Tag: Afghanistan

Most of today’s wars are in Muslim countries

May 18, 2016 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Islamic extremism, Middle East, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen

Most wars across the world are taking place in majority-Muslim countries, with Muslims mainly fighting each other, says . In 2012, there were six civil wars worldwide. All took place within Muslim countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Of the nine rebel groups in these conflicts, seven had . . . Read More

Religion-driven hostility to Christians follows them to German refugee centres

May 13, 2016 Afghanistan, Chechnya, Europe, Iran, Migrants, Refugees, Sweden, Syria

Mahan, 2, an Iranian Christian refugee who along with his parents is seeking asylum in Germany, peeks from behind a glass partition in the dining room at the Spreehotel refugee centre in January 2015 in Bautzen, Germany. About 200 refugees, many from Syria and Tunisia, but also from Chechnya, the . . . Read More

Islamic State’s ‘caliphate’ shrank 14% in 2015

January 6, 2016 Afghanistan, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Mosul, Ramadi, Raqqa, Syria, Turkey, USA

Islamic State’s self-proclaimed ‘caliphate’ – the area within Syria and Iraq that the group controls – shrunk by more than 12,000 square kilometres in 2015, says . The loss of 14 per cent of its territory reduces the caliphate to 78,000 square kilometres. Main losses are large swathes of Syria . . . Read More

Hundreds of refugees convert in Germany

September 10, 2015 Afghanistan, Asylum seekers, Berlin, Converts, Europe, Germany, Iran, Norway, Refugees, Syria

Hundreds of asylum seekers – mainly from Iran and Afghanistan – have converted to Christianity at an evangelical church in Berlin, causing an Associated Press journalist to question the legitimacy of their conversions. The pastor of the church, Gottfried Martens, who has witnessed his Trinity Church grow from 150 to 600 . . . Read More

Death sentence for killers of Afghan woman

May 6, 2015 Afghanistan Afghanistan, Kabul, Quran

Four Afghan men have been sentenced to death for the mob killing of a woman falsely accused of burning a copy of the Qu’ran. The 28-year-old woman, called Farkhunda, got into an argument with a man selling amulets outside Kabul’s Shah-Du-Shamshaira shrine when the accusation was made. The amulet seller . . . Read More

Indian priest kidnapped in Afghanistan released after eight months

February 23, 2015 Afghanistan Afghanistan, Bamiyan, Herat, Kabul, Kidnapping, Taliban

Indian Jesuit priest Alexis Prem Kumar who was kidnapped in June 2014 in southern Afghanistan was released and reached New Delhi on February 22 with the intervention of the Indian government. “Delighted at securing the release of Indian Jesuit priest Father Alexis Prem Kumar from captivity in Afghanistan,” tweeted Indian . . . Read More

Iraqi Archbishop ‘begs’ Britain to send in troops

February 10, 2015 Afghanistan, Bashar Warda, Chaldeans, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, London, Nineveh Plains, UK

The Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Erbil – the city in Iraqi Kurdistan where thousands of Christians have fled to safety from Islamic State fighters -‘begged’ Britain to send troops to his country to help save Christians there from being wiped out. He said an estimated 125,000 Christians in northern Iraq have . . . Read More

Taliban murder four humanitarian aid workers in Kabul

December 2, 2014 Afghanistan Afghanistan, Kabul, Taliban

Werner and Hannelie Groenewald, October 2014INcontext Three armed Taliban insurgents swept into a Kabul guesthouse on Nov. 29, murdering three South Africans and two Afghans in the compound of an international aid agency in the Afghan capital. Werner Groenewald and his two teenage children were murdered in the guesthouse . . . Read More

‘Freedom of Religion’: comprehensive report launch

November 4, 2014 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Central African Republic, China, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Libya, Maldives, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Qatar, Religious freedom, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Zimbabwe

A report showing that religious freedom is compromised in nearly 60 percent of countries worldwide is expected to send a signal to governments and religious leaders that this is an issue that can no longer be ignored. The international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need’s Religious Freedom in . . . Read More

Gender equality suffers under faith restrictions

October 8, 2014 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan, Women

The rights of women and girls declines rapidly, the greater a country’s level of religious intolerance, a new study claims. The study is by the Religious Freedom and Business Association, run by Brian Grim, former Pew Research Centre Religion expert. He analysed data from Pew’s Government Restrictions on Religion Index . . . Read More

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