A Catholic has languished in jail for six months on a blasphemy charge even though a teenage boy has confessed and told police the 34-year-old father had no part in the acts, sources said.
Indonesia has officially changed a decades-old state policy of referring to Christian holidays by their Islamic names, such as Isa Messiah for Jesus Christ. President Joko Widodo signed a Presidential Decree to mark this shift to accommodate the Christian population in the country, which has the world’s largest Muslim population.
A judge sentenced a Christian to life in prison under Pakistan’s blasphemy statutes for a social media message that relatives say was posted on a phone stolen from him, sources said.
“The state of orphans and vulnerable children was improving for decades, then suddenly one crisis hit after another,” says Karmen Friesen, principal coordinator of World Without Orphans (WWO), a global movement that seeks to mobilize the Church to respond to the needs of vulnerable children in every nation.
In a rare move in Pakistan, police discharged a 72-year-old Christian from a blasphemy case after the complainant admitted she had falsely accused him, sources said.
Muslims fired gunshots and threw fuel bombs at the homes of Christians in a village in Pakistan at 2 a.m. on Monday (Feb. 12) for supporting an opposing political party in last week’s elections, sources said.
During my sixteen years as a missionary in Cambodia, I participated in a couple of short-term medical clinics and observed many. I would be the first to say that seeing a person in pain who is made well by the medicine and care I bring is fulfilling. And if that is all I am after, then it is also praiseworthy.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday (Feb. 13) reprimanded the Punjab Province government over its progress report on anti-Christian attacks in Jaranwala, terming it “worthy of being thrown into the dustbin.”
A 72-year-old Christian in Pakistan was arrested and charged with blasphemy on Saturday (Feb. 10) based on a false accusation filed in retaliation over a property dispute, sources said.
Chinese families are coming under pressure to keep the Christian faith from their children. Chinese partners of Release International, an organisation supporting persecuted Christians worldwide, said that schoolchildren are being made to declare whether they are Christians. Those who state that they are must then sign a declaration promising to renounce Christianity.
Last Sunday, I attended a worship service at a church, noticing a one-third reduction in the attendance. Additionally, the number of worship sessions decreased from three to two. Choirs and fellowships are also suspended until the end of February.
A Muslim teacher at an Islamic school in eastern Uganda who became a Christian on Oct. 4 was killed on Oct. 21, area sources said.
