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World Watch Monitor

News from the World Watch Monitor website

Libya ‘chaos’ makes it one of world's most dangerous places to be a Christian ¹

An anti-Gaddafi rally in Libya, 2011.Flickr / CC / MojomogwaiIt’s five years this month since Muammar Gaddafi’s government in Libya was overthrown when rebels stormed his compound and he went into hid

Posted: August 12, 2016, 11:27 am

Convert explains journey to Christianity, and why he left Iran ²

The Fatema Mæ'sume 
shrine in Qom, a religiously conservative city 150km south of Tehran.World Watch Monitor In Iran, converting from Islam to Christianity can land you in prison or even get

Posted: August 11, 2016, 6:07 pm

In new report on religious freedom, US government turns its attention to blasphemy laws ³

The U.S. State Department on 10 Aug. released its 2015 International Religious Freedom Report. Required by U.S. law, the report contains an assessment of the conditions supporting, or suppressing, fre

Posted: August 10, 2016, 11:36 pm

Algerian Christian gets maximum sentence for ‘blasphemy’ ⁴

Bouhafs’ family said they are deeply concerned, as he suffers from a chronic illness and his health may deteriorate as he goes to prison.World Watch MonitorA Christian in Algeria has been sentenced to

Posted: August 9, 2016, 3:40 pm

Iraq: 2 years since Nineveh fell to IS, displaced Christians pray for ‘liberation’ ⁵

At this memorial service, young people performed their own poetry, made music and danced in front of a cross, around which are the names, in Arabic, of the villages still under IS control.Open Doors I

Posted: August 8, 2016, 4:50 pm

Iraqi Christians confront two-year trauma with drama ⁶

Part of a play performed
 by Iraqi Christians forced to flee to Kurdistan after the self-proclaimed Islamic State seized their northern town of Qaraqosh.Video capture / World Watch Monitor“Th

Posted: August 5, 2016, 11:40 pm

UPDATE: Attack by suspected militants leaves 7 dead in DRC ⁷

MONUSCO forces outside the town of Oicha, eastern DRC, in May 2015.Myriam Asmani/CC/MONUSCOUPDATE (5 August): Seven people have lost their lives following an attack by suspected Ugandan Islamist rebel

Posted: August 5, 2016, 4:31 pm

Unlawfully detained for months, Sudan church leaders finally in court ⁸

Kuwa Shamal (left) and Hassan Taour are among several Christian ministers targeted by the NISS.World Watch MonitorAfter nearly eight months of legal limbo, a Sudanese court has finally seen three deta

Posted: August 5, 2016, 2:59 pm

‘We have no voice’: Christians in Jordan 2 years after fleeing N. Iraq ⁹

Bahar (left), 
81, with her daughters, Samira and Bahija. IS beat Bahija and ransacked their home in Tel Kayf, outside Mosul. Bahar's family shares a one-bedroomed house in Amman with another

Posted: August 5, 2016, 1:26 pm

Families of murdered Nigerian pastors mourn their loss ¹⁰

Joseph Kurah,
 murdered on 30 June, and Eunice Elisha, who was killed 10 days later.Twitter: @uncanny_sam / World Watch MonitorThousands of people, including journalists from around the world

Posted: August 4, 2016, 5:25 pm

Indian Supreme Court rules compensation for worst-ever anti-Christian violence ‘not enough’ ¹¹

Obseswar Nayak
 stands on the remains of his property in Borimunda village, Kandhamal. The government ruled that his house was only "partially" damaged and therefore offered him only token co

Posted: August 4, 2016, 3:37 pm

Myanmar’s Christian population grows to 6.2 per cent ¹²

Tower of a Catholic church next to a 
Buddhist statue, Myanmar Nov. 2015World Watch MonitorMyanmar’s Christian population has increased dramatically, according to the latest figures in a supp

Posted: August 3, 2016, 11:07 am

Nigerian women lose husbands, homes and sometimes their minds to extremist violence ¹³

For a woman,
 the loss of her husband is the beginning of hardship for her and her children.CCEPIForty-something Agnes, from Benue state in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region, was married to univer

Posted: August 3, 2016, 10:19 am

Egypt convert’s legal limbo finally brings him 'back to Islam’ ¹⁴

During Hegazy's
 periods of incarceration, he was subject to different forms of abuse.World Watch MonitorEgyptian lawyer Karam Ghobrial was clearly distraught as he talked about the saga both

Posted: August 2, 2016, 2:00 pm

Anti-Christian violence in India at an ‘alarming level’ ¹⁵

A message
 is held aloft at a protest march against anti-Christian violence - in Bangalore in February 2015.World Watch MonitorThe leader of a Christian advocacy group in India says that inci

Posted: August 2, 2016, 12:40 pm

Families ask for help as Azerbaijan Christians detained in Iran ¹⁶

L to R: 
Camilla and Bahram Nasibov; Yusif and Lala Farhadov, with their son; Aida and Eldar Gurbanov.Middle East ConcernThe families of three Azerbaijani Christians detained for more than a

Posted: August 2, 2016, 10:24 am

2 years after IS drove them from their homes, Iraqi Christians ‘are still in survival mode’, bishop says ¹⁷

U.S. State Department Deputy Secretary Antony Blinken at the Washington Conference on Threats to Religious and Ethic Minorities Under ISIL, 29 July in Washington, D.C.Video capture / U.S. Office of Po

Posted: August 2, 2016, 1:08 am

Copts attacked, forced to settle for nothing, in absence of Egyptian justice ¹⁸

Since 2011, human rights organisations have recorded scores of attacks against Copts.World Watch Monitor / David Degner / Getty ImagesEight Christian homes were attacked and an equal number of Copts w

Posted: July 27, 2016, 2:45 pm

The murder of a French priest has horrified the world. The same thing happens to Christians in lesser-reported places ¹⁹

Rev. Jacques HamelEglise Catholique de RouenThe 26 July killing of a Catholic priest in his church in St. Etienne du Rouvray, France, once again has pushed jihadist violence into the headlines. The so

Posted: July 27, 2016, 1:55 pm

UPDATE: Fresh attacks on Christian villages in Benue, Central Nigeria ²⁰

The aftermath of an attack, which claimed hundreds of lives, in the central Nigerian state of Benue, Feb. 2016.World Watch MonitorUPDATE (27 July): A fresh attack in the central Nigerian State of Benu

Posted: July 27, 2016, 11:01 am

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