Tag: Syria

Persecution ‘key driver of displacement’ says UNHCR, voicing concerns about returns

June 20, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Boko Haram, Converts, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Europe, Fulani herdsmen, Islamic extremism, Middle Belt, Migrants, Nigeria, Refugees, South Sudan, Syria, Uganda, UN

More people are currently displaced through conflict and persecution than at any time since the Second World War. According to the Global Trends report, published by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 65.6 million people were forcibly displaced at the end of 2016. The report noted that the number of refugee returns . . . Read More

Why the Uyghurs are under pressure in Xinjiang

June 15, 2017 China Communism, Syria, Terrorism, Turkey, Uyghurs, Xinjiang

As in July 2009 the Chinese government again shows its muscles in Xinjiang province, north-west China, during an anti-terror mass rally in February, this time in the southern city of Hotan. Tensions have flared up regularly in this area where the Uyghur people struggle for self-determination.

Both Muslims and Christians in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in north-west China find themselves under increased pressure from the Chinese authorities. An anti-terror mass rally in the southern city of Hotan in February, an increase in surveillance measures in public places, and the introduction of new anti-terror policies, are all . . . Read More

Half of Syria and Iraq’s Christians have left since 2011, says report

June 6, 2017 Europe, Germany, IDPs, Iraq, Islamic State, Jordan, Lebanon, Migrants, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Refugees, Sweden, Syria, Turkey

Three years to the day since the Islamic State group took control of the Iraqi city of Mosul, a new report estimates that – of their Christian populations – 50% have left Iraq since 2006, while 80% have emigrated from Syria since the start of its civil war in 2011. The arrival of IS was only . . . Read More

US Commission urges Trump administration to prioritise international religious freedom

May 18, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Abune Antonios, Andrew Brunson, Central African Republic, China, Donald Trump, Eritrea, Eritrean Orthodox Church, Iran, Mike Pence, Myanmar, Nguyen Cong Chinh, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Religious freedom, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, USA, Uzbekistan, Vietnam

An influential US government commission that monitors religious freedom around the world is urging President Donald Trump and his new administration to take concrete steps to make advocacy of universal religious rights a priority in American foreign policy. “Our foreign policy should not simply be about US self-interest – you know, . . . Read More

Four years on still no news of kidnapped Syrian bishops

April 28, 2017 Syria Boulos Yazigi, Greek Orthodox, Kidnapping, Syria, Yohanna Ibrahim

Four years on and no-one knows where kidnapped Greek Orthodox Bishop Boulos Yazigi is, as well as his colleague. Photo: Getty Images

At the fourth anniversary of their disappearance the whereabouts of two Syrian bishops is still unknown. Syriac Orthodox Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim and Greek Orthodox Boulos Yazigi were abducted on 22 April 2013. Several attempts to locate them have been so far unsuccessful. According to Asia News, Mgr Daniel Kourie, Syriac . . . Read More

How do Christians respond to persecution?

April 26, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Iraq, Islamic State, Pakistan, Syria, USA

Christians choose to respond to religious persecution by adopting “survival strategies” that require a lot of “creativity, determination and courage".

A report looking into the ways Christians respond to persecution has found that their “survival strategies” require a lot of “creativity, determination and courage”, while violence is seldom used. “Christians are the most widely targeted religious community, suffering terrible persecution globally,” according to the University of Notre Dame’s report, In . . . Read More

Persecution of Christians ‘still not taken seriously’

April 12, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Batnaya, Boko Haram, Egypt, Hindu nationalism, Iraq, Islamic State, Middle East, Nigeria, North Africa, Syria

Christians are the “most harassed religious minority in the world” but their oppression is largely under-reported in the West.

Following the Palm Sunday bomb attacks on two Egyptian churches, Ewelina Ochab, writing for Forbes, suggests that it’s time to be more proactive in response to the persecution of Christians – “the most persecuted religious group in the world”. “The situation [for Christians] has not improved [in] recent years,” she writes. . . . Read More

Accounts surface of persecution of Christians in Dunkirk migrants’ camp

March 15, 2017 Afghanistan, Calais, Converts, Dunkirk, France, Grande-Synthe, Iran, Iraq, La Linière, Migrants, Refugees, Shiraz, Syria, Vietnam

Outside the windswept port of Dunkirk, in northern France, sits a migrants’ camp called La Linière. Home to around 1,400 people, it lies 25 miles from Calais and the now-demolished camp that became known as the “Jungle”. La Linière opened a year ago, with the collaboration of Médicins sans Frontières . . . Read More

Sunni Arabs ‘helped drive out’ Middle East Christians

March 13, 2017 Iraq, Islamic State, Middle East, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Rape, Sunni, Syria

Amid the push by Iraqi government forces to retake Mosul from Islamic State (IS), some former inhabitants of Christian villages in the Nineveh Plains and northern Syria are refusing to go back because they believe their former Sunni Muslim neighbours were complicit in driving them out, says Middle East analyst . . . Read More

Trump’s pledge to persecuted Christians – welcome news or harmful to those he seeks to protect?

February 1, 2017 Bishop Angaelos, Donald Trump, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Migrants, Refugees, Syria, Terrorism

Donald Trump has spoken of the need to prioritise refugees from persecuted faith groups – especially Christians – at the same time as he has halted immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. World Watch Monitor summarises the response of Christian opinion leaders in America and elsewhere. US President Donald Trump’s executive order . . . Read More

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