Persecution

The eldest brother of North Korea's new "supreme leader" believes that the leadership of Kim Jong-un is doomed to "fail," according to a new book released in Japan last Wednesday.

It is unclear what a failed state would mean for the citizens of North Korea and the nation's Christian population specifically, but indications point to massive upheavals and large-scale problems for the country as a whole.

"(Kim Jong-nam is) not comfortable that his younger brother is succeeding the power of Kim Jong-il. He sees his brother failing. He thinks he has a lack of experience, he's too young and he didn't have enough time to be groomed," Yoji Gomi, author of the new book told CNN last week. more >>

Two churches and a security checkpoint were attacked in Nigeria as President Goodluck Jonathan visited the country’s second-largest city Sunday, following the wave of Islamic extremist attacks Friday that has left more than 150 people dead in Kano City.

The latest attacks came in the neighboring state of Bauchi, the state police commissioner said in a statement. At least 11 people, including police and army personnel, were killed in the checkpoint attack, the commissioner has reported, although no casualties have been reported from the church attacks.

President Jonathan visited numerous bomb sites in Kano City Sunday, as well as the local hospital to see victims and their families to offer his condolences and words of comfort. more >>

Islamic militant group, Boko Haram, has conducted a series of coordinated attacks in the northern Nigerian city of Kano Friday, killing more than 150 people, reports have indicated.

Multiple explosions hit police buildings around the city, which has since been ordered under a 24-hour curfew. The attacks seem to mark Boko Haram’s deadliest assault to date, as the terrorist group seeks to overthrow the national government to impose a fully Islamic state in the country.

Over recent months the group has increasingly targeted government buildings as well as Christian churches and civilians in an array of attacks killing hundreds. more >>

NEW YORK -- As the Christian community expresses its concern over reports of a mass exodus of Christians from Iraq, an Iraqi official says the situation is not as bad as it seems, and that Iraq, with a tradition of religious tolerance, very much has a  chance to become an oasis of peace and tolerance in the region – but that would require the eradication of extremism.

The Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. T. Hamid Al-Bayati, met with a group of local interfaith religious leaders in the Permanent Mission of Iraq to the U.N. in New York City Thursday to discuss what the international Christian community can do to support the Iraqi government in protecting the vulnerable religious minorities. The ambassador addressed several Jewish and Christian religious leaders who have expressed concern about the international Christian community not engaging enough in helping their brethren. They have also expressed concern as to whether the Iraqi government was doing everything in its power to protect religious minorities. Among those present at Thursday's meeting were Rabbi Yaakov Kermaier, President of the New York Board of Rabbis and Dr. Paul de Vries, president of the New York Divinity School, along with several others.

News organizations as well as external research companies, and even the U.S. government have been reporting a rise in persecution of religious minority in the country – the aftermath of chaos and a rise in sectarian violence that followed the toppling of dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003. more >>

An Afghan Christian widow and three of her daughters were denied refugee status by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in New Delhi for the second time last month, and currently face imminent deportation to their home country where they could face imprisonment for apostasy and a potential death sentence.

The widow and her daughters, whose names have not been released for security reasons, received a deportation notice from the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs after their first application for asylum was rejected in October 2009, International Christian Concern (ICC), a global Christian advocacy group, informed The Christian Post. When the mother reapplied in July 2011 with her three daughters and a fourth daughter, who is widowed with a child, only the widowed daughter and the child were accepted. The others are no longer permitted to correspond with the UNHCR office and are currently living in India as illegal immigrants, ICC said.

"All members of the family left Afghanistan for the same reason, all of them are Christians, and all are facing the same kind of problem," Obaid S. Christ, a leader of the Afghan Christian community in New Delhi, told ICC. "If two members of the same family are recognized as refugees and four others are denied, there is definitely something wrong with the UNHCR judgment system. We believe that the UNHCR office blindly closed their application without making any inquiry, investigation, or considering the new facts and real danger that these women are facing back in their home country." more >>

The president of the Christian Association of Nigeria has suggested that Muslim extremists, specifically al-Qaida-linked Boko Haram, are not simply trying to push Christians out of the mostly-Muslim northern areas, but are actually using violence in an effort to expel believers from the country altogether.

Nigeria has been suffering from religious violence for years, with attacks often occurring during the Christmas season. At least three dozen people were killed in a string of bombings last month. Since December, more than 80 Christians have been killed by radical Muslims, according to the International Christian Concern (ICC), an advocacy group. In addition, the violence has also spread to southern Nigeria, where Muslims and their places of worship have been attacked in apparent retaliation for the killing of Christians in the north.

Jerry Dykstra, Media Relations Director at Open Doors USA, told CP Tuesday that Christians have been feeling increased pressure to take revenge. His organization fights Christian persecution worldwide. more >>