Middle East

On 18 June Yemeni news source Al Sahwa reported that Yemeni political security forces in Hodiada province had arrested a "missionary cell" of seven people and charged them with promoting Christianity and distributing the Bible. One of those arrested, Hadni Dohni, stands accused of converting to Christianity.

Iranian authorities have detained two converts to Christianity in the southern city of Shiraz for eight weeks on suspicion of "apostasy," or leaving Islam. In Iran, apostasy is a crime that can be punishable by death.

After four weeks in police custody, Iranian Christian Mohsen Namvar was released "temporarily" last week to return to his home in Tehran.

Seven arrested Christian missionaries, including an unknown number of Americans, apparently remained detained in Yemen Sunday, June 29, and there was international concern they may face torture for spreading Christianity, several sources said.

Amid reported death threats and violence against Iraq’s Christian minority, a mission group has managed to open a third Christian school in Iraq as part of government-backed reconciliation efforts, BosNewsLife monitored Saturday, June 14.

A key official of the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA-RLC) has warned that Iran-sponsored Hezbollah’s veto over government decisions means "the fall of Lebanon" with "horrendous implications" for religious liberty and security in the Middle East.

Iran continued a wave of arrests against Christians in recent weeks, detaining a Tehran house church leader who was previously held and tortured for religious activity.

An attack on a Christian school in Gaza last weekend has created fear among the strip’s tiny religious minority, a Palestinian Christian said.

Several members of Iran’s rapidly expanding underground church remained behind bars Sunday, May 25, as part of a police crackdown on Muslim converts to Christianity, several Christian sources said.

Christian-born converts to Islam in Egypt wishing to return to their former faith have found their way blocked by an appeal before the country’s Supreme Constitutional Court.