Middle East

By BosNewsLife Middle East Service ISTANBUL, TURKEY (BosNewsLife)-- A Turkish court on Friday, June 4, charged a Turkish man with murdering a Roman Catholic bishop -- the latest in a series of violent attacks against the country's tiny Christian minority.

By BosNewsLife Middle East Service DAMASCUS, SYRIA (BosNewsLife)-- Aid workers remain concerned over dozens of mainly elderly Christians in north-west Syria, after Islamic militants overran a Christian town, killing some 80 people, and forcing thousands of local residents to flee.

By Joseph C. DeCaro, BosNewsLife International Correspondent/BosNewsLife Middle East Service TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)-- A house church in the Iranian city of Ahvaz expressed concerns Sunday, September 5, about the whereabouts of one of its members, who they said has not been heard from since his arrest nearly six weeks ago.

By BosNewsLife Middle East Service with reporting by BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos CAIRO, EGYPT (BosNewsLife)-- The acting head of Egypt's Coptic Catholic Church pledged Wednesday to pray that the country's Islamic president-elect Mohammed Morsi will develop a democratic society that will respect rights of everyone, including minority Christians.

By BosNewsLife Middle East Service DAMASCUS, SYRIA (BosNewsLife)-- Suspected Islamic gunmen shot dead at least 11 people, mostly Christians, in central Syria on Saturday, August 17, in what local residents and activists said was the latest in a series of attacks on the country's Christian minority.

By BosNewsLife Middle East Service with BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)-- Iran's feared security service is pressuring an Iranian pastor to covert back to Islam ahead of an expected ruling by the country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini on whether the Christian can be executed by hanging for "apostasy", trial observers said Monday, October 24.  

By BosNewsLife Middle East Service CAIRO, EGYPT (BosNewsLife)-- Egyptian authorities on Thursday, October 4, released two Coptic Christian children who were accused of "insulting Islam" by allegedly urinating on a paper with verses of the Koran, prosecutors and other officials said.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)-- A jailed pastor of one of Iran's largest evangelical house church movements remains "strong in his faith" in Christ, despite facing execution before Christmas for refusing to return to Islam, a church official told BosNewsLife Wednesday, November 9.  

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife with BosNewsLife Middle East Service TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)-- A senior evangelical pastor and his wife are spending Christmas behind bars in southern Iran after security forces raided their Assemblies of God-affiliated church, detaining everyone in the building, including children attending Sunday School, a friend of the couple told BosNewsLife.  

By Martin Roth, BosNewsLife Senior Columnist MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA (BosNewsLife Columns)-- I found myself in a mild Twitterstorm the other day, if Christians politely disagreeing with one another can be called a Twitterstorm on social networking service Twitter...