Monthly Archives: July 2015

representatives from the Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA) presented this resolution to UNPO’s XII General Assembly, recalling the genocide of the Assyrian people during World War I, and bringing attention to the current ongoing atrocities in Iraq and Syria. Furthermore, it calls for the international community to establish Safe Zones and to…

Catholic World News – Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako told a Vatican Radio audience that he continues to hope for a visit by Pope Francis to Iraq. “We need his presence among us, so that he can give us so much strength, so much…

Papal visit to Baghdad would be welcomed by all, he says (ANSA) – Vatican City, July 27 – A visit by Pope Francis to the people of Iraq would give them desperately needed encouragement and strength, Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad Louis Raphael I Sako said Monday.…

Dear Sir/Madam, In light of the NATO meeting of Tuesday at the request of Turkey we send you the enclosed statement of the Syriac-Assyrian Christians of Syria. Together with our Kurdish, Arab and other neighbours we created the Democratic Self-Administration (DSA) that now provides freedom, democracy, safety and stability for all…

Monica Cantilero Reuters An Iraqi Christian boy fleeing the violence in Mosul stands inside the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Chaldean Church in Telkaif near Mosul, in the province of Nineveh, on July 20, 2014. More Christians are facing religious persecution in the Middle East than at any time…

SIL gave Iraq’s Christians an ultimatum: cooperate or suffer harsh consequences. Many of them feared that even if they complied, they would eventually be killed. So they fled. Now living as urban refugees in Jordan, they cling to the church and push away…

All religious faiths are victims of persecution somewhere. In this supposedly enlightened, tolerant age, people routinely are brutalized, jailed and killed for their faith — or lack of faith — in God. Hostility to believers is evident even in the West, long home to the strongest advocates for freedom of conscience, expression, and association.…

(PHOTO: SCREENSHOT) An ISIS child soldier who was shown shooting an accused Iraqi spy. The Islamic State terror group has released a new propaganda video showing a baby-faced child soldier, dressed in black, shooting a suspected Iraqi spy in the head from point blank range, according to an anti-ISIS citizen journalism website.…

PRI’s The World By Matthew Bell (follow) Iraqi Christian volunteers, part of a militia allied with Iraqi military forces against the extremists of ISIS, take a rest during training in a military camp in Baghdad on July 1, 2015. Credit: Reuters…

The plight of 20 Chaldean Catholics raises questions about whether the Obama administration is responding inadequately to the plight of Iraqi Christian refugees. BY PETER JESSERER SMITH 07/24/2015 Comment SAN DIEGO — For several months, 20 Iraqi Chaldean Catholics who fled the Islamic…

Catholic World News Speaking in Australia, an Iraqi prelate discussed his plans to open a Catholic university in October. The university will be located in Erbil, a city of 1.5 million that is capital of the autonomous region of Kurdistan, an Australian diocesan newspaper reported.…

By Isaiah Narciso (news@gospelherald.com) A Syrian refugee holds onto his daughter as he waits to cross into Turkey at Akcakale border gate in Sanliurfa province, Turkey, June 15, 2015. REUTERS/Umit Bektas Christians from Iraq and Syria have fled to Kurdish-run refugee camps after the terror…

By Craig S. Semon Telegram & Gazette Staff His Holiness Patriach Mor Igantius Aphrem II, left, meets with the Rev.His Holiness Patriach Mor Igantius Aphrem II, left, meets with the Rev. Maroutha Hanna of St. Mary’s Syriac Orthodox Church in Shrewsbury on Thursday. T&G Staff/Steve Lanava…

Refugees Report of Torture and Death at the Hands of ISIS Fighters Syrian and Iraqi refugee children(Photo: Hermoine Macura)Syrian and Iraqi refugee children wait in the food lines in Erbil and Dohuk, Iraq, March 2015. DOHUK, Iraq — The Islamic State’s limitless brutality is known far and wide, with…

Baghdad prelate calls for serious action against Islamic terrorists, seeks to ease suffering of families VATICAN RADIO (44) – Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako – © UN Photo – Eskinder Debebe© UN Photo / Eskinder Debebe VATICAN CITY — The Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad, Louis Raphael Sako, says he is…

By Arina Moradi yesterday at 04:16 An elderly Christian woman peers into the courtyard of the former Qalb Muqaddas (Sacred Heart) Assyrian Church which now serves as a refugee camp for some 70 displaced families from Bartella. Photo by Farzin Hassan Marolin Sabri is angry. The 28-year-old mother of three says she is sick and…

carey-lodge Carey Lodge Christian Today Journalist © Aid to the Church in Need www.acnuk.org Thousands of Christians are living in tents and small trailers in Ankawa, Kurdistan, after fleeing ISIS. Christians forced to flee Islamic State last year are still living in refugee camps and are losing hope of ever returning home, a Syriac Catholic…

By Natasha Dado MADISON HEIGHTS — As Iraq’s Christian population continues to diminish, the language, culture and history of Chaldeans, Assyrians and Syriacs are also dying. “Right now, we are on the verge of extinction,” said Nathan Kalasho, a local Chaldean activist.…

Posted by: RENAD MANSOUR The Iraqi war against the self-proclaimed Islamic State cannot be won with military means alone, nor can it be won without an armed force able to roll back the salafi-jihadist group as a prelude to reunifying the country. However, the Iraqi state’s…

ISIS and other extremist movements across the region are enslaving, killing and uprooting Christians, with no aid in sight. By ELIZA GRISWOLDJULY 22, 2015 There was something about Diyaa that his wife’s brothers didn’t like. He was a tyrant, they said, who, after 14 years of marriage, wouldn’t let their sister, Rana, 31, have her…