Tag: Islamic State

ISIS orders last Christians out of Mosul

July 18, 2014 Iraq Erbil, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Middle East, Mosul

The Islamist militants controlling the Iraqi city of Mosul have ordered all remaining Christians to leave town immediately or face execution, according to news sources. Middle East Concern, a London-based association of Christian-rights agencies with operations in the Middle East, reported Friday that the militants controlling Mosul had summoned Christian . . . Read More

Mosul’s two kidnapped Chaldean nuns released

July 15, 2014 Iraq Catholics, Chaldeans, Churches, Dohuk, Europe, Islamic State, Kidnapping, Louis Raphael I Sako, Mosul, NATO, Nineveh Plains

Update (15 July) Two kidnapped nuns who managed an orphanage for girls in Mosul, and two women and a boy, who were kidnapped on 28 June have been released. According to ankawa.com no ransom was paid for the release of the five Assyrian victims who are in good health and . . . Read More

First time in 1600 years no Mass said in Mosul, Iraq, says Chaldean Archbishop

June 27, 2014 Iraq Ankawa, Bashar Warda, Chaldeans, Dohuk, Erbil, Iraq, Islamic State, Jizya, Mosul, Peshmerga, Qaraqosh

The Chaldean Catholic Church’s Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, in Kurdish-governed Northern Iraq, is reported as saying that for the first time in 1600 years there was no Mass said in Mosul on Sunday June 15th. This is the city taken over days before by ISIS forces. Reports say the . . . Read More

Fewer Christians left to flee

June 18, 2014 Iraq Alqosh, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul

Over the years, the Christian town of Alqosh, Iraq, has served as a refuge to Christians of Mosul who have fled various waves of violence in their home city. Now, with the jihadist ISIS in control of Mosul, most of those fleeing the city for comparative safety in Alqosh are . . . Read More

Why Christians are under pressure to exit Iraq

June 13, 2014 Iraq Islamic State, Jizya, Kirkuk, Kurds, Mosul, Saddam Hussein, Syria

Internally displaced Iraqi girl holding a children’s Bible. Kurdistan, November 2007.World Watch Monitor BBC reports have described ISIS ambitions to create an Islamist caliphate spreading from northern Iraq across to north-west Syria. If ISIS can hold Mosul and consolidate its presence there, it will have taken a giant step . . . Read More

Mosul Christians tell of ISIS forces’ Iraqi takeover

June 12, 2014 Iraq Alqosh, Ankawa, Baghdad, Dohuk, Erbil, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Mosul, Sunni, Syria

The radical Sunni Islamist ISIS forces continue their takeover of cities in Iraq. Many have fled possible clashes between ISIS and the Iraqi army, and the feared violence ISIS has already shown in places it controls, such as Syrian city Raqqa. Thousands are now in Erbil, 88km (55 miles) east . . . Read More

Up to 1000 Christian families flee Iraq’s second city

June 10, 2014 Iraq Alqosh, Dohuk, Islamic State, Mosul, Qaraqosh, Syria

Christian families fled Mosul in February 2010 successive to at least 12 people being killed in anti-Christian violence. Some of the refugees gathered in this monastery in Al Qosh.World Watch Monitor A mass exodus is underway from Iraq’s second largest city Mosul after its seizure by the ISIS, the . . . Read More

ISIS makes Christians an offer

February 27, 2014 Syria Islamic State, Jizya, Raqqa, Syria

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS, has posted a list of options for Christians in the Syrian city of Raqqa: 1. Convert to Islam 2. Pay a tax equivalent to 1/4 ounce of gold. Remove all symbols of Christianity from public view. Pray only in private. . . . Read More

Radical Islamists ‘control much of northern Syria’

November 7, 2013 Syria Bashar al-Assad, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Maaloula, Raqqa, Sadad

CNN claims ISIS has taken control of key entry points into the city of Aleppo.David Holt / Flickr / Creative Commons A new survey of Syrian towns by CNN suggests that much of northern Syria has come under the control of radical Islamist groups. CNN claims that Islamist militants, . . . Read More

Missing Italian priest ‘still alive’

October 2, 2013 Syria Boulos Yazigi, Europe, Islamic State, Kidnapping, Paolo Dall’Oglio, Sharia, Yohanna Ibrahim

An Italian Jesuit priest who went missing in Syria several months ago is still alive, according to an Assyrian priest speaking at the European Parliament on Tuesday (October 1). Archdeacon Emanuel Youkhana of the Assyrian Church in the East said the latest reports from inside Syria were that Father Paolo . . . Read More

Catching Our Eye