A predominantly Christian village and a nearby seminary have come under attack in a wave of violence against the vulnerable Christian community in Bangladesh.

A mob of around 60 extremists raided the village of Tivipara and Bagja on 6 June; they plundered the residents’ livestock and other possessions and threatened to return to burn down homes.

India: Seven pastors severely injured in attack by Hindu extremists;
Iran: Christian blog blocked, administrators arrested in violent raid on worship meeting;
Gaza: Christian-run schools face closure following ban on co-ed institutions.

Egyptian human rights groups have condemned a jail sentence issued to a Christian lawyer for insulting Islam; they also raised concerns about the rising number of such cases against Christians.

The group of 15 organisations released a statement last week denouncing the decision of a misdemeanour court in Assiut to sentence Romani Murad Saad to a year in prison with hard labour plus a fine...

No country in West Africa is safe from the threat of Islamist militancy. This was the stark warning by Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama last week in the wake of an unprecedented twin suicide bombing in Niger.

Barnabas Fund is supporting an ambitious new venture in Pakistan that will give disadvantaged and impoverished Christian students the opportunity to learn sought-after trades, helping them to become self-sufficient.

We are providing funds for a vocational training centre in Narowal, Punjab province...

A Christian village in Syria was savagely attacked and almost 40 of its residents, including women and children, killed by opposition fighters, as UN investigators warned of increasing radicalisation among the rebels.

The village of Dweir on the outskirts of Homs, near the border with Lebanon, was invaded on 27 May.

A tentative peace deal has been reached after two years of brutal conflict in Kachin state, offering hope to the predominantly Christian people who have suffered grave abuses at the hands of the Burmese military.

A seven-point plan was signed by Kachin and government representatives on Thursday (30 May).

India: Christian father and son beaten in attack on prayer meeting;
Indonesia: President accepts controversial religious freedom award despite criticism;
Vietnam: Eight from unregistered church jailed for “undermining national unity”.

Uzbek officials were said to have “acted like bandits” in an illegal raid on the home of an elderly Christian woman who has Parkinson’s disease.

When Naziya Ziyatdinova (76), who has great difficulty walking because of her medical condition, did not immediately open the door of her home in Guliston, four police officers banged on the doors and shouted loudly...

By Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund

I was the minister of St Andrew’s in Plaistow, Newham, in February 1995 when a Nigerian Christian student, Ayotunde Obanubi, was brutally murdered at the gates of Newham Community College in East Ham, London.

Buddhist monks have forced the closure of 18 churches in southern Sri Lanka, threatening pastors with death if they continue their activities.

Churches in Hambanthota have been under pressure for some time, but tensions have ratcheted up this month.

Uzbekistan: Christian woman sentenced to 18 months “corrective labour”;
Sudan: Islamic leader calls for tougher action against “Christianisation”;
Pakistan: Defeated Muslim political candidate calls for attacks on Christians.

A church in Iran that has refused to stop holding services in the national language, Farsi, has been closed following the arrest of one of its leaders.

The Central Assemblies of God (AoG) Church in Tehran was raided during a prayer meeting on 21 May. The Rev. Robert Aserian was detained and taken to an unknown location; the church building was searched, and books, documents and equipment seized.

A pastor in Kazakhstan has been detained on a charge of “inflicting serious harm to health” after a woman who attended his church was said to “lose her mind”.

Bakhytzhan Kashkumbayev (66), who leads Grace Church in the capital, Astana, was arrested on 17 May and subsequently ordered to be held for up to two months’ pre-trial detention...

Nigerian forces have launched their biggest offensive against Boko Haram since the Islamist group’s deadly insurgency began in 2009. President Goodluck Jonathan last week declared a state of emergency in the Northern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, where the militants pose the greatest threat.

Kidnapped. Raped. Starved. Tortured. Jailed. These are typical experiences of many Eritrean Christians who flee persecution in their homeland only to suffer unimaginable horrors in their quest for freedom.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has criticised the State Department’s inaction regarding countries identified as “egregious religious freedom violator[s]” and called on President Obama to make a “clear, direct and specific” response.

The independent federal advisory body monitors religious freedom abuses around the world and each year produces a report...

A Christian father of three was killed and a Christian teenager left in a coma in the second of two church attacks in Egypt last week.

Sedky Sherif (36) died in the violence that broke out in the Dakhela district of Alexandria on 17 May.

Christians in the Central African Republic (CAR) are being targeted by Islamist militants who seized control of the country in March; they are being tied up, beaten and forced to hand over money to save their lives.

A pastor in CAR said that “a reign of terror” is being conducted against Christians by the Seleka rebels who took over the country in a bloody coup on 24 March.

India: Families driven out of their homes for leaving Hinduism to follow Christ;
Pakistan: Church building and other Christian property damaged in blast;
Turkmenistan: Christians fined for banned literature; told to read the Quran.

Barnabas Fund partners in Syria are reporting an urgent need for medicines as the sick struggle to get even the most basic drugs and hospitals in some places have the capacity to treat only the war-wounded.

Most pharmaceutical factories have been destroyed and medicine storehouses robbed by opposition fighters; the drugs are then sold abroad.

Barnabas Fund’s International Director, Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, here shares first-hand accounts from Syrian Christians who he met last week in Lebanon.

I have just returned from Lebanon, where Barnabas Fund had brought together a range of Christians from different parts of Syria, each with their own heart-breaking story to tell about how the conflict...

A Hindu nationalist party, which supports extremist groups that attack and harass Christians, has lost control of Karnataka state, India, in a crushing election defeat.

The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) has been at the helm of the southern state since 2008 but saw its share of the vote slashed by 13.9% in the poll on 5 May.

A 24-year-old Christian teacher in Egypt detained over allegations that she defamed Islam during a school lesson has gone on hunger strike.

Demiana Ebeid Abdelnour, who teaches social science in Luxor, was arrested on 8 May after the parents of three children accused her of insulting Islam and Muhammad.

Saudi Arabia: Two men jailed over case of woman convert to Christianity;
Iraq: Convoy of governor’s advisor on Christian affairs hit by suicide bombing;
Indonesia: Christians protest against religious freedom award for president.

A Christian prisoner in Iran who is in a critical condition suffering internal bleeding has been denied proper medical attention.

Vahid Hakkani, who has been detained in Shiraz since his arrest in February 2012, has been told by prison doctors that he urgently needs surgery, but officials have failed to arrange his transfer to a hospital.

An extensive survey of Muslims conducted in 39 countries throughout the world has revealed a broad desire for the implementation of sharia law. Those questioned also expressed an extremely high level of support for the freedom of non-Muslims to practise their faith. This is granted by sharia to Christians and Jews, but only on condition that they submit to demeaning and discriminatory dhimmi regulations.

Barnabas Fund has received requests for prayer and practical help from Christian leaders in Bangladesh as the Church is endangered by a violent uprising by Islamists who are demanding that the country become an Islamic state.

Christian homes have been torched and churches threatened as increasingly volatile protests have rocked the country.

Azerbaijan: Christians win appeal against heavy fines for unregistered religious activity;
Sudan: Christian workers interrogated, threatened with being buried alive ;
Egypt: Church attacked over alleged conversion of Muslim woman to Christianity