
Two ‘pardoned’ Christians in Iran sent back to prison
Two Christians who were released from prison in Iran in 2022 and 2023 respectively were re-arrested on Thursday (Feb. 6), advocacy group Article 18 reported.

Two Christians who were released from prison in Iran in 2022 and 2023 respectively were re-arrested on Thursday (Feb. 6), advocacy group Article 18 reported.

Vice President J.D. Vance and actor Rainn Wilson addressed the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday (Feb. 5), giving the gathering a high-profile boost in the cause of religious liberty.

Participants in what organizers called the largest ever religious freedom gathering voiced hope that the new U.S. administration and Congress would include their cause in broader policies as the International Religious Freedom Summit opened in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday (Feb. 4).

The sharp increase in attacks on Christians in Nicaragua the past two years included increased targeting of evangelical churches, according to a report by a European advocacy group devoted to human rights.

More than 400 Christian leaders in India ended 2024 with a strongly-worded appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to put an end to a surge in violence against Christians that was especially heightened during the Christmas season.

A proposed regulation in Sri Lanka targets Christian churches in the Buddhist-majority country, according to an evangelical association.

Christian leaders in Russia are concerned about a bill introduced in parliament that would ban religious services in residential complexes, a publication based in Germany reported.

Authorities in Türkiye have ordered the deportation of a Christian refugee back to Iran, where the pregnant mother would be in serious danger after having fled her country due to arrests for participation in church, sources said.

Three Christians in Iran were tortured before their release on bail on Nov. 17 amid charges of propagating religion contrary to Islam, a religious rights group reported.

With 10 Catholic bishops in China in detention, “disappeared” or forced from their positions, the government-installed bishop of Shanghai at a conference this month spoke only on President Xi Jinping’s “Sinicization” of religion, without mentioning hoped-for pastoral plans.

Persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in Burma (Myanmar) has continued even as the country’s military junta has lost control and territory to armed resistance groups, according to a report last week by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

This year’s International Day of Prayer (IDOP) for the persecuted church comes as worldwide tensions have turned up pressure on Christians, challenging the global Body of Christ to keep pace in aid and supplication. As Christians are focused on IDOP prayer for the persecuted on both Sunday (Nov. 3) and Nov. 10, tensions that have spiked in the Middle East since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack on Israel have inflamed Islamic extremist sentiment against Christ followers, said an official with