Enraged Muslims burned down several Christian-owned homes, surrounded a church and threatened to kill a priest last week in two unrelated incidents in Upper Egypt.

Salafis have made a series of attacks and threats against Coptic Christians since the fall of the Hosni Mubarak regime on Feb. 11.

Christians from a local Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) congregation in this Plateau state town have been displaced after Muslim extremists set their church building and some homes on fire last month.

Attacks on Christians in the town go back to 2001, when the only Christian to ever become a council chairperson, identified only as Nimfel, was murdered following an outbreak of violence between Muslims and Christians in Plateau State, central Nigeria.

As she lay on the ground after being shot and then slashed with a machete by Muslim extremists, Dune James Rike looked into her husband’s tear-filled eyes and asked, “Is this the end between us, so we shall not be together again?”

Pastor James Musa Rike told Compass he held the hands of his dying, 35-year-old wife and told her, “Hold on to your faith in Jesus, and we shall meet and never part again.”

Hundreds of Muslims in Gujranwala on Saturday attacked homes of Christians, a school and a Presbyterian church building after learning that police had released two Christians accused of “blasphemy” – amid reports of another alleged desecration of the Quran.

The riots compelled a large number of Christian families to flee, as they feared the kind of large-scale violence that occurred in Gojra on Aug. 1, 2009, when at least seven Christians were burned alive by Muslim mobs after the spread of a rumor of blasphemy.

Danish artist Kurt Westergaard, known for his controversial caricature of the Prophet Mohammed, said Friday he had not been informed of a trial against him in Jordan and said he would in any case not attend.

“I have not done anything illegal in Denmark. I only did my job and I will always defend the right to freedom of expression,” he said, reiterating meanwhile that he had “never had the intention to offend Muslims and their faith with my caricature.”

At least one Christian was killed and others injured when thousands of Islamic extremists set fire to 59 churches and at least 28 homes in western Ethiopia in the past five days, Christian leaders said.

More than 4,000 Christians in and around Asendabo, Jimma Zone have been displaced as a result of attacks that began on Wednesday (March 2) after Muslims accused a Christian of desecrating the Quran by tearing up a copy, sources said.

Religious leaders, community members and activists took to the streets Sunday in New York to protest upcoming congressional hearings, convened by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, on “the radicalization of American Muslims.”

But do the hearing have the danger of portraying all Muslims and Islam as the enemy?

Gumen have shot and killed Pakistan’s Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian, who publicly challenged the country’s controversial blasphemy laws and demanded more rights for minority Christians in the mainly Islamic nation.

He was the only Christian in the cabinet.

Police have arrested a man concerning alleged assaults on children at a mosque after viewing a Channel 4 documentary screened on Monday.

Indonesia’s best-known radical cleric went on trial Monday on fresh terrorism charges as the predominantly Muslim nation grappled with a jump in religious tensions and violence, the Associated Press reports.

Young Muslims are being taught extremist views in British mosques, an undercover investigation has found.

Indonesian police stood guard outside churches Wednesday after a wave of religious hate crimes swept the mainly Muslim country, shocking civil society and sparking international concern.

Muslims extremists have attacked members of an heretical sect, killing three and injuring five others.

A Somali man has been found guilty of attempted terrorism for trying to kill a Danish cartoonist whose drawing of the Prophet Mohammed sparked Muslim outrage around the world.

Westergaard drew a cartoon of the Mohammad, considered to be the foremost prophet by Muslims, wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse.

Pakistan must immediately drop blasphemy charges against a teenager and let him out of jail, Human Rights Watch said.

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