World

The U.S. State Department released its latest International Religious Freedom Report. Even though its title is the 2010 report, it only covers the last six months of the year as future editions will shift to a calendar year reporting period.

In his presentation of the report Michael H. Posner, the assistant secretary of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, said that the same eight states designated as Countries of Particular Concern in previous years were re-named in the latest report. They are: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan. Read more »

An Iranian court has asked the pastor of one of Iran's largest house church movements to abandon his faith in Christ and return to Islam if he wants to avoid execution, a church official told BosNewsLife Sunday, September 25.

On "the first day" of his trial, pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, whose first name is also spelled as Yousef, was "asked by the judge... to recant his faith in order to avoid execution," said Firouz Khanjani, a council member of the Church of Iran movement. Read more »

Singapore is a hub for human traffickers. The fight against this alarming phenomenon must be a priority on the new President, Tony Tan’s agenda, who was elected two weeks ago.

This is what the Christian community in Singapore, about 16% of the population, asks. Read more »

Muslim extremists have sent text messages to at least 10 church leaders in Khartoum saying they are planning to target Christian leaders, buildings and institutions, Christian sources in Khartoum said.

"We want this country to be purely an Islamic state, so we must kill the infidels and destroy their churches all over Sudan," said one text message circulating in Khartoum last month. The text messages were sent in July and August. Read more »

Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark has said the British courts are wrongfully penalising Christians through an “incorrect interpretation” of human rights laws.

The archbishop said judges were guilty of “woolly thinking” and a bias against Christians who either wore religious jewellery or who had taken a moral stand against acts they held in conscience to be sinful. He said certain court decisions had not upheld Articles 9 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Read more »

Ten years after Pew Research Center carried out a study on the American Muslim community, in the United States, the results reveal how the tragic day completely transformed the thinking of five million Muslims living in the United States.

The community in question is a group that immigrated recently to the United States: 63% are still first generation immigrants and 45% in fact, came to the United States after the ‘90s, with four out of ten hailing from the Middle East or the Maghreb. Read more »

A Catholic church was attacked and devastated by vandals wearing masks in the diocese of Quilon, in South Kerala (Southern India).

This is what His Exc. Mgr. Stanley Roman (left), Bishop of Quilon tells Fides, who is "concerned that, as Christians, we are exposed to the growth of different religious extremism, especially that of Hindu but also Muslim background". Read more »

Amanda Schulten (left) of Marengo,Illinois,  a small town near the Wisconsin line, is a devout Catholic and refused to end her pregnancy.

She has named the unborn girls Faith and Hope and is tracking her pregnancy in a blog, amanda-faithhopelove.blogspot.com. On the main page is the poignant poem she penned, “I Love You.” Read more »

A prominent Czech church leader has welcomed an agreement that would allow churches to reclaim land and buildings seized under communist rule, but forfeit state subsidies in return.

A draft settlement was finalized in Prague on Aug. 25 that allows religious groups to retrieve assets that were confiscated after the 1948 communist takeover, while obtaining financial compensation for others. Read more »

It was almost a blitz. With a surprise move, Turkish Prime Minister, Tayip Erdogan, decided to return thousands of properties seized by the government after 1936 to the non-Muslim foundations.

The “Asianews” agency reported the breaking news explaining also that the publication of the law-decree on the restitution of properties took place yesterday, a few hours before the usual Iftar, the dinner-fest celebrated at the end of the Ramadan fasting day, organized by the non-Muslim religious foundations representative, Lakis Vingas, to celebrate the Prime Minister. Read more »