Christians fleeing northern Iraqi refuges

The New York Times has published a good article describing the decline of Christianity in Iraq as Christians flee their refuges taken up in the north of the country:

Iraq’s dwindling Christians, driven from their homes by attacks and intimidation, are beginning to abandon the havens they had found in the country’s north, discouraged by unemployment and a creeping fear that the violence they had fled was catching up to them [more]. 

Policemen rapes Christian girl

During the night of 7/8 March, a Pakistani policemen raped a 14 year old Christian girl, even as an another man bound and gagged her grandparents in another room.  Reports are calling the girl "Kiran" to protect her identity.

From Asia News:

 Nawaz Wahla, a law enforcement official, along with an accomplice Mehboob, a milkman, jumped the fence and broke into the house. According to the newspaper The Express Tribune reports they tied up the grandparents and repeatedly raped the girl, at gun point. 

Once she had escaped, Kiran released the grandparents who have accompanied her to the hospital for medical treatment, however, neither the doctors nor the police wanted to bring relief to the Christian girl, or take action to catch the perpetrators of violence. Only the official opening of the investigation, initiated by a diligent judge allowed the detention of Mehboob - the accomplice - while Nawaz has so far eluded capture.

Boko Haram threatens eradication of Christianity in northern Nigeria, followed by attacks

On March 4, 2012, Boko Haram threatened the eradication of Christianity in northern Nigeria, saying "we will create so much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to have a proper Islamic state that the Christians won’t be able to stay."

A spokesman told Bikyamasr.com that over the coming weeks Boko Haram "will launch a number of attacks, coordinated and part of the plan to eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country."

The spokesman also warned of a plot to kidnap Christian women, saying, "we are going to put into action new efforts to strike fear into the Christians of the power of Islam by kidnapping their women" to hold them for ransom.

On March 7, 2012, Boko Haram gunmen shot and killed Adamu Ahmadu, a customs official, after they stormed his home in Potiskum.  They killed others with him, as well.

On March 11, 2012, an explosion at the gate of St. Finbar's church in Jos has killed at least ten people (including the attacker who drove a car loaded with explosives) and wounded several others, just ten minutes after Mass began.  Boko Haram is suspected in the attacks, which regrettably led to retaliatory vandalism and violence, killing another ten people.

His Excellency the Most Reverend Ignatius Ayau Kaigama, Archbishop of Jos, called upon the faithful to "overcome evil with love, overcome evil with good, and then to allow God to take control of the situation, while at the same time asking God’s men to something urgently to bring this to a final conclusion"

On March 15, 2012, Reuters posted an excellent Factbox and summary of Boko Haram.

This year alone, Boko Haram is responsible for at least 300 deaths.

And still Boko Haram is not among the U.S.'s suspected terror groups even though Boko Haram's spokesman calls their activities a "campaign of terror."  Why?

Catholic land seized in Vietnam

Government officials in Vietnam have seized land belonging to the Redemptorists, whose spokesperson told Asia News:

We have already sent three petitions, with all the evidence to the legal committee of the people and all those responsible, but so far we have not received any response from any office. Meanwhile , the properties of which we are the legal owners, has been violated.

Two Christians kidnapped in Pakistan

Two Christians were recently kidnapped in Karachi:

Thirty residents of the village of Kot Meerath in the eastern Pakistani province of Punjab brutally tortured Seema Bibi, a Christian woman, and paraded her through the streets because of her “anti-Islam” views. Police have made 26 arrests [more]

7 American missionaries attacked by 200 Muslims

Seven Presbyterian missionaries from America were recently attacked by at least 200 angry Muslims in Bangladesh:

Police arrested two teachers and a student from an Islamic seminary in Madarganj, 200km (120 miles) north of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, following the attack.  

At least 200 angry locals chased the missionaries’ car and threw stones at it, leaving three with cuts from broken glass, the district police chief said [more] 

Sawiris still faces charges of contempt of Islam because of tweets

Back in mid-January, Naguib Sawiris, an Egyptian Christian, posted pictures of Mickey Mouse with a beard and Minnnie Mouse with a face veil, which led to his being charged with contempt of Islam.

A court in Cairo recently dismissed this charge, though Sawiris still faces two similar charges because of the same images.