Tag: Churches

India: 10 churches closed, Hindu nationalists seek closure of 20 more

November 7, 2017 India Alphons Kannanthanam, BJP, Churches, Hindu nationalism, India, Pentecostals, RSS, Tamil Nadu

Preparations for an Hindu festival. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Ten Protestant churches in Coimbatore district in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu have been ordered to stop their worship meetings, while Hindu nationalists want another 20 churches to be closed. They claim the Christian places of worship have not been authorised by the Collector’s Office, the district’s magistrate . . . Read More

China expels hundreds of South Koreans from North Korean border region

November 7, 2017 China China, Churches, Communism, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, North Korea, Sinicisation, South Korea

Hundreds of South Korean Christians, including church leaders, have been sent home in the last year by three provincial governments in north-eastern China in a move that is seen to be part of the implementation of a new set of rules to control religious activities. There are thought to be . . . Read More

Egypt church reopened after 22 years seen by some as gesture to US

November 3, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Anba Macarius, Churches, Copts, Egypt, Minya, Pentecostals, USA

After 22 years, the doors of the Pentecostal church in Minya City were reopened on 29 October 2017. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A Pentecostal church in Minya City, Egypt, reopened its doors on Sunday (29 October) after 22 years without a permit, a move some see as a goodwill gesture from the government ahead of the visit of US Vice President Mike Pence. Pence announced last week that he hoped to visit . . . Read More

Egypt: another Coptic church closed after flyer causes riot

October 31, 2017 Egypt Churches, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Minya, Sohag

A broken statue in the Coptic Church of Mallawi, south of Minya city, that was vandalised during riots in 2013. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Police in Egypt’s Minya governorate closed another church and arrested 15 people in the village of Ezbet Zakariya last Friday (27 October) after a mob attacked Copts with stones and destroyed some of their property. The violence appears to have been fuelled by a flyer that was distributed on Friday, . . . Read More

Egypt: Copts stage sit-in to protest at church closure

October 27, 2017 Egypt Churches, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Minya, Upper Egypt

Members of the Holy Virgin and Mar Girgis church staged a sit-in to protest the closure of their church in October. (Photo: Watani)

After four Coptic churches in Upper Egypt were forced to close last weekend following clashes with local Muslims, the priest at one church has staged a sit-in, but another church has agreed, under duress, to remain closed until it has obtained an official permit. Father Moussa Thabet remains in his . . . Read More

Sudan Church of Christ leaders charged with sound pollution for ‘noisy’ services

October 27, 2017 Sudan Churches, Islamic extremism, Kuwa Shamal, Pentecostals, Port Sudan, Sadiq al-Mahdi, Sanctions, Sudan, Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church, Sudanese Church of Christ

A 2015 church service in Sudan's Nuba Mountains (World Watch Monitor)

Five Sudanese Christians arrested, but later released, last Sunday (22 October) have now been charged with causing sound pollution through overly loud church services. The five church leaders – Ayouba Telyan, Abdelbagi Tutu, Ali El Hakim, Ambarator Hamad and Haibil Ibrahim – were summoned to court yesterday morning (26 October), but . . . Read More

Egypt: 4 Coptic churches closed after Muslim protests

October 26, 2017 Egypt Churches, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Minya, Sohag

Four Coptic churches in Upper Egypt were closed down last weekend by local authorities seeking to ease tensions between Muslim and Christian villagers. Three of the churches were in Minya governorate, just south of Cairo, and the fourth in Sohag, further south. In the Minya village of Ezbet al-Qeshiri, the . . . Read More

‘Uncontrolled’ growth of Christianity in China ‘makes government nervous’

October 11, 2017 China China, Churches, Communism, Donald Trump, House churches, Religious freedom, Sinicisation, Xi Jinping

Group of Christians are praying together in Beijing. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

China’s Communist Party is threatened by the “uncontrolled growth of Christianity” in the country –estimated by some to reach 247 million by 2030, “making it the world’s largest congregation” – and China’s thriving underground churches can therefore expect a backlash, writes Eugene K. Chow for The Diplomat. Chow describes how . . . Read More

Egypt Cabinet committee starts work on legalisation of unlicensed churches

October 10, 2017 Egypt Andrea Zaki, Churches, Copts, Egypt, Religious freedom

Church building in village in the southern part of Egypt. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A cabinet committee met on Monday 8 October to start work on the legalisation of unlicensed churches, following the approval by Egypt’s parliament of a law relating to the building and renovating of churches, reports the Egypt Independent. Andrea Zaki, President of the Protestant Community of Egypt, said there was . . . Read More

Indonesia: ‘Saudi influence behind rise in Islamic extremism’, as churches continue to be closed

September 19, 2017 Indonesia Banten, Bekasi, Bogor, Churches, Indonesia, Islamic extremism, Java, Nahdlatul Ulama, Pentecostals, Santa Clara, Saudi Arabia, Tangerang, Wahhabism

Thousands of Muslims from across Indonesia joined the Islamic-hardliners in Jakarta to protest against Jakarta’s (former) Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama ('Ahok') on 4 November 2016 for allegedly insulting Islam when citing a Quranic verse. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

“The election and trial of Jakarta’s former governor ‘Ahok’ have exposed increasing radicalization in Indonesia, especially among the young … and it has led to a more aggressive campaign to confront Islamist radicalism,” writes Paul Marshall. In his article for the Lausanne Movement, the Wilson Professor of Religious Freedom at . . . Read More

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