Monthly Archives: December 2015

The Iraqis: History, Culture, and Challenges. A Training Session for DHS Officials with special emphasis on Iraqi Christians and other minorities. (See below : DHS web site) Prepared and presented by Joseph T. Kassab, founder and president of ICAE Institute to the U.S Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – Homeland Security investigations (HSI) officials:…

Robert Ewan Archbishop Warda Archbishop Bashar Matti Warda, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Erbil, northern Iraq and Mgr Nunzio Galantino, secretary general of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), took part in the official opening of the Catholic University of Erbil on 8 December.…

Obama says US, allies, hitting Islamic State group harder than ever; aims to reassure nation By Josh Lederman, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Monday said the U.S.-led coalition is making progress against Islamic State militants in both Iraq and Syria, as he delivered an update on the campaign aimed at reassuring…

AFP’s picture by Delil Souleiman Christian women from northeast Syria have joined in female battalions in the fight against the Islamic State group A Syriac Christian fighter, member of the female battalion fighting the Islamic State…

The husbands of many women are the ones who have encouraged them to join these militias to “fight against the idea that the Syriac woman is good for nothing except housekeeping and make-up”. IndiaToday.in Females of the Syriac Christian minority have come up together to form a female militia…

ZEYNEP KARATA? Tuma Çelik stands outside the new headquarters of Sabro, a monthly Syriac newspaper, in Midyat. (Photo: Sunday’s Zaman) A yellow public bus rolls into the station in the district of Midyat. On it the text “Mardin Metropolitan Municipality” is printed in Turkish, Kurdish, Syriac…

By Zachary Leshin Yezidi Kurds protest on the one-year anniversary of ISIS’ 2014 invasion of Sinjar in northern Iraq. (AP photo) (CNSNews.com) – Chaldean and Yezidi leaders described the genocide of their people at the hands of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to members of Congress…

Public Domain Image of ISIS Army Fighters ISIS has publicly announced its intention to eliminate Christian communities from its “Islamic State.” However, the U.S. disproportionately excludes Christians and other vulnerable minorities from its Syrian refugee resettlement program. (ISIS Photo)…

Fr Douglas reveals news that a flight taking displaced Christians from Iraq to Slovakia is delayed, Dec 2015 World Watch Monitor We know that some Eastern European countries have been specifying that they are happy to take Christians direct from Iraqi IDP camps, and months of work had started to identify and move some of…

The State Department should use the label for Christians as well as Yazidis, church leaders say. By Nahal Toosi Displaced Iraqi families from the Yazidi community cross the Iraqi-Syrian border in northern Iraq, on Aug. 13, 2014. | Getty Christian leaders are pressing the Obama administration to declare that the Islamic…

by Russ Read A general view of the bombed out St Geor About 1.3 million Iraqi Christians have been displaced, murdered or taken prisoner since 2003. A centuries-old civilization now faces permanent extinction while the rest of the world, including the U.S. government, looks on.\…

Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press Metro Detroit’s Bishop Kalabat says “shame” on Obama administration for not doing more for Christians and other displaced religious minorities in Syria and Iraq (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press)…

by David Chambers on 10/12/2015 Christianity In The Middle East Is On The Verge Of Extinction Guest Post The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on Monday called for groups systematically persecuted by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria – Christians, Yazidis, Shi’as, Turkmen and Shabaks – to be recognized as victims of…

By Annie Dee (news@gospelherald.com) Yazidi Iraqis on Mount Sinjar carry the limp bodies of children as they flee their ISIS hunters. As ISIS continue to engage in grave human rights violation against Christians in Iraq and Syria, many were wondering why the United States would not use the word…

Archbishop Warda talks to AsiaNews about the new facility. At a time of Christian suffering, persecution and exodus in Iraq, the university provides “a strong motive to stay”. The Italian Bishops’ Conference gave € 2.3 million for the project. The new university’s programmes include oriental studies, information technology, languages…

The Infidels   by Joe David Joe David’s latest book is in the great tradition of novels like Forty Days of Musa Dagh and histories like the Rape of Nanking. It reveals the scars of brutality and inhumanity as history intersects with the ordinary lives of innocent people. Editor George Thomas Kurian…

By Catholic News Service CNS photo/Solan Kolli, EPA People gather in late April in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to protest the killing of more than 20 Ethiopian Christians by Islamic State militants in Libya. A group of 30 Christian leaders, including Washington Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl, has asked for a meeting with…

Ziyad Raoof, the KRG Representative in Poland on December 5, 2015, was a guest on the Radio Show “Report on the state of the world” presented by Dariusz Rosiak on the Polish Radio Channel 3. In the beginning Ziyad Raoof congratulated Mr. Dariusz Rosiak, who is this year’s…

One-time refugees got the help they needed in the past. Now they’re “paying it forward.” Shawn Neal/John Burger TOPSHOTS A woman and her children look on as migrants and refugees wait to cross the Greece-Macedonia border in the rain on November 27, 2015 near Gevgelija. Over 200 migrants on November 26 tried to break through…

By Samuel Smith , CP Reporter Militant Islamist fighters waving flags, travel in vehicles as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria’s northern Raqqa province, June 30, 2014. Militants from the Islamic State terrorist organization have hacked the website of an…