World in Brief

A Christian man has been arrested following complaints by Muslim neighbours that he was using his home as a church without a permit, it was reported in May.

The 55-year-old man from Minya in Upper Egypt, where Christians are particularly vulnerable to persecution, was arrested once before, in 2011, for the same offence. Every church building in Egypt requires a permit, but these are notoriously difficult to obtain and the Christian community has a woeful lack of places to meet for worship.

The story of persecuted Christians in Egypt has been honoured with an award by the UK Christian Film Festival, it was reported in May.

While journalists were being turned away from Egypt, the filmmakers used a cheap camera to film Amazing Grace. It documents a wave of attacks against Christians by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. It won Best Informational Video and highlights remarkable stories such as just faith and soapy water held by a bishop turning away an angry mob intent on destroying a church building.

A vigil took place outside the Eritrean Embassy in London in mid-May to mark the 12th anniversary of the imposition of severe restrictions on churches in Eritrea.

Eritrea is one of the world's most repressive regimes, and speakers from the participating organisations highlighted a number of human rights violations underway in the country, including arbitrary detention without trial of tens of thousands of Eritreans of all faiths and none.

On May 4, a church in Kinali, West Sumatra province, was almost destroyed in an arson attack that took place just before a Sunday service.

An assailant entered the building and doused the front of the church with kerosene before setting it alight. Church members noticed smoke coming from the building and put the fire out, but not before significant damage was caused to the interior.

After weeks of waiting to go back to hospital for medical attention, injured Christian prisoner Farshid Fathi was allowed to attend the hospital in mid-May.

The doctor informed him that the time-frame in which they could have performed an operation had passed, and that his foot should be left to heal naturally. Farshid was injured in the brutal 'Black Thursday' attack in April in Evin prison.

One of four Christian convert prisoners in Adel-Abad prison, who had been sentenced to almost four years in prison, was conditionally released; another prisoner, who had gone on a hunger strike to protest the court’s verdict for him and his fellow believers, broke his strike, it was reported in May.

Iranian laws allow a ‘conditional release’ if a convict has fulfilled half of his/her prison term. A conditional release should not be interpreted as an act of forgiveness or mercy.

During a fact-finding mission in Chiapas State, Mexico, communities have been found to have been forcibly displaced from their homes as they refuse to recant their faith, it was reported in mid-May.

According to the report, members of minority religious groups are systematically targeted by the authorities for the deprivation of services including water and electricity, arbitrary detention, acts of violence and finally forced displacement. Those responsible for these violations rarely, if ever, face criminal charges.

Facing a death penalty and incarcerated for five years, Asia Bibi was devastated on dis-

covering her appeal hearing has been cancelled for the fifth time at the end of May.

Advocate Mushtaq Gill said: ‘We have concerns about those who are languishing in jails due to their faith, including Asia Bibi and innocent Sawan Masih, but the mob of extremists who burnt Christian homes including churches in Bedami Bagh, Lahore are walking free without punishment’.

Pakistan’s National Assembly unanimously passed a resolution calling on the government to take steps to protect the worship places of the country’s religious minorities, it was reported in May.

The motion urges the deployment of special security personnel at sites located in ‘areas at risk of terrorist attacks’. Though non-binding, the resolution has symbolic significance as a statement of intent to protect Christians and other minorities, who are regularly targeted by Islamic extremists in Pakistan.

A Christian man was stabbed and around eight others injured in an attack on a church near Bethlehem in May.

Muslims interrupted a church service in the village of El-Khader in the West Bank, turning violent when they were asked to leave. They started throwing stones at the building, causing damage including broken windows. The incident comes amid increased attacks on churches in Israel; 14 have been reported in the past year, several of them in late Spring. Threats have also been made against senior church leaders.

Swiss assisted suicide group Exit says it will consider helping elderly people who do not have a terminal illness to kill themselves, it was reported in late May.

Exit’s General Assembly backed the change in a vote, prompting warnings from a Swiss medical group that it could put pressure on healthy older people to commit suicide. The change means elderly people would not need to provide as much proof of an illness as younger people.

Uganda and Kenya authorities have scaled up security in May in response to warnings from Western countries that a jihadist group is planning to attack churches in Uganda.

The US Embassy in Uganda warned that churches there may face ‘specific threats’ from Al Shabab, a Somalia-based militant Islamist terrorist group. The threats against the two East African countries are said to be due to each having peacekeeping troops in Somalia.

Ukrainian listeners to Trans World Radio have requested special programmes on reconciliation, produced by local staff, it was reported in May.

The pastoral series, called Reconciliation for Ukraine, will comprise 30 programmes, each 15 minutes long. They feature interviews with witnesses of violence and those who are going through difficulties as a result. A second segment of each programme will provide a biblical response to the topic along with practical advice to bring about healing. More info from twre@twr.org.

In early May, the US Supreme Court backed a town council’s freedom to pray at the beginning of its meetings after two local residents complained.

Judge Anthony Kennedy said the prayers do not exclude those with no religious faith and that judges should not rule on the content of prayer because it could lead to lawmakers censoring chaplains’ messages in order to make them ‘acceptable for the public square’.