Since January 19, members of Al-Shabaab, an Islamic Somali extremist group, have confiscated five farms from Muslims who converted to Christianity. Three other farms were confiscated from Muslims who merely showed an interest in Christ. They had attended Bible studies in the cities of Afgoye and Baidawa. The eight landowners have fled their homes and remain in hiding. There…

Chinese underground Catholics have decided to challenge their government’s ban on the World Day of Prayer for the Church in China. The Communist government has forbidden the underground Catholic community in Shanghai from visiting the shrine of Our Lady of Sheshan on 24 May — a day the Pope has called for Catholics worldwide to…

Christian businessmen Gulzar Masih and son Suleman are in hiding after a business rival invoked Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy law to accuse them of defiling the Koran. Meanwhile, a Christian leader says “extremist elements are getting stronger” in his nation. Increasingly, the law — which provides the death penalty for anyone who speaks ill of Islam or Mohammed or…

Pope Benedict XVI says that Christians’ religious freedom is coming under renewed attack and compared the attackers to Nazis and Bolsheviks. He told members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences that religious freedom was among the rights that underwent a “systematic denial by atheistic regimes of the twentieth century” such as the Soviets and…

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