Persecution

Robert Park, a Korean-American missionary who was tortured during his time in a North Korean prison camp, has never opened up to the media with specifics of what happened to him while he was a prisoner, until now.

Park recently shared with Yonhap News Agency just some of the abuse he suffered after he illegally crossed the frozen Tumen River into North Korea on Christmas Day 2009. After being beaten by North Korean soldiers, he was taken to Pyongyang, the nation's capital, where he was sexually tortured and abused.

"Several North Korean women surrounded me and did the worst thing to me to try to make me commit suicide," Park told Yonhap News Agency. He was placed in a brightly lit room, where a group of women beat his genitals with a club to "make me not to have a baby and get married forever," he said. more >>

Islamic extremists from the rebel al Shabaab militia in Somalia beheaded a Christian on the outskirts of Mogadishu last month, sources said.

The militants fighting the transitional government in Mogadishu murdered Zakaria Hussein Omar, 26, on Jan. 2 in Cee-carfiid village, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) outside of the Somali capital, they said. Omar had worked for a Christian humanitarian organization that al Shabaab banned last year.

His body was left lying for 20 hours before nomads found it and carried it into Mogadishu, a close friend said. more >>

A group of Christians from Ethiopia said to be unlawfully imprisoned in Saudi Arabia has been facing increased pressure to convert to Islam, a Christian human rights advocacy group informed The Christian Post.

According to International Christian Concern (ICC), an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., and with agents in countries where Christians experience persecution, the 35 Christian Ethiopian men and women were violently arrested on Dec. 15 during a prayer meeting at a private home in Jeddah, a city on the western coast of the country. The group was reportedly arrested for holding a meeting in which both men and women were present, which is frowned upon in the conservative Muslim country. But ICC told CP that the prisoners claim they are being persecuted because of their faith.

The agency has previously reported that the prisoners were physically harassed by prison officials after their arrest – the men were allegedly assaulted and the women humiliated by a sexually inappropriate strip search. Human Rights Watch confirmed that report. The men and women have also reportedly been complaining of insufficient care. more >>

As violence rages in Syria, civilians across the country are pleading with the global community to step in and help put a stop to the Assad regime's attacks – contradicting the actions of a Christian community that continues to support the leadership in an effort to avoid persecution faced by Christians in other post-Arab Spring countries. 

The Syrian uprising began last March when civilians initiated protests against the regime of President Bashir al-Assad, hoping to end five decades of Arab Socialist Ba'athist rule in the country.

Syrian forces have been shelling and bombing the city of Homs for four consecutive days, according to Syrian activists. Videos posted on YouTube by activists show images of the bombed out city, bloodied civilians, and overcrowded medical facilities. In one video, a doctor pleads to the international community: "I beg you please stop the rockets." more >>

Several reports of persecution against Christians from around the globe have emerged this week, including an update on violence against Christians in Nigeria, the deadly 2010 bombing of an Iraqi church, attacks against Christians in India and a bombing of a missionary Bible college in Sudan.

Kashmir - Muslim leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani spoke out Saturday in support of four Christian missionaries after a Sharia court last week issued a decree seeking their expulsion from the state, Christian Today reported. Despite the support, the missionaries were expelled Friday.

Nigeria – Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, who is the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in Nigeria, posted a statement on his Facebook page Saturday in which he presumably warns  Islamist sect Boko Haram to stop attacking Christians, their homes and churches, or expect to face the consequences. "We are not allowed to burn mosques or kill people of other religious beliefs but [the] Bible says we are allowed [to defend] ourselves/churches/homes," the statement reads. more >>

The toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime might have brought democracy to the country, but it also unleashed sectarian violence that has been taking a toll on the country's religious minorities, experts have told The Christian post.

International observers have been unsettled by how the number of Iraqi Christians has diminished by over 600,000 since the 2003 U.S. invasion. The U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that up to 2 million Iraqis have fled the country since, with approximately 1.1 million settling in Syria and 450,000 in Jordan. A disproportionate number of those fleeing have been religious minorities, including Christians, Sabian Mandaeans, and Yazidis, according to Minority Rights Group International.

In mid-January, U.S. Military Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, like many others, claimed the collapse of Iraq's Christian population was among the legacies of America's 2003 invasion, according to the Catholic News Agency (CNA). Broglio, especially concerned about Iraq's Catholics, claims believers suffered after the ousting of Hussein. The dictator, he told CNA, tended "to trust Catholics, and gave them positions of responsibility." And even if Catholics "weren't particularly part of the regime, they became identified with the regime," Broglio was quoted as saying. more >>