The Reformed Evangelical Church of Indonesia had organised an open-air service at a football stadium in Yogyakarta, a city on an Indonesian Island. In their cancellation statement they called it ‘a national prayer service to mark 500 years of Reformation’.

But the Forum Ukhuwah Islamiyah (FUI), who are part of the Indonesian Ulema Council – a body of Muslims that converse between the Indonesian government and the Muslim community – wrote to the stadium officials asking them to not let the gathering go ahead because they believed it would involve evangelism.

They also threatened to disrupt the service if it went ahead.

The Christian organisers, led by the Reverend Stephen Tong, therefore cancelled the event “to avoid acts of intolerance”.
Police rejected the claim that hardliner pressure forced the cancellation of the service.

Yogyakarta police spokesman Yulianto said it did not go ahead because organizers did not have a permit to stage the event.

This is the second time a major Christian event has been cancelled in less than a year – a Christmas service in West Java, also led by Reverend Tong, was stopped by hardliners as well.

The town was only liberated from IS last year, with many only having returned recently to rebuild their homes.

However, violence broke out again last week, meaning many Christians in the town have been displaced to nearby Alqosh and surrounding areas. 

The conflict is between Peshmerga Kurdish forces and Iraqi forces. 

The Iraqi Christian Relief Council reported on Twitter that: “Kurdish Peshmerga have been shooting indiscriminately…to make it appear as though the Iraqi Army is injuring civilians”.

They added: “Three Christian children were caught in the crossfire and injured while playing soccer. One woman was also injured.”

The town’s inhabitants were told by a representative of the Iraqi government that they had “until sunrise to evacuate”, according to Fox News.

The Iraqi army were planning to forcibly remove Peshmerga from Telskuf – which is 19 miles north of Mosul in the morning.

It seemed they warned the town civilians as they wanted them out of the way.

Telskuf was freed from IS control in 2016 and rebuilt with $2 million (£151 milliion) of aid money from Hungary.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief launched the report on Wednesday, to mark International Freedom of Religion or Belief Day which falls on 27th October.

Entitled Article 18: From Rhetoric to Reality, it highlights that Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights hasn’t been taken seriously in several instances across the world.

It also underlines practical measures that the UK Government can take to protect the millions who are vulnerable to violence and discrimination.

Christian DUP MP Jim Shannon told Premier it’s time to stop talking about Article 18 and “make it a reality”.

He added: “We want to make it a critical priority they would establish a programme within the Foreign Commonwealth Office to ensure all their embassies are able to respond to persecution.”

The report compiled an extensive amount of persecution evidence across the world including the Eritrean Orthodox Church patriarch who has been jailed for several years, bombings at Egyptian Coptic churches, and the 800,000 Rohinyga Muslims and 120,000 Christians that have fled Myanmar.

In the foreword to the report Dr Ahmed Shaheed, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion or Belief said: “Despite global commitments to promote and to protect freedom of religion or belief, the scale of violations remains enormous, with almost 80 per cent of the world’s population living in countries with “high” or…

The world’s largest food and beverage company has been using a picture of the Greek Orthodox building in Santorini without the crosses on top of the famous blue domes of the church for its yogurt packaging.

This follows a number of other retailers photoshopping the Christian symbol from their products.

Lidl erased crosses from the same picture of the Church of the Resurrection on the Greek island from its Eridanous brand Greek-style yogurt – an in-house label which also includes a range of feta cheese, moussaka, and pistachio products, last month.

The controversy led to many people expressing their anger on social media and the UK’s most senior Orthodox Church figure encouraged church members to stop buying products from the German supermarket.

Customers also voiced their displeasure on the Lidl UK page, with some pointing out that the chain offers Islamic Halal meat products that feature mosques with minarets.

The firm told Premier on 8th September: “We are sincerely sorry for any offence caused by the artwork on our Eridanous product range and can confirm that we will be revising the packaging design as soon as possible.”

While Lidl claimed it didn’t intend to express an ideological or political stance with its products or product design, the firm told Premier that it would be “revising the packaging design as soon as possible” and apologised.
Nestlé have not issued any statements on the cross deletions.