Posts tagged as:

Syria

Syrian Christians fear Islamist rule if Assad goes

by OCP May 15, 2012 Featured News

15/5/2012 Damascus: Christians living in conflict-torn Syria are afraid their community would fall victim of religious extremism if President Bashar al-Assad’s regime collapses and Islamists come to power. “I am afraid that we will suffer bad times,” a member of Damascus’s Christian community, who identified himself as Jorge, told Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency. A [...]

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A Statement issued by their Holinesses and Beatitudes the Patriarchs of Syria

by OCP May 13, 2012 Featured News

11/5/2012 We, Ignatius Hazim IV Patriarch of Antioch and All the East for the Greek Orthodox, Mor Ignatius Zakka I Iwas Patriarch of Antioch and All the East for the Syrian Orthodox, and Gregorios Laham III Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, Alexandria and Jerusalem for the Greek Melkite Catholic; denounce the coward and [...]

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Geagea: Christians must spearhead change

by OCP May 11, 2012 News
Geagea: “It is beneficial for Christians in Syria to side with” the revolution. (The Daily Star/Aldo Ayoub/HO)

By Nicholas Blanford The Daily Star 11/5/2012 MAARAB, Lebanon: The Christians of the Middle East should not view with trepidation the turmoil engulfing the region over the past 18 months, Syria especially, but should instead seize the initiative to advance change and ensure communal survival, says Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. “We should spearhead any [...]

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Clerics from all over the world come to say goodbye to bishop

by OCP May 5, 2012 News

Sussex Courier 4/5/2012 CHURCH leaders from across the world– including Syria – gathered in Uckfield to mark the retirement of the Bishop of Chichester. The Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Aleppo addressed a congregation at Holy Cross Church on Sunday and paid tribute to Dr John Hind. His Eminence Gregorios Ibrahim gave a speech about the [...]

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Archbishop Hanna: Syria Will Be Victorious against Conspiracy

by OCP April 17, 2012 Featured News

17/4/2012 R. Raslan/ Ghossoun DAMASCUS, (SANA) – The Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Sebastia, Atallah Hanna, Stressed that Syria will achieve victory thanks to the awareness of the Syrian people in the face of conspiracy targeting to undermine their position, role and sovereignty. In an interview with the Syrian TV, Archbishop Hanna said that the message [...]

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Islamists force 50,000 Christians to flee from Syrian city of Homs

by OCP April 17, 2012 Featured News

Damascus: April 16, 2012. (PCP) The Syrian Orthodox Church, which represents over half of Syrian Christians, issued a statement saying revolutionary fighters had expelled some 50,000 Christians from the embattled city of Homs. That figure is estimated to account for about 90 percent of the Christian community there. Hundreds more — including women and children [...]

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Syria’s Christians caught in the middle

by OCP April 8, 2012 Featured News

7/4/2012 As the year-long conflict polarises Syrian society, Omar Abdel-Razek from BBC Arabic finds an Orthodox Christian community worried it could face trouble from both the government and opposition. “The university has become a battlefield between the supporters and the opposition of the regime.” That was what Lena (not her real name), a medical student [...]

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After Arab Spring, experts fearful of Christian targeting at Easter celebrations

by OCP April 8, 2012 Featured News

By Dan Merica, CNN 7/4/2012 (CNN)– For Christians in countries thrown into tumult by the Arab Spring revolutions, Easter celebrations may prove dangerous. According to experts and academics in the United States, the changing balances of power in each country, along with a history of anti-Christian sentiment, have made overt celebrations like Easter a cause [...]

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Requiem for Repose of Souls of Syrian martyrs Held in Brazil

by OCP April 5, 2012 News

R. Raslan/ Ghossoun 5/4/2012 SAO PAULO, (SANA) – Archbishop of the Orthodox Church in Brazil, His Eminence Metropolitan Archbishop, Damaskinos Mansour, held a requiem for the repose of the souls of the Syrian martyrs. Participants in the requiem prayed for God to protect Syria and President Bashar al-Assad and to fortify the homeland in the [...]

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Why we all should defend Christianity in the Middle East?

by OCP 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

by OCP 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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Land Day Anniversary in Syria

by OCP April 1, 2012 News

(Dp-news – Sana) 1/4/2012 Syria – With the participation of crowds of Syrians in addition to representatives of Syrian, Palestinian, Arab and international sides, the activities of the Global March to al-Quds started on Friday in Damascus. In an open message to the participants, Archbishop Atallah Hanna, Archbishop of Sebaste Roman Orthodox in Jerusalem said [...]

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Orthodox Primates Stress Need for Peace and Stability in Middle East

by OCP March 30, 2012 Featured News

30/3/2012 On the invitation of His Beatitude Archbishop of Cyprus Chrysostomos II, and in the framework of the pastoral care of the Senior Patriarchates of the Middle East and the Apostolic Church of Cyprus, arrived today, 27th March 2012, Their Beatitudes, Patriarch Theodoros II, of Alexandria and All Africa, Patriarch Ignatius IV, of Antioch and [...]

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

by OCP 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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Syria uprising lays siege to leading religious figures

by OCP March 28, 2012 News

By Hussein Dakroub The Daily Star 28/3/2012 BEIRUT: The yearlong crisis in Syria which has deepened divisions among Lebanon’s rival political leaders is now spreading to Lebanese religious authorities on both sides of the sectarian fence. With the Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance and the opposition March 14 coalition taking diametrically opposed sides on the unrest [...]

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90% of Christians Driven Out of Homs, Syria

by OCP March 26, 2012 Featured News

26/3/2012 Boutros Hussein and Lee Jay Walker Assyrian International News Agency President Obama condemned the Syrian government for trying to protect Alawites, Christians, the role of women in society, and all Syrians who oppose Sunni Islamic radicalism. President Obama commented that “I strongly condemn the Syrian government’s unspeakable assault against the people of Homs.” However, [...]

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Syria: Church protests over ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Christians from Homs

by OCP March 23, 2012 News

21/3/2012 While the Syrian opposition forces have been guilty of violence, abuse and torture – as stated in a report released yesterday by the NGO Human Rights Watch – in Homs, Church leaders say there is “an ongoing ethnic cleansing of Christians”, carried out by members of the Brigade Faruq, close to Al Qaeda. A [...]

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Maronite patriarch’s interview on Syria stirs new criticism

by OCP March 19, 2012 News

The Daily Star 10/3/2012 BEIRUT: Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai’s recent remarks on the ongoing developments in Syria and the challenges facing Christians in the region is drawing another round of criticism from March 14 figures. In an interview with Reuters earlier in the week, Rai said he fears that the so-called Arab Spring could turn [...]

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Martyrs of Terrorist Blasts Escorted to Final Resting Place

by OCP March 19, 2012 Featured News

19/3/2012 DAMASCUS, (SANA) – In a solemn official and popular procession, the martyrs of the two terrorist blasts which occurred in Damascus on Saturday were escorted from al-Othman Mosque to their final resting place, while the music of “the Martyr” and the “Farewell” was playing. After performing prayers, the martyrs, who were wrapped in the [...]

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Bombings kill 30 in Syria as Christian districts targeted

by OCP March 19, 2012 Featured News
One of the buildings damaged by the explosion (Photo distributed by SANA)

MICHAEL JANSEN 19/3/2012 A CAR bomber yesterday targeted a security headquarters in a Christian district of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, killing three and wounding 30. The explosion, the second in the city since unrest began, occurred at a time when the area is usually thronged with people on the first working day of [...]

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Syrian Bishop Fears Mass Exodus of Christians

by OCP March 16, 2012 Featured News

Luiza Oleszczuk Christian Post Reporter 16/3/2012 Will Christians in Syria – which has thus far been a relatively safe haven for religious minorities amid recent turmoil in the Middle East – be persecuted by religious extremists and forced to migrate after the fall of President Bashar Assad, as was the case with Iraqi Christians after [...]

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Annan Meets Syria’s Mufti and Representatives of Religious Sects in Syria

by OCP March 13, 2012 Featured News
U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan (L) meets Grand Mufti of Syria Ahmed Hassoun and Orthodox Patriarch Hazim (R) during a meeting with clerics in Damascus March 11, 2012.

12/3/2012 DAMASCUS, (SANA) – The UN Envoy to Syria Kofi Annan said his mission is aimed at discussing steps that might help in ending the violence, ensuring the access of humanitarian aid and starting political dialogue in Syria. Meeting Grand Mufti of the Syrian Arab Republic Ahmad Badr EddinHassoun and representatives of the religious sects [...]

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Christians Fear Regime Change in Syria

by OCP 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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Christians in Syria live in fear of persecution, say Roman Catholic officials

by OCP March 11, 2012 Featured News
Young Syrian refugees arrive into Qaa village in northern Lebanon March 4. As temperatures drop to near freezing in Lebanon, Caritas is working to find shelter for Syrian refugees, mostly women and children. (CNS photo/Afif Diab, Reuters)

By Judith Sudilovsky Catholic News Service 10/3/2012 JERUSALEM (CNS) — Christians in Syria live in fear of a repeat of persecution like was seen in Iraq, said officials of the Pontifical Mission for Palestine. “The same pattern like in Iraq is re-emerging, as Islamic militants are now kidnapping and killing Christians in Syria,” said Issam [...]

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Syrian Christians fleeing to Lebanon

by OCP 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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