Despite attempts by the Pakistani government and Islamist groups to thwart protest rallies and marches, Christians in several cities came out in large numbers to mark National Minorities Day on Aug. 11.
Authorities in Indonesia last week arrested a 19-year-old member of an Islamic extremist group and his parents, foiling a plan to suicide bomb two church sites, officials said.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom again has recommended that the State Department designate Pakistan as a “Country of Particular Concern,” citing the country’s blasphemy laws as a prime reason.
Village officials in central Laos recently arrested a pastor and five other Christians as they prayed in preparation for worship services the next day, according to a rights watchdog.
Police in Pakistan on June 23 arrested a Christian under blasphemy laws as part of his siblings’ effort to retaliate against him over a property dispute, Morning Star News reported.
A land dispute led to the assault of a Catholic family in Pakistan. Local police and officials are refusing to assist the wronged family in pursuing justice, Morning Star News reported.
Pastor Josemon Pathrose spent nearly all of February in jail and finally got his confiscated vehicle back after four months. The harassment and criminal charges he’s endured at the hands of Hindu extremists are not uncommon in India.
Two evangelists are still receiving hospital treatment two weeks after hardline Muslims in eastern Uganda beat them unconscious for proclaiming Christ, sources said.
Many Pakistani Christians are pushing back after a discriminatory ad for positions as sanitary workers targeted Christians, implying that the Muslim majority was above such occupations. The ad also violates the country’s constitution.
Following a rights group report that 1,336 people were killed in Plateau state, Nigeria between December and February, residents reported 18 Christians killed since mid-April.
