Pastor Keshab Raj Acharya faces a one-year prison sentence for his religious activities, marking a significant setback for religious freedom in Nepal, after the country’s Supreme Court upheld a previous judgment against the pastor, who now awaits the court’s response to his appeal for converting the sentence into a fine.
Police intimidation and lax investigations into Islamist rioting that destroyed scores of Christian homes and businesses in Jaranwala, Pakistan in August has dampened hopes of justice for the victims, sources said.
Christians in Pakistan have breathed a sigh of relief over the government’s decision to make Islamic studies not compulsory for non-Muslim students in schools at all levels.
A court in China sentenced a prominent Protestant pastor to 14 years in prison. The pastor’s wife and four church members have also been sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to 10 years. They were all found guilty of purportedly “using superstition to undermine the law.”
Pakistan’s leading human rights and religious freedom advocate, Peter Jacob, is among eight individuals from different countries who were awarded with the US Secretary of State’s International Religious Freedom Award in recognition of their courage and commitment to promoting and defending religious freedom globally.
Ten Christian worshippers, including five children, lost their lives in the southern Philippines when a landslide struck the house where they had gathered for prayer. Officials reported on Friday that those inside were holding Christian prayer sheets when the natural disaster occurred following heavy rain.
Large numbers of churches were closed last year, with only four of Algeria’s 47 official Protestant congregations continuing and at least 10,000 churches shut down in China, according to Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List (WWL) of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.
Tens of thousands of Christians from the Kuki-Zo tribal community in India’s northeastern state of Manipur continue to be displaced, more than eight months after the onset of ongoing violence. During this period, at least 80 individuals, including women and children, have died due to inadequate healthcare and substandard living conditions in makeshift shelters in one district alone.
As Pakistan gears up for general elections on February 8, the country’s religious minorities, including Christians, have launched a countrywide community engagement campaign as part of efforts to draw the attention of the mainstream political parties toward the challenges facing minorities.
The Rev. H. Chungthang Thiek, a prominent evangelist and former secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India's northeast region, has died, leaving a profound legacy in northeast India's spiritual and social spheres. He was 75. His 27-year tenure at EFI, from 1988 to 2015, was marked by significant contributions to the organization and the broader Church community, said the EFI, a national alliance of Evangelical Christians, in a Jan. 4 statement. He is credited with launching the "Prayer Mou
Police in Pakistan refused to file charges in the case of a Christian mother who lost her unborn son in a Muslim co-worker’s attempt to rape her, sources said.
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.
