These articles were first published in our March edition of the newspaper, click here for more.
A Christian was sentenced on 8 January to a year in prison for a post he made on Facebook in 2015.
Samir Chamek, 34, was found guilty of insulting Islam and its prophet where police said he had compared Muhammed to Hitler. He had originally been given a longer sentence and a fine. His appeal was based on his sharing of the material and not being the author of it.
The legalisation of assisted suicide could save more than $100 million per year for the Canadian health care system, an alarming study claimed in January.
Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party passed assisted suicide into law in 2016. The study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, has been criticised for putting social pressure on people to die. A saving per year of between $34.7 and $138.8 million could be made.
Over the Christmas weekend, more than 40 people were killed in the city of Beni and neighbouring communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
A report by the UN Panel of Experts is clear that Islamist militants have caused havoc in the eastern province of North-Kivu over the past few years. A Christian missionary said he thinks the aim of Islamic missionaries to install a caliphate between Beni, Eringeti and the border of Uganda has been achieved. Rich mineral deposits in the area fund the militants’ plans.
On 16 January, a Coptic Christian was killed in Cairo.
His death, reported to be by the throat being cut, bears similarities with the deaths of other Coptic Christians over a two-week period. Each victim had their throat cut, while money and other valuables were left behind – even though police had tried to say robbery was the motive behind at least one of the murders.
Doctors have created a ‘brain-reading’ device allowing them to communicate with patients who have ‘locked-in syndrome’, it was reported in early February.
Neuroscientists said the technology which reads brain activity to decipher if a patient is answering ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a question, is the ‘first sign that completely locked-in syndrome may be abolished forever’. All four patients who were tested indicated that they were happy with life.
A Dutch doctor who held down a patient and euthanised her against her will did not break the law, a panel ruled in early February.
The Regional Review Committee in the Netherlands concluded that the female doctor, who was reprimanded, had ‘acted in good faith’ even though the patient, who suffered from dementia, said she ‘didn’t want to die’ and tried to fight off the doctor. The patient had been given a sleeping drug in her coffee by the doctor. She was held down by her family members as she was euthanised.
A Christian in Chiapas state, Mexico was jailed for three days on 7 January for refusing to deny his faith and contribute to Catholic festivals.
Local authorities threatened Juan Gabriel Lopez Perez that he would not be released unless he sold his house and left the area within 20 days. When Lopez Perez fell ill two days into his 72-hour sentence and was temporarily released to obtain medical care, his wife was obliged to serve the time in jail in his place.
Gujranwala police arrested a 70-year-old Christian man from the village of Lambanwali over an alleged act of blasphemy on 28 January.
He could face ten years in jail for the alleged crime. His entire family were arrested by ten police officers who came to his home at 10pm. The BPCA was able to obtain the release of the family who were not accused, and all the family members are in a BPCA safe house with legal costs for the family covered by supporters.
On 23 January, Muslim vandals torched the home of a Christian man over an alleged property dispute.
The family, all asleep in the house, were awakened by the screams of their two-year-old child. In November, a neighbour tried to force the victim to sell his property to him for a lower then average price. Upon refusing to do this, he was warned that he would die and his family would pay the consequences for his refusal. Other neighbours had also threatened him, and the rape of his daughter appears to be linked to the dispute.
The British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA) joined its voice with others in highlighting the rising tide of ‘disappearances’ associated with blasphemy cases against human rights activists in Pakistan.
Ten bloggers and activists have disappeared since the start of January, and all had written online about disappearances and human rights abuses perpetrated by both the security forces and religious extremists.
After spending more than three years in jail, a Christian accused of blasphemy, and facing the death penalty, was granted bail by the Supreme Court in Lahore on 1 February.
Adnan Prince had was accused by a work colleague of insulting Islam, the Qur’an and Islam’s prophet. According to his lawyer the case should have been settled within two years, but it had been delayed by the prosecution.
A pastor in eastern Uganda and eight other Christians are missing two weeks after a Muslim mob attacked a church prayer meeting on 15 January.
Approximately 90 Muslims broke into the evening prayer meeting of 80 people. The assailants locked about half of those in attendance inside the building, beat the men and tied them up while they raped women, said a church elder stationed outside the building who escaped. The pastor was accused of converting Muslims.
A Christian counselling student received $25,000 in compensation in January after he was dismissed from his university’s counselling programme.
Andrew Cash, who had been studying at Missouri State University (MSU) between 2007 and 2014, was removed from his degree course after he said he would not counsel same sex couples on their relationships. The MSU Board of Governors agreed to pay him ‘the estimated tuition cost to obtain a master’s degree in counselling from Evangel University or another similar institution’ in an out-of-court settlement.