News

Pakistan paralysed following Asia Bibi’s victory in Supreme Court

  November 2, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Islamic extremism, Minorities, Pakistan, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan

The victory of Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi in the Supreme Court has sparked nationwide protests, led by supporters of the Islamist political party Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP). TLP, which stands for the “Here-I-Am Movement”, is a rising party known for organising street protests in opposition to any changes to the blasphemy . . . Read More

‘Untouchable’ caste identity haunts Pakistani Christians like Asia Bibi

  November 1, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Caste, Gilgit, Hyderabad, Islamabad, Karachi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Lahore, Minorities, Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, Peshawar, Punjab, Quetta, Sindh, Sweepers

Asia Bibi was on death row for blasphemy, after offering drinking water which she, as a Christian, was considered to have made “unclean” by her touch. She got into an argument over this. Many Pakistani Christians – who are about 2% of the population – are children of converts to . . . Read More

Pakistan PM appeals for calm after Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy

  October 31, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Constitution, Imran Khan, Islamic extremism, Lahore, Pakistan, Pakistan Peoples Party, Prophet Muhammad, Punjab, Quran, Sharia, Sindh, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan

Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, this evening urged the nation not to let a fraction of people incite them to take the law into their own hands over the decision of the Supreme Court to release a Christian woman who had been facing the death penalty for blasphemy. The security . . . Read More

‘A victory for Pakistan and millions of its marginalised people’ – son of governor who was killed for defence of innocent Asia Bibi

  October 31, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Islamabad, Islamic extremism, Lahore, Minorities, Mumtaz Qadri, Pakistan, Salmaan Taseer, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan

Demonstrations were held in several cities in Pakistan following the acquittal of Asia Bibi of blasphemy charges by the Supreme Court earlier today (31 October). However, the numbers were in the hundreds rather than the thousands that might have been anticipated. And the son of the ex-Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, . . . Read More

Pakistani mother Asia Bibi wins appeal against death sentence for blasphemy

  October 31, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Imran Khan, Islamabad, Islamic extremism, Lahore, Minorities, Mumtaz Qadri, Pakistan, Salmaan Taseer, Shahbaz Bhatti, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan

Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman on death row for blasphemy since 2010, has won her final appeal. She is expected to be freed from prison soon, but there are still fears for her personal safety, as many in the country still believe that she should die. Her case has divided . . . Read More

Pakistani Christian gets life for blasphemy despite learning difficulties

  October 26, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Pakistan, Police, Quran

Mentally impaired Yaqoob Bashir Masih was only 20 years old when he was accused of committing blasphemy in June 2015. He has been in prison ever since, and now his hometown District and Sessions Court in Mirpur Khas, a small district in Pakistan’s Sindh province, has sentenced him to life-long . . . Read More

Turkey gives Western Christian evangelist 15 days to leave country

  October 25, 2018 Turkey Ankara, David Byle, Istanbul, Police, Proselytism, Turkey, USA

After 20 months in bureaucratic limbo, Canadian-American Christian David Byle was arrested on 13 October and detained overnight by security police in Ankara, the Turkish capital. His detention took place the morning after US pastor Andrew Brunson was ordered released by an Izmir court and allowed to return to the . . . Read More

Coptic woman who lost half her face in church bombing arrives in Germany for operation

  October 24, 2018 Egypt Cairo, Copts, Egypt

The Coptic Christian woman who lost the right side of her face in a bomb attack on her church in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in 2016 is now in Germany for a complicated operation, World Watch Monitor has learnt. Samiha Tawfiq will be treated at a university hospital in the . . . Read More

Sudanese Christians beaten before release

  October 23, 2018 Sudan Darfur, Mariam Ibrahim, NISS, Nyala, Religious freedom, Sudan

A group of Darfuri Christians arrested last week have now been released but only after they faced severe pressure for their faith and were beaten while in detention, a local source has told World Watch Monitor. The group of 13 Christians were taken by security officials from a home they . . . Read More

Nigerian student recalls the night 10 family members were killed in front of her

  October 22, 2018 Nigeria Christian Association of Nigeria, Fulani herdsmen, Jos, Nigeria, Plateau, Rape

When 23-year-old student Blessing Kogi returned home on Thursday 27 September, she was full of joy, expecting to spend a restful evening with her family in their quiet, residential neighbourhood of Rukuba Road, in the south-western outskirts of Jos, the capital of Nigeria’s Plateau state. Twelve members of her family . . . Read More