Turkey unprepared for Trump’s counter-demand

Turkey unprepared for Trump’s counter-demand
Turkey was unprepared in mid-May when a new bilateral issue emerged with the United States during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s meeting with his US counterpart Donald Trump in Washington DC, Al-Monitor reports. There were already two obvious agenda items between the two presidents: Turkey’s outspoken objection to Washington’s decision . . . Read More

US Commission urges Trump administration to prioritise international religious freedom

US Commission urges Trump administration to prioritise international religious freedom
An influential US government commission that monitors religious freedom around the world is urging President Donald Trump and his new administration to take concrete steps to make advocacy of universal religious rights a priority in American foreign policy. “Our foreign policy should not simply be about US self-interest – you know, . . . Read More

Trump presses Turkish president to release jailed US pastor

Andrew Brunson in a photo provided by his family.
US President Donald Trump has raised the issue of a US pastor imprisoned in Turkey during his first face-to-face meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Washington DC, reports CNN. According to the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), both President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence spoke . . . Read More

US Vice-President says Trump will protect Middle East Christians and flush out ‘terrorists’

US Vice-President says Trump will protect Middle East Christians and flush out ‘terrorists’
US Vice-President Mike Pence has said that the Trump administration is committed “to defend[ing] Christians, and those of all faiths, whose freedom of religion is threatened”. He was speaking on the first day of the World Summit In Defence of Persecuted Christians in Washington DC, which has been organised by . . . Read More

Relatives of Coptic ‘martyrs’ join summit on persecuted Christians in US capital

Relatives of Coptic ‘martyrs’ join summit on persecuted Christians in US capital
A “World Summit in Defence of Persecuted Christians” has started in Washington DC, and is expected to be addressed by the US Vice-President Mike Pence today (Thursday, 11 May). It has been organised by American evangelist Franklin Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. 600 participants have come from 136 countries: including Egypt, . . . Read More

US Christian arrested for ‘hostile acts’ against North Korea

US Christian arrested for ‘hostile acts’ against North Korea
A fourth US citizen has been detained in North Korea, as he prepared to leave the country after working for several weeks at the Pyongyang University for Science and Technology, which trains the children of North Korea’s elite and which numbers Christians on its staff. The North Korean state-run news agency KCNA said . . . Read More

Trump travel ban dints Iraqi Christians’ support

Iraqi Christians who backed the candidacy of Donald Trump have become disillusioned with his presidency since his executive order barred Iraqis, along with citizens of six other Muslim-majority countries, from entering the US. Many Iraqi minorities supported Trump because of his anti-Islamic State rhetoric. The Assyrian Church of the East’s . . . Read More

‘Religious freedom key to Trump war on terrorism’

An American Muslim says propagating freedom of religion is the key to US President Donald Trump’s aim to “eradicate” radicalism and terrorism “from the face of the earth”. Amer Aziz, writing for The Hill, praised the establishment in 1998 of an office of Religious Freedom in the US State Department, . . . Read More

Trump’s pledge to persecuted Christians – welcome news or harmful to those he seeks to protect?

Trump’s pledge to persecuted Christians – welcome news or harmful to those he seeks to protect?
Donald Trump has spoken of the need to prioritise refugees from persecuted faith groups – especially Christians – at the same time as he has halted immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. World Watch Monitor summarises the response of Christian opinion leaders in America and elsewhere. US President Donald Trump’s executive order . . . Read More

Trump’s migrant policy ‘a trap for Christians’

US President Donald Trump’s fast-tracking of Christian refugees from the Middle East will be “a trap,” according to Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako, Primate of the Eastern Catholic Church. “Every reception policy that discriminates the persecuted and suffering on religious grounds ultimately harms the Christians of the East,” he . . . Read More