Feb 10, 2025 | News & Stories
“When I was born, I was a slave.” Jal Masih was born into Pakistan’s modern-day slavery. (“Masih” means “messiah” and is the surname adopted by many Christians in Pakistan.) Jal’s grandfather became enslaved to a brick kiln owner, and his son and grandson inherited a...
Feb 5, 2025 | News & Stories
Pakistan is the fifth-largest country by population in the world. It’s not illegal to be a Christian, but they are only about 1% of the population. Most Pakistanis are Muslim (about 97%). Pakistan’s historic Christian population dates to 1947, when Pakistan and India...
Feb 3, 2025 | News & Stories
Meet Bina. Bina’s father was a Christian living in Pakistan. His neighbors pressured him to convert to Islam, but he refused. One day, as he went to the village well to bathe—just like everyone else—a mob of men attacked him with iron rods. They accused him of...
Jan 13, 2025 | News & Stories
They came without warning in the middle of the week. The coalition of armed rebel groups swept into Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo, overwhelming it in a matter of 72 hours. On the ground, people were terrified. Syrian government forces had driven the Islamist...
Jan 10, 2025 | News & Stories
Year Syrian revolution started: 2011 Number of Syrians who left the country: 6 million Number of Christians in 2020: 677,000 Comment from ICR field worker: “What will happen to Syria when the world looks away?”
Dec 12, 2024 | News & Stories
ICR seeks to address the needs of persecuted children in ways that are appropriate in each context. Helping children often involves education. Part of this is simply so they don’t fall behind in school due to displacement or war, but another reason why this support is...
Dec 12, 2024 | News & Stories
No one expected the events that took place in Syria in recent days. When President Bashar al-Assad left the country unexpectedly, Syrians rejoiced that his reign of terror was over. And yet, for Syrian Christians, both those from traditional backgrounds and converts...
Dec 11, 2024 | News & Stories
Hadiza watched her father be viciously murdered by Islamist terrorists in Nigeria when she was seven years old. Her family was displaced, and her mother struggled to provide. Sometimes they ate only once per day. ***** In the Arabian Peninsula, Noya*, Sazwa*, and...
Dec 2, 2024 | News & Stories
As another conflict brews in Syria, ICR workers already saw how difficult life there was. Another war will only make things worse. A recent study by the Central Bureau of Statistics in Syria showed that most Syrians live on one meal per day. According to the study,...
Nov 24, 2024 | News & Stories
“Hello, I am Halil*. I was born in a Muslim family. The first time I had a seizure was on the morning of June 1, 2020, during the pandemic. I was on my way to the bathroom when I fell and lost consciousness. When I opened my eyes, there were paramedics around me. They...
Nov 12, 2024 | News & Stories
Yerik was ready to face his family. He wanted to marry Rebecca, a woman he met at his church in Istanbul, Turkey. They had both prayed about marriage and were convinced it was God’s will for them. Yerik knew his devout Muslim family would want an elaborate Islamic...
Nov 8, 2024 | News & Stories
Although Turkey was the home of the early Christian church, it is now more than 96% Muslim. In recent years, it has been a difficult place to make disciples of Christ because of an Islamist government and strong anti-Christian propaganda throughout society. However,...