Compass Direct News

Two Churches Targeted in Bomb Attack in Nigeria

Five injured; in Christmas Day blast in nearby Madalla, seven left blind.

SULEJA, Nigeria, February 21 (CDN) — Suspected Islamic extremists detonated a bomb outside a church building here on Sunday (Feb. 19), two months after Boko Haram Islamists killed 44 Christians and blinded seven in a church bombing in nearby Madalla. Sunday’s blast in Suleja, in front of Christ Embassy church during their morning worship, injured five people, one seriously, sources said. The bomb, planted in a parked car, was left by suspected members of Boko Haram, which seeks to impose sharia (Islamic law) throughout Nigeria, and authorities arrested some members of the sect the same day. Triumphant Ministries International Church is also near the site of the explosion. Peter Osema, a search-and-rescue worker with Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency, told Compass that the bomb was likely meant to affect both churches, and indeed Compass learned that at least one of those injured belongs to the Triumph Ministries c... Read full story »

Churches Forced to Stop Farsi Worship in Tehran, Iran

Ministry of Intelligence issues halt to services, which attracted converts.

ISTANBUL, February 17 (CDN) — Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence has ordered the last two officially registered churches holding Friday Farsi-language services in Tehran to discontinue them. Emmanuel Protestant Church and St. Peter’s Evangelical Church were the last two official churches offering Farsi-language services on Fridays in Tehran, according to Middle East Concern (MEC). Officials issued the order on Feb. 10 Authorities had ordered the Central Church of Tehran to close its Friday Farsi services in December 2009. The Central Church, an Assemblies of God (AOG) congregation, had conducted multiple services on Fridays. Friday services in Tehran attracted the city’s converts to Christianity as well as Muslims interested in Christianity, as Friday is most Iranians’ day off during the week. Authorities told the churches they can hold the services on Sunday, a working day when most Iranians are not able to attend. “This decision ... Read full story »

Accused Pastor in Kashmir, India Given Reprieve

Police fail to find evidence of fraudulent conversion; converts urged to return to Islam.

NEW DELHI, February 16 (CDN) — A court has ordered the Jammu and Kashmir state government to temporarily halt criminal proceedings against a pastor accused of bribing Muslim youths to convert to Christianity. The state’s High Court on Saturday (Feb. 11) halted proceedings in the police complaint of “promotion of religious enmity by conversions” against the Rev. Chander Mani Khanna of the Church of North India denomination. Responding to a petition by the pastor to quash the complaint, the court issued notices to top officials of the state’s police department and interior ministry because investigators have not been able to formulate charges even though the case was registered last Oct. 29, Pastor Khanna told Compass by phone. Pastor Khanna, who retired on Jan. 16 from All Saints Church in Kashmir Valley’s Srinagar city, seemed relieved. “After I was released on bail, the court had asked me not to leave the sta... Read full story »

Priests Released amid Wave of Abductions in Sudan

Southern Sudan Christians in north targeted for forcible conscription into rebel militias.

KHARTOUM, Sudan, February 15 (CDN) — Two Catholic priests abducted at gunpoint in Rabak, Sudan last month have been released amid a wave of forcible conscriptions into rebel southern militias. Their captors – South Sudanese militiamen loyal to (north) Sudan’s Islamic government – accused the Rev. Joseph Makwey and the Rev. Sylvester Mogga of ties to the South Sudan military. South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan on July 9, 2011, has been in military conflict with (north) Sudan over border areas while staving off southern rebel militias. “They knew we were just priests, yet they ‘arrested’ us,” Mogga told Compass. The two priests were kidnapped from the compound of St. Josephine Bakhita Catholic Church on Jan. 15 and were released two weeks later, they said. For security reasons they would not discuss conditions of their release, but the kidnappers had demanded 500,000 Sudanese pounds (US$185,530); press reports i... Read full story »

Turkish Christians Subject to Discrimination, Attacks, Report Says

Textbooks, media vilify followers of Christ; intolerance an ‘urgent problem.’

ISTANBUL, February 14 (CDN) — Despite some promising developments, Christians in Turkey continue to suffer attacks from private citizens, discrimination by lower-level government officials and vilification in both school textbooks and news media, according to a study by a Protestant group. In its annual “Report on Human Rights Violations,” released in January, the country’s Association of Protestant Churches notes mixed indicators of improvement but states that there is a “root of intolerance” in Turkish society toward adherents of non-Islamic faiths. “The removal of this root of intolerance is an urgent problem that still awaits to be dealt with,” the report states. “There is still a lot of room for improvement,” said Mine Yildirim, a member of the legal committee for the association. “These problems have not been solved in some time.” The report documented 12 attacks against Christians in 2011, including inci... Read full story »

Iranian Authorities Raid House Church in Shiraz

As many as 10 Christians arrested without formal charges.

ISTANBUL, February 10 (CDN) — Iranian authorities this week arrested Christian converts from Islam while they were meeting for worship at a home in the southern city of Shiraz, according to sources. Officials are holding the Christians at an unknown location, they said. The sources put the number of the arrested Christians, who belong to one of Iran’s many underground house churches, at between six and 10. Authorities often detain, question and apply pressure on converts from Islam, viewing them as elements of Western propaganda set against the Iranian regime; as a result, the converts are forced to worship in secret. The identity of only one of those arrested on Wednesday (Feb. 8), Mojtaba Hosseini, was known. Authorities arrested Hosseini in 2008 along with eight other Christian converts on charges of being Christians, according to Mohabat News. “I guess they have been watching Hosseini since then,” an Iranian Christian who requested anonymity told... Read full story »

Islamic Extremists Behead Another Convert in Somalia

Young Christian man murdered outside Mogadishu.

NAIROBI, Kenya, February 8 (CDN) — 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 capital, they said. Omar had worked for a Christian humanitarian organization that al Shabaab banned last year. His body was left lying for 20 hours before nomads found it and carried it into Mogadishu, a close friend said. “We have been communicating with Omar, and he was sharing with me his life as a Christian,” the friend said. “Last year he mentioned to me that his life was in danger when the NGO [Non-Governmental Organization] he worked for was banned by the al Shabaab.” The friend said he identified the body. “One of the persons who saw him said, ‘This is the young man who stayed in Ethiopi... Read full story »

Missionary Couple Slain in Mexico; Peace Pact in Puebla

Drug traffickers suspected in robbery/murder.

MEXICO CITY, February 3 (CDN) — A married couple who had served for 28 years as Baptist missionaries in Mexico were murdered on Tuesday (Jan. 31) at their home near Monterrey in El Cercado, Santiago, Nuevo Leon. John Casias, 76, and Wanda Casias, 67, were strangled with electrical cords when intruders broke into their house and stole a safe, televisions and ministry vehicles, along with other items. The area has suffered heavily from attacks by drug cartels in recent weeks, including the murder of the mayor of El Cercado, leading to the tentative conclusion that the crime was committed by people serving narcotics traffickers. Drug traffickers in Mexico oppose the message of Christ because it turns people away from their business, and thus Christians have been among the targets of the criminals. Christians noted that the assailants would not have needed to kill the missionary couple in order to rob them. The killers left Wanda Casias dead inside the house, and the ... Read full story »

Ethiopian Convert from Islam Dodges Dangers in Kenya

Muslim extremists try to kill him; others threaten his life.

NAIROBI, Kenya, February 1 (CDN) — A Christian convert from Islam who fled hostilities in his native Ethiopia has faced attempted murder and ongoing death threats in Kenya. Somali Muslim extremists in Kenya kidnapped and tried to kill Barack Hussein Kedir in July 2010, and most recently Kenyan-born Islamic extremists in contact with their co-religionists in Ethiopia sent a death threat to his cell phone on Dec. 3, the Christian told Compass. Since then, Hussein has reported the threatening text message to police, and his wife has fled the country with their two children. “Although I have been experiencing all these countless problems, suffering persecution and merciless harassment both in my own country and outside of the country, I have never given up or lost my hope in serving the Lord,” Hussein said. “Muslims have tried to murder me several times, even here in Kenya.” Born to Muslim community leaders in Arsi Negelle district in southern Ethiopia... Read full story »