Monthly Archives: October 2014

Multiply Berlin’s official estimate by 4 to get realistic number, says security agency source. Kobani A Turkish soldier atop a tank watches as Islamic State jihadis advance on the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, October 10.. (photo credit:UMIT BEKTAS / REUTERS)…

By ANNE BARNARDOCT. 27, 2014 A volunteer patrolling a Christian village on the border between Syria and Lebanon. Credit Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times LABWEH, Lebanon — Recent outbreaks of fighting and growing sectarian tensions in…

Lebanese soldiers patrol a field in the northern Lebanese village of Wadi Kahled near the Lebanese-Syrian border (Reuters / Omar Ibrahim) The threat of Islamic State has crossed the borders of Syria to neighboring Lebanon, making Christians there arm themselves to defend their land and families from the…

Written by Staff Chicago, IL-(ENEWSPF)- A destabilized Middle East has created widespread persecution of religious minorities. It took U.S. airpower to save the minority Yazidis from ISIS. In the Christian town of Qaraqosh, hundreds have been slaughtered. Christians in towns like Qaraqosh and Mosul were given the option to either convert to Islam or face…

by Mark Movsesian For the past several weeks, the world has been watching Kobani (in Kurdish, Kobanê), a small city on the Syrian-Turkish border. In September, militants from ISIS, the Sunni Islamist group that has declared a restored caliphate in the Middle East, laid siege to the city, which is mostly Kurdish and currently in…

The Arab American and Chaldean Council (ACC), a nonprofit human service organization serving southeast Michigan, announced it has relocated its headquarters to Troy from Lathrup Village. The new office is at 363 W. Big Beaver Road, Suite 300. Administrative staff members will be housed in the new 11,000-square-foot space,…

By Ghassan Michel Rubeiz Ghassan Michel Rubeiz Washington DC — The breakdown in Syria is increasingly impacting Lebanon. The borders between the two countries are no longer significant, given the flow of fighters in both directions. Over the past three days intense battles in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second…

Three Generations of a Christian family that fled from the violence in Mosu. (photo credit:REUTERS) For nearly six months, the eyes of the world have been focused on the most bloodthirsty and openly barbaric group of Islamist radicals ever to bludgeon its way across the Middle East in modern history.…

By Mark Banks His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales will give a video address on the subject of religious freedom to Parliamentarians and representatives of different faith groups in the House of Lords next week. The address will be shown at the launch of the Religious Freedom in the World Report…

By RANA F. SWEIS Slide Show | Iraqi Christian Refugees in Jordan About 4,000 Christians left the Iraqi city of Mosul for Jordan in the last three months, forced out by Islamic State fighters. AMMAN, Jordan — They were among the final holdouts. Even as many of their…

by Thierry Meyssan Is the new alliance between Turkey and France concerned only with economic issues, to wit entry into the European Union, or is it purely political? In this case, must Paris provide cover for Ankara whatever the policy? Does this support go as far as genocide?…

Archbishop Louis Sako. Credit: Aid to the Church in Need. Vatican City, Oct 26, 2014 / 04:41 am (CNA).- Chaldean patriarch Louis Sako I has suspended a group of monks and priests who fled Iraq without consulting their superiors, saying a priest’s primary duty is to serve his flock wherever he is asked.…

By Stephanie Saldana Yazidis, Samaritans, Copts and other descendants of ancient civilizations are being erased. When thousands of Yazidis fled ISIS militants to Mount Sinjar in northwestern Iraq this August, newspapers soon filled with horrific stories: young Yazidi women sold into…

Since the genocide of Armenians, Pontic Greeks and Assyrians (also called Chaldeans and Syriacs) in the Ottoman empire in 1915, these communities have been subject to a diaspora with new settlements in countries far from their ancestral ones. A diaspora is defined as a scattered population with a common origin in a smaller…

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 10/23/14) – A group of American Muslim and Christian organizations today announced the formation of an interfaith coalition to protect Christians and other religious minorities in Arab countries and to promote peaceful coexistence.…

Billy Hallowell Hollywood power couple Mark Burnett and Roma Downey continue to create immensely popular TV shows and feature films, but the duo are also moving into a pivotal new role: providing life-saving humanitarian aid for displaced Christians in the Middle East.…

Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Twelve Chaldean religious men and priests living in the United States, Canada, Australia and Sweden have been suspended from exercising their priestly ministry for not receiving permission from their superiors before emigrating from Iraq.…

A statement from the head of the Saint Bahnam the Martyr Monastery Iraq/Aleteia (aleteia.org/ar)– Father Charbel Issa, head of the St. Behnam the Martyr Monastery confirmed that members of ISIS ripped down the monastery’s crosses and burned its paintings and manuscripts.…

By: Preston Phillips Patriarch says moves to the US were never approved SAN DIEGO – The head of the Chaldean Catholic Church has suspended 10 priests, including one from El Cajon. Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako issued a decree a month ago, demanding the…

Mark Arabo, president of the Neighborhood Market Association and a spokesman for the Chaldean-American community, flips through a printed copy of a decree calling for Chaldean Catholic priests in the United States to return to Iraq, Oct. 22, 2014. Photo by Christopher Maue / KPBS…