Tag Archives: Christian

Religion + Belief

Bangladesh News | Hindus & Christians

IS claims responsibility for murder of Bangladeshi Hindu and alleged Christian
  • Debesh Chandra Pramanik, 68, died after a hacking attack in his shoe shop in the northwest district of Gaibandha.
  • The attack followed the hacking death of a doctor in Kushtia Islamist militants alleged was a Christian.
  • The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, though the government continues to maintain that IS has no presence in Bangladesh and is attempting to hijack the work of other militant groups.

Read more:
“Islamic State claims fatal stabbing of Bangladeshi Hindu: monitor SITE” (Reuters)
“Doctor Killed in Bangladeshi Machete Attack” (The New York Times)
“Shahriar rubbishes IS claims” (Dhaka Tribune)

Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief

Turkey News | Armenians

Church seizures and political scapegoating heighten unease in Armenian-Turkish community
  • Turkey’s Armenian minority has found itself caught in the middle of increasing conflict between the Turkish government and Kurdish separatists, subject to intimidation, slurs, and attacks from politicians.
  • The Armenian-Turkish community has been particularly upset by the ongoing expropriation of historic churches through eminent domain seizures by the government.
  • In the wake of the centennial of the mass slaughter of Armenians in Turkey during World War I, the community has been fearful of hypernationalist discourse targeting Armenians.

Read more:
“Does Turkey See Its Armenian Minority as a Security Threat?” (EurasiaNet)
“Turkey’s Seizure of Churches and Land Alarms Armenians” (The New York Times)
“A Century Later, Slaughter Still Haunts Turkey and Armenia” (National Geographic)

(Image Credit: Bryan Denton/The New York Times )

Nationality + Migration, Religion + Belief

Czech Republic | Iraqi Christian Refugees

Czech Republic expels Iraqi Christian refugees for attempting to cross into Germany
  • Interior Minister Milan Chovanec announced the 25 refugees have seven days to arrange their return to Iraq.
  • Chovanec accused the Iraqis of “abusing the country’s generosity” after they were caught at the German border and returned.
  • The Czech Republic agreed to accept 153 Christian refugees from Iraq in December, but only 89 have been resettled so far and Chovanec has suspended the relocation program.

Read more:
“Czechs to return Iraqi Christians who tried to move to Germany, interior minister says” (Reuters)
“Czechs To Repatriate 25 Iraqi Christians Who Tried To Cross Into Germany” (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Religion + Belief

Pakistan News | Christians

Pakistani Taliban kills scores in Easter suicide attack in Lahore targeting Christians
  • At least 69 have been killed and 300 injured by a suicide attack at a park in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city and a cultural center of the country.
  • Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility and confirmed that Christians had been the target of the attack.
  • The park was packed with families for the Easter holiday, with many of the victims women and children.

Read more:
“Suicide blast kills at least 69 in Lahore park” (The Express Tribune)
“Explosion at Park in Lahore, Pakistan, Kills Dozens” (The New York Times)
“Taliban faction says carried out suicide bomb attack on Pakistan park, says Christians were target” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: AFP, via The Express Tribune)

Religion + Belief

Indonesia News | Christians

Conservative Islamic youth group attacks Christian churches in Indonesia’s Aceh province, leading to injuries, one death, and locals’ flight
  • The group, known as the Aceh Singkil Islamic Care Youth Students Association (PPI), set fire to two churches in a Christian village in the Aceh Singkil regency for reportedly being unlicensed houses of worship.
  • One in the attacking group was reportedly killed after a third Christian congregation defended their church, and there were conflicting reports of masses of locals fleeing for neighboring regencies.
  • The Aceh province is Indonesia’s most conservative, having implemented Sharia law and allowed for a decades-old agreement in Aceh Singkil limiting Christians to one church and four houses of worship in the regency.

Read more:
“Thousands leave Aceh after church burning” (The Jakarta Post)
“Churches attacked and one man killed in clashes in Aceh, Indonesia” (BBC)
“Indonesia deploys troops to calm religious unrest in Aceh province” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Hotli Simanjuntak/The Jakarta Post)

Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief

Cambodia News | Montagnard Christians

Cambodia orders deportation of waves of Montagnards fleeing Vietnam
  • Montagnards, an ethnic confederation of indigenous peoples from Vietnam, have fled what they report has been religious and ethnic harassment and persecution at the hands of Vietnamese police.
  • Cambodia has only granted asylum to 13 of the approximately 200 who have crossed the border, designating most as economic migrants and scheduling their deportation.
  • The refugees have turned to the U.N.’s refugee organization for assistance, alleging that Vietnamese police have subjected them to ongoing interrogations and detentions because of their Christian affiliation.

Read more:
“Montagnards Flee Persecution in Vietnam For Unsure Future in Cambodia” (Radio Free Asia)
“Group of Montagnards heads back to Vietnam” (The Phnom Penh Post)
“Vietnam: End ‘Evil Way’ Persecution of Montagnard Christians” (Human Rights Watch)

(Image Credit: Radio Free Asia)

Religion + Belief

South Korea Feature | Jehovah’s Witnesses

South Korea’s Prisoners of Conscience

South Korea leads the world in the incarceration of conscientious objectors, jailing hundreds each year who refuse the country’s manditory military service on the basis of conscience and belief. The vast majority of the imprisoned are Jehovah’s Witnesses, members of a Christian sect that has seen tens of thousands jailed in the half-century following the 1953 truce that ended the Korean War. The New York Times profiles the ongoing struggles of the community and recent developments that could finally see movement in the fight for their freedom of conscience.

Read more:
“South Korean Jehovah’s Witnesses Face Stigma of Not Serving in Army” (The New York Times)

Other coverage:
“South Korean conscientious objectors keep up fight against military service” (The Los Angeles Times)
“South Korea, world’s top jailer of conscientious objectors, resists giving them alternatives” (Fox News)

(Image Credit: Jean Chung/The New York Times )

Religion + Belief, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Kenya News | LGBT Christians

Open-Door Ministry

While Kenya has been under fire for its unwelcoming and at times dangerous attitudes towards its LGBT citizens, pockets of haven and inclusion have sprung up, particularly in Kenya’s urban centers. In a brief feature, Voices of America highlights a minister and lesbian Christian in Nairobi who are bucking resistance in providing and occupying spaces of union between the church and the LGBT community.

Read more:
“Kenyan Church Welcomes LGBT Members” (Voices of America)

(Image Credit: R. Ombuor/VOA)

Religion + Belief

Central African Republic News | Muslims & Christians

Violence in the C.A.R. capital of Bangui fuels fears of return of religious violence
  • Dozens were killed in fighting that showed signs of the religious divisions between the country’s Muslims and Christians responsible for the deaths of thousands and displacement of nearly a million from 2012 to 2014.
  • An estimated 27,000 fled the recent violence for a camp for the internally displaced near Bangui’s airport.
  • Interim President Catherine Samba-Panza denounced the violence as an attempted coup meant to disrupt elections set to be held in mid-October and late November.

Read more:
“Dozens Killed in Clashes in Central African Republic” (The New York Times)
“RCA: retour de Samba-Panza à Bangui dans un calme relatif” (Radio France Internationale, in French)
“RCA: Samba-Panza dénonce une tentative de coup d’Etat” (Radio France Internationale, in French)

(Image Credit: Edouard Dropsy/AFP/Getty Images, via The New York Times)

Nationality + Migration, Religion + Belief

U.S. Feature | Syrian Christian Immigrants

Syrian and Christian in New York

Image Credit: Leticia Miranda/BuzzFeed News
Image Credit: Leticia Miranda/BuzzFeed News

Syrian Christians who immigrated to the U.S. before Syria descended into chaos have watched from the sidelines as their families, churches, and hometowns have been demolished in the fight between pro-government and Islamist militant forces, including the Islamic State. BuzzFeed News profiles three in New York who relate the tragedy of watching the world they previously knew as home fall apart.

Read the full feature at BuzzFeed News.

Religion + Belief

C.A.R. Feature | Muslims & Christians

Connecting the Living through the Dead

Image Credit: Laurent Correau/RFI
Image Credit: Laurent Correau/RFI

Situated in the Boeing neighborhood of the Central African Republic capital Bangui, a Muslim cemetery that was long the stronghold of Christian anti-balaka militants found itself in need of repair. RFI highlights how the situation provided a unique opportunity for the city’s Christian community to help their Muslim brethren clear not only the weeds of the burial plots, but the divisions between their communities as well.

« Nous sommes en train de désherber sur le cimetière musulman de Boeing. Je suis un chrétien. Ce qui m’a poussé à venir travailler, main dans la main avec les musulmans, c’est la cohésion sociale. Si nous sommes réunis, c’est parce que nous voulons que la paix revienne dans notre pays et pour éviter les problèmes qui se posent encore dans notre pays »

Translation: “We’re pulling weeds in Boeing’s Muslim cemetery. I’m a Christian. What pushed me to come to work, hand in hand with Muslims, is social cohesion. If we’re gathered, it’s because we want peace to return to our country and to avoid the problems that still come up in our country.”

Read the full feature at Radio France Internationale (in French).

Religion + Belief

China News | Catholic Christians

1 Comment
China prepares to recognize second Vatican-backed bishop ordination
  • Cosmos Ji Chengyi will join Joseph Zhang Yinlin, ordained last week, in becoming the first bishops ordained in China in three years.
  • The government-backed Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and the underground Vatican-allied church have divided China’s 8-12 million Catholics.
  • China has previously required all ordinations to be approved by the government and has gone so far as to appoint bishops itself, which has riled the Holy See, with whom it has had no diplomatic relations since 1949.

“Catholics are thrilled because this is the first time since the founding of Henan province that there has been an ordination ceremony recognized by both sides.”

Read the full story at Reuters.

Nationality + Migration, Religion + Belief

India News | Immigrants

India plans to amend law to grant citizenship to migrants seeking asylum from religious persecution
  • The Home Ministry is expected to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to grant citizenship to religious minorities who fled persecution in neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh.
  • Immigrants who arrived before the start of 2015 will be eligible for citizenship through either a 7-year residency or 12-year naturalization process.
  • Legislators are also looking to amend visa laws to allow undocumented religious asylum-seekers to remain in the country while their citizenship applications are processed.

Read the full story at The Hindu.

(Image Credit: AP file photo, via The Hindu)

Religion + Belief

China News | Christians

1 Comment
Chinese officials target church crosses in demolition campaign throughout Zhejiang province
  • Locals described ongoing campaigns in which authorities allegedly sent in Buddhist monks to agitate Christian congregants, removed crosses from atop churches, and surveilled and intimidated social media protesters.
  • The demolitions come as part of the government’s “Three Rectifications and One Demolition” campaign targeting structures it has deemed illegal around the country.
  • President Xi Jinping has targeted churches as potential threats to national security, claiming their growth could be driven by foreign influence.

“As well as the cross demolitions, the government is carrying out ideological work with all parties,” Zhang said. “It’s not just the crosses that they’re targeting. The government wants to turn the Protestant church into a truly Chinese institution, which is to say that it wants it to become a tool of the party.”

Read the full story at Radio Free Asia.

(Image Credit: via Radio Free Asia)

Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief

Western Asia Feature | Middle-Eastern Christians

The Twilight of Christianity in the Region of Its Birth

The Middle East has seen its culturally diverse population fractured by ever-increasing fault lines over the last century, from colonialism and nationalism to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to Sunni-Shia sectarianism to fundamentalist Sunni extremism.  As a dwindling religious minority, Christians in the Middle East have seen the threat to their existence multiply exponentially after nearly two millennia of peaceful coexistence with other religious communities in their homeland.  The New York Times Magazine explores Christianity’s decline and contemporary existential threats in a region where extremism has subjected the community to exile, forced conversion, and execution.

Read the full feature at the New York Times Magazine.

(Image Credit: Peter van Agtmael/Magnum, for The New York Times)