by CFI Field Staff on May 10, 2013
Syrian church leaders have called for a day of prayer for peace to be restored to their country, enabling all Syrians to live in harmony within their own country. Some fear that the Iraq scenario (involving increased levels of sectarian attack and corresponding flight of Christians) could be replicated in Syria. Church leaders have called on Christians not to leave, acknowledging that significant emigration had already occurred.
Fears within Christian communities have increased following the kidnapping of two priests (Michel Kayyal of the Armenian Catholic church and Mahar Mahfouz of… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on May 7, 2013
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recently stated: “The flight of Christians out of the region [Middle East] is unprecedented and it’s increasing year by year.” Some experts even believe that in our lifetime: “Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt.”
CFI President Jim Jacobson, has said, “over 1 million Christians lived in Iraq in 2003, ten years later less than 400,000 can be counted. Christians in the Middle East are under siege.”
Across the Middle East, in countries like Iraq, Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere, attacks on… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on March 12, 2013
“We are in much grief and pain that Christians have no safety or freedom in this Islamic country,” says Pastor Shahzad Babar with Gospel of Christ Ministries in Pakistan, in a letter recently sent to Christian Freedom International.
“On Saturday, March 9 . . . a mob of 4,000 angry Muslims in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore attacked a Christian neighborhood and set fire to homes, after hearing accusations that a Christian man blasphemed against Islam’s prophet,” Pastor Babar’s letter continues. “Police arrested Sawan Masih, a sanitary worker, on… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on March 8, 2013
Warm greetings from Southeast Asia! Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
“And Saul approved of their killing him… Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.” (Acts 8:1-3)
Saul, who later became known as the Apostle Paul, is one of the greatest, miraculous, conversions ever recorded in the Bible.
But, amazing conversions are happening today as scores… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on January 29, 2013
Saeed Abedini, the American pastor who has been incarcerated in Iran for his Christian faith since September 2012, has been sentenced to eight years in prison.
Abedini, an Iranian native who had been living in the United States since 2005, returned to Iran last fall to visit relatives and to oversee the development of an orphanage project when he was forcibly removed from a public bus and arrested by Iranian officials. The pastor has since been detained in Evin Prison, where he has repeatedly suffered from torture and gross mistreatment… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on September 14, 2012
CFI’s Egyptian co-worker has reported that danger is on the rise for Coptic Christians in Egypt, in the aftermath of the U.S. embassy attack that took place on September 11.
The attack, which was reportedly in retaliation for an anti-Islamic film created by an Israeli-American filmmaker that blasphemed the prophet Mohammed, was carried out this week in conjunction with a similar attack that occurred at the U.S. embassy in Libya. Four people, including Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American workers, were killed in the bombing attack in Libya.
“This… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on September 13, 2012
Christian Freedom International (CFI), a Michigan-based organization dedicated to assisting persecuted Christians around the world, is expressing concern that Middle Eastern Christians will feel extended repercussions of the recent bombings in Libya and Egypt that killed four American workers, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Chris Stevens.
The bombings came in retaliation for the anti-Islamic film “Innocence of Muslims,” a 14-minute video created by an Israeli-American filmmaker that allegedly blasphemes the prophet Mohammed. While four deaths occurred at the Libyan embassy on Tuesday, no casualties were reported following the attack… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on August 2, 2012
CFI has received word from a source in Bangladesh regarding the recent kidnapping of numerous children from the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The youth were taken from their parents with the promise that they would be sent away for missionary studies; however, it was later discovered that they were being held in various madrasas, Islamic religious schools, in Dhaka and Ganzipur. CFI’s source, a Bangladeshi-based human rights organization that has requested to remain unidentified, was able to rehabilitate 11 of the children who managed to escape from their captors.
The organization… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on
New reports from Egypt indicate that the trends of assault and kidnapping against the Christian community are far from subsiding.
On Friday, July 27, Muslim thugs broke into the home of Mounir Eskander in Qalyoub City, wounding him and his three sons in the ensuing attack. All three men are currently hospitalized.
On Saturday, July 28, a Muslim mob abducted 24-year-old Maryam Fareed Saleh and her 3-year-old child, Beshoy, from a province in Upper Egypt. On the same day, 17-year-old Sandy Naeem Nady was kidnapped by several armed men, while… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on July 24, 2012
CFI has received reported of some of the latest persecution, which includes physical assaults, property seizures, and arson, against the Christian community in Egypt.
Last week, a Christian man, Hany Abdo Stephanos, was attacked by armed Muslims in the province of Giza. The men forced Stephanos and his family from their home, then seized their land and looted Stephanos’ store.
In another incident, a Christian lawyer, Magda Najib, was attacked by Muslim extremists, who destroyed her car and set her home on fire before attempting to murder her.
Several Christian… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on July 10, 2012
In 2010, a series of powerful protests spread like wildfire throughout the Middle East, in a movement that soon became known as the Arab Spring Revolution. Tragically, while the Revolution symbolized freedom and new opportunities for some, it also ushered in a new era of strife and religious persecution for others.
CFI has spent the past two years highlighting the growing injustice and discrimination against Christians in many Arab Spring nations — particularly Egypt, where followers of Christ are now routinely subject to intimidation, fear, harassment, and violence. In the… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on May 15, 2012
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CFI recently received news of Christians being abducted and church property destroyed in Egypt:
Almahe Fareed Isa, a 25-year-old Christian girl, was abducted by a Muslim mob in the village of El Masarch;
Mina Abdo Shahat, a 23-year-old pharmacist, was abducted at gunpoint in the city of Sadfa. The Muslim group responsible for the abduction then called the young man’s father, demanding a ransom of 5,000 Egyptian pounds. They also threatened to kill his son and burn the pharmacy if the police were called;… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on March 30, 2012
CFI’s Egyptian co-worker has recently issued a heartbreaking report regarding the tragic murder of a young Christian boy.
Eleven-year-old Abanoub Anwar Lateef recently passed away at a Cairo hospital after suffering severe head trauma, the result of a violent beating that came at the hands of Muslim students. Abanoub, who had routinely been the victim of physical abuse in school because of his Christian beliefs, was beaten so severely one day that teachers contacted his parents and advised them to come quickly to the school.
Abanoub, appearing sick and faint,… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on March 28, 2012
Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, the Saudi Grand Mufti, recently issued a statement declaring that “it is necessary to destroy all churches” in the region of Kuwait.
The leader’s statement supported a law to be drafted by a member of Kuwaiti legislature, which calls for the removal of all churches in Kuwait. The ruling is based on the hadith, or Islamic saying, that “there are not to be two religions in the [Arabic] Peninsula,” and therefore Islam should be the only practiced religion.
International reaction to the shocking statement, however,… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on February 27, 2012
Youcef Nadarkhani’s life may soon come to a tragic end.
An execution order was recently issued against the 34-year-old Iranian pastor, who has been in prison for nearly two and a half years. Nadarkhani was first arrested in the fall of 2009 on charges of apostasy, as his persecutors claimed that he was once an adult Muslim who later converted to Christianity, despite the lack of evidence. Nadarkhani, however, has maintained his innocence, claiming that he was always a Christian as an adult. The pastor has also refused to renounce… Read more
