Tag: Iraq

Syrian villages ‘liberated’ from Islamic State

May 22, 2015 Syria Iraq, Islamic State, Khabur, Kurds, Syria

All the villages along the Khabour River invaded by Islamic State miilitants three months ago have been liberated, according to reports given to the Catholic News Service (CNS). “This is very happy news,” Father Emanuel Youkhana, of Christian Aid Program Northern Iraq, told CNS. But he cautioned Christian villagers from . . . Read More

Internally displaced reach record high

May 7, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Democratic Republic of the Congo, IDPs, Iraq, Nigeria, Refugees, Sudan

The number of internally displaced people (IDPs) around the world is the “worst in a generation” according to a new report by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). A record-breaking 38 million have been displaced within their own country by conflict or violence. Iraq, South Sudan, Syria, Democratic Republic of Congo . . . Read More

Religious groups face extinction around world

May 4, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Anti-balaka, Armenian Genocide, Boko Haram, Central African Republic, Iraq, Kachin, Myanmar, Nigeria, Seleka, Sunni, Syria, UN

Campaigners warn that 100 years after the Armenian genocide there are still religious and ethnic groups facing extinction around the world. Groups identified include Christians in Iraq, Syria, Nigeria and the Central African Republic (CAR), and the Christian Kachin in Myanmar. Each of these countries is listed on the 2015 . . . Read More

2014: A year of particular concern

April 30, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Anti-balaka, Bashar al-Assad, BJP, Boko Haram, Central African Republic, Chibok girls, Chin, China, Egypt, Eritrea, Ghar Wapsi, Hindu nationalism, India, Iran, Iraq, Islamic State, Kachin, Kano, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Potiskum, Rohingya, Saudi Arabia, Seleka, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, USA, Uzbekistan, Vietnam

If ever there were a year that made plain the importance of religious freedom, 2014 was it, according to the just-released annual report by an American government advisory group. “By any measure, the horrors of the past year speak volumes about how and why religious freedom and the protection of the . . . Read More

‘Kill the Christians’

April 15, 2015 Iraq, Islamic extremism, Maaloula, Middle East, Nineveh Plains, Syria

A BBC documentary, ‘Kill the Christians’, is available on the BBC iPlayer (for those with access) until April 14, 2015. The hour-long programme reports on how “Christianity is facing the greatest threat to its existence in the very place where it was born … the Middle East”. The documentary includes . . . Read More

‘Fabric of Iraqi society depends on Christians’

April 15, 2015 Iraq Erbil, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul

The head of the Catholic Church in Britain said after a weekend visit to the Iraqi city of Erbil that “the presence of the Christian community is essential” for the rebuilding of Iraq’s fractured society, once the Islamic State is overthrown there. But he admitted, “There is no way the . . . Read More

ISIS commentators ‘too simplistic’

April 14, 2015 Iraq Assyrians, Chaldeans, Iraq, Islamic State, Syria, Syriacs

After ISIS’s arrival in Iraq, Assyrian Christians have been “reduced to 1% or less of the general population”, but many commentators are “far too simplistic” in their explanations, says Jeremy Courtney, an American Christian living in Iraq. Assyrians link back to the ancient Assyrian Kingdom of the Bible, across the . . . Read More

Turkish authorities ask tiny Christian community to help Yazidi refugees

April 9, 2015 Turkey Diyarbakir, Iraq, Islamic State, Jerry Mattix, Refugees, Suruç, Syria, Turkey, Yazidis

As a Turkish Christian, Ender Peker is used to facing hostility from religious Muslims, particularly because he lives in Turkey’s conservative southeast. So he was shocked last fall when an imam asked him to take over food distribution at a nearby refugee camp. “He said to me, ‘I want you . . . Read More

Assyrian Christians flee jihadists to southeast Turkey

March 27, 2015 Syria Armenians, Assyrians, Bashar al-Assad, Genocide, Iraq, Islamic State, Khabur, Kidnapping, Lebanon, Qamishli, Syriacs, Turkey

A harsh Islamic State offensive begun in late February against Syria’s dwindling Assyrian Christian population is accelerating a steady trickle of Christian refugees trying desperately to reach safety in Turkey, northern Iraq and Lebanon. But their future is far from guaranteed as refugees in Muslim-majority Turkey, where according to Turkish . . . Read More

Christian forgiveness of IS goes viral

March 20, 2015 Iraq Iraq, Islamic State, Middle East, Qaraqosh

Two videos of Christians forgiving members of the so-called Islamic State for atrocities committed against their families have gone viral on social media. In the first, a 10-year-old Iraqi girl named Myriam says she forgives IS for forcing her family out of their home in Qaraqosh. The second features an . . . Read More

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