Three years ago, the Islamic State (Isis) did not exist; now it controls vast swathes of Syria and Iraq. Showing off its handiwork daily via Twitter and YouTube, Isis has repeatedly demonstrated that it is much more than a transnational terrorist organisation – rather, it is an entity with sophisticated command, control, propaganda and logistical Read more
Four Iranian men are due to get 80 lashes each for drinking communion wine during a “house church” service. House churches are a way for Iranian Christians to gather in unofficial buildings to conduct Church services. The Independent reports the four men, Behzad Taalipasand, Mehdi Reza Omidi, Mehdi Dadkakh and Amir Hatemi, were originally arrested Read more
The state of religious freedom around the world is “increasingly dire”, according to the chairperson of a United States agency that monitors threats to this human right. The reasons include the rise of violent religious extremism and the actions and inactions of governments, according to Dr Katrina Lantos Swett of the US Commission for International Read more
The Vatican has dismissed a claim by Mehmet Ali Agca that his assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1983 was ordered by the late Iranian Islamic leader Ayatollah Khomeini. In an autobiography, the would-be assassin claims he was trained by Iranian forces and given the mission to kill the Pontiff by the ayatollah Read more
Iran’s court of appeals has upheld a six-year prison term imposed on a man who converted to Christianity from Islam and organised a house church. The Christian convert, Farshid Fat’hi, had been charged with “acting against national security through membership of the Christian organization Ilam, collection of funds and propaganda against the Islamic Regime by Read more
Engaging in a preventive war without clear proof that an attack is imminent cannot fail to raise serious moral and juridical questions Bishop Richard Pates wrote in a March 2 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Pates, chairman of the US Catholic Bishops Committee on International Justice and Peace of the United States Conference of Read more