Free Republic

Bible also to be reinterpreted and retranslated - my note. The removal of bibles from Chinese online bookstores sparks complaints from frustrated Christians on social media as China releases a white paper on protecting freedom of religious belief... Yesterday Chinese officials announced Beijing "has always made real efforts towards" establishing Vatican relations during a press conference to release a white paper which coincidentally outlined how religious beliefs and freedoms are protected under the country's socialist systems. The white paper — titled China's Policies and Practices on Protecting Freedom of Religious Belief — said Chinese religious communities "should adhere to the...

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A Christian doctor, his wife, and mother were stabbed to death on Thursday evening in Baghdad’s eastern neighbourhood of al-Mashtal. Dr. Hisham Shafiq al-Maskuni, 61, a native of Baghdad, his wife Shaza Malik, and his mother Khairiya Dawood were killed, according to Rayan al-Kldani, head of the Christian militia group of Babylon, known as the Christian Hashd. The attack was carried out by an unknown group of armed people, Iraqi media reported. The attackers also stole some money and expensive items from the house, according to unverified media reports. This is not an isolated incident, Fr....

Joy Behar has apologized to Vice President Mike Pence for comparing his Christian faith to a "mental illness" after the network and its sponsors received tens of thousands of complaints. The Washington Post reported late Thursday that a phone call took place between Behar and Pence during which she apologized for her remarks on the ABC daytime talk show "The View" last month. The two reportedly spoke about how they were both raised Roman Catholic and Pence told her he was confirmed with the name "Christopher." "Yes, she did speak to Vice President Pence, they had a great, very nice...

The Rt. Rev. Stephen Dami Mamza, the Catholic bishop of the Yola Diocese, stated: “It is on record that less than one week ago, no fewer than 20 innocent Christian farmers were killed in separate attacks in and around Tambo. Luru village in particular saw its worst days when herdsmen wielding sophisticated firearms stormed the area, killing 15 people. Within the period under review, not less than 10 churches were burnt down, and in some instances, worshippers were killed.” Mamza was apparently careful not to name the persecutors. After all, he doesn’t want to get called on the carpet by...

Two Indonesian Christians were publicly flogged in Banda Aceh province on Tuesday for playing a children's entertainment game. The game is seen by authorities in the conservative Muslim province as 'gambling' and therefore it violates Islamic Sharia law. Some 300 people jeered and held up their mobile phones to record when Dahlan Silitonga, 61, and Tjia Nyuk Hwa, 45, were flogged six and seven times respectively.

Reps. Randy Hultgren (R., Ill.) and James McGovern (D., Mass.) want answers from the Trump administration about the reasons behind a Department of Homeland Security decision to deny refugee status in the United States for dozens of Iranian Christians and other Iranian religious minorities. The congressman, co-chairs of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, on Tuesday said they are disappointed that DHS has denied asylum to a large percentage of a group of roughly 100 Iranians fleeing religious persecution in Iran. Roughly 76 to 80 members of the group, which is largely Christian but also includes Zoroastrians, Andeans, and at...

Turkish jets bombard Iranian militia entering Afrin

Thousands of Christians are being butchered in Nigeria and whole villages being destroyed. Why are we so unconcerned? Why don’t we care? I believe the biggest reason is that we simply don’t know about what’s happening there. Well, now you know. Here are the facts.For the last several months, one of my good friends, a Christian missionary serving the poorest of the poor in Nigeria, has been sending me emails with terrifying news. Fulani tribesmen raping and killing villagers. Children being used as Islamic suicide bombers, resulting in scores of casualties. One horrible report after another.Yet with each email I...

A Canadian Christian family is crying out for help after their 12-year-old son was forcibly removed from their home in Norway by government officers in response to their decision to homeschool him. The parents had pulled him from a public school after he was bullied. The father, Leif Kristiansen, posted a video to Facebook last Thursday that shows police officers and officials from Norway's child services agency, Barnevernet, chasing and tackling their son, Kai, before taking him away from their apartment in Ås. "Can somebody please help us? ... Barnevernet is stealing our child!" Terese Kristiansen, a Canadian citizen, shouts...

Thousands of Christian villagers in China have been told to take down displays of Jesus, crosses, and gospel passages from their homes as part of a government propaganda effort to “transform believers in religion into believers in the party.” The news comes weeks after the CPC held its national congress, where Xi continued to consolidate party power and passed a historic measure to write his political philosophy into its constitution. SCMP called Xi “the country’s most powerful leader since Mao” Zedong, who also developed a personality cult through portraits in Chinese homes. The news outlet also noted Xi’s efforts to...

.Western leftists, secular as well as religious, continue to bemoan what they call “Islamophobia.” According to this line, whether they are native born or immigrants, Muslims in historically Euro-Christian lands are relentless victims of various forms of oppression. Of course, this is another one of the Racism-Industrial-Complex’s useful fictions. The truth, as I show in my most recent book, Christianity and the World: Essays Philosophical, Historical, and Cultural, is that in the world today, Christians, far from being the greatest oppressors, are actually the greatest victims of oppression. Although it receives, unsurprisingly, little media attention, there are in fact more...

It is now well over a year since Vladimir Putin's Russia passed 'anti-missionary' laws and more than 180 cases have since been brought. Activities ranging from prayer meetings in homes, posting worship times on a religious website and praying in the presence of other citizens have been interpreted as 'missionary activity' with Christians making up the vast majority of the law's victims. One case is that of Donald Ossewaarde, an American Baptist preacher living in Oryol, who was expelled for hosting a church meeting in his house. Having lost appeals throughout the Russian judiciary system, Ossewaarde's case is now with...

In short, the overwhelming majority of persecution that these 215 million Christians experience around the world — especially the worst forms, such as rape and murder — occurs at the hands of Muslims. If time is on the side of Christians living under Communist regimes, it is not on the side of Christians living under Islam. The center of the great Christian Byzantine Empire is now an increasingly intolerant, rapidly Islamizing Turkey. Carthage, once a bastion of Christianity — where one of Christendom's greatest theologians, St. Augustine, was born and where the New Testament canon was confirmed in 397 —...

Aideen Strandsson, a Christian woman from Iran, is facing deportation from Sweden after her asylum application was denied by authorities. The woman converted from Islam to Christianity, after having a dream about Jesus and has already received threats from Muslims because of her conversion. Aideen came to Sweden in 2014 and received a public baptism. When she pleaded that she could face the death penalty in Iran as an apostate, she got told by Swedish officials that “it’s not our problem if you decided to become a Christian, it’s your problem”.

Facebook is facing more censorship and bias allegations from a Christian group that opposes abortion. The West Virginia-based ministry Warriors for Christ repeatedly has had its Facebook pages removed by the social media giant, according to the Christian Post. Its main page, which has more than 225,000 followers, was removed again last week, allegedly for “hateful, threatening or obscene” content. Ministry leader Pastor Rich Penkoski told the Post that they missed out on vital opportunities to help people as a result. “When Facebook pulled our page [for the first time], we were actually counseling with a young woman who was...

An evangelical megachurch was destroyed by Chinese Communist authorities Tuesday in the country's northern Shanxi province, sparking fears among Christians that the persecution they suffer will soon get worse.China Aid said in an update Wednesday that Chinese military police detonated explosives inside Golden Lampstand Church in Linfen, destroying the $2.6 million house of worship, which was owned by the Christians who worshiped there.A demolition crew broke apart the remaining pieces of the church after the explosion with diggers and jackhammers.Lampstand's head Pastor, Yang Rongli, had previously spent seven years in prison on charges of assembling a large crowd to disturb traffic...

What is the source of dhimmitude—which in many ways paralyzes responses to Islam—in the West? First a definition: “dhimmitude,” which was coined by the late Christian president of Lebanon, Bashir Gemayel, and popularized by writer Bat Ye’or, is a neologism based on the Arabic word, dhimmi—that is, a non-Muslim (generally a Christian or Jew) who falls under Islamic rule and, as a price for maintaining their religion, accepts an inferior social standing. Simply put, the dhimmi must know his or her place and never rock the boat, including by seeking equal rights with Muslims. While this is the classic and...

One in 12 Christians around the world are persecuted for their faith and are the target of violent attacks including rape, a shocking report has found. According to a study by Open Doors USA, an organization that studies Christian persecution, 215 million Christians live in areas with high levels of persecution worldwide. The report also goes on to state that over 3,000 Christians were killed and nearly 800 churches were damaged in the last year. 'The most significant findings were that Christian women are among the most violated in the world, in maybe a way that we haven't seen before,'...

Reprinted from the Gatestone Institute.Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Luc Ravel, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Strasbourg “went against the grain of Church leaders in France who have largely remained politically correct,” says a report, because he criticized “the demographic shift in France, saying Muslims are having far more children than native French and slammed the widespread ‘promotion’ of abortion.”  He said, “Muslim believers know very well that their birthrate is such that today, they call it … the Great Replacement, they tell you in a very calm, very positive way that, ‘one...

At this time of year American Christians are free to celebrate Christmas in any way they like, because freedom of religion is a cherished right in the U.S. for people of every faith. But in many predominantly Muslim nations in the Middle East, the Christian minority is threatened and persecuted 365 days a year. As an Assyrian Christian who fled my native Iran in 1989 I know about this harassment and persecution from first-hand experience. And as the founder and president of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council I know about this persecution because of the work my nonprofit does to...