These articles were first published in our September edition of the newspaper, click here for more.
Judges in Belgium fined a Roman Catholic care home for refusing to euthanise a 74year-old woman, it emerged in July.
The rest home in Diest was ordered to pay €6,000 (£4,545) after it prevented doctors from giving Mariette Buntjens, a lung cancer sufferer, a lethal injection. She died ‘in peaceful surroundings’ at her home a few days later. Labour MP Robert Flello described the judgment as ‘worrying’ and said there is a ‘risk that care homes will now close across Belgium’.
Uniformed men armed with guns and machetes attacked three Christian communities in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo on 5 July.
They looted homes and stole livestock, killing five women and four men, including a church elder. The attack came only two months after more than 30 Christians were murdered in a similar-style assault in another village. Thousands of people fled the area as a result.
An Egyptian Coptic bishop called for an end to discrimination against the country’s Christians in early July.
In an interview with a Christian website, Bishop Makarius urged the government to do more to control the situation in villages across the country. He said that ‘marginalis-ing Copts incapacitates part of the Egyptian body’, adding: ‘We have to recognise everyone in Egypt as citizens of equal rights and obligations’. The pace of attacks has reportedly increased to one every ten days.
The Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul, who was murdered in 2008, paid protection money to safeguard his clergy for years before his kidnapping and death, an aide revealed in July.
Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was abducted from the Iraqi city of Mosul, then a stronghold of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. His body was found two weeks later after the church and his relatives refused to pay a ransom. He is the highest-ranking cleric to be killed by Al-Qaeda or its offshoots.
A court in Nairobi charged four police offi-cers in connection with the murder of a Christian lawyer and two of his companions in July.
Willie Kimani, Josephat Mwenda and their driver, Joseph Muiruri, went missing in June after Mr Kimani filed a case against a police officer on behalf of Mr Mwenda. Their killing provoked widespread protest against extrajudicial killings in Kenya. The four pleaded not guilty but the judge ordered they remain in custody. They face three counts of murder.
Details have slowly emerged of attacks carried out by mainly Muslim Fulani herdsmen in central Nigeria’s Benue state, near its border with Taraba state, from late June until July. Attacks were on the communities of Logo, Ukum and part of Wukari.
Reports said that 81 people were killed, but local sources contacted by World Watch Monitor said that the toll has now reached at least 133. An undetermined number of properties have been looted or destroyed, including 65 churches.
The Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram reportedly has a new leader who has said the group’s main goal is to target Christians.
According to the ISIS newspaper al-Nabaa, Abu Musab al-Barnawi is their new leader. Boko Haram is responsible for killing thousands of Muslims and Christians in Nigeria but the terrorist group now says it will specifically target Christians and will fight the ‘Christianization of society’.
A 17-year-old Christian woman was raped by a Muslim man in Pakistan’s Punjab province on 7 July.
Sonia, whose parents were working at the time, was walking to the shops when Iqrar Hussain, personal bodyguard for politician Irfan Dogar, caught her and took her to his house. The police initially refused to register the incident because Irfan Dogar put pressure on them. But Christian organisations and the Christian Federal Minister for Human Rights intervened, and Iqrar Hussain has been arrested.
Almost 500,000 signatures supporting Poland’s abortion ban were delivered in 35 boxes to the Polish Parliament on 5 July by a large contingent of pro-life activists.
The petition calls for a total ban on abortion, as Poland currently allows it in certain cases. According to Polish law, a group of citizens can propose a Bill to Parliament. By law, they were required to collect a minimum of 100,000 signatures.
A book on the Rwandan genocides, published by Langham Partnership’s publishing ministry in the Langham Global Library imprint, won an international award in late June. From Genocide to John Steward’s Generosity, which highlights programmes that encourage transformation and healing between the people groups in Rwanda, won the 2015 INDIEFAB Gold Award for the grief/grieving category. Steward said the award ‘justly honors the steps towards healing of many in the country of Rwanda’.
The Association of Christian Media for Southern Africa has honoured TWR Africa with a special media award at their annual gala dinner and awards ceremony in Cape Town. The trophy is awarded to the member who has promoted the family the most over the past year – Project Hannah Africa was recognised for its work in 2015.
Project Hannah is TWR’s women’s ministry, centred around the radio programme Women of Hope which brings together practical and spiritual teaching under a common theme.
The Sudan Government fired the headmistress of a Christian school in North Khartoum, according to a report in July.
Police showed up at the school, handed over a letter of dismissal, and physically removed her, installing another teacher in her office, sources said. The police were accompanied by civilians who support Muslim investors’ desire to take over the church property on which the school stands. The teacher was fired for criticising the attempted takeover, a source said.
Two churches in cities in eastern Turkey infamous as the sites of historic killings of Christians were vandalised during the attempted coup on 15 July, according to Middle East Concern.
One of the attacks took place in the city of Malatya, where three Christians were tortured and killed in 2007, leading to a still-ongoing court case against the five suspects. Turkish Christians had hoped for a final verdict in June, but the trial was instead adjourned until September.
A former imam in eastern Uganda lost his home, family and work in June because he left Islam for Christianity.
Muslim relatives drove Kuluseni Iguru Tenywa, a former imam, from his ancestral home on the night of 27 June in Budhagali village, Jinja District. Tenywa had to leave behind his wife and four children.
Tim LaHaye, co-author of the Left Behind series, passed away on 25 July days after suffering a stroke.
The 90-year-old, alongside Jerry B. Jenkins, wrote books which dramatised the premillennial view of the tribulation. They sold 62 million copies of the series, which spent a total of 300 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. In addition to his wife Beverley, Dr LaHaye is survived by four children; nine grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren.