Tag: Somalia

Uganda churches warned of Al-Shabaab ‘threats’

May 22, 2014 Uganda Al-Shabaab, East Africa, Islamic extremism, Kampala, Kenya, Somalia

Uganda and Kenya authorities have scaled up security in recent days in response to warnings from Western countries that a jihadist group is planning to attack churches in Uganda. The U.S. embassy in Uganda warned that churches there may face “specific threats” from Al-Shabaab, a Somalia-based militant Islamist terrorist group. . . . Read More

Pressure on Christians grew in 2013

January 8, 2014 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, African Union, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, BJP, Buddhist nationalism, Central African Republic, Colombia, Eritrea, FARC, Hindu nationalism, India, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Kyrgyzstan, Middle East, Nigeria, North Africa, North Korea, Pakistan, Peshawar, Religious freedom, Sadad, Sharia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sub-Saharan Africa, Sudan, Syria, Uganda, UN, Yemen

More than ever, some of the hardest places for Christians to live are fragile or failed states where militant Islamist movements flourish, according to an annual report on Christian religious freedom. Pressure on Christians intensified worldwide in 2013, according to Open Doors International, a charity that provides support to Christians . . . Read More

Two pastors killed in Kenya

October 29, 2013 Kenya Al-Shabaab, East Africa, Mombasa, Nairobi, Pentecostals, Somalia, Uhuru Kenyatta, Westgate

Mombasa.Lauren Pressley / Flickr / Creative Commons Two pastors from southern coastal towns in Kenya were killed last weekend in separate attacks. Charles Mathole, a leader of Mombasa’s Redeemed Gospel Church in Mtopanga, was found dead in church on the morning of Sunday October 20, shot in the head . . . Read More

African migrants risk lives to flee war and persecution

October 8, 2013 Africa, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Europe, Italy, Lampedusa, Libya, Migrants, Mussie Zerai, Netherlands, Refugees, Somalia

The latest tragic incident of hundreds of African migrants drowning in European waters tells a wider story. Scratch beneath the surface and for many of the migrants, their stories are not only of wanting a better life. Often they will be of fleeing persecution or conflict at home, and paying . . . Read More

Al-Shabaab denounced as ‘un-Islamic’

September 13, 2013 Somalia Al-Shabaab, Islamic extremism, Somalia

A group of Islamic scholars have condemned the violence of Al-Shabaab in Somalia as “un-Islamic”, reports the BBC. Al-Shabaab, or “The Youth”, is fighting to create an Islamic state in Somalia. “Al-Shabaab has strayed from the correct path of Islam, leading the Somali people onto the wrong path,” said one . . . Read More

‘Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians’

June 5, 2013 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Algeria, Arab Spring, Armenia, Asia Bibi, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Central Asia, China, Communism, Cuba, Cyprus, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Middle East, Morocco, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Russia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen

This is a book designed to show that “Christians are the single most widely persecuted religious group in the world today” (p4). With that aim, three authors well known in the field of religious advocacy give the reader the ultimate global briefing on the causes, patterns and trends in the persecution . . . Read More

Africa rises on World Watch List of worst persecutors

January 8, 2013 Global News -- No Particular Country Africa, Al-Qaeda, Arab Spring, Bashar al-Assad, Boko Haram, Egypt, Eritrea, Hindu nationalism, Islamic extremism, Kenya, Mali, Mao Zedong, Niger, Nigeria, Sharia, Somalia, Syria, Tanzania, Uganda

Africa, where Christianity spread fastest during the past century, now is the region where oppression of Christians is spreading fastest, a new report says. The two-year-old Arab Spring has toppled autocrats across Northern Africa, but it also has energized militant Islamist movements that have killed hundreds of Christians and endanger . . . Read More

Islamic extremists behead another convert

February 8, 2012 Somalia Al-Shabaab, Converts, Islamic extremism, Mogadishu, Somalia

Islamic extremists from the rebel al Shabaab militia in Somalia beheaded a Christian on the outskirts of Mogadishu last month, sources said. The militants fighting the transitional government in Mogadishu murdered Zakaria Hussein Omar, 26, on Jan. 2 in Cee-carfiid village, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) outside of the Somali . . . Read More

Somali convert from Islam whipped in public

January 10, 2012 Somalia Al-Shabaab, Converts, Islamic extremism, Somalia

A Somali convert from Islam was paraded before a cheering crowd last month and publicly flogged as a punishment for embracing a “foreign religion,” sources said. Sofia Osman, a 28-year-old Christian from Janale city in Somali’as Lower Shabelle region, had been taken into custody by Islamic extremist al Shabaab militants . . . Read More

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