BBC’s Syrian refugee game criticised

An interactive game, published by the BBC showing the choices Syrians face if they choose to flee their country’s conflict, has attracted criticism despite its popularity. ‘Syrian Journey: Choose your own escape route,’ has received over one million hits, according to the BBC. But the UK’s Daily Mail says the . . . Read More

UN Security Council is ‘failing Syria’

Leading humanitarian groups, including Oxfam and Save the Children, in a report to mark four years of the Syrian war, accuse UN Security Council members of lacking the will to stop the fighting. The Failing Syria report says the 15-member Security Council, which includes the US and UK, has not . . . Read More

Iranian President’s broken promises to minorities

Iranian President’s broken promises to minorities
Christians in Iran are still regularly arrested, imprisoned and harassed despite President Hassan Rouhani’s promise of “justice” for religious minorities, according to a report launched March 10 at the UK Parliament. “All Iranian people should feel there is justice. Justice means equal opportunity. All ethnicities, all religions, even religious minorities, . . . Read More

Iraqi Archbishop ‘begs’ Britain to send in troops

The Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Erbil – the city in Iraqi Kurdistan where thousands of Christians have fled to safety from Islamic State fighters -‘begged’ Britain to send troops to his country to help save Christians there from being wiped out. He said an estimated 125,000 Christians in northern Iraq have . . . Read More

Christmas arrests in Iran: 11 still detained

Christmas arrests in Iran: 11 still detained
As the US Secretary of State meets his Iranian counterpart in a bid to revive stalled talks over Iran’s nuclear programme, human rights experts are keen that issues of freedom of religion are not overlooked. This week, the UK Foreign Office has said that it’s raised its concern with the . . . Read More

Iran appears to fight Islamic State, but are their ultimate goals too similar for comfort?

Iran appears to fight Islamic State, but are their ultimate goals too similar for comfort?
ISISKarl-Ludwig Poggemann / Flickr / Creative Commons   It says something about the depths of worldwide revulsion to the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” that Western powers such as the US and the UK have been sitting at the same table with Iran to discuss how to defeat the deadly Islamist movement . . . Read More

‘The work of a generation’

UK former Prime Minister Tony Blair has penned a seven-point assessment of what he calls “the issue of our time”: the threat of Islamic extremism. Blair’s essay, posted Sept. 22 on the website of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, has attracted attention for its acknowledgment that Western ground forces likely . . . Read More