World in Brief

After various attempts over more than 20 years, the State Committee in Azerbaijan registered a Bible society in September.

The Bible Society will have to subject all its publications to the State Committee for the compulsory prior censorship of all literature about religion produced in or imported into Azerbaijan. Publications will only be allowed to be distributed at state-approved venues. Bibles are still banned or removed during raids by the authorities.

A terminally ill teenager became, in September, the first minor to be killed by euthanasia, after age restrictions on euthanasia in Belgium were abolished in 2014.

Belgium is the only country in the world that permits euthanasia at any age. The law requires that the minor has rational decision-making capacity, is in the final stages of terminal illness, and the parents give their consent. The head of the federal euthanasia commission said that the 17-year-old was ‘suffering unbearable physical pain’.

Muslim militants slaughtered 26 Christians in a predominantly Christian village in the Central African Republic on 16 September.

Rebels from the former Seleka group went door-to-door killing Christians. Officially disbanded in 2013, rebels have rampaged through the country. Human Rights Watch has documented executions, rape and looting by ex-Seleka fighters.

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo will block online advertisements promoting ‘gender-abortion’ in India, following an order by the country’s top court, it was reported in late September.

India’s Health Ministry told the Supreme Court that the three companies had agreed to block 22 keywords related to pre-natal gender testing. The court had earlier ordered the trio of companies to abide by India’s laws or ‘cease operations’ in the country. ‘Gender-abortion’ is a major problem in India.

A court in the Iranian city of Rasht in September sentenced three Church of Iran members to 80 lashes each after finding them guilty of drinking wine during a Communion service.

The verdict follows a hearing that lasted for ten minutes. This is the second time that they have been found guilty of consuming alcohol during a Communion service. They are appealing the sentence, which allows for the execution of third-time offenders. All three men are converts from Islam.

A prominent writer from Jordan’s Christian community was shot dead by an Islamist gunman on 25 September, outside the court in Amman where he was due to stand trial for contempt of religion after sharing an allegedly offensive cartoon on Facebook.

Nahed Hattar was arrested in August for posting a cartoon that depicted jihadist beliefs about heaven which were claimed to provoke ‘sectarian rifts’. He had planned to contest the charges, but if found guilty could have faced up to three years’ imprisonment.

The six people killed in the 6 October attack in north-east Kenya by Al Shabab were Christians, according to the militant group’s own radio station, Radio Andalus.

The militia attacked the residential compound at about 2:45am using grenades and guns. It is an area known to have Kenyan migrant Christian workers. The military spokesman for the terrorists said they targeted ‘Christianity’s power in the region’ and that it was part of a series of attacks over the past few months.

On 5 September, Garissa University reopened, welcoming its first group of non-local students since al-Shabaab militants attacked the university in April 2015.

With much thanks for prayers and a request for more, there was expected anxiety in both students and parents about the safety of the students there. During the attack, 147 students, mostly Christian, were killed by the militants.

Serving In Mission (SIM-UK) and Middle East Christian Outreach (MECO) UK & Ireland completed the merger of their two organisations on 30 September.

The two long-established mission agencies are pooling resources, prayer and personnel to drive greater gospel outreach both in the Middle East and among diaspora Middle Eastern peoples. A joint statement said: ‘We believe that bringing our two organisations together will allow us to achieve far more for the gospel in the Middle East than either of us can alone.’

A September report on freedom of religion or belief in North Korea provided further evidence that such freedom of religion or belief is a human right that is ‘largely nonexistent’ in the country.

Churches are seen as ‘show churches’ for the benefit of foreign visitors, and Christians usually practice their faith in secret. If discovered, they are subject to detention and then likely taken to prison camps where they may be killed, enslaved, raped, or undergo other forms of torture.

Members of a Korean Canadian pastor’s church petitioned the Canadian Government in October to help secure his release from North Korea.

Hyeon Soo Lim, a Korean Canadian, took missionary trips to North Korean to do humanitarian work. From what is thought a forced confession, he pleaded guilty to ‘harming the dignity of the supreme leader, trying to use religion to destroy North Korea and assisting North Koreans’ escape’. He was given a life sentence of hard labour. He hasn’t been heard of since January.

On 13 October, Pakistan’s Supreme Court adjourned Asia Bibi’s final appeal against her death sentence for ‘blasphemy’, following the last minute decision of a leading judge to withdraw from the trial.

Justice Muhammad Iqbal Hameed Ur Rehman withdrew on the grounds that he had been a judge in the case of the Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer who was murdered for taking a stand against the blasphemy laws. For security reasons Asia was not present but her husband, Ashaq Masih, attended the appeal hearing which lasted just a few minutes.

A band of drunken Muslims – flouting Islamic laws about alcohol – beat seven Christians in their homes on 16 September.

A small group of drunk Muslim men were asked by a female Christian to move as they were disturbing the peace. The men took offence and then gathered friends, sticks and metal rods and returned in a mob. They entered the homes of Christians beating the men, women and children indiscriminately and shouted obscenities at the Christians.

A 14-year-old Christian boy was murdered and his dead body was left hanging in a tree in Faisalabad at the end of August.

Despite medical evidence that he had been sexually molested and some witnesses implicating two unknown Muslim men, police registered the death as natural and not suspicious. There is a belief that local government ministers and police are in cahoots with a paedophile ring, as other children are complaining about sexual abuse and it is believed the boy was killed for threatening to tell his parents.

A Bill which would have banned all abortion in Poland was approved by the lower house of Poland’s Parliament in September, but was then rejected by MPs in October.

International pressure and local protests appeared to have had an impact on the way MPs voted. Poland’s abortion laws currently only allow for abortion where the life of the mother is threatened, or in cases of incest and rape. There were concerns that medics would have been prosecuted for carrying out procedures to save a mother’s life.

As the Satanic Temple opened its international headquarters in Salem, Massachusetts in September, a Christian church in the city said it is ready to combat its presence with a Christ-like response.

Members of the Satanic Temple argue that they have been misrepresented as Satanism is perceived to be the opposite of what the self-appointed arbiters of morality say is ‘moral’ as found in traditional religious organisations. A Christian church leader said they have an established ministry for people who are searching and coming out of occultism of various forms.

Women’s shelters in the US must admit men if they identify as transsexual, after a new regulation was passed in September.

Faith-based shelters and homeless facilities were previously able to provide alternative accommodation for men who said they were transsexual if they felt it would endanger women’s health and safety. This provision has been removed. In 2014 a man posing as a woman was prosecuted for spying on the women in the shelter he was claiming he

An Alabama judge was suspended in September for the remainder of his term for defying federal court rulings that legalised same sex marriage.

Roy Moore, 69, violated judicial ethics with an order seen as directing probate judges to deny marriage licences to gay couples, a judicial panel ruled. The decision was a ‘politically motivated effort’ by radical groups, he said. His lawyer has vowed to appeal.