Tag: Islamic State

Over 800,000 call on UN to protect Christians in Middle East

December 12, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Bartella, Bashar Warda, Brazil, India, Iraq, Islamic State, Karamles, Middle East, Mike Pence, New York, Qaraqosh, Syria, UN, USA

Noeh (bottom) with his parents, Hathem and Almas, and siblings Sam (17), Jan Hannah (14), and Salina (7). (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A petition signed by more than 800,000 people will be presented at the United Nations in New York today (12 December), calling for the protection of Christians and other minorities in Iraq and Syria, and recognition of the key role faith leaders can play in rebuilding efforts post-Islamic State. The . . . Read More

Pakistan: bomb attack on Christian colony kills young boy

December 6, 2017 Pakistan Balochistan, Islamic State, Pakistan, Taliban

Location where a mob burnt alive two men in angry reaction to twin church suicide bomb attacks in Youhanabad, March 2015. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A seven-year-old boy and two others were killed earlier this week during a hand grenade attack on the gates of a Christian colony in Chaman, south-western Pakistan, reports UCA News. Police named the boy as Lucky Saleem. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, which came days after Taliban . . . Read More

Syria: Homs Christians return to rebuild homes and lives

December 5, 2017 Syria Homs, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Syria

Basima in her renovated kitchen. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Syrians who fled the city of Homs five years ago are slowly returning to rebuild their homes and lives. Much of Syria’s third largest city has been destroyed, but Maha says she is just “so happy” to be back. With her husband and her sister, she recently returned to live . . . Read More

Young refugees ‘urgently need access to education’

November 30, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Amman, Children, Education, Erbil, Hungary, Iraq, Islamic State, Jordan, Nineveh Plains, Refugees, UN, Youth

The new Catholic University of Erbil offers displaced young people an opportunity to continue their education.

At the start of the 10th session of the UN Forum on Minority Issues, which this year focuses on ‘minority youth’, human rights advocate Ewelina Ochab draws attention to the obstacles displaced young people face in accessing education. Ochab describes meeting Iraqi Christian youth and children in Jordan. Their families . . . Read More

Bangladesh: Catholic priest missing as Pope Francis arrives

November 30, 2017 Bangladesh Bangladesh, Catholics, Dhaka, Education, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Pope Francis, Religious freedom

Pope Francis hold hands with President of Bangladesh Abdul Hamid (L) upon arriving at the Presidential palace in Dhaka on 30 November 2017. (Photo: VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images)

Pope Francis has arrived in Bangladesh, where a Catholic priest disappeared three days ago, highlighting the pressure Christians and other minority groups are under in the mainly Muslim country. Father Walter William Rozario, who is also the headmaster of a high school, went missing in northern Natore district on 27 . . . Read More

Egypt: 21 churches receive long-delayed government approval to build

November 29, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Al-Azhar, Anba Macarius, Cairo, Churches, Copts, Egypt, El-Arish, Islamic State, Minya, Pentecostals, Port Said, Protestants, Religious freedom, Samalut, Sinai, Sohag, Sunni, Upper Egypt, USA

Twenty-one churches in Egypt’s southern rural Minya governorate can restore, expand and rebuild their churches after receiving approval from the Minya Governor. Governor Essam al-Bedeiwi approved the 21 applications over the last six months. Some of the churches had been waiting for more than 20 years for a permit to come . . . Read More

Iraq and Philippines Christians join Red Wednesday religious freedom solidarity display

November 22, 2017 Bashar Warda, Belgium, China, Copts, Egypt, France, IDPs, India, Iraq, Islamic State, London, Manila, Myanmar, Nineveh Plains, Religious freedom, Rohingya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, UN, Uyghurs

Landmarks in the UK, Ireland, Iraq and the Philippines are due to be floodlit in red today (22 November) to highlight the persecution of faith groups for their “peacefully held beliefs”. The “Red Wednesday” initiative is in its second year and has been pioneered by Aid to the Church in . . . Read More

ISIS ‘the greatest preacher for Christianity in the world’

November 21, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Cairo, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Middle East, Minya, Samaan Shehata

More than 20 people lost their lives in the Palm Sunday attack on the St George Cathedral in Tanta, Egypt.

An Egyptian bishop says that by killing hundreds of Christians across the Middle East the Islamic State group has in fact strengthened the Church and been “the greatest preacher for Christianity in the world”. Bishop Stephen of Beba and Fashn, speaking during a memorial service for the murdered Coptic priest . . . Read More

Universal Children’s Day: Kidnapped Christina receives letter from German namesake

November 20, 2017 Iraq Ankawa, Children, Christina Abada, Erbil, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul, Qaraqosh, Refugees

Five-year-old Christina, shortly after she was reunited with her family, including mother Ayda in the back. (Twitter @thestevennabil)

When German teenager Christina learned that a three-year-old girl with the same name from Qaraqosh, Iraq, had been abducted by Islamic State militants in August 2014, she started praying. A few months ago she heard the news of Christina’s release and decided to write a letter to the little girl, . . . Read More

Bangladesh: 12 militants charged with Catholic’s murder

November 17, 2017 Bangladesh Bangladesh, Catholics, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Jamaat-ul-Mujahedin Bangladesh

Street in the capital Dhaka, February 2016. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Police in Bangladesh’s northern Natore district have charged 12 militants with the murder of a Catholic shopkeeper in June last year. The charges followed a reported confession by a militant leader in custody, who is said to have admitted that members of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, an organisation affiliated to the Islamic . . . Read More

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