News Articles by Staff/Compass Direct News

JOS, Nigeria (BP) -- Suspected Islamic extremists attacked a TV viewing center in Jos, Nigeria, April 24, in a Christian area of the city where a crowd had gathered to watch a soccer match.

LAHORE, Pakistan (BP) — Police resisted intense pressure from Islamist protestors in Pakistan and released in February without charges a Christian educator falsely accused of desecrating the Quran. Muslim teachers at the Lahore-area City Foundation School accused school principal Saira Khokhar of desecrating a quranic scripture booklet on Feb. 22. Sources told Compass Direct News […]

ISTANBUL (BP) — Iranian authorities in early February arrested Christian converts from Islam while they were meeting for worship at a home in the southern city of Shiraz, according to sources. Officials are holding the Christians at an unknown location, they told Compass Direct News. The sources put the number of the arrested Christians, who […]

KHARTOUM, Sudan (BP) -- Sudan's Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowments has threatened to arrest church leaders if they carry out evangelistic activities and do not comply with an order for churches to provide their names and contact information, Christian sources in Sudan have reported to Compass Direct News.

HANOI, Vietnam (BP) -- Three Vietnamese Baptists seriously injured in a mid-November attack were evacuated to an undisclosed hospital in Ho Chi Minh City after several hospitals in the region refused to examine and treat them.

TURKEY (BP) -- The mistreatment of a pastor in Iran awaiting a decision on his death sentence for refusing to recant his faith amounts to physical and psychological torture, a source says.

ISTANBUL, Turkey (BP) -- The killing of 27 people -- including at least 23 Christians -- who were protesting the burning of a church building has removed any respect most Egyptians had for the transitional military government, according to Christian human rights activists and members of Egyptian churches in the country.

KHARTOUM, Sudan (BP) -- Emboldened by government calls for a Sudan based on Islamic law since the secession of South Sudan, Muslims long opposed to a church near Khartoum have attacked Christians trying to finish constructing their building, sources have told Compass Direct News.

CAIRO (BP) -- Funeral services were held Oct. 10 in Cairo, Egypt, for some of the victims of a military attack against a group of Christian protestors that left 26 dead and hundreds wounded. In the wake of what could be the worst act of violence against Egyptian Christians in modern history, leaders of the Coptic Orthodox Church have called for three days of fasting and prayer for divine intervention, along with three days of mourning. Leaders from other faith traditions among Egyptian Christians reported similar efforts among their congregations. Samia Sidhom, managing editor for the Coptic weekly Al Watani, said Copts across Egypt are distraught about the attack and the future for Christians across the country. "At this point you can't even imagine what the future will be like," she said. The attack started late Sunday afternoon (Oct. 9) when Christian -- who were protesting church burnings -- marched through Cairo and began getting pelted with rocks and other projectiles near an overpass that cuts through downtown Cairo. The protest march had been announced in advance. By the time the protestors were able to make it to a television and radio broadcasting building commonly known as the Maspero Building, the army began shooting into the crowd and ramming riot-control vehicles into the protestors. Witnesses at the scene reportedly said attacks left body parts scattered at the scene. Amateur video at the scene shows two riot-control vehicles plowing into the crowd of protestors. Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute's Center on Religious Freedom and a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, called the army's attack on the Christians a "watershed moment." "The real significance of this is that it signals the future treatment of the Christian Coptic community by the state," Shea told the National Catholic Register. "The military was their last hope in protecting them from lawless forces in society that were religiously motivated to [eradicate] them, namely the Salafis [Muslims]. Now they know they have no protection. "I think we can expect to see a major exodus of Coptic Christians from Egypt.... The whole reason they were in the streets was to protest lawless forces. It extinguishes all hope for them. They are utterly vulnerable."

ISTANBUL (BP)--A pastor in Iran found guilty of leaving Islam is awaiting the outcome of a judicial investigation into his spiritual background to see if he will be executed or forced to become a Muslim, according to Christian groups with ties in Iran.