Tag: Syria

Churches in Syria: ‘We live together or we die together’

September 26, 2018 Syria Aleppo, Armenians, Catholics, Churches, Greek Orthodox, Syria, Syriacs

The Syrian civil war seems finally to be drawing to a close, with Idlib province the last battlefield in a long and bloody conflict between government forces and rebel groups. Seven years of war has taken its toll, including the devastation of many Christian sites, which local communities are slowly . . . Read More

‘UN must recognise persecution of Christians in Middle East as genocide’

September 17, 2018 International Europe, Genocide, Iraq, Islamic State, Jan Figel, Middle East, Sam Brownback, Syria, UN, Yazidis

At the moment of the photo taken, ISIS had just been pushed out of the home towns of these Christians. People were hoping and anticipating to return to their towns some day.

The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) is appealing to the United Nations to recognise the persecution of Christians in Iraq and Syria as “genocide”, reports the US-based National Review. The ECLJ, an affiliate of the American Center for Law and Justice, said a “genocide” declaration is necessary to . . . Read More

Attacks against Copts ‘among deadliest acts of religious persecution’ – report

September 14, 2018 International Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, Copts, Egypt, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Lake Chad, Sahel, Somalia, Syria, Tony Blair, Women, Yemen

This is one of the fifty five photos that is part of the photo story "Renewed day by day," commissioned by World Watch Monitor, exploring the extensive damage to churches in Egypt's Minya region that took place in late August 2013.

Attacks by members of the Islamic State group against Egypt’s Coptic Christian community “were among the deadliest acts of religious persecution” last year, according a new report presented in Washington DC yesterday, 13 September. “Fifty-three per cent of ISIS attacks against the public in 2017 were aimed at the Coptic . . . Read More

Fall in Christian refugee admissions ‘suggests Trump has no real interest in religious persecution’

September 13, 2018 International Donald Trump, Genocide, Iraq, Jan Figel, Mike Pence, Minorities, Myanmar, Refugees, Syria, UK, UN, USA

Iraqi Christians who fled Islamic State have found shelter in a church yard in Erbil, Iraq. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The United States, under President Trump, has admitted 40 per cent fewer Christian refugees in the past year, US broadcaster NBC News has reported. As the Trump administration has implemented stricter policies on immigration and refugees, almost 11,000 Christians looking for a safe place to go were reportedly refused entry to . . . Read More

Syrian village bombed: five children under 15 – three from same family – among 12 killed

September 11, 2018 Syria Al-Qaeda, Children, Civil War, Free Syrian Army, Greek Orthodox, Homs, Idlib, Syria

The children were still playing in the streets on Friday night. Then the rebels bombed the village. On Saturday, they should have celebrated a wedding in Mhardeh, a Christian village in northwest Syria. Instead they had to carry ten of their own to the grave; two more later died in . . . Read More

‘ISIS won despite defeat as West was unwilling to confront it’

August 23, 2018 International Andrew Brunson, Genocide, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Minorities, Rape, Syria, Turkey, USA

Iraqi Christians ask the international community for help as they are facing annihilation by Islamic State. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The Islamic State group may have been defeated on the battlefield, but the West has allowed its ideology to “percolate” and in that case it won, writes Seth J. Frantzman for the Jerusalem Post. “[ISIS] won in Iraq and Syria by destroying minority communities. It won because today the international . . . Read More

Syria’s Christian villages ‘hollowed out’ by IS

August 17, 2018 Syria Assyrians, Hasakah, Islamic State, Khabur, Kidnapping, Syria, Women

Before the war there were many churches in the area around Hassaka who held regular services, like this one in Tel Jezirah. (Photo: World Watch Monitor, 2009)

The Islamic State, following its defeat in Syria, has left behind hollowed-out Christian villages, reports the New York Times. Assyrian Christians, an indigenous Middle Eastern minority, once formed thriving farming communities along the Khabur River in Syria’s northeast. But when IS attacked the area in 2015, the militants demolished churches and kidnapped . . . Read More

Historic Syrian monastery to reopen following restoration

August 13, 2018 Syria Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda, Maaloula, Minorities, Syria

Nuns are returning to the Orthodox Monastery of St. Tekla which was severely damaged in Syria's civil war. (Photo: Sergio & Gabriella via Flickr; CC 2.0)

A monastery in Syria, which was freed from occupation by rebel forces in 2014, is to re-open its doors to pilgrims and visitors following its restoration, reports Catholic news agency Fides. Some of the nuns have already started to return to the Orthodox Monastery of St. Tekla in the historic Christian . . . Read More

‘Only jihadists want to see Christians leave the Middle East’

August 6, 2018 Arab Spring, Arabs, Cairo, Canada, Churches, Egypt, Europe, Islamic extremism, Lebanon, Middle East, Migrants, Minorities, North Africa, Palestinian Territories, Refugees, Syria, USA

Around 300 Christians went to Bartella during the Easter weekend of 2017, to have the very first Easter celebration in three years in their home town. A convoy of about 15 buses travelled from Erbil, crossing several Kurdish and Iraqi army checkpoints to reach the church. The people still live in Erbil and cannot go back to Bartella to live or to rebuild. But for this day many take the chance to celebrate Easter in their own church again. (Open Doors International)

“The only people that want to see all Christians leave are some of the violent jihadists,” concludes a new book. “Everyone else, including some we might term as Islamists, desires their continued presence. They recognise that it is Christians who are the leaven that permeates the whole of society.” The . . . Read More

Brunson’s third Turkish hearing focused on PKK allegations

July 31, 2018 Turkey Andrew Brunson, Izmir, Kurds, PKK, Suruç, Syria, Turkey

No hard evidence was produced against US pastor Andrew Brunson at his latest trial hearing on 18 July by the three prosecution witnesses called to give verbal testimony before Izmir’s Second Criminal Court. Judicial interrogations at this hearing focused almost entirely on the pastor’s connections with ethnic Kurds. Although one . . . Read More

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