UN Sec. General’s “biggest data gap in the world” affects persecuted Christian women

Women to women conference in Ethiopia, February 2018.
The UN Secretary-General last week called it ‘the biggest data gap in the world…what UK writer Caroline Criado Perez calls “default man” thinking: the unquestioned assumption that men are standard, and women the exception. Very often, women are not counted, and their experiences don’t count”. And this lack of ‘counting’ . . . Read More

Violent Islamist militancy spreads into weak states across sub-Saharan Africa

Nigerien soldiers on patrol near the town of Arlit, north-central Niger. (Photo: Getty)
The newly-released annual World Watch List (WWL) of the top 50 countries in which it is most difficult to live as a Christian shows that, especially in the Sahel and sub-Saharan Africa, the rise of Islamist militancy has become a challenge not only to Christians, but also to the existence . . . Read More

Malaysia: Exactly 2 years since Raymond Koh’s abduction, his wife asks PM to intervene

Pastor Raymond Koh who was last seen in February 2017. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)
Two years since the disappearance of Malaysian pastor Raymond Koh in broad daylight, his family has asked the country’s Prime Minister to order a new investigation into his kidnapping. “It has already been two years and until now there’s no result [of the inquiry]. We are at our wits’ end. . . . Read More

Raymond Koh’s wife ‘expects justice’ as inquiry into Malaysian pastor’s abduction ends

Raymond Koh’s wife ‘expects justice’ as inquiry into Malaysian pastor’s abduction ends
The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) has concluded its inquiry into the disappearance of church leader Raymond Koh, who was kidnapped in broad daylight by masked men on 13 February 2017. The final three witnesses appeared before the inquiry panel on Friday, 7 December, which is expected to present . . . Read More

Pakistani Christians’ homes ransacked by mob after son falsely charged with abduction, rape

Pakistani Christians’ homes ransacked by mob after son falsely charged with abduction, rape
A Pakistani family seeks justice almost two months after their 22-year-old son was falsely accused of abducting a 19-year-old woman, which led in turn to the looting and ransacking of Christians’ houses. Early on 9 July, Nabeela Bibi of Rahimabad village, Sheikhupura, went missing; her father, Muhammad Hanif, said he . . . Read More

Syria’s Christian villages ‘hollowed out’ by IS

Before the war there were many churches in the area around Hassaka who held regular services, like this one in Tel Jezirah.  (Photo: World Watch Monitor, 2009)
The Islamic State, following its defeat in Syria, has left behind hollowed-out Christian villages, reports the New York Times. Assyrian Christians, an indigenous Middle Eastern minority, once formed thriving farming communities along the Khabur River in Syria’s northeast. But when IS attacked the area in 2015, the militants demolished churches and kidnapped . . . Read More