banned because it was "racist."
March 23, 2009
Ribvono, Bulgaria
MP Yane Yanev spoke out against the forced Islamization of villages in the southern part of the country. Children have been forced to study radical Islam and both students and teachers have been made to wear traditional Muslim clothing.
March 24, 2009
Rome, Italy
A Catholic group meets once a month to pray for Christians who suffer persecution worldwide.
March 24, 2009
Bosnia-Herzegovina
A Bosnian-Croat NGO has filed war crimes suits against Bosnian Muslim political and military leaders for killing 375 Croat inmates in detention camps during the 1991-1995 civil war.
March 24, 2009
Belgrade, Serbia
The fallout from NATO's bombing of Serbia continues to kill as cancer rates rise from exposure to uranium.
March 25, 2009
Burel, Albania
European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) may soon begin investigating the trafficking of the organs of Kosovo Serbs. EULEX has received material relating to the "yellow house," which is under investigation for having been an organ extraction facility, some of it implicating top Albanian separatist leadership.
March 25
Divic, Bosnia-Herzegovina
An entire church is being picked up and moved at great expense in order not to offend Muslims and to improve relations
March 25, 2009
Vatican City
The Vatican expressed "profound concern" about the situation of Middle Eastern Christians after the recent conflict in Gaza. "The land that was the cradle of Christianity risks ending up without Christians".
March 26, 2009
Geneva, Switzerland
The U.N.'s top human-rights body approved a proposal backed by Muslim nations urging the passage of laws around the world protecting religion from criticism. Islam was the only religion specifically named as deserving protection.
March 27, 2009
Verin Dvin, Ararat Province, Armenia
"Armenia is a homeland for Assyrians, who have no homeland."
March 27, 2009
Donja Budriga, Kosovo
An elderly ethnic Kosovo Serb woman's house was bombed. She was not injured. The Kosovo Police Service is investigating.
Australia
March 16, 2009
Australia
An Iraqi delegation met with Australian Assyrians to discuss the plight of Assyrians in Iraq. "[S]ince the 1930's, Assyrians in Iraq have petitioned the successive governments of Iraq for their national rights and a halt to their systematic persecution, genocide and displacement"
March 22, 2009
Melbourne, Australia
Muslim students staged a protest, claiming that they are discriminated against due to a lack of prayer rooms. RMIT University has eight prayer rooms, two of which are specifically reserved for Muslims, and the rest of which are multi-faith.
Everywhere
March 24, 2009
Voice of the Martyrs provides Christian victims of violence with medical aid. (Video).
Bulletin of Christian Persecution
Facts without comments-- We Collect the Dots; You Connect Them
March 6, 2009
Kalamazoo, Michigan
The Muslim Students Association protests a speech by former terrorist/convert to Christianity, but entertains a Holocaust denier .
March 11, 2009
Washington DC
Five senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in order to call attention to the plight of Assyrians.
March 11, 2009
Chicago, IL
Muslims hacked the "Christians on Facebook" group and changed its name to "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet."
March 12, 2009
Washington DC
US lawmakers pressure Obama to follow up on campaign statements and label the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide in light of his expected trip to Turkey.
March 13, 2009
Alexandria, VA
A Saudi academy revises textbooks so as to omit hatred and incitement of violence toward Jews and Christians, but enough sensitive material remains to fuel criticism. 3/12. (Update: Rep. Frank Wolf has called for an investigation 3/13).
Africa
March 4, 2009
Abu-Korkas, Egypt
A lawyer was given a 6-month prison sentence after telling a judge that she would complain to the Attorney General following unfair treatment. She had previously been beaten and stripped for exposing the collusion of the police and Muslim Brotherhood lawyers.
Mar. 5, 2009
Bauchi, Nigeria
International Christian Concern has called for an investigation into the recent violence against Christians.
March 5, 2009
Garissa, Kenya
Authorities hold up the reconstruction of a Christian church in order to avoid conflict with Muslims after it was burned down.
March 6, 2009
Kenya and Nigeria
Christians await justice after suffering violence, displacement, and destruction of their homes and churches.
March 6, 2009
Dmas Meet-Ghamr, Egypt
Rumors of a Muslim girl being romantically involved with a Coptic boy erupt into violence, riots, and two deaths, one by being burned alive.
March 6, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
A Christian man was stabbed to death following rumors that his son was having an affair with a Muslim girl.
March 8, 2009
Dama, Egypt
The town was placed under curfew following inter-religious clashes which killed two Christians.
March 8, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
A former Muslim who converted to Christianity has gone into hiding after receiving death threats. Lawyers had demanded that he be executed for apostacy.
March 8, 2009
Roman Christians of the Center, Egypt
Security forces raided the homes of Copts and arrested more than 20 under the pretext of a weapons search and without bringing charges.
March 9, 2009
Port Sudan, Sudan
Hassan Al-Turabi has been released after two months' detention after the arrest of Omar Bashir. Turabi, the spiritual mentor in Bashir's regime, was instrumental in the genocide of Christians and animists in South Sudan during the 21-year civil war.
March 9, 2009
Tripoli, Libya
Four converts from Islam to Christianity were detained and tortured for weeks.
March 10, 2009
Eritrea
Religious freedom and quality of life continues to decline in the "veritable prison" in which many Christians are actually imprisoned for their faith. Video here .
March 12, 2009
Egypt
The first court appeal has been brought in order to challenge the restriction on reconversion to Christianity from Islam, which is legal under one section of the legal code, illegal under another, and thus far impossible in practice .
March 12, 2009
Egypt
The Coptic Church has launched a probe into the recent 'trend' of Copts getting killed after rumors of romantic relationships with Muslim girls.
March 12, 2009
Kafr Naim, Egypt
Another Christian was murdered for ostensibly harassing a Muslim woman. His body was thrown into the Nile after 9 days of torture.
March 12, 2009
Morocco
Moroccans feel that Christian proselytizing is threatening their "spiritual security and religious identity."
Asia
March, 2009
Iraq
A man was tortured in prison for 7 months for refusing to renounce Christianity after his conversion. Extremists target Christians. (Video).
March 5, 2009
Islamabad, Pakistan
A Christian girl's abduction, rape, and attempted forced conversion is part of a growing trend.
March 6, 2009
Singowali, Pakistan
One person was killed and 17 were injured when Muslim militants open fire on a church. They also desecrated the church, attacked homes, and threatened the Christians with more violence if they did not leave town.
March 6, 2009
Uzbekistan
Christian citizens are systematically denied exit visas and fined for religious activity .
March 7, 2009
Baghdad, Iraq
Churches are being bombed, families thrown out of homes, businesses robbed, and people abducted, threatened, and extorted in areas where Christians and Muslims used to live in relative peace.
March 7, 2009
Middle East
80 activists call on the US to pressure Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia to respect democracy and human rights.
March 7, 2009
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
A court ruled that a Christian man given an Islamic name at birth could legally become a Christian, which was a rare victory.
March 9, 2009
Mosul, Iraq
Between late September and mid-October more than half of Mosul's Christian families fled in response to a "three-week, well-organized terror campaign targeting Christians," including murders, bombings of homes, harassment, and printed death threats.
March 10, 2009
Middle East
Christians suffer "extreme deprivation" in Iraq and "rapid attrition" in the Middle East more generally.
March 10, 2009
Pakistan
The Long March is not for Christians.
March 10, 2009
Saudi Arabia
A pastor who was imprisoned for holding mass in a private residence has started a prayer group for King Abdullah and religious freedom in Saudi Arabia.
March 10, 2009
Indonesia
The nation is trying to tackle the issue of where to send the mastermind of the 2000 attacks against Christian churches and buildings and the 2002 Bali bombings upon his release from Guantanamo.
March 10, 2009
Iraq
Assyrians were prevented from voting in the recent elections. (From Liberal Matters magazine).
March 10, 2009
Iran
A Christian couple who were arrested for apostacy from Islam were released. Christians increasingly face persecution in Iran. (Video).
March 10, 2009
Philippines
The 95% Christian nation has filed for observer status in the OIC.
March 11, 2009
Kyrgyzstan
A new law was adopted in January which outlaws missionary activities and proselytism.
March 11, 2009
Malaysia
Christians continue the battle over the use of the word "Allah."
March 11, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
Christian rights activists are hopeful that they may be able to free Saba Younis, a 13-year-old Christian girl who was abducted, then forced to convert and marry her kidnapper.
March 11, 2009
Lahore, Pakistan
A Christian chief of a hostel for nursing students faced dismissal following death threats for allowing Christian students to pray on the premises.
March 11, 2009
Almaty, Kazakhstan
A Unification Church missionary who was jailed for teaching a class on original sin was freed Wednesday after paying a fine, in light of the government's nixing of a restrictive law on religious freedom on Feb. 11 under international pressure.
March 12, 2009
Tajikistan
The new Religion Law, which explicitly favors the Hanafi Muslim sect, was adopted. It restricts religious leadership, worship, literature, belief, structures, and education of children. Its text is unavailable to the public.
March 12, 2009
Jaramana, Syria
A 7-year-old boy has gone missing from his Assyrian school after repeated threats to his family and police are not conducting a serious investigation. The official website is here .
March 12, 2009
Iraq
"Christians in Iraq are finished" and continue to flee Iraq to bordering countries and Lebanon. Many had previously fled to Kurdistan but were not safe there.
March 13, 2009
Sarghoda, Pakistan
A Christian teacher was fired and two students suspended after allegations that they "humiliated Islam."
March 13, 2009
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
A Christian man has been charged with "abetting blasphemy" after a charge of blaspheming Islam was dropped.
March 13, 2009
Malaysia
An Islamic Council tries to have Agnes Monica's song declared haram (i.e., illegal under Islamic law). The song uses the word 'Allah ' in reference to Jesus.
March 13, 2009
Kirkuk, Iraq
Chaldeans celebrate the anniversary of the martyrdom of Archbishop Paulo Faraj Rahho and all Iraqi martyrs.
Europe
March 5, 2009
Georgia
Christian crosses are to be removed from Azerbaijani-populated villages.
March 5, 2009
Rome, Italy
Iraqi, Iranian, and Turkish Christians are urged to remain in the Middle East at a meeting of religious leaders so that people do not get the wrong idea about Islam.
March 7, 2009
Kartmin, Turkey
The battle over the world’s oldest monastery tests Turkey’s tolerance of minorities. "They want to make us all go away," says Bishop Aktas. A marathon was held in Holland to draw attention to the case on 3/6.
March 9, 2009
Istanbul, Turkey
A long-hidden document dealing with the Armenian Holocaust is uncovered and met with silence and denial.
March 9, 2009
Kosovo
New information has come to light regarding the harvesting and trafficking of Serbian organs in Suva Reka and Albania in 1999.
March 9, 2009
Gnjilane, Kosovo
The police attacked 300 Serbs after they demanded that the government provide them electricity. Video here .
March 10, 2009
UK
Prominent Muslims mock a dying cancer patient because she is Christian.
March 10, 2009
Birmingham, UK
Catholics are outraged after the Catholic Archbishop defends the use of a Catholic university chapel for the celebration of the Prophet Mohammed’s birthday.
March 10, 2009
Serbia
A study has determined that Serbs are still in danger of explosions from cluster bombs.
March 12, 2009
UK
The Barnabas Fund has made a plea to help the Christians of Pakistan.
March 15, 2009
UK
A Christian convert who has been on the run in fear for her life tells her story, which she says is fairly common.
March 15, 2009
UK
A Minister was beaten after clashing with Muslims on his TV Gospel show. Three men ripped off his cross and threatened to break his legs.
Bulletin of Christian Persecution
Facts without comments-- We Collect the Dots; You Connect Them
Please spread this bulletin and send us events that you find.
Egypt: Islamic lawyers charge a Christian convert with apostacy. He is in hiding and has been beaten in the street. 2/26
Egypt: Human rights, including freedom of religion, have declined in Egypt and other North African countries, according to a report from the State Department. 3/5
Egypt: The Foreign Ministry ignored an application from the Center for Human Rights to invite an international commission to conduct a census of Copts. 3/4
Ain Shams, Egypt: A Coptic jewelry shop was robbed and staff were beaten but the police won't investigate. A Muslim man killed a Copt and beat his son. 3/5
Egypt: Authorities recently sentenced six Christian brothers to three years in prison for opening their café during Ramadan (video). 2/23
Abu Korkas, Egypt: Christian lawyer gets six-month prison sentence and a fine for complaining about an Islamist judge. 3/4
Egypt: An initiative seeks common law in the construction and maintenance of all places of worship, which are hard for Copts to carry out under current law. 2/26
Egypt: A Coptic boy who was kidnapped and hidden in a mosque for 9 months was returned to his family. 2/22
Egypt: Clerics are outraged after Al-Azhar agrees with a Vatican proposal to remove hatred of, and incitement of violence toward, Jews and Christians from schooltextbooks. 3/3
Louaize, Lebanon: Chaldean leaders met to discuss the persecution, genocide, and fleeing of Iraqi Christians. 3/5
Mosul, Iraq: Kurds seize land beyond the borders of their autonomous zone and into Christian Mosul. 3/5
Iran: The government has stepped up inquiries into Christian activities as conversions increase. 3/4
Turkey: The US State Department's Human Rights Report on Turkey was released and the results are not good, but saying so could land you in jail for "insulting Turkish identity." 2/26
Abuja, Nigeria: A Christian serving a three-year prison sentence for blasphemy against Islam was released. 2/26
Bauchi, Nigeria: Nine Christians have been brutally killed in sectarian violence after a curfew was imposed. International Christian Concern has called for an investigation. 2/25
Garissa, Kenya: A church is struggling 6 months after jihadists, who are still at large, destroyed the building. 3/5
Eritrea: Persecution of Christians increases as militant Muslims gain control in the Horn of Africa. 3/3
Sudan: Southerners are fearful that the indictment of Omar Bashir could jeopardize peace, which is tentative. 3/4
Juba, Sudan: People are displaced as a jihadist government militia clashes with the SPLA, a Christian militia. 2/25
Guinea-Bissau: Christians are fearful after the President and armed forces chief were killed in bomb blasts. 3/2
Kosovo: Wahhabism in the Balkans heats up anti-Christian rhetoric and violence. 3/4
Kosovo: Four states gear up for peacekeeping mission in Kosovo as UK troops are leaving and NATO troops are reported to be leaving and denying it, which could cause a crisis if the UN's 6-point plan is not implemented. 3/4
Kacanik, Kosovo: An Albanian was arrested with a homicide vest and other weapons in a café in the Serbian province of Strpce, 2 weeks after a Serb was stabbed in the chest by Albanians. 2/16
Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina: Bosnian Serbs sue the UN and Holland for failing to protect them from Muslim Bosniaks in Srebrenica during the 1992-1995 war. 3/2
Belgrade, Serbia: A Serbian rights group files a complaint against the police for "numerous massive war crimes" in Kosovo. 3/3
Pristina, Kosovo: A Kosovo Albanian former rebel has been sentenced for murder and other charges after firing on a Serbian family. 3/4
Kosovo (?): The first Serbian victim of the organized Kosovo Albanian organ trade has been identified, as have his killers. 3/2
Kosovo (?): Son recognizes his missing father in a photograph in which he is under the gun of an Albanianseparatist. 3/4
Kosovo: Wahhabis fund weapons for Albanian militants and set up Wahhabi cells across the Balkans. 3/2
Kosovo: Albanian police have been placed in charge of protecting Serbian churches, which Serbs are afraid of being killed for visiting. 3/5
Switzerland: Authorities are increasing security to "an unprecedented level" for the upcoming visit of the Serbian FM, whom Kosovo Albanians have planned to kill. 3/4
Istanbul, Turkey: A father sues the Education Ministry over an Armenian genocide DVD. 2/28
Padua, Italy: Immigrants have started patrolling the streets in the wake of a crime wave by Muslim immigrants in the Christian nation. 2/27
Brescia, Italy: Sharia exercised as a Maghrebi family is acquitted of beating and sequestering their daughter "for her own good." 2/2
Vatican City: Church leaders meet to discuss ways to slow the exodus of Christians from the Middle East. 2/27
The Hague, Netherlands: The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia assigns collective guilt to Serbs, who feel that they are consistently denied justice. 3/2
Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan: Deadly military clashes erupt in Armenian-majority disputed territory. 3/4
Azerbaijan: The compulsory literature censorship system has now extended to the export of Christian literature, not just its import. 2/24
Bulgaria: Numerous southern villages are being converted to Islam by force. 3/3
Gujranwala, Pakistan: A Muslim mob attacked Christian worshippers, killing a woman and injuring 28 people. Authorities refuse to investigate. 3/3
Pakistan: Charges have been filed against the kidnappers of two young sisters, but the family fears that police will not cooperate. 2/27
Kasur, Pakistan: Two Christians were charged with blasphemy after being beaten. 3/2
Pakistan: Christians are fearful under newly-imposed Sharia law.3/2
Pakistan: Christians are denied representation in the Senate as their parties deny them tickets. 3/3
Sahiwal, Pakistan: A Christian woman was kidnapped by Muslim gunmen who attempted to convert her. 3/1
Pakistan: A Christian man is kidnapped and beaten by the Taliban, who attempted to convert him (video). 2/17
Faisalabad, Pakistan: A 13-year-old girl was kidnapped, raped for two days, and released, as part of a growing trend of kidnappings and forced conversions. 3/5
Kashmir: Young converts pray for the Pope after suffering horrors from Islamic militants. 2/27
Bangladesh: A pastor and his wife were terribly assaulted by Muslims outside their home: video. 3/3
Malaysia: Christian convert from Islam receives death threats and beatings (video). 2/17
Malaysia: Christians were allowed to use the word "Allah," provided that it was qualified with "for Christians only." They are banned from using three other words, and as of 3/4, "Allah" again. 2/27
UK: Hostility towards Christians and fear of Muslims are rising, according to a joint statement from Sam Soloman, Patrick Sookhdeo and Dennis Wrigley. 3/3
West Bromwich, UK: St. George Day is deemed 'racist' and banned. 'Race' issues are increasingly common in the UK. 2/13
UK: The Catholic Church slams a new teaching code which forces Christian schools to promote Islam. 3/2
Montreal, Canada: “Take your knife and cut the throat of each Christian around you. No pity.” 2/12
Everywhere: The Persecution Report from Voice of the Martyrs Canada
Egypt: Human rights, including freedom of religion, have declined in Egypt and other North African countries, according to a report from the State Department. 3/5
Egypt: The Foreign Ministry ignored an application from the Center for Human Rights to invite an international commission to conduct a census of Copts. 3/4
Ain Shams, Egypt: A Coptic jewelry shop was robbed and staff were beaten but the police won't investigate. A Muslim man killed a Copt and beat his son. 3/5
Egypt: Authorities recently sentenced six Christian brothers to three years in prison for opening their café during Ramadan (video). 2/23
Abu Korkas, Egypt: Christian lawyer gets six-month prison sentence and a fine for complaining about an Islamist judge. 3/4
Egypt: An initiative seeks common law in the construction and maintenance of all places of worship, which are hard for Copts to carry out under current law. 2/26
Egypt: A Coptic boy who was kidnapped and hidden in a mosque for 9 months was returned to his family. 2/22
Egypt: Clerics are outraged after Al-Azhar agrees with a Vatican proposal to remove hatred of, and incitement of violence toward, Jews and Christians from schooltextbooks. 3/3
Louaize, Lebanon: Chaldean leaders met to discuss the persecution, genocide, and fleeing of Iraqi Christians. 3/5
Mosul, Iraq: Kurds seize land beyond the borders of their autonomous zone and into Christian Mosul. 3/5
Iran: The government has stepped up inquiries into Christian activities as conversions increase. 3/4
Turkey: The US State Department's Human Rights Report on Turkey was released and the results are not good, but saying so could land you in jail for "insulting Turkish identity." 2/26
Abuja, Nigeria: A Christian serving a three-year prison sentence for blasphemy against Islam was released. 2/26
Bauchi, Nigeria: Nine Christians have been brutally killed in sectarian violence after a curfew was imposed. International Christian Concern has called for an investigation. 2/25
Garissa, Kenya: A church is struggling 6 months after jihadists, who are still at large, destroyed the building. 3/5
Eritrea: Persecution of Christians increases as militant Muslims gain control in the Horn of Africa. 3/3
Sudan: Southerners are fearful that the indictment of Omar Bashir could jeopardize peace, which is tentative. 3/4
Juba, Sudan: People are displaced as a jihadist government militia clashes with the SPLA, a Christian militia. 2/25
Guinea-Bissau: Christians are fearful after the President and armed forces chief were killed in bomb blasts. 3/2
Kosovo: Wahhabism in the Balkans heats up anti-Christian rhetoric and violence. 3/4
Kosovo: Four states gear up for peacekeeping mission in Kosovo as UK troops are leaving and NATO troops are reported to be leaving and denying it, which could cause a crisis if the UN's 6-point plan is not implemented. 3/4
Kacanik, Kosovo: An Albanian was arrested with a homicide vest and other weapons in a café in the Serbian province of Strpce, 2 weeks after a Serb was stabbed in the chest by Albanians. 2/16
Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina: Bosnian Serbs sue the UN and Holland for failing to protect them from Muslim Bosniaks in Srebrenica during the 1992-1995 war. 3/2
Belgrade, Serbia: A Serbian rights group files a complaint against the police for "numerous massive war crimes" in Kosovo. 3/3
Pristina, Kosovo: A Kosovo Albanian former rebel has been sentenced for murder and other charges after firing on a Serbian family. 3/4
Kosovo (?): The first Serbian victim of the organized Kosovo Albanian organ trade has been identified, as have his killers. 3/2
Kosovo (?): Son recognizes his missing father in a photograph in which he is under the gun of an Albanianseparatist. 3/4
Kosovo: Wahhabis fund weapons for Albanian militants and set up Wahhabi cells across the Balkans. 3/2
Kosovo: Albanian police have been placed in charge of protecting Serbian churches, which Serbs are afraid of being killed for visiting. 3/5
Switzerland: Authorities are increasing security to "an unprecedented level" for the upcoming visit of the Serbian FM, whom Kosovo Albanians have planned to kill. 3/4
Istanbul, Turkey: A father sues the Education Ministry over an Armenian genocide DVD. 2/28
Padua, Italy: Immigrants have started patrolling the streets in the wake of a crime wave by Muslim immigrants in the Christian nation. 2/27
Brescia, Italy: Sharia exercised as a Maghrebi family is acquitted of beating and sequestering their daughter "for her own good." 2/2
Vatican City: Church leaders meet to discuss ways to slow the exodus of Christians from the Middle East. 2/27
The Hague, Netherlands: The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia assigns collective guilt to Serbs, who feel that they are consistently denied justice. 3/2
Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan: Deadly military clashes erupt in Armenian-majority disputed territory. 3/4
Azerbaijan: The compulsory literature censorship system has now extended to the export of Christian literature, not just its import. 2/24
Bulgaria: Numerous southern villages are being converted to Islam by force. 3/3
Gujranwala, Pakistan: A Muslim mob attacked Christian worshippers, killing a woman and injuring 28 people. Authorities refuse to investigate. 3/3
Pakistan: Charges have been filed against the kidnappers of two young sisters, but the family fears that police will not cooperate. 2/27
Kasur, Pakistan: Two Christians were charged with blasphemy after being beaten. 3/2
Pakistan: Christians are fearful under newly-imposed Sharia law.3/2
Pakistan: Christians are denied representation in the Senate as their parties deny them tickets. 3/3
Sahiwal, Pakistan: A Christian woman was kidnapped by Muslim gunmen who attempted to convert her. 3/1
Pakistan: A Christian man is kidnapped and beaten by the Taliban, who attempted to convert him (video). 2/17
Faisalabad, Pakistan: A 13-year-old girl was kidnapped, raped for two days, and released, as part of a growing trend of kidnappings and forced conversions. 3/5
Kashmir: Young converts pray for the Pope after suffering horrors from Islamic militants. 2/27
Bangladesh: A pastor and his wife were terribly assaulted by Muslims outside their home: video. 3/3
Malaysia: Christian convert from Islam receives death threats and beatings (video). 2/17
Malaysia: Christians were allowed to use the word "Allah," provided that it was qualified with "for Christians only." They are banned from using three other words, and as of 3/4, "Allah" again. 2/27
UK: Hostility towards Christians and fear of Muslims are rising, according to a joint statement from Sam Soloman, Patrick Sookhdeo and Dennis Wrigley. 3/3
West Bromwich, UK: St. George Day is deemed 'racist' and banned. 'Race' issues are increasingly common in the UK. 2/13
UK: The Catholic Church slams a new teaching code which forces Christian schools to promote Islam. 3/2
Montreal, Canada: “Take your knife and cut the throat of each Christian around you. No pity.” 2/12
Everywhere: The Persecution Report from Voice of the Martyrs Canada
Bulletin of Christian Persecution
Facts without comments-- We Collect the Dots; You Connect Them
Please spread this bulletin and send us events that you find.Dhaka, Bangladesh: Christian and human rights activists say that doctors likely fabricated a medical report which concluded that there were no signs of (gang) rape in the wife of a pastor whom local Muslims have now threatened for pressing charges. 2/20
Baniarchar, Bangladesh: Christians seek justice in the case of a church which was bombed, killing ten. 2/17
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina: The 41% Christian minority is angered at a decision to teach Islam to kindergartners, as they view it as "an obvious attempt to Islamize the city." 2/10
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina: A "radical, potentially violent parallel society" is emerging as Saudi petrodollars bring radicalization of Bosnians, who "are only interested in opening [themselves] as an Islamic society." 2/25
Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina: Bosnian Serbs have been ordered to pay $41.8 million to rebuild mosques destroyed in war. Albanian Muslims have not been asked to rebuild the 112 Serbian Orthodox churches which they systematically ransacked or the 10 Orthodox cemeteries they defiled, possibly because they have . 2/20
Egypt: a bill which would legalize unofficial marriage contracts was vehemently opposed, not because MPs had a problem with the actual bill, but because it was proposed by a Christian MP. 2/23
Egypt: A Christian mother has won the right to appeal a law which automatically gives custody of children to a Muslim parent is one parent converts to Islam. This has implications for the children's religious freedom since they would be legally Muslim if their father is and conversion from Islam is very difficult in Egypt. 2/20
Kano, Nigeria: Five were killed after three churches were burned by Muslim youths in retaliation for the burning of two mosques.The incident began with a broken-down truck and a riot ensued. 2/21
Kano, Nigeria: The attacks in Kano continued after a curfew was imposed. At the time of the report 11 people were killed and 14 churches, 8 vicarages, one mosque (which contradicts the previous story), and many Christian homes were razed to the ground. 2/23
Gambia: Two missionaries were sentenced in December to a year of hard labor for sedition and other charges after emailing a letter of support to a prayer list. 2/17
Nineveh, Iraq: Three Assyrians were fired from their jobs for not voting for the pro-Kurdish Ishtar slate (party). Recent developments substantiate a report about threats of economic sanctions against Assyrians by the Ishtar slate. 2/20
Lampedusa, Italy: 300 migrants torched the island's for Identification and Expulsion. This comes after 700 migrants broke the Centre's fence and fled last month. 31,700 migrants invaded on Lampedusa last year. 2/19
Rome, Italy: An Iraqi archbishop pleads with foreign leaders not to abandon the Christians of Iraq by creating a "security vacuum" when allied troops withdraw. 2/23
Kosovo: Serbian authorities are investigating the trafficking of organs taken from Serbs by Albanians during the war of 1998-1999 in light of new photographic evidence. 2/23
Lipljan and Donja Budriga, Kosovo: two Serbs were beaten and another shot. The police seem to be complicit, but are investigating the second incident. "Attacks on Serbs occur daily in Kosovo." 2/18
Beirut, Lebanon: Two dozen bishops met at a conference to discuss the tragedy of the situation of Iraq's Christians. 2/22
Chak, Pakistan: A woman whose father rented five acres of land to a Muslim farmer is fighting the tenant for her land. The farmer's lease was up, but he forged documents stating that he owned all 11 acres of the land, which was left to her. Police refuse to investigate. 2/17
Punjab province, Pakistan: Murder, kidnappings, gang rape, head injuries, and slavery. 2/24
Pakistan: The Pakistani Christian Congress has filed a petition with the UN to grant refugee status to Pakistani Christians who have suffered "threats to convert to Islam or die by Islamist elements" like the Taliban. 2/25
Sargodha, Pakistan: Police opened fire on Christians who were protesting a police robbery of a widow. 2/26
Sahiwal, Pakistan: The hearing of the case of a girl who was kidnapped a year ago and is chained-up is set to be tried due to numerous petitions by a prominent lawyer. 2/22
Mogadishu, Somalia: Two nuns who were abducted at gunpoint in Kenya and taken to Somalia were freed, but are still traumatized. 2/23
Somalia: Two homicide bombers attacked "African crusaders," i.e. African Union peacekeepers, during a church service, killing 11. 2/23
Sweden: Jihad on the elderly (video). 10/25/08
Malakal, Sudan: A jihadist militia arrived in the town and refused to leave despite U.N. attempts to persuade them. They are clashing with the South Sudan's army and militiamen. 2/24
Malatya, Turkey: Links to the mastermind of the Malatyamurders are being pursued in order to determine the size and the structure of the "deep-state" conspiracy. 2/24
Istanbul, Turkey: New evidence has come to light indicating that two or more perpetrators were involved in the abduction, rape, and murder of Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo a.k.a.Pippa Bacca last year. 2/18
UK: Two Muslim "sex pests" who sexually assaulted three 13-year-old girls last year were set free after pleading guilty. The article says that they merely touched the girls inappropriately, but they were both charged with rape. 2/10
UK: British women (and little girls and old ladies) pay a high price for multiculturalism as rates of rape and other violent crimes soar. 2/11
UK: Religion or Belief: a Practical Guide for the NHS, has been written ostensibly in order to comply with human rights, but it actually serves to push Sharia norms like no jewelry and no staff meetings where alcohol is served.1/11
UK: A Muslim blogger has launched a smear campaign, possibly at the bequest of an Anglican Evangelical, against Patrick Sookdhdeo, Christian leader, director of the Barnabas Fund and the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, and author of many books. The Barnabas Fund asks for your prayers. 2/15
UK: Baroness Cox tabled serious concerns about the human rights violations of non-Muslims in Egypt, as well as Nigeria and Sudan in light of the UN resolution against defamation of religions. 2/25
Hoboken, NJ, USA: A 4-volume Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization , which was set for release this month, was pulped for being "too Christian." "They also object to historical references to the persecution and massacres of Christians by Muslims, but at the same time want references favorable to Islam," says the editor. 2/11
Everywhere: Christians are being persecuted worldwide (video).
Bulletin of Christian Persecution
Facts without comments-- We Collect the Dots; You Connect Them
Please spread this bulletin and send us events that you find.Note: At this time all of our regular subscribers are getting these Bulletins. Bear with us until we get the new signup procedures in place.
Lahore, Pakistan: Two female nursing students were accused of blasphemy. The students are said to have desecrating verses of the Koran. It is believed that this is a trumped-up charge resulting from the students’ roommates having been offended by a picture of Jesus hanging on the wall, which the roommates desecrated. A demonstration was staged against the students. 2/17
Sangla Hill, Pakistan: A 13-year-old Christian girl was gang-raped by five Muslims when she went outside to take out the trash. She was kidnapped at gunpoint and taken to their neighborhood. Sangla Hill is the same city where 3 churches, 3 clerical residences, a high school, and the houses of 3 Christian families were destroyed in a riot in 2005. 2/17
Shajwal, Pakistan: Three men murdered a Christian milkman after he demanded his paycheck. He was denied his wages for a month, and when he demanded to be paid his employers, two Muslim brothers and their nephew, taunted him with slurs and then killed him. 2/17
Cairo, Egypt: The ongoing case of Maher al-Gohary, who is engaged in a legal battle to have his official documents changed to reflect his conversion from Islam to Christianity, is expected to wrap up soon. His is the second case of its kind in Egypt. He and his daughter live in fear for their lives, which are continually threatened. 2/13
Cairo, Egypt: Egypt’s leading Christians are accusing Cairo’s governor of trying Islamize the city by changing the names of some of the country’s oldest areas from Christian to Islamic ones, thereby erasing their cultural heritage. The Coptic Pope’s advisor has filed a lawsuit against the governor. 2/16
Cairo, Egypt: A Salafi cleric has called for the Islamization of millions of Coptic women in order to eliminate the “Nazarenes of Egypt.” Coptic activists have discussed the planned, organized Islamization of Coptic women, but this provides the first concrete evidence of this scheme, which involves “assault.” 2/18
Tenth of Ramadan, Egypt: A Christian secondary schoolgirl attempted suicide after being required to take an Islamic religion test. Her father converted to Islam from Christianity, which makes her a Muslim according to Egyptian law. Per a 2007 ministerial decree children of converts are to be exempted from studying Islam until the issue of their official religion is resolved in court. 2/8
Hizankeh, Iraq: An Assyrian was girl abducted, raped, and killed by a Kurdish crime family. She was found in the Khazar River ten days after her disappearance. Forensic evidence demonstrates that she did not die from drowning. Officials seem to be complicit in hiding evidence. 2/10
Nineveh Plain, Iraq: A report released by the Assyria Council of Europe highlights widespread election violations against Assyrians in North Iraq. Violence, threats and other means of pressure prevented thousands of Assyrians in the Nineveh plain from experiencing a free and fair election. The winning group, which is Kurdish-backed, is accused of having pressured voters using a variety of means. 2/12
Mataya, Turkey: Two more arrests have been made in the murder cases of three Christians and charges have been filed. One suspect is a former worker at a Christian publishing house where the murders took place and the other is an ex-journalist with suspected ties to a group which tried to stage a political coup. It is believed that the murders were part of a large plan to create chaos in the country. 2/12
Midyat, Turkey: The Turkish state has rescheduled the hearing for the different cases concerning the land dispute over St. Gabriel Monastery. This is the third time the hearing has been rescheduled. The monastery is one of the world’s oldest. 2/17
Adana, Turkey: The Turkish Bible Society bookshop was vandalized for the second time in a week after having received threats from Muslim nationalists. The Turkish state perpetrates a “milieu” of mistrust” toward Christians through portraying them negatively in the media and making “missionary activities” a crime, according to a report from the Alliance of Protestant Churches of Turkey. 2/17
Tehran, Iran: A couple who converted to Christianity from Islam were arrested on 1/21/09 and released on bail. The charges against them are unknown, but they fear being charged with apostacy, which is punishable by execution in Iran. Another has been incarcerated since August. 73 arrests of Christians in Iran were recorded in 2008 and more are expected to take place since it is an election year. 2/9
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A prominent Eritrean pastor of a church of over 300 foreign-born Christians has fled Riyadh after having been threatened with death 3 times in one week, once by the religious police. He fled without his wife and 8 children, who relocated to Egypt in 2007. 1/30
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Authorities have arrested a 28-year-old man for discussing his conversion from Islam to Christianity and on his website, which is blocked in the kingdom. He was arrested twice before for similar “offenses.” The last time he was released was in November, just in time for Saudi-initiated interfaith dialogue at the UN. 1/31
U.K.: A Muslim girl who converted to Christianity from Islam has been removed from the home of her carer after she chose to be baptised. She was placed in a foster home because her father beat her and threatened to send her to Pakistan for a forced marriage. Her carer, who has fostered more than 80 children, did nothing to encourage her to convert and has a perfect 10-year record. 2/14
Sheffield, England: The “marvelous” head teacher of a primary school has resigned after being accused of racism by parents of Muslim students. The accusation comes after she proposed that the school stop holding separate assemblies for Muslim children at the school in favor of assemblies which would include all pupils. 2/10
U.K.: Three Coptic children have been placed with a Muslim foster family. They were taken by social services after their parents divorced and were originally placed in the custody of the city mosque. The authority has refused to return the children to the custody of the Coptic Church without a petition bearing 10,000 signatures. 2/5
Bulletin of Christian Persecution February 13, 2009
Facts without comments-- We Collect the Dots; You Connect Them
This is our first Christian Bulletin. Please spread this bulletin and send us events that you find.
Note: At this time all of our regular subscribers are getting these Bulletins. We are setting up a separate sign up sheet for each Bulletin, but our IT man is out of the country. Bear with us until we get the new signup procedures in place.
Summaries:
Dhaka, Bangladesh: A gang of Muslim pilgrims beat a Bible student for distributing Christian literature. The Muslims had gathered for the World Muslim Congregation, where Murmo was distributing the literature. 50 men attacked him, demanding to know the location of his Bible college, before was rescued by law enforcement. Police say that if they had not arrived in time the crowd would likely have killed him. 2/5/09
Rochdale, England: A gang of 20 “youths” attacked a pastor and his church for the second time. Pastor Dennis Rigg and his brother were setting up for their father’s funeral when a crowd hurled snowballs at them and shouted anti-Christian slurs, some of them relating, erroneously, to Operation Cast Lead and Zionism. Zion Baptist Church had previously been spray-painted with racist slurs. 2/6/09
Tur Abin, Turkey: State escalates a legal battle against an Assyrian monastery. The St. Gabriel monastery, one of the world’s oldest, has been under legal siege by nearby villages . . . arguably an attempt on the government’s part to drive out the remaining Assyrians by annexing the land for Kurdish villages. 2/6/09
Port Sa’id, Egypt: Christians were jailed after a brutal police raid. Six Christian brothers’ café was raided and vandalized by 13 police officers for remaining open during Ramadan. The brothers were beaten with sticks, leaving two of them with broken arms and another with a head wound. 1/29/09
Cairo, Egypt: The State has released two Christian men who had been arrested for distributing Bibles at the Cairo International Book Fair. They were charged with defaming Islam and preaching. Preaching is not forbidden by Egyptian law. 2/5/09
Somalia: A report by Open Doors USA places Somalia in the top 10 nations for Christian persecution. The 2009 report puts Korea in first place for the 7th straight year, but Somalia has risen from 12th to 5th place. Seven of the top 10 nations in the report are Islamic states. The organization estimates that 100 million Christians worldwide suffer persecution, making Christians the most oppressed group in the world. 2/3/09
Punjab, Pakistan: Muslims attack church and torture four Christian families in their homes. The violence originated in a dispute over land acquired by a Catholic from a Muslim and the marriage of a Christian man to a Muslim woman. Police have made no arrests. The 25 Christian families in the village of Kot Lakha Singh are subjected to constant harassment. 1/20/09
Cairo, Egypt: Muslims riot over plans for Christian church. One man died in Aswan the same day during a separate riot over the police killing of a suspected criminal, probably after having inhaled tear gas. The riot took place after large numbers of Christians and Muslims showed up outside a building which the Christians want to convert into a church. 11/25/08
Eritrea: The Christian death toll mounts in prisons, or rather, “military confinement centers.” One man died from complications resulting from diabetes and being tortured, another as the result of torture endured after refusing to recant his faith, and another after having been refused medication for malaria. Incarcerated Christians throughout Eritrea have been transferred to Mitire prison. Church leaders told Open Doors that 2981 Christians have been incarcerated for their faith. 1/21/09
Vennabari, Bangladesh: A Baptist pastor’s wife is gang-raped and their home robbed. 7 or 8 local Muslims held up the pastor at gunpoint, broke into his home, tied him and his wife up, blindfolded her, robbed them, and then gang-raped his wife. “If my daughters had been present in the house at that night, they would have been victims as their mother was,” 1/20/09
Dhaka, Bangladesh: Muslims drive Christian grandparents from their home. Two brothers have been forced by neighbors in the entirely-Muslim village to expel their parents for converting to Christianity. The sons fear that their children will not be married in the Muslim tradition if their parents remain in the village. Their pastor says that they are becoming ill from malnutrition, as they are living on handouts. Another Christian in a nearby village is being framed as a terrorist after police found planted bombs and weapons behind his house. 1/14/09
Izmir, Turkey: a 19-year-old Muslim was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for stabbing a Catholic priest in December of 2007. The man expressed interest in Christianity before stabbing Fr. Franchini in the stomach. 63% of Turks view Christians unfavorably, according to a poll by the Pew Global Attitudes Project. 1/12/09
Mosul, Iraq: Islamic fundamentalists call for the expulsion of Christians from Mosul, the last Al Qaeda stronghold in the country. Jalal Moussa was shot to death in the neighborhood of Noor, where four clergymen were killed in 2007 and Archbishop Paulo Farj Rahho was kidnapped and killed. There may be two more victims. Nine Christians were killed in Mosul during the same week. Christians in Mosul are continually threatened, their businesses boycotted, and are being driven out. Every week more than 20 families flee Mosul, emptying entire neighborhoods, "to the indifference of the media and of Western governments." 10/9/08
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