Free Republic

A Christian woman has brought a landmark case to court in St Petersburg after challenging authorities for fining her 10,000 rubles (£122) after she hosted worship services for her protestant church in her home. Olga Glamozdinova, who allowed a congregation to gather for weekly worship sessions at her house in the southern village of Veselyi said the decision violated her rights to freedom of religious expression and her right to freely own and dispose of her property. According to Christian aid agency Barnabas Fund, the church was registered at her property which is built on land designated for "private farming"...

Christian converts risk Muslim attack The issue of apostasy from Islam is beginning to receive mainstream media attention in Britain UK Times Online From The Sunday Times September 16, 2007 By Abul Taher Christian converts risk Muslim attack ONE of Britain’s most senior bishops has warned that a sustained campaign by Muslim extremists to intimidate and attack converts to Christianity risks ending in a murder. Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, says that the persecution of Christian converts from Islam is so widespread that it may be only a matter of time before there is an “honour killing” of a...

A new government study is being condemned by the Christian ministry the Barnabas Fund because its proposals would move closer to imposing Islam in the United Kingdom as "a religion of state." Among the proposals from the study being considered for implementation is the provision by universities for Islamic studies for all students. The report was initiated by Bill Rammell, the minister of state for higher education and lifelong learning, officials said. He appointed Ataullah Siddiqui, senior research fellow at the Islamic Foundation, to write it. The Barnabas Fund, in an analysis, said the report "signals another step toward the...

A major international petition calling on Islamic leaders to allow Muslims to convert to another faith was presented to the United Nations. The petition, signed by 88,890 people from 32 countries, says "Muslims who choose to convert to another faith" should be "free to do so without having to face a lifetime of fear as a result." Under Sharia, or Islamic law, Muslims who convert to another faith and refuse to repent must be put to death. The British charity Barnabas Fund presented the petition to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour July 28. The group said it...

A legal tribunal in an Australian state will proceed with a case in which Muslims have accused Christians of vilifying Islam. The tribunal rejected arguments that it lacks the authority to hear the case. The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal is hearing the first case of its kind under Victoria's hate laws, which penalize anyone found guilty of inciting hatred, contempt or revulsion on the grounds of race or religious belief. The Islamic Council of Victoria and three individual Muslims have brought the complaint against an evangelical Christian organization, Catch the Fire Ministries, which ran a seminar on Islam last...

The violence which Christians in Iraq have long feared seems finally to have arrived with the brutal murder of two Chaldean Catholic men the Barnabas Fund, reported on Friday. Sabah Gazala and Abdul Ahed who were shot and killed by two Islamic gunmen within ten minutes in separate incidents in Basra. Like a number of Christians in the city and in other parts of Iraq they were involved in the sale of alcohol, jobs forbidden to Muslims but permitted to Christians under Saddam Hussein's rule. In recent weeks such vendors have faced severe threats from Shia Muslim conservatives seeking to...

Two Christians Murdered: Long Feared Anti-Christian Violence Begins in Iraq? As Shia Muslims become more aggressive and vocal in their demands for an Islamic State based on Shari'ah the anti-Christian violence which Christians in Iraq have long feared seems finally to have arrived with the brutal murder of two Christian men. Britain's Daily Telegraph reports the deaths of Sabah Gazala and Abdul Ahed who were shot and killed by two Islamic gunmen within ten minutes in separate incidents in Basra on 8 May. Like a number of Christians in the city and in other parts of Iraq they were involved...