World in Brief

Around 200 people ate together at a public lunch in the town of Tizi Ouzou on August 3 to protest against the ‘persecution of non-fasters and creeping Islamisation’ in the Kabylie region in northern Algeria.

Another picnic was held simultaneously in the town of Aokas in the neighbouring Béjaïa province, which attracted over 100 people. In Algeria, where Islam is the state religion, breaking the Ramadan fast in public is punishable by fine and imprisonment.

Aleksei Shchedrov, a 28-year-old Christian, is facing a prison sentence because of his outreach to the homeless, it was reported in early August.

Since December 2011, Aleksei has been running a shelter in his home in Aleksandrovka in the Grodno region that provides members of the street community with food, a bed, a bath and clothing. He also prays with his guests, and there is a prayer room at the shelter that is used by local villagers as well as residents. It is this prayer room with which the authorities have taken issue.

Fabio Mateus, a 32-year-old Catholic, walked 1,800 miles from his home in the north-east of Brazil to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day (July 23) in an attempt to show his country ‘Jesus is alive’.

His journey began on March 15 and took him along some of Brazil’s busiest motorways, through the states of Ceará, Pernambuco, Bahia and Minas Gerais and past more than 70 cities and towns. He arrived in Rio on July 18.

In a country rocked by change and division, some 1,400 8-14-year-old Egyptian children gathered in July to worship and ask God to change them to be the salt and light for Jesus in their communities.

The first ever One Thing Kids festival was held at the desert oasis of Wadi El Natroun from July 16-18 and televised live by Christian broadcaster SAT-7.

Yosief Kebedom Gelai, a recently converted single Christian, died in Medefera on July 5.

Yosief, 41, had been ill for a long time, but harsh treatment aggravated the effects of the unknown disease. Originally from Asmara, Yosief went to Mendefera to teach at a primary school some time prior to his arrest. Six months after his arrival, Yosief came to faith in Christ. His devotion to Bible study and prayer caught the attention of representatives of the Eritrean People's Front for Democracy and Justice at the school. He was arrested in December and taken to a secret incarceration centre in Mendefera.

Judicial authorities are investigating an outburst of deadly violence in July that left 95 people dead and 130 wounded.

The murder of a suspected thief on July 14 in Koulé, a city 40 km from Nzérékoré, the regional capital of Forested Guinea, led to acts of retaliation and a wave of violence between members of Guerzé and Konianké ethnic groups. Very quickly, the incidents became a sectarian conflict between Christians and Muslims, with the destruction of a number of Christians’ properties, including several churches.

The legislative assembly of Madhya Pradesh state on July 10 passed a more restrictive version of its existing anti-conversion law, effectively overturning the religious freedom guaranteed under India’s constitution.

The bill, yet to be signed off by the governor, requires anyone wanting to change their religion to first seek official permission and obliges religious leaders to report conversions, and mandates a three-year jail sentence for failing to do so. That rises to four years in the case of a minor, a woman or a Dalit (untouchable). Seven Indian states have already passed anti-conversion laws, as a result of pressure from Hindu nationalists.

Mostafa Bordbar, a Christian convert, was sentenced to ten years in prison on July 31, following his trial on June 9, for being part of an ‘anti-security organisation’ and ‘gathering with intent to commit crimes against Iranian national security’.

Mr. Bordbar was arrested on December 27 2012 along with 50 other Christian converts who had gathered to celebrate Christmas in a house in northern Tehran. Most of the group were released, but Mostafa. Bordbar and Vruir Avanessian, an Armenian-Christian pastor, were arrested. Mr. Bordbar is currently being held in Evin prison.

July 18 marked the 300th day that American pastor Saeed Abedini has been imprisoned in Iran for his faith.

The 33-year-old pastor finally received medical treatment on July 20 after suffering for months from injuries inflicted by prison guards. He was taken to a private hospital where he was examined and prescribed medication. Pastor Saeed was convicted and sentenced to eight years in Evin prison because of his Christian faith, and has been beaten, subjected to intense interrogations and threatened with death.

The Kitale Mission, which took place from June 27 to July 7, was organised by African Enterprise (AE) Kenya in partnership with churches in Kitale and beyond.

Over 500 church workers and evangelists from Kenya, South Africa and Malawi took part in the evangelistic outreach. More than 116,300 people heard the gospel and at least 7,390 people made public decisions for Christ.

In just 20 years, Christianity in Mongolia has gone from zero to 3% of the population, it was reported in July.

There are now 100,000 Christians, many of them under 30. FEBC's Mongolia Director says: ‘We want to see our country transformed. To do that we must demonstrate the love of God’. FEBC Mongolia ‘Wind-FM’ was established in 2000 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia's capital city, and broadcasts 24/7 on 104.5FM. It is the only Christian radio station and is considered a trusted voice in the community.

The first Governor to introduce shari’a law into a Nigerian state (Zamfara, in 2000), now a Senator (Ahmad Sani Yerima), in July succeeded in stopping the removal of a clause from Nigeria’s constitution, which critics say remains a loophole through which marriage of under-age girls remains possible under shari’a law.

It happened during the Nigerian Senate’s debate (on July 16) of amendments drawn up by the Constitution Review Committee, which seeks to update the country’s 1999 Constitution, whose overhaul to recognise a changing Nigeria had been promised by the end of June.

Multiple explosions on the night of July 29 rocked the Christian Sabon Gari area of Kano State in northern Nigeria, despite continuing government efforts to restore peace.

Chief Michael Tobias Idika, president of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, a cultural group for southeast Nigerians living in Kano, issued a statement, in which he said: ‘The Christ Salvation Pentecostal Church was also bombed at the peak of evening worship’. While police say there were 12 fatalities, Ohanaeze’s account confirmed 45 deaths. No group has claimed responsibility for the blasts, but it is widely believed that Boko Haram are responsible.

Aasia Bibi, a Christian mother who is in prison and facing the death penalty and has already been in prison for over four years, may have to wait at least another two before her appeal can be heard, it was reported in August.

She was sentenced to death in November 2010 on a charge of blasphemy, accused of making derogatory remarks about Muhammad during an argument with other female field-labourers in June 2009. It is now thought that her case is not likely to be heard until 2015 as the Lahore High Court has a large backlog of cases. It is currently hearing cases filed at the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009.

A Christian couple were arrested on July 20 for allegedly sending blasphemous text messages to a Muslim cleric in Gojra, a religiously volatile city where a week before a young Christian man was sentenced to life in prison on the same charge.

Shafqat Masih (43) and his wife Shagufta (40), who reportedly have four young children, were taken into custody on a complaint by Muslim cleric Rana Muhammad Ejaz, who alleged that he had received blasphemous text messages from Masih from a number registered in the name of Shagufta.

A young couple in Vietnam who accepted Christ in June have been beaten and threatened by officials, it was reported in July.

Local authorities hit the wife on the face with a stick and threatened to take the couple's land and home if they refuse to renounce Christianity and return to Buddhism. They are afraid that they will lose their land and have no way of supporting their family. The couple, who survive through subsistence farming, have three boys aged 10, 12 and 14. Their pastor is trying to help, but lives 15 miles away in another village.

Four persecuted Christian families from an ethnic minority in the Central Highlands were resettled by the authorities into a new area following a campaign of aggression against them, it was reported in early August.

Their neighbours became increasingly hostile after the families converted to Christianity. The new believers’ homes were damaged beyond use and, after a number of the Christians were beaten, the families fled. They were given shelter by a pastor and his wife, who cared for them for four months. Now each family has been given land for a home and garden, plus three fields for farming, and will receive compensation for the loss of their personal property.