‘We have no voice’: Christians in Jordan 2 years after fleeing N. Iraq

‘We have no voice’: Christians in Jordan 2 years after fleeing N. Iraq
Bahar (left), 81, with her daughters, Samira and Bahija. IS beat Bahija and ransacked their home in Tel Kayf, outside Mosul. Bahar’s family shares a one-bedroomed house in Amman with another family of three, who sleep in the lounge.World Watch Monitor   Bahija, 65, a housekeeper, told me she cries . . . Read More

Iraq’s Mosul Archbishop had to pay ‘protection money’ before his 2008 kidnap and death

Iraq’s Mosul Archbishop had to pay ‘protection money’ before his 2008 kidnap and death
The Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul, who was murdered by militias in 2008, paid protection money to safeguard his clergy for years before his kidnapping and death, an aide has told World Watch Monitor. Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was abducted in February 2008 from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which . . . Read More

Iraq: Why Najiba can’t go home

Iraq: Why Najiba can’t go home
Najiba in her portacabin – her home as an IDP for the last two years, 2016World Watch Monitor   Two years on from Mosul falling to Islamic State, World Watch Monitor hears from Najiba, a woman forced to flee her home on the frontline of fighting between the jihadist group . . . Read More

Iraq’s Christians ‘could be gone in 5 years’

ISIS’ jihadist actions mean Christians could disappear from Iraq in five years, says an Iraqi Assyrian priest. Fr. Martin Hermis Dawood told the Telegraph the latest phase of Islamic extremism has only precipitated the trend of Christians exiting their ancestral lands. “Everyone sees himself outside Iraq in a few years. . . . Read More

IS destroys Christian landmark in Mosul

The ‘Islamic State’ has completely destroyed another historic Christian landmark in an area under its control, this time in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Quoting “local residents,” “the terrorists … blew the Clock Church fully after booby-trapping it from all sides and the evacuation of nearby houses in the . . . Read More

ISIS burns Christian books

ISIS has released a video purporting to show its religious police burning hundreds of Christian books, according to . The video footage shows a militant throwing pamphlets, bearing a cross on the front cover, onto a bonfire. It was posted on 13 March by its news agency, Amaq, with the . . . Read More

Oldest Christian monastery in Iraq destroyed

Satellite images have confirmed that the oldest Christian monastery in Iraq has been destroyed, . It is thought that St. Elijah’s, which stood on a hill near Mosul and was constructed 1400 years ago, was destroyed in the summer of 2014, shortly after the area was taken over by the . . . Read More

Iraqis who fled Mosul and IS flee Turkish bombing

The Turkish air force has bombed the Assyro-Chaldean Christian village of Upper Sharanish in northern Iraq. Condemning what he called the “unjust act”, Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako urged Ankara to “respect the lives and properties of the inhabitants and not to displace them under the pretext of fighting” the Kurdish . . . Read More

2016 World Watch List drawn from world headlines

2016 World Watch List drawn from world headlines
Some of the most urgent headlines of the past 12 months, from the global spread of jihadist violence to North Korea’s test of a putative atomic weapon, intersect with an updated list of the most difficult places to live as a Christian. For the 14th straight year, North Korea is . . . Read More