Tag: Islamic State

‘Extremists given a free hand’ – Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

April 16, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Balochistan, Blasphemy, Human rights, Islamabad, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Minorities, Nadeem Masih, Pakistan, Patras Masih, Quetta, Religious freedom, Sajid Masih, Sawan Masih, UN

Pakistani Christians experience an increase in violence such as a suicide attack on the Bethel Methodist Church in Quetta in December last year that killed more than ten and injured dozens of people. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Two Pakistani Christians were killed and at least three injured in a drive-by shooting on Sunday (15 April) in Essa Nagri, a Christian-majority area in Quetta, capital of the impoverished Balochistan province in the southwest. The victims, aged 19 and 28, had just left a church service when they were . . . Read More

Nigerian president assures UK archbishop of efforts to secure release of Christian girl

April 12, 2018 Nigeria Chibok girls, Commonwealth, Dapchi, Delta State, Fulani herdsmen, Islamic State, Justin Welby, Leah Sharibu, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari received Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, at Nigeria's High Commission in London on 11 April 2018. (Photo: Facebook)

Following a meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the President of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari has said his government is working “quietly” to secure the release of a teenage Christian girl kidnapped by Boko Haram. Archbishop Justin Welby, as well as Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Nigerian Archbishop Dr Josiah . . . Read More

Egypt church bombings: Court considers death sentences for 36

April 11, 2018 Egypt Alexandria, Cairo, Islamic State, Tanta

Chaos in St George's cathedral, Tanta, after a suicide bomber blew himself up during the Palm Sunday liturgy

An Egyptian military court has asked the country’s highest-ranking Muslim legal authority whether 36 people should receive the death penalty for their role in three deadly church bombings. Reuters reports that the court’s referral was announced Tuesday, 10 April, by state television. The accused are suspected of taking part in . . . Read More

Christians in Gaza fear the arrival of Islamic State

April 11, 2018 Palestinian Territories Egypt, Gaza, Islamic State, Israel, Minorities, Palestinian Territories, Sinai

A street in Gaza city showing flags of different Palestinian political groups and factions. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Reports that militants of the self-proclaimed Islamic State have entered the Gaza Strip through Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula have created fear among local Christians. Fr Mario da Silva told the Spanish Catholic news website ACI Prensa: “There is now a lot of fear with the news that the Islamic . . . Read More

Egypt: Three arrested for plotting Easter attacks

April 11, 2018 Egypt Alexandria, Copts, Islamic State, Palm Sunday, Sohag, Tanta

Coptic Church in central Egypt. (Photo: World Watch Monitor, 2004)

Egyptian security forces arrested three people suspected of planning to target Coptic churches during last Sunday’s Orthodox Easter celebrations. Sources said that police arrested three Egyptians in the city of Maragha, in Egypt’s southern province of Sohag last Thursday, as churches prepared for three days of services culminating on Easter . . . Read More

Czech aid worker recounts torture by IS convicts in Sudan prison

April 10, 2018 Sudan Abdulmonem Abdumawla, Al-Qaeda, Hassan Taour, Islamic State, Petr Jašek, Sudan, Torture

The Czech aid worker released in February 2017 after being imprisoned for 14 months in Sudan on spying charges has revealed how he was tortured by fellow inmates,. Petr Jasek explained at a conference in the US organised by charity Voice of the Martyrs that he was treated like a . . . Read More

The Mosul church that tells the story of a city

April 9, 2018 Iraq Hisbah, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul, Nineveh Plains

“One story of Mosul today can be told through a church in ancient Mosul that was once used by ISIS,” begins a photo essay by Mosul journalist Ali Y. Al-Baroodi. Al-Baroodi, a photographer and translator based in Mosul, has been documenting the destruction and recovery of his home city. His . . . Read More

Iraq: children wounded in Easter Monday explosion

April 4, 2018 Iraq Bartella, Children, Easter, Erbil, IDPs, Iraq, Islamic State, Nineveh Plains, Qaraqosh

Four children were wounded on Easter Monday when a bomb exploded outside a medical complex in Bartella, east of Mosul, according to Iraqi News. No group has claimed responsibility but it is believed that Islamic State militants were behind it, a source told the news site. Despite its military defeat, . . . Read More

Iraq’s Assyrian Christians: persecution and resurgence

April 4, 2018 Iraq Ankawa, Assyrians, Bartella, Chaldeans, Erbil, Iraq, Islamic State, Karamles, Kurds, Migrants, Nineveh Plains, Peshmerga, Qaraqosh, Refugees, Saddam Hussein, Syria, Women, Yazidis

Samir Gedhya never wanted to leave his home in Qaraqosh for the unknown, even when the Islamic State group was almost at his doorstep, sweeping through the towns of Iraq. As the menace to Qaraqosh loomed, his eldest son Faraj, then 16, decided to flee to France, entering by a . . . Read More

Easter in Qaraqosh – for many their first since returning home

April 3, 2018 Iraq Assyrians, Easter, Iraq, Islamic State, Qaraqosh

On Sunday, many of Iraq’s Christians celebrated their first Easter since returning to their homes. With the help of local churches and other organisations, people in the country’s largest Christian city, Qaraqosh (also known as Baghdida), have restored their homes and are now attempting to recover the lives they lost . . . Read More

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