Free Republic

In a recent interview, the federal minister of minorities in Pakistan, Shahbaz Bhatti, declared himself ready to die for their principles and the defense of persecuted Christians despite threats by Muslim extremist groups.

An Afghan physiotherapist will be executed within three days for converting to Christianity. Said Musa, 45, has been held for eight months in a Kabul prison were he claims he has been tortured and sexually abused by inmates and guards. Mr Musa, who lost his left leg in a landmine explosion in the 1990s, has worked for the Red Cross for 15 years and helps to treat fellow amputees. He was arrested in May last year as he attempted to seek asylum at the German embassy following a crackdown on Christians within Afghanistan. He claims he was visited by a...

On that tragic day, "three-year-old Adam witnessed the horror of dozens of deaths, including that of his own parents. He wandered among the corpses and the blood, following the terrorists around and admonishing them, 'enough, enough, enough.' According to witnesses, this continued for two hours until Adam was himself murdered." That is all I know about Adam, but I cannot get his story out of my head. I believe Adam gave us a message for the whole world.

‘Modern day martyr’ studied to evangelize his home country JACKSONVILLE — Michael Loua was a passionate Christian — he loved his family, he loved his home country of Guinea, West Africa, but most importantly, he loved his God. This weekend, Michael was killed because of his passion to lead those in his home country to his Lord. “He was a preacher; he was an evangelist, so he loved to evangelize people and to lead people to the Lord,” said Michael’s widow, Elisabeth Loua. Elis-abeth said now her children are uncomfortable with the idea of going back to Guinea. “When I...

Child-Preacher Ammar: “A child must be raised on the love of jihad, and on the desire to be martyred for the sake of Allah. The tree of Islam is irrigated with blood, not with water. Embedding the spirit of Jihad within the soul of the child is one of the most important things educators should deal with, especially in this day and age, when the law of Islam is absent from the Islamic countries, a time when the sun of the glory of Islam has set, a time when sovereignty is in the hands of tyrants, when the Islamic Caliphate...

To continue living a Christ-like life in this kind of environment is to practice the martyrdom of witness. Why witness? Because it means giving testimony to our deep religious convictions although all around us others are giving their own example to the contrary. It means giving witness twice over: once on our own behalf as the outward expression of what we internally believe and once again on behalf of others whose conduct is not only different from ours but contradicts it. Wherein lies the martyrdom? It lies in the deprivation of good example to us on the part of our...

SEOUL, South Korea -- Like most North Koreans, Son Jong Nam knew next to nothing about Christianity when he fled to neighboring China in 1998. Eleven years later, he died back in North Korean prison, reportedly tortured to death for trying to spread the Gospel in his native land, armed with 20 bibles and 10 cassette tapes of hymns. He was 50. [snip] He served in the presidential security service for 10 years until his discharge as a master sergeant in 1983. In those years, he was ready to dedicate his life to fighting the “American imperialists,” his brother says....

www.catholicnewsagency.com Shrine of Ugandan martyrs visited by 500,000 for feast day Catholic bishops and lay faithful participate in the celebration of the Ugandan martyrs. Credit: ACN. Moroto, Uganda, Jun 30, 2010 / 02:54 am (CNA).- Earlier this month over 500,000 people gathered in northeastern Uganda to celebrate the feast day of Saint Charles Lwanga and companions, who are known as the Uganda Martyrs.Catholic faithful from around Uganda as well as Sudan, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo gathered at the shrine of the Uganda martyrs in the Diocese of Moroto on June 3 as part...

St. Margaret is considered the first woman martyred under Queen Elizabeth's religious suppression. Margaret was raised a Protestant but converted to Catholicism about two to three years after she was married. According to her confessor, Fr. Mush, Margaret became a Catholic because she "found no substance, truth nor Christian comfort in the ministers of the new church, nor in their doctrine itself, and hearing also many priests and lay people to suffer for the defense of the ancient Catholic Faith." Margaret's husband, John Clitherow, remained a Protestant but supported his wife's decision to convert. They were happily married and raised...

Anne was born during the reign of King Henry VIII to an honoured knight, Sir William Askew. Anne was described as attractive in form and faith, a beautiful and high-spirited young woman, well educated, with unusual gifts, and “very pious.” Her father arranged that she should be married to the son of a friend, Thomas Kyme, to whom her deceased sister had originally been promised. Anne endeavored to be a faithful wife, and bore her husband two children. However, despite an initially happy marriage, her husband, Kyme, threw her out of the home because of her Protestant Faith. Anne had...

A new ministry partnership has launched a campaign to raise awareness of the fact that an estimated 176,000 Christians around the world were martyred – killed for their faith – in a one-year period from the middle of 2008 to the middle of 2009. That's 482 deaths per day, one every three minutes. Martyrdom didn't go away with the Middle Ages, according to reports from Open Doors USA, which now has combined efforts with actor Kirk Cameron of "The Way of the Master" ministry as well as evangelist Ray Comfort of Living Waters ministry to focus on those who are...

The persecution of Christians in Pakistan is becoming very brutal and very deadly. The truth is that it is no longer safe to be a Christian in Pakistan anymore. A Christian man in Pakistan's Punjab province is literally fighting for his life after radical Muslim leaders, backed by police, burned him alive for refusing to convert to Islam while his wife was raped by police officers. This incident, which took place on March 19th, is just the latest in a series of deadly attacks on Christians in Pakistan. The name of the man is Arshed Masih, and according to reports...

The silence from Pakistani authorities is deafening. An update on this story. "Punjab: Christian burned alive dies, Christian community calls for justice," by Fareed Khan for Asia News, March 23: Islamabad (AsiaNews) - Arshed Masih died last night in hospital from the serious injuries - burns covering 80% of his body - which the 38 year old Pakistani Christian suffered when he was set on fire because he refused to convert to Islam. The funeral of man, who died after three days of agony, should take place in the late afternoon, but the family has asked that "before an autopsy...

Pakistani Christian burned alive dies, Christian community calls for justice Arshed Masih, a 38 year-old Pakistani Christian, died yesterday evening at 7.45 from his very serious injuries. The family requests that an autopsy is performed before the funeral. Christian associations and human rights activists demonstrate outside the hospital. Catholic leaders: the federal and provincial government do not punish the guilty. Wednesday, March 24, 2010 Arshed Masih died last night in hospital from the serious injuries - burns covering 80% of his body – which the 38 year old Pakistani Christian suffered when he was set on fire because he refused...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged her colleagues to back a major overhaul of U.S. healthcare even if it threatens their political careers, a call to arms that underscores the issue's massive role in this election year. Lawmakers sometimes must enact policies that, even if unpopular at the moment, will help the public, Pelosi said in an interview being broadcast Sunday the ABC News program "This Week." "We're not here just to self-perpetuate our service in Congress," she said. "We're here to do the job for the American people."

LONDON – Agents for Britain's MI5 intelligence service have discovered that Muslim doctors trained at some of Britain's leading teaching hospitals have returned to their own countries to fit surgical implants filled with explosives, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. Women suicide bombers recruited by al-Qaida are known to have had the explosives inserted in their breasts under techniques similar to breast enhancing surgery. The lethal explosives – usually PETN (pentaerythritol Tetrabitrate) – are inserted during the operation inside the plastic shapes. The breast is then sewn up. Similar surgery has been performed on male suicide bombers....

One year ago today, China kidnapped my husband. I don't know where he is. I don't know what is being done to him. The only thing I know is why he disappeared: My husband, Gao Zhisheng, defied Beijing by representing people the government finds threatening. As a leading human rights lawyer in China, he fought for those who had been abused by police, those who had their land stolen by the government and those who were persecuted for their religious beliefs. And now my husband is one of those persecuted people he so vigorously defended. Chinese authorities abducted Zhisheng on...

Video shows fighter jets shooting down US missionaries Anne Barrowclough An extraordinary video has emerged showing a bungled CIA operation that led to the shooting down of a light plane carrying American missionaries in Peru. The dramatic footage taken from a CIA surveillance plane, which has been shown on America's ABC News, shows Peruvian fighter jets opening fire on the missionaries' seaplane even as its pilot screamed for help. Although the Peruvian pilots issued a warning first, the pilot of the missionaries' plane was on a different frequency and could not hear it. The Peruvian jets shot down the missionaries...

On November 19, 2000 a ceremony held in Poznań, Poland, honored the grandfather of Redeemer member Andre Manitius, Pastor Gustaw Manitius (1880-1940), a Lutheran pastor and bishop who was martyred by the Nazis. A city park was dedicated in honor of Pastor Manitius, and a cross which had belonged to him was returned to his church. (See photograph in the online photo Gallery). Pastor Manitius was honored for the courage and dedication of his service to the Lutheran community in Poznań, and for the faith that empowered him to resist the Nazis regardless of the cost to himself of doing...

The Irish missionary priest savagely murdered in Kenya was due to retire home to Co Limerick next year. Shocking details of the murder of Fr Jeremiah Roche have emerged, as police in Kenya concentrate their investigations on two suspects. It is understood the priest was stripped naked, tied to a chair and was then stabbed in the throat and hit on the head with a blunt object. The robbers left the scene with Fr Roche's blood-stained clothes, a CD player and two mobile phones. His clothes were recovered a kilometre away. The killing took place close to Kericho, in the...