World in Brief

A Christian man, Sofiane, from the Algerian city of Biskra, was arrested on August 23 by the National Gendarmerie at a checkpoint near Biskra, according to a member of the Protestant church of Algeria (EPA).

Sofiane, married and father of one child, was in a shared taxi from the city of Oran when he was arrested. He was taken to Biskra for questioning. The Christian community in Algeria, including EPA officials, is concerned by the news of the arrest and by the fact that Sofiane is still in custody.

Christians in Central African Republic (CAR) were shocked by the violent arrest on August 6 of the president of the Evangelical Alliance of CAR, Pastor Nicolas Grekoyame Gbangouon.

It is not clear where he is being held or what the conditions are. Local Christians say the arrest came as a result of a July 2013 interview the pastor did with a local publication called the Democrate, in which he blamed the government and key government officials for the continuing violence in the country.

Local police broke up the worship service of a house church and arrested its pastor in Xinjiang region in August, as pastors at Beijing Shouwang Church remained under house arrest.

In Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, on August 4, at least 20 police officers terminated worship and arrested pastor Tan Wen, who was taken to Xishan Police Station and then to a detention centre to serve a 15-day sentence. The pastor had also been detained for ten days in June.

Church leader Li Shuangping, a leader at Linfen church, was beaten and threatened by unknown assailants on August 13.

Li had been driving to his home in Shanxi Province and was forced to stop when a man who seemed to be intoxicated staggered into the road. He was then dragged into a car which had pulled up alongside his, tied up, blindfolded, and pinned down while three men beat him around his head and body. Li was then thrown out of the car. Li believes the perpetrators were working for the local government and sees this is an attempt to threaten house church leaders.

The majority of Egyptians do not want the Muslim Brotherhood involved in their society or in politics, according to a new poll from Baseera, the Egyptian Center of Public Opinion Research, it was reported in September.

Of the more than 1,300 people polled, 69% said they don’t approve of the Muslim Brotherhood and 78% say the Brotherhood’s one-year rule was worse than expected. A majority of respondents, 63%, said they don’t want the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party to participate in the next election.

Eritrean authorities arrested 30 members (including 12 women) of the Church of the

Living God gathered for prayer on the evening of August 24 in the Kushet suburb of the capital Asmara.

Sources say they are held at Police Station 5 in Asmara and are under pressure to recant their faith. Since the beginning of the year, the religious atmosphere in Eritrea has deteriorated, with authorities arresting at least 261 Christians. Human rights organisations have reported that the government of Eritrea continues to incarcerate prisoners under inhumane condition.

The chief minister of an Indian state in August wrote to the country’s prime minister urging that Christian dalits be given the same rights as their Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist counterparts after decades of discrimination.

J. Jayalalitha of Tamil Nadu state sent an official letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on August 9 asking him to discuss the matter in Parliament. She said: ‘The social tensions generated by the unbalanced status of dalit Hindus and Christians have only gotten worse over time, increasing the sense of alienation among minority communities’.

Kashfi and Jalaudin, two Christian brothers, were sentenced to three years in prison on August 2, after being convicted of ‘evangelising Muslims’.

On March 20 2013, their home was attacked by an angry mob of about 200 Muslims. Police stopped the attack on their home and then arrested the two brothers. Five other families associated with the brothers’ ministry were forced to leave the area for their own safety. Kashfi and Jalaudin, along with others in their team, have led more than 100 Muslims to Christ. They plan to appeal their conviction.

The Iranian family of American pastor Saeed Abedini was able to visit him in Evin Prison on August 12, but, on August 26, an appeals court upheld his eight-year prison sentence.

Saeed Abedini has been suffering from increasing pain. After being treated by a doctor at a local hospital, he has continued to take the medication prescribed. However, his pain recently increased to the point that, on one occasion, he fainted.

At a court hearing on September 3, a Moroccan Christian man was jailed for two-and-a-half years and fined for evangelising (‘shaking the faith of a Muslim’).

Mohamed el Baldi, 34, from the town of Ain Aicha, near Fes, was arrested after his house was raided on August 28 and items linked to his faith such as his Bible were confiscated.

Soldiers in New Zealand are to get what’s claimed to be the world’s first military waterproof Bible, it was reported at the end of August.

The idea was developed by a military chaplain. The practice of presenting military personnel with Bibles began in World War I.

Suspected Islamist extremists killed at least 44 villagers in August in continuing attacks in an Islamic uprising in northeast Nigeria.

According to an official from the National Emergency Management Agency, the attackers hit Dumba village in Borno state before dawn on August 27 and slit their victims’ throats — a new strategy since gunfire attracts security forces. The official said the attackers gouged out the eyes of some victims who survived. Since 2010, more than 1,700 people have been killed in attacks by Islamic insurgents, according to an Associated Press count.

Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American missionary detained in North Korea for the past nine months, has been transferred from a labour camp to a hospital, it was reported in August.

Bae, a tour guide who encouraged prayer for the reunification of South and North Korea, was arrested in November 2012 and sentenced to 15 years of hard labour. His sister, Terri Chung, said Bae suffers from diabetes, an enlarged heart, liver problems and back pain.

A court in Islamabad on August 17 dismissed charges against a Muslim cleric arrested on suspicion of framing a Christian girl for blasphemy.

Khalid Jadoon, leader of a mosque in a suburb of Islamabad, had been charged with desecrating the Qur’an and planting false evidence against 14-year-old Rimsha Masih. With a medical report showing her mental age as younger than her 14 years and the chief justice of the Islamabad High Court calling the charge against her ‘fake allegations’, Rimsha was acquitted on November 20 2012 and has since fled to Canada. Jadoon was acquitted after seven witnesses against him retracted their statements.

Three masked men abducted Shamsa Enow Hussein (28) on August 5 in Bulo Marer, Lower Shebelle Region, outside her home, after determining that she was a secret Christian, her husband Mohamed Isse Osman (31) said.

That night, his wife was able to send him a text message saying he should flee the area. Osman has received anonymous threatening text messages from the kidnappers. A leader of the underground church in the town to which Osman and his daughters (3 and 5) have fled said Osman has not heard from his wife since her August 5 text message.

A volunteer with Barnabas Fund partners in Syria was killed in August in a shooting by opposition fighters in a predominantly Christian area that had previously been relatively safe.

Around 20 Christians were killed in the attack near Ein al-Ajouz in Wadi al Nasara (‘Valley of the Christians’) in the early hours of August 17. It is the first time that Christians have come under attack in the Wadi. Many have fled there to escape danger in other parts of Syria.

More than 1,200 people from 44 states gathered in Nashville in September for the inaugural meeting of Trail Life USA, a new group that hopes to be a Christian alternative for the Boy Scouts of America.

Organisers say Trail Life USA will be an outdoor scouting-like programme designed for boys ages 5-17 which will focus on adventure, character and leadership.

Addressing a service in the Hotel Quinta Real in Monterrey, Mexico, in August, the Archbishop of Canterbury said: ‘The church is coming perilously close to plunging into a ravine of intolerance’.

His comments warned the worldwide Anglican church that they were tottering on the brink of complete disintegration amid bitter disputes between liberals and traditionalists. He said the church had to steer a course between, on one hand, compromising so much that it abandoned its ‘core beliefs’ and, on the other, becoming so intolerant that it fractured completely.