Tag: Islamic State

Persecuted Christians celebrate Easter with mixed emotions

April 3, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Aleppo, Bashar Warda, Catholics, Easter, Erbil, Gaza, Hanoi, Hmong, Indonesia, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Israel, Jakarta, Jerusalem, Ludhiana, Maluku, Marawi, Middle East, Mindanao, Minorities, Philippines, Pope Francis, Prince Charles, Southeast Asia, Syria, Vietnam

Flag of Syria is waving as sign of victory over the destroyed heavily damaged city of Aleppo. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Easter this year was a time of mixed emotions for the Christians who live under pressure for their faith. While political and religious leaders called for peace, reconciliation and brotherhood, Christians in countries like Syria and the Philippines continued to face violence and its consequences. Below, World Watch Monitor gives . . . Read More

Palm Sunday celebrations mark revival of life in Qaraqosh

March 26, 2018 Iraq Iraq, Islamic State, Nineveh Plains, Palm Sunday, Qaraqosh

For many Christian families in Qaraqosh, this Easter is particularly special, as they will be celebrating it at home for the first time since fleeing the city in 2014. The city, located in northern Iraq’s Nineveh Plains, was occupied by the Islamic State group for over two years before its . . . Read More

Fresh move to prosecute IS for genocide

March 21, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country David Cameron, Europe, France, Genocide, International Criminal Court, Iraq, Islamic State, Kuwait, Lord Alton, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Syria, UK, UN, USA

Destroyed market in the town of Bartella, 15km east of Mosul, which was liberated from IS by Iraqi forces in October 2016. (Photo World Watch Monitor)

Campaigners have welcomed a bill designed to facilitate the prosecution of Islamic State jihadists for genocide against Christians, Yazidis and other minorities in Iraq and Syria. Complaining that efforts to encourage the British government to accuse IS of genocide had received “nothing but rebuttals and refusals”, Lord Alton, a Catholic, . . . Read More

Iraq’s young people must lead its rebuilding, says archbishop

March 21, 2018 Iraq Baghdad, Churches, Iraq, Islamic State, Kirkuk, Minorities, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Shia, Sunni, USA, Youth

Army truck with Iraqi flag on its way in the direction of Mosul. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The rebuilding of Iraq should be guided by its young people, says an archbishop who took in 700 students from Mosul University after the occupation of the city by Islamic State in June 2014. Bishop Yousif Thoma Mirkis of Kirkuk, 170km southeast of Mosul, recently visited the university and reunited . . . Read More

Philippines: Mindanao gets first deputy governor for Christians

March 15, 2018 Philippines Bangsamoro, Islamic State, Marawi, Mindanao, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Philippines

(Photo: Getty Images/AFP/Ferdinandh Cabrera)

The autonomous Muslim region in the southern Philippines has named its first deputy governor for Christians. The governor, Mujiv Hataman, said the appointment of Edgardo Ramirez, a known human rights activist and radio broadcaster, would ensure the voices of Christians – a minority in the region – are heard. After . . . Read More

Egypt’s elections and the man dividing the country’s Copts

March 14, 2018 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Arab Spring, Aswan, Asyut, Bahrain, Cairo, Catholics, Churches, Converts, Copts, Egypt, El-Ghad Party, Elections, Faiyum, Hosni Mubarak, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Minya, Mohamed Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood, Pope Tawadros II, Protestants, Samalut, Sinai, Sohag, Sunni, Tanta, Terrorism, Upper Egypt

Walking around Cairo you would be forgiven for thinking that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was the only candidate running in the elections later this month. His is the only grandiose face bearing down on passers-by, while billboards of his rival, Mousa Mostafa Mousa, are nowhere to be seen. Egypt’s 26-28 March presidential elections have . . . Read More

Mosul still ‘extremely dangerous’, says returning Christian woman

March 13, 2018 Iraq Assyrians, Churches, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul

Nadia Butti, a Christian woman from Mosul, found the churches of her city desecrated or demolished after returning home for the first time since the liberation of the city from the Islamic State group in July 2017, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) reports. She told ACN there were . . . Read More

Marawi’s rebuilding yet to start, despite warning that defeating extremism depends on it

March 2, 2018 Philippines Abu Sayyaf, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Marawi, Maute, Mindanao, Philippines, Southeast Asia

Four months after the battle ended over the southern Philippines city of Marawi, Muslim leaders have called on people to stop posting divisive information on social media. Rumours were spread via social media in recent weeks, saying that the Catholic cathedral, which was severely damaged during the conflict last year, . . . Read More

Somalia Christians ‘killed by their children’s children’

March 2, 2018 Somalia Al-Shabaab, Catholics, Islamic State, Mogadishu, Somalia, Somaliland

In Somalia elderly Christians not only fear militant Islamists but also their family "who have become intolerant and do not understand". (Photo: Open Doors International)

A small community of 30 elderly Christians live in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, in constant fear of militant Islamists and even their relatives, according to Catholic news agency Fides. “Violence is in [our] homes and we, who are few, we risk our lives every day,” one man, speaking under the pseudonym . . . Read More

Dagestan church attacker linked to militant group, as unlikely hero emerges

February 23, 2018 Russia Caucasus, Dagestan, Islamic State, Russia, Russian Orthodox Church

Three people have been arrested in connection with the gun attack at a Russian Orthodox Church in Kizlyar, Dagestan, last Sunday (18 February), in which five people died and five others were injured. One of those arrested, Magometrasul Gadjiev, 19, studied at the same Muslim spiritual seminary as the attacker, . . . Read More

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