Iraq

Syrian opposition leader does not know whereabouts of missing bishops

May 24, 2013 Featured News

Nuri Kino, World Watch Monitor 24/5/13 Syrian opposition leader Sabra now says he doesn’t know of bishops’ whereabouts, after giving more certain account two weeks ago. The leader of the Syrian opposition coalition is backing away from previous reports that he is certain of the location and condition of two Syrian Orthodox bishops kidnapped April [...]

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Syria’s Christians Fear Iraq Scenario

March 8, 2013 Featured News

8/3/13 Beirut — Former President Hafez Al-Assad did not rule in the name of minorities, but in the name of the secular Ba’ath party. Contrary to popular belief, the majority of members of his security and political services were not Alawites. In fact, according to the most optimistic estimates, the Alawi sect constitutes around 20 [...]

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Iraqi Kurdistan: A Safe Haven for Christians?

January 21, 2013 Featured News

  21/1/13 Alan Wisdom  www.theird.com Iraq’s Christian population has been the target of violence for several years. The Christian community in Iraq has suffered great loss in the decade since the U.S. invasion of 2003. Is there a ray of hope now that Iraq’s Assyrian, Chaldean, Armenian, and other Christians can find a secure future [...]

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Christians in Iraq celebrate Christmas in Kurdistan

December 26, 2012 Featured News

Hermione Gee  – 26/12/12 Iraq’s Kurdistan Region is home to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities. In the last decade it has also welcomed Christians from the rest of Iraq who were persecuted for their religious beliefs. Christmas in Kurdistan takes on a special meaning for Christians knowing that not all their fellow citizens [...]

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Visiting The Christian Community In Iraq

December 24, 2012 News

24/12/12 Before Iraq was conquered by the Arabs in the seventh century, it was one of the oldest centers of Christianity in the world. Even after the Arab conquest, Christians made up a sizable minority of the population – sometimes tolerated, sometimes persecuted, but always surviving. Now it’s facing its biggest threat in centuries. The [...]

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Lebanese president to new Orthodox Patriarch: Ensuring a dignified life to Christians of the East

December 20, 2012 Featured News

Paul Dakiki -20/12/12 In greetings to Youhanna X Yazigi, Michel Sleiman talks about the problems of Christians in Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Israel. An appeal to Arab leaders to defend the Christian minorities, as bearers of civilization and development. Beirut (AsiaNews) – Meeting the new Greek-Orthodox patriarch of Antioch, Youhanna X Yazigi, Lebanese President Michel [...]

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Persecution of the Christians: Syrian minority fear the end of fighting more than war itself

December 19, 2012 Featured News

Patrick Cockburn 19/12/12 In his final dispatch from Syria, Patrick Cockburn reports from Maloula on the plight of the country’s Christian minority, who fear an end to the fighting more than the war itself. Two masked men armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles tried to kidnap a businessman called George Alumeh in the ancient Christian town [...]

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Challenge of Syria awaits next Greek Orthodox patriarch

December 14, 2012 News

  Van Meguerditchian The Daily Star – 14/12/12 BEIRUT: Confronting the challenges facing Syrian and Lebanese Christians will top the agenda of the new Greek Orthodox patriarch, who will be elected this month to succeed Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim. At least 18 bishops from Greek Orthodox archbishoprics around the world will meet at the Balamand [...]

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Syria’s archaeological heritage in danger

October 7, 2012 Featured News

A general view of an old Byzantine church in the Druze village of Loza, in Idlib province. (AFP, File) September 2012 Reyhanli – Syria’s extraordinary archaeological heritage has fallen prey to the fighting ravaging the country for more than 18 months, with destruction, theft and systematic looting on the rise. In a country where corruption [...]

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Syriacs form group in Swiss to make their voices heard

October 3, 2012 News

Vercihan Ziflioğlu vercihan.ziflioglu@hurriyet.com.tr 03/10/2012   Twelve Syriac-origin lawmakers in the Swiss Parliament have come together to establish a group that aims to make the voice of Syriacs heard. The group, named “Schweiz Suryoye” (Switzerland Syriacs) will aim to bring the problems of the Syriacs in Turkey and the Middle East to the agenda, Rıza Tüzün, [...]

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Iraq’s Armenian Primate Visits US

September 13, 2012 Featured News

By Florence Avakian Special to the Mirror-Spectator 12/9/2012 NEW YORK — He takes care of his flock in one of the most dangerous countries in the world, where dozens are killed daily. Archbishop Avak Asadourian who has been the Primate of the Armenian Diocese of Iraq for the past 33 years, during some of its [...]

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Christianity faces a Middle Eastern exodus

September 1, 2012 Featured News

Star News Services 1/9/2012 The final outcome of the Arab Spring will not be known for years, perhaps decades, but in the meantime Christian communities across the Middle East continue to wither. The latest to face a possible exodus are Syrian Christians, many of whom are on the wrong side of the deepening civil war [...]

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Syria’s increased instability raises fear among Christians

August 16, 2012 News

Michael Swan The Catholic Register 16/8/2012 Aid is getting to displaced Christians fleeing the fighting in Syria, but there’s no telling how Syria’s Christian minority will cope as fighting shifts and the country’s new reality takes shape. “Based on our frequent contacts with our partners in Syria, I can say that they are still able [...]

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Opposition demanding Syrian Christians leave

June 30, 2012 Featured News

28/6/2012 Editor’s Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports. BEIRUT, Lebanon – Syrian Christians are being [...]

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Christians flee Syrian town

June 12, 2012 News

11/6/2012 Damascus: The Christian population in the Syrian town of Qusair has abandoned it following an ultimatum from the rebel military chief. According to a newspaper, almost 10,000 Christians have fled the city, situated in the battleground province of Homs after the ultimatum expired on Thursday. “Some mosques in the city have relaunched the message, [...]

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Islamisation tramples faith

April 11, 2012 Featured News
Residents inspect the damage inside St. Ephrem Syriac Orthodox Church after a bomb attack in central Kirkuk, Iraq, 15 August. A parked car bomb and a motorcycle bomb killed one person and wounded 12 others in central Kirkuk, hospital and police sources said. (photo: CNS / Ako Rasheed, Reuters)

12/4/2012 ED WEST From: The Australian THE Arabs once had a saying about the British: “Better to be their enemy, for that way they will try to buy you; for if you are their friend, they will most certainly sell you.” For Iraq’s Christians, it has proved to be sage advice. It is a lesson [...]

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Why we all should defend Christianity in the Middle East?

April 3, 2012 News

By Dr Amer Al Sabaileh 3/4/2012 Although not a Christian myself, I feel that no one can doubt the important role of the “Christians of Levant” during the period of enlightenment in the Arab world. They played a significant part in creating a platform for an Arab socio-cultural and political consciousness. The Middle East is [...]

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Obama-backed Syrian Rebels “Ethnic Cleansing” Christians

April 3, 2012 Featured News

ALEX NEWMAN 2/4/2012 Armed Islamist rebel groups in Syria supported by the Obama administration and Western governments seeking to oust “President” Bashir al-Assad are engaged in “ethnic cleansing” of Christians, according to news reports and human rights organizations. And as the conflict escalates, the persecution of the once-protected Christian minority is growing as well. The [...]

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Iraqi Christians Still in Danger, Feel Neglected By Al-Maliki Government

March 30, 2012 Featured News

By Luiza Oleszczuk Christian Post 30/3/2012 The year 2011 did not bring respite for Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq as hundreds of thousands of migrants who fled the country are still unwilling to risk returning due to reports of continued discrimination, fear of renewed violence and the government’s apparent inability to protect citizens. [...]

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America and the plight of Christians in the Middle East: mistake or evil intention?

March 28, 2012 Featured News

Babich Dmitry 28/3/2012 What has happened to the religious freedoms in the Middle East 10 years after US president George W. Bush embarked on his “crusade” (his own term) to bring freedom and democracy to this region? Lest anyone forget, the idea behind the invasion of Iraq was to provoke a “domino effect” in the [...]

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Christians’ Future in the Iraqi Kurdistan

March 23, 2012 News

23/3/2012 Abdulla Hawez Abdulla Assyrian International News Agency As it becomes clear that one major outcome of the region’s revolutions will be the empowerment of Islamists, the Arab Spring threatens to become a nightmare for the Middle East’s Christian minority. Christians across the Arab world are afraid that a change of regime — specifically one [...]

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Series of attacks in Iraq, dozens of dead. Church of St Mathew in Baghdad targeted

March 21, 2012 Featured News

21/3/2012 Asia News A bomb exploded near the Syrian-Orthodox church in the capital, killing two guards and wounding five others. Across the country there were over 20 explosions. AsiaNews sources: attacks to derail the upcoming Arab League summit. The violence set to continue. Baghdad (AsiaNews) – The Syrian Orthodox Church of St. Matthew, in Baghdad, [...]

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Reflections on Christians in the Middle East

March 14, 2012 News

14/3/2012 On 8th March 2012, as one of their Lenten speakers, the chaplaincy of Morden College, Blackheath, invited Abba Seraphim to reflect on the current situation 0f Christians in the Middle East. Addressing a large audience on 8 March, Abba Seraphim outlined the problems of Christians in Iraq, Syria and Egypt since the Millennium and [...]

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Christians Fear Regime Change in Syria

March 13, 2012 News

Raymond Ibrahim 12/3/2012 The following article was originally published by the Stonegate Institute. What is the alternative to Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria? A simple if indirect way to find out is to consider which groups in Syria are especially for or against Assad—and why. Christian minorities, who, at 10% of the Syrian population, have [...]

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Syrian Christians fleeing to Lebanon

March 7, 2012 News

7/3/2012 Amid reports that 1,000 Syrians are now fleeing the country daily for Lebanon, the national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Lebanon described the Church’s response. “We have direct experience of Christian families who have fled to Syria [from] the violence or the oppression of the regime,” said Father Paul Karam. “There are [...]

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