Pakistani Christian Sentenced to Life under ‘Blasphemy’ Law

By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST Ministries

FAISALABAD, PAKISTAN (ANS) — Compass Direct News (CDN) is reporting that a young Christian shopkeeper was sentenced to a life term in prison and fined more than $1,000 last week following a dubious conviction of desecrating the Quran, according to Pakistan’s National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP).

Objections to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws gained momentum at a protest in Lahore last August. Read the rest of this entry »

Five Pakistani Muslim Men Abduct Christian Woman

By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST Ministries

SARGODHA, PAKISTAN (ANS) — International Christian Concern (ICC) has said that it has learned that five Muslim men have recently abducted a 21-year-old Christian girl in Sargodha, Pakistan.

It was reported to ICC, a Washington, DC, human rights group, that Muhammad Afzal, Maqsood Ahmed, Muhammad Ashraf and two other unidentified Muslim men abducted Asifa Bibi from her home at gunpoint. The Muslim men then dragged her into an unregistered black car and drove to an undisclosed location. Read the rest of this entry »

New Church in Algeria Burned to the Ground

By Michael Ireland, ASSIST News Service

ALGERIA (ANS) — The Tafat Protestant Church building in Tizi Ouzou, Algeria, was set on fire on January 9, around 11:00 pm, according to the website for satellite broadcaster Channel North Africa (www.cna-sat.org ).

On its site, CNA states that “Tafat” means “light” in the Berber language.

According to the church’s pastor, Mustapha Krireche, “around twenty bearded men broke into the church, destroyed the chairs and doors and then set the building on fire.” Read the rest of this entry »

Over 100 Coptic Christian Teenagers Arrested in Egypt

By Jeremy Reynalds, Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

EGYPT (ANS) — Egyptian State Security has intensified its intimidation of the Coptic Church and Christians in Nag Hammadi, and neighboring Bahgoura, by carrying out random arrests of Christian youth.

According to a story by Mary Abdelmassih writing for the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA), the ongoing campaign against Christians started on Jan. 7 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

Fourth Malaysian Church Attacked

Compiled by Michelle MY Chan, Special to ASSIST News Service

KUALA LUMPUR, WEST MALAYSIA (ANS) — A fourth Malaysian church was firebombed this afternoon (Saturday, January 09, 2010, in a spate of attacks on churches that began two days ago here, linked to a court ruling allowing the word Allah to be used by non-Muslims.

The Good Shepherd Lutheran Church was the latest church to be attacked, according to web news portal Malaysian Insider. “A firebomb missed a window and caused minor damage,” it quoted Rev Dr Hermen Shastri, the general-secretary of the Council of Churches, Malaysia. Read the rest of this entry »