Free Republic

The Catholic Church has been an enduring symbol of Nicaragua’s resistance to the regime of President Daniel Ortega since 2018. Consequently, the institution’s peaceful defiance has firmly placed church leaders and the faithful in Ortega’s crosshairs. Tensions escalated between the Catholic Church and Ortega on March 18, when the Vatican closed its embassy in Managua. Earlier that week, Ortega had lashed out at Pope Francis, who compared the president’s administration to a Nazi dictatorship during an interview with Argentine news organization Infobae. Ortega denounced Catholic leaders sympathetic to the opposition as “terrorists” and called the Catholic Church a “mafia.” The...

When 73-year old Gayle Meyer was being held against her will at the Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center in Vancouver, Washington on January 29th the call went out for people to show up at the hospital in her support. Dozens did and then police showed up in riot gear by the dozens as well. Meyer was then released by the hospital but afterwards the Clark County Sheriff's Department claimed that they faced a heavily armed group that was threatening. Clark County Sheriff's Detective Tonya Johnson has signed probable cause arrest warrants against four people in the matter including Meyer's daughter...

Dutch police on the attack with water cannon to shut down coronavirus lockdown protesters in Amsterdam and Eindhoven today. Tear gas also used used against the E Eindhoven protesters. Demonstrations banned under the coronavirus lockdown in the Netherlands... The police attack on protesters in Amsterdam included dogs and mounted police. 100 detained there... A coronavirus testing center in one Dutch town torched Saturday night... Clashes in Israel today as police cracked down on Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods to enforce the coronavirus lockdown. Injuries and arrests as residents fought police with stones... In Denmark the Prime Minister burned in effigy as protesters...

<p>A California church that espouses anti-LGBTQ beliefs and has been the recent target of protests was bombed with an improvised explosive device early Saturday morning, authorities said.</p><p>The El Monte Police Department responded to calls around 4:30 a.m. about smoke at First Works Baptist Church. Officers discovered windows were broken and realized there had been a blast, Lt. Christopher Cano told reporters at the scene. There were no injuries or deaths.</p>

A gunman has killed four women and injured three others, including police officers, at a folk festival in the Russian republic of Dagestan, according to local sources. A man armed with a hunting rifle gunned down churchgoers in the city of Kizlyar, according to the Associated Press, and reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar!” as he opened fire. Kizlyar’s mayor Alexander Shuvalov told Russian media the gunman opened fire as people were leaving a Sunday evening service at a local Orthodox church. “Four people were killed. The shooter was shot dead. Two police officers and a woman were wounded,” he said.

Two suicide bombers attacked a church in Pakistan where hundreds of worshippers were attending service ahead of Christmas, killing at least nine people and injuring dozens of others, officials said. One of the suicide bombers was shot dead outside Bethel Memorial Methodist Church in Quetta, but the other assailant made it to the church's entrance hall as Sunday services opened, said Sarfaraz Bugti, home minister for the southwestern Baluchistan province. The gunman — who didn’t gain access to the main building — opened fire at the churchgoers before detonating his explosive vest. “There were nearly 400 people inside the church,...

FULL TITLE: Heartbroken Egyptian families weep over the coffins of their loved ones after Palm Sunday massacre kills nearly 50 Coptic Christians in two ISIS suicide bomb attacks Mourners filled a church in Egypt that had been torn apart in a terrorist bombing to commemorate the victims claimed in one of two attacks on Palm Sunday. People in Tanta packed the streets leading to the Coptic Church of Mar Girgis - or St. George - to pay their respects while relatives inside laid their bodies across the coffins and wept. A suicide bomber slipped past security and detonated the bomb...

Dozens of worshippers were killed or wounded when bombs were detonated at two Egyptian churches earlier today. The Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency quickly claimed credit for the attacks, saying that a “covert cell” had struck churches in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria. The first bomb was detonated at Saint George church in Tanta and the second at Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Alexandria. Pope Tawadros II, who heads the Coptic Orthodox Church, was reportedly in attendance at Saint Mark’s either shortly before or after the jihadists struck. Initial casualty reports say that at least 37 people were killed and...

The FBI is reported to be investigating bombs that exploded minutes apart at two Las Cruces, New Mexico churches Sunday morning.

It seems like every Sunday, there’s a new face sitting in the pews of the Church of Saint Verena and the Three Holy Youth in Orange, Calif. Most are young professionals or families with small children and some have been living in the United States for a just few weeks. “The first waves of immigration,” said Bishop Serapion of the Coptic Diocese of Los Angeles, Southern California and Hawaii. These worshipers are Egyptian Christians, better known as Copts. Their church is Coptic Orthodox, the largest Christian church in Egypt and the Middle East with services similar to other Christian faiths....

SNIPPET: "I. When considering the matter of jihadis online, remember that most of what we think we know is based on analyses of the comments made by an handful of vocal activists. The vast majority of jihadis online, be they on forums or social networking sites[i], say nothing. Skillful translations and insightful analyses by definition tell us little about this potentially lethal yet silent majority."

On Easter Sunday, 2012, a series of car bombs exploded, killing at least 38 and wounding hundreds, as stained glass shattered and brick and mortar rained down upon the congregants – in and around the All Nations Christian Assembly Church and the ECWA Good News Church, in Kaduna, Nigeria. On Christmas Day, 2011, a similar bombing killed 44 (and injured hundreds more) at a Catholic church in Madalla, Nigeria. North of the Sahara, far too many bombings to count have rocked the churches of North Africa, particularly those of the ten million plus terrified Coptic Christians in Egypt, since the...

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) -- Police in Nigeria say they arrested the suspected mastermind of a bomb attack on a Catholic church on Christmas Day, but he later escaped custody in a shootout. In a statement late Tuesday, Nigeria's federal police say the suspect escaped while being transferred to another police station. He'd earlier been identified as Kabiru Sokoto. The radical Islamist sect Boko Haram claimed responsibility for attacks that killed at least 42 people in Christmas Day strikes that included the bombing of a Catholic church in Madalla, a city near Nigeria's capital Abuja.

NABLUS, West Bank - Two churches in the West Bank were hit by firebombs early Saturday, witnesses and clergy said, and a group claiming responsiblity said the attacks were meant as a protest against comments by Pope Benedict XVI about Islam. ADVERTISEMENT The firebombs left black scorch marks on the walls and windows of a Roman Catholic and an Anglican church in the West Bank city of Nablus. Father Yousef, a priest at the Anglican Church, said several firebombs hit the church's outside wall. In a phone call to The Associated Press, a group calling itself the "Lions of Monotheism"...

Weston - In a gesture of sympathy and outreach, local Muslim leader Altaf Ali on Thursday stood before the parishioners of St. Katherine Drexel Catholic Church and condemned recent militant attacks on Catholic churches in Baghdad, insisting the violence ran counter to the "true tenet" of Islam.The Thanksgiving speech, delivered before a hushed congregation, referred to a string of bombings at churches in Baghdad, including predawn assaults on Oct. 16, the first day of Ramadan, that killed three and injured about 40 civlians."Your suffering is my suffering. Your sorrow is my sorrow. Your happiness is my happiness," said Ali, executive...

BAGHDAD — Predawn explosions yesterday ripped through five empty Christian churches in the Iraqi capital, ... Thousands of Christians have fled Iraq since the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein. The church bombings, while claiming no casualties, appeared calculated to intimidate the remaining believers, estimated to number about 800,000. ... "It was horrible," said Odet Abdul, 48, who attends one of the bombed churches and lives around the block, adding that she thought she was about to die when she heard the blast. "They want us to leave Iraq; that is the message." ... Christians in the capital swept...

Bombs exploded near five churches around Baghdad on Saturday morning followed by a mortar attack near a sixth church, causing damage but no casualties, officials said. "There were five explosions caused by improvised bombs near to these churches," said Colonel Adnan Abdelrahman, an Iraqi interior ministry spokesman. In an apparently coordinated strike against Iraq's tiny Christian community, the church of St Joseph in the west of the Iraqi capital was hit at about 4:00am (local time), the spokesman said. Twenty minutes later, another blast ripped through the streets at another St Joseph church, in Dora, southern Baghdad. After another 20...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Bombs exploded outside five churches in Baghdad and mortar rounds hit near a hospital and a hotel frequented by foreigners, as U.S. forces loosened a cordon around the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah after several days of clashes with rebels there. Meanwhile Saturday, the U.S. military said the deadline for Shiite militiamen to turn in their weapons in the Baghdad district of Sadr City had been extended for two days. Friday had been the deadline for militiamen loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to exchange guns for cash under a deal to end weeks of fighting with...

Iraq: No Injuries As Car Bomb Explodes Outside Baghdad Adventist Church September 13, 2004 Baghdad, Iraq .... [Alex Elmadjian/ANN] TWISTED WRECKAGE: A twisted lump of metal is all that remains of a car believed to have been packed with 330 pounds (150 kilograms) of explosives and parked outside the Baghdad Seventh-day Adventist Church. The bomb exploded late Friday night, damaging the church but avoiding injury. SHARDS LITTER THE FLOOR: Shattered glass litters part of the Baghdad Seventh-day Adventist Church sanctuary, in the aftermath of a Sept. 10 car bombing. FIRE DAMAGE: Part of the fire damage caused in the...

September 17, 2002   Bombing of Church in Nigeria on Anniversary of Twin Towers Attack The government of Plateau State, central Nigeria, has appealed for calm following a bomb explosion at a Christian church that has increased tensions in a region already shaken by inter-religious violence. The explosion on September 11 at the Church of Christ in Nigeria in the Laranto suburb of the state capital Jos, shook buildings in the surrounding area, causing slight structural damage to the church and covering the entire premises with a thick, dark smoke. So far there are no reported deaths or injuries. Thousands have...