The Taliban's supreme leader promised in a recent voice message that it will punish adulterous women by stoning them to death in public, declaring that the radical Islamic group is acting in accordance with God while Western officials are of the "devil."
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This Christmas, partners of THIMAR LSESD around the Middle East are celebrating Christmas amid varying circumstances and challenges. From Lebanon, to Syria, Iraq, Sudan, and Yemen we hear from voices on the ground.
As the ceasefire and exchange of people signals relief in Gaza and Israel, those who live and serve in the Holy Land know how fragile this peace can be and how difficult it will be to rebuild livelihoods. Hope of lasting peace will only be found when all people living in the land are able to live freely and are treated with dignity. In the meantime, followers of Jesus in the land remain faithful, trusting not in geopolitics but in the Prince of Peace.
Five years ago, on August 4, 2020 one of the most powerful non-nuclear explosions in history rocked Lebanon’s capital, Beirut. Today the entire nation is still struggling to recover from the tragedy on top of many other pressures, external and internal, bearing down on the population of Lebanon. Here, we receive an insider's perspective.
Christian Zionists' proclamation of unconditional love for Israel feels hollow in the Middle East. The General Secretary for the Middle East & North Africa Evangelical Alliance continues, "rather than opening doors to the gospel, it hardens suspicion. If evangelicals support Israel merely to trigger Armageddon, then our love is no love at all—it is manipulation".
“The state of orphans and vulnerable children was improving for decades, then suddenly one crisis hit after another,” says Karmen Friesen, principal coordinator of World Without Orphans (WWO), a global movement that seeks to mobilize the Church to respond to the needs of vulnerable children in every nation.
The first global database to track cases of anti-religion violence became available to the general public in January, providing rights advocates, ministries and others a plethora of information to defend religious freedom and belief.
On November 3, 2023, more than ten thousand people gathered for the event and heard Dr. Michael Youssef of Leading the Way ministries openly share the gospel. The meeting also included a simultaneous gathering of thousands of children.
The Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for a shooting at a Catholic church service in Istanbul, Turkey on Sunday (Jan. 28) that killed a Muslim citizen, news agencies reported.
Large numbers of churches were closed last year, with only four of Algeria’s 47 official Protestant congregations continuing and at least 10,000 churches shut down in China, according to Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List (WWL) of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.
As the Israel-Hamas war continues, a historical site in the West Bank that is widely esteemed by Jews and Christians has been vandalized by a group of Palestinian protesters. Known as Joshua's Altar and located on Mount Ebal, the sight was damaged last week by Palestinian protesters, who burned tires on the site's remains and spraypainted Palestinian flags and Arabic inscriptions onto its stone pieces, reports The Jerusalem Post.
“Sunday Jackson is free! After more than a decade in prison serving a death sentence for defending himself, Sunday Jackson has been pardoned,” Moore, who has emerged as one of Capitol Hill’s most vocal advocates for Christians in Nigeria, wrote in a statement Tuesday.
