NEW DELHI, October 26 (Compass) -- Christian leaders planning to attend a large anti-caste system "conversion" rally in New Delhi on November 4 are bracing for a Hindu extremist backlash.
...continue reading this storyTurkmenistan's most prominent religious prisoner, the Baptist Shageldy Atakov, has been freed before the end of his four-year sentence, Keston News Service has learnt. The US-based Russian Evangelistic Ministries and the German-based Friedensstimme Mission, which maintain close ties with Baptists in the former Soviet republics, have both confirmed that Atakov was released from prison in the Caspian port city of Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnovodsk) early on 8 January and has now been reunited with his wife Artygul and five children in the town of Kaakhka close to Turkmenistan's southern border with Iran. "Jesus has given me a Christmas gift," Atakov was quoted as saying (many Christians in the region celebrate Christmas on 7 January).
...continue reading this storySary Mirzoyev, pastor of the Love Baptist Church in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, has told Keston News Service that he will fight attempts next week to liquidate his church as a legal entity. The hearing in the liquidation suit, brought by Rafik Aliev, chairman of the State Committee for Relations with Religious Organisations, begins on 23 January at the court of Baku's Narimanov district. Aliev is alleging that Pastor Mirzoyev preached against Islam and that therefore the church has violated the country's religion law and should be liquidated. "They have alleged that we are arousing religious hatred," Pastor Mirzoyev told Keston from Baku on 18 January. "I said nothing against Islam or against Muslims."
...continue reading this storyThe hearing in the case to liquidate the Love Baptist Church in the Azerbaijani capital Baku was postponed yesterday (23 January), the church's pastor Sary Mirzoyev told Keston News Service from Baku. The Narimanov district court had been due to hear the suit, brought by Rafik Aliev, chairman of the State Committee for Relations with Religious Organisations, in the afternoon of 23 January (see KNS 18 January 2002) but the court agreed to the defendant's request to postpone the hearing because of ill health. Yahya Mamedov, the church's deacon and administrator, suffers from diabetes. No date has yet been set for a new hearing, but it is likely to be in about ten days' time.
...continue reading this storyAmid growing pressure on Protestant congregations, two leaders of the unregistered Pentecostal church Living Stones have been arrested and given fifteen-day prison terms, Protestant sources in the Azerbaijani capital Baku have told Keston News Service. The two - Yusuf Farkhadov and Kasym Kasymov - were detained in Sumgait, a town close to Baku, when police and National Security Ministry officers raided a prayer meeting last Friday (18 January) held in a private flat in the town's 9th micro-district. The two were given the two-week prison term under Article 310 of the Administrative Code, which punishes "petty hooliganism". "All they were doing was praying," one church member told Keston. They are serving their term in police detention cells in Sumgait.
...continue reading this storyLAKE FOREST, CA (ANS) -- “Advent in Afghanistan†may have been the largest public outreach by Christians to students in the history of Afghanistan. It began when Norm and Cher Nelson, from the radio ministry, Compassion Radio, accepted an invitation to take the experience of Christmas to 30,000 school children in 49 schools in an historic region of Afghanistan during late November and early December 2002.
...continue reading this storyThe isolated communist nation of North Korea remains atop the Open Doors "World Watch List" of countries where Christians are persecuted. The annual list ranks countries according to the intensity of persecution Christians face for actively pursuing their faith.
...continue reading this storyIn Orissa, India, where missionary Staines and his two sons were martyred, Gospel workers continue to face persecution.
...continue reading this storyIn a country where Christians are roundly despised and persecuted, Lao officials recently awarded certificates of recognition to two church groups for competing in local athletic events.
...continue reading this storyA Philippine missionary working among minority groups on Mindanao Island was shot and murdered on January 17.
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