Tag: Middle East

Iraq bishop recalls his abduction from Baghdad in new book

December 13, 2017 Iraq Baghdad, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Kidnapping, Kurds, Middle East, Saddam Hussein, Sunni, Torture

It was 2001 and Saad Hanna watched in horror as his TV showed the Twin Towers of New York’s World Trade Center smouldering and collapsing. Then a trainee priest studying in Italy, he said to fellow seminarians, “The world is turning upside down. The Americans will not let this be.” . . . Read More

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

Trump’s Jerusalem move rejected by Arab Christian leaders, who fear backlash

December 11, 2017 Israel Bethlehem, Donald Trump, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Jerusalem, Jews, Middle East, Palestinian Territories, Tel Aviv, West Bank

Church leaders in the Middle East have voiced grave concerns at US President Donald Trump’s announcement that the US will recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city and move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. There are an estimated 200,000 Christians in the Holy Land, of whom around 50,000 live . . . Read More

‘80% of religious discrimination targets Christians’

December 7, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Bishop Angaelos, Copts, Human rights, Middle East, Patriarch Bartholomew I, Patriarch Kirill, Pope Francis, Religious freedom

Father Poulos looking up to the ceiling in this house that still has a lot of destruction and needs thorough repairs

Christians are the victims in 80 per cent of acts of religious discrimination, despite only accounting for 30 per cent of the global population, a conference in Washington heard on Tuesday (5 December). The statistics, from the International Society for Human Rights, were presented at the 3rd International Conference on Religious . . . Read More

Russia pledges to safeguard future of Christians in Middle East

December 5, 2017 Russia Iraq, Middle East, Mike Pence, Moscow, Russia, Russian Orthodox Church, Syria, USA, Vladimir Putin

A mosaic of Jesus pictured as an icon in a church in Homs, was vandalised by Islamic fundamentalists, October 2017. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Russia’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Sergey Lavrov, says the peaceful co-existence of different religious groups in the Middle East, and particularly safeguarding the future of Christians, is one of Russia’s policy goals for the region. He was speaking at the third Mediterranean Dialogues summit in Rome on 1 and 2 December, . . . Read More

Russian Patriarch and UK archbishop call for greater support for persecuted Christians

November 23, 2017 Russia Crimea, Iraq, Middle East, Moscow, Patriarch Kirill, Russia, Russian Orthodox Church, Soviet Union, Syria, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin

The Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Archbishop of Canterbury have called for more aid to reach Middle Eastern refugees, especially Christians, and for robust safeguards against extremist ideology, which they say has spread “like an epidemic”. Patriarch Kirill and Archbishop Justin Welby released a joint statement thanking . . . 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

To flee or not to flee?

November 17, 2017 Civil War, Converts, Egypt, IDPs, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Middle East, Migrants, Refugees, Syria

It is sometimes said that the Middle East is being denuded of Christians. Against this, church leaders throughout the Middle East urge Christians to remain in their country, or, where conflict makes that impossible, then to at least stay in the region. The emigration of Christians from the Middle East . . . Read More

Lives in limbo – Iraqi Christians’ long wait for asylum in Lebanon

November 8, 2017 Lebanon Armenians, Assyrians, Asylum seekers, Beirut, IDPs, Iraq, Islamic State, Lebanon, Middle East, Refugees, Syria, Trauma, UN

Petros Babayan strains to sit up as if each bone of his paper-thin frame were heavy as iron. His wife Lydia and adult daughter Rita rush to help him. In their tiny rented apartment in Beirut, his single bed takes up a quarter of the room in which they live . . . Read More

US aid to Middle East will fund faith groups before ‘ineffective’ UN

October 26, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Barack Obama, Iraq, Middle East, Mike Pence, Nineveh Plains, Peshmerga, Syria, Tel Skuf, USA

The United States’ Vice President Mike Pence has announced that its State Department will favour “faith-based groups” and the US Agency for International Development over “ineffective” UN relief efforts, reports The Independent. Pence made the announcement as keynote speaker at the annual dinner of a Washington-based advocacy NGO In Defense . . . Read More

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