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Afghanistan: Radical Islamist groups recruit at universities

  Afghanistan , , , , , ,
The Taliban continues to launch deadly attacks, most recently on Wednesday in the capital Kabul where at least 15 people were killed in a suicide attack.(Photo: Getty Images)
While the Afghan government is engaged in peace talks with the hard-line Taliban movement, radical Islamist groups are spreading their ideology at universities. Basira Akhtar, a 22-year-old student, was beaten up twice earlier this year, at her university in the capital Kabul, when her headscarf slipped from her head. In . . . Read More

Nigeria: Violence continues but government in denial, church leaders say

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A village in northern Nigeria after an attack by Fulani militants. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)
A pregnant woman and a child were among four people killed in attacks by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria’s Plateau State last week. The attackers targeted the villages of Ancha and Tafigana in the Bassa Local Government area, as reported by news site Nasoweseeamonline. Margaret Wakili, 27, from Ancha – . . . Read More

‘It’s time to be real: what happens in Iraq is ethnic cleansing’ – UK analyst

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Tahira Church in Qaraqosh, a Christian town in northern Iraq, shortly after liberation from Islamic State in November 2016. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)
What Iraq’s Christians want from the West is to say the plain truth: that there is ethnic cleansing of Christians in the region and it is ongoing, Dr Tim Stanley told a meeting at the UK’s parliament last Tuesday, 9 July. The historian and columnist, working for UK daily newspaper . . . Read More

Iraq: Five years after IS occupied Mosul, returnees live in fear

  Iraq , , , , , , , , ,
Iraq: Five years after IS occupied Mosul, returnees live in fear
The Islamic State’s three-year occupation of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and its surrounding villages ended nearly two years ago, yet the city and its diminished number of Christian residents remain vulnerable.   Last month the Iraqi government announced it would arm residents of 50 villages around Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, . . . Read More

Burkina Faso: 5 leaders killed in 3 months as Islamists continue to target churches

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Church leaders as well as government officials and representatives of the Muslim community attended the funeral of the six killed in the Dablo attack. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)
At least ten more Christians have been killed as a spate of attacks on churches continues in northern Burkina Faso. The ten, who died in two attacks on 12 and 13 May, include another Catholic priest, Siméon Yampa. On Monday, 13 May, a procession of four Catholics was attacked while . . . Read More

Sri Lankan Christians grapple with aftermath of Easter bombings amid fears of fresh attacks

  Sri Lanka , , , ,
Poster memorials and crosses for Christians who died in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Easter Sunday, 2019
Sri Lankan Arasaratnam Verl is deep in mourning. His son Jackson (13) and sister Verlini (36) were killed instantly when a bomb exploded in the evangelical Zion Church in the eastern city of Batticaloa on Easter Sunday morning, 21 April. Verlini’s husband Ranjith (39), an engineer and Blackbelt in karate, . . . Read More

Ten years after fake blasphemy charge, Pakistani Asia Bibi reunited with family

  Pakistan , , , , , , ,
Asia Bibi is finally free, almost one decade after she was first imprisoned. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)
Asia Bibi’s daughter Eicham was 9 when she saw her mum badly beaten and in front of a mob charged with “blasphemy” against the Prophet Muhammad. For over 9 years, Eicham has visited her on death row in Pakistan. Finally, today, now a young woman at 18, Eicham and her . . . Read More

Burkina Faso church leader killed by Islamists: ‘I’d rather die than leave my community’

  Burkina Faso , , , , , , , , , ,
An outdoor church outside a home western Burkina Faso.(Photo: CIF Action via Flickr; CC 2.0)
Gunmen who attacked a Protestant church in Burkina Faso on 28 April asked the pastor and five others to convert to Islam before they killed them, World Watch Monitor has learned. Last Sunday’s violence in the West African country appears to have been the first attack, specifically on a church . . . Read More