Tag: Baptists

Tajikistan: Children barred from attending church, 5,000 Christian calendars burned

February 25, 2019 Tajikistan Baptists, Children, Education, Religion Law, Tajikistan

A church in Isfara, northern Tajikistan. (Photo: 2005, World Watch Monitor)

Tajik authorities implementing a new religion law are barring children from attending religious services and have burned thousands of calendars with Bible verses. Amendments to Tajikistan’s Religion Law came into force in January last year, giving the state greater control over religious education, and increase the amount of information religious organisations . . . Read More

Myanmar: More Bible students escape, but 20 women still held

December 3, 2018 Myanmar Baptists, China, Churches, Education, Myanmar, Shan

Ethnic Wa, Palaung and Shan people watch in 2013 a religious ceremony by the ethnic United Wa State Army who have been fighting Myanmar's government troops in northern Shan state for decades. (Photo: Getty Images)

Four of the 41 Bible students forcibly recruited by an ethnic minority army in Myanmar’s northern Shan state in September have escaped, according to Catholic news site UCAN. Last month an initial group of 17 students escaped from a United Wa State Army (UWSA) base in the Wa hills near the . . . Read More

Ukraine Baptist church closed by separatists

October 17, 2018 Ukraine Baptists, Churches, Donetsk, Kiev, Russian Orthodox Church, Ukraine

The self-declared government of the Donetsk People's Republic has made Russia’s Orthodox Church its official faith and Protestant and Catholics are seen as agents for the west or spies. (Photo: Getty Images)

A Baptist church in Ukraine’s south-eastern town of Novoazovsk was forced to close by a separatist group last month, reports Oslo-based news service Forum 18. Novoazovsk is a seaside town in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), eastern Ukraine. The DPR, along with the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), both backed by . . . Read More

Raids on ‘illegal’ worship meetings in rebel-held Ukraine

August 9, 2018 Ukraine Baptists, Churches, Crimea, Kiev, Luhansk, Orthodox, Pentecostals, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin

In the battle for Luhansk between Ukrainian forces and rebels in 2014, churches like this one in Pervomaisk, some 50 km west of Luhansk, were also attacked. (Photo: JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images)

A Pentecostal church in the rebel-held Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine was raided by armed men on 6 August, the latest in a series of raids on religious communities, reports Oslo-based news service Forum 18. The raid took place during a worship meeting at the Grace Church of God Pentecostal . . . Read More

Myanmar: Army accused of destroying churches and turning them into Buddhist temples

July 6, 2018 Myanmar Baptists, Buddhist nationalism, Cardinal Bo, Churches, Kachin, Ma Ba Tha, Myanmar, Rakhine, Refugees, Rohingya

Myanmar’s military has destroyed about 60 churches in the past 18 months and turned a third of them into Buddhist pagodas in northern Kachin state, according to an American pastor who visited the region recently. “In the last 18 months, they have bombed 60 churches. Of the 60 churches they . . . Read More

Kazakhstan: 69 punished for practising faith in first half of 2018

July 5, 2018 Kazakhstan Baptists, Human rights, Jehovah's Witnesses, Kazakhstan, Kostanay, Missionaries, Pentecostals, Religion Law, Religious freedom, Sunni

Courts in Kazakhstan prosecuted at least 69 individuals, religious communities or organisations for religious activities in the first half of this year, according to Oslo-based news service Forum 18. Punishments included fines of up to four months’ average salary (US$1,400) and three-month bans on activities such as distributing religious literature or . . . Read More

Uzbekistan: Five Baptists fined on non-specific charges

June 22, 2018 Uzbekistan Baptists, Karshi, Religion Law, Tashkent, Urgench, Uzbekistan

As the government does not allow religious meetings without state permission, Christians in Uzbekistan meet in secret. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Five members of a Baptist church in the southern Uzbek city of Karshi were detained and fined for meeting without state permission, without hearing the exact charges, reports Forum 18. Police also raided the homes of two Baptists, Khamid and Ziyatullo Rakhmonov (not related), on 23 May, and took them . . . Read More

Uzbek pastor might face criminal charges after police repeat raids on his home

May 29, 2018 Uzbekistan Baptists, Fergana Valley, Human rights, Jehovah's Witnesses, Karshi, Kashkadarya, Khorezm, Religious freedom, Samarkand, Tashkent, Urgench, Uzbekistan

Members of Pastor Kim's church were, like these Christians elsewhere in Uzbekistan, having a meal together to celebrate Easter when the first police raid took place. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

An Uzbek Baptist pastor, who is already serving at home a two-year sentence for having religious books, might now be facing criminal charges. Police raided Pastor Stanislav Kim’s flat in Urgench, north-western Khorezm Region, twice last month, on Easter Sunday (8 April) and a week later (15 April), while the . . . Read More

Russia’s religious communities face ‘unclear’ requirements

April 27, 2018 Russia Baptists, Churches, Jehovah's Witnesses, Missionaries, Nizhny Novgorod, Pentecostals, Proselytism, Russia

Legal requirements applied to the expression of freedom of religion in Russia impose a significant burden on religious communities not recognised by the state – in the shape of fines, legal costs and bureaucracy – reports regional news agency Forum 18. The requirements are “unclear” and applied “inconsistently”, Forum 18 . . . Read More

Kazakhstan: 24 faith-related criminal convictions in 2017

March 8, 2018 Kazakhstan Baptists, Censorship, Education, Kazakhstan, Proselytism, Religion Law

New figures show the number of known criminal convictions handed out for exercising freedom of religion or belief in Kazakhstan reached 24 in 2017, reports the Oslo-based Forum 18 news service. The individuals were mainly Sunni Muslims but included one Christian, Yuri Ivanovich Bekker, a Baptist sentenced to a year . . . Read More

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