Monthly Archives: December 2015

The Chaldean patriarch was one of the featured speakers at a recent Rome conference on religious freedom, hosted by the University of Notre Dame. by EDWARD PENTIN 12/30/2015 Comments (7) Catholic News Agency Refugee children huddle against a wall at the Sharia Al Haman Hope Refugee Camp in…

Buildings were unearthed at Rosh Ha’ayin near Tel Aviv, in Israel Farmstead comprising 24 rooms and a silo is said to be 2,700 years old Byzantine monastery found nearby contains an ancient Greek mosaic Other finds including Greek coins suggest the site was used for centuries By Sarah Griffiths for MailOnline…

Hillary Clinton: Violence against Yazidis, other minorities is ‘genocide’ Daesh has targeted and killed members of the Yazidi religion. (AFP/File) US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Tuesday said that Daesh violence against Iraqi Yazidis and other religious minorities in the Middle East is genocide.…

Peter Oborne’s picture The Christmas messages from the British prime minister and Archbishop of Canterbury should have held out the hope of reconciliation When Prime Minister David Cameron became prime minister of Britain five years ago he presented himself as a new kind of national leader. Like US President Barack…

carey-lodge Carey Lodge Christian persecution has dominated the news over the past year. From the escalating chaos in the Middle East to the crackdown on churches in China’s Zhejiang province, it’s been a terrible year for some of the world’s most persecuted minorities.…

by John Hayward The latest depredations of the Islamic State include the bombing of Assyrian Christian homes, and a monastery occupied by Assyrian nuns, plus the vandalism of a Christian cemetery in Kirkuk. “On November 27 a cemetery in Kirkuk used by the Assyrian Church of the East and…

AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP/GETTY IMAGES by Mary Chastain26 Dec 20154 Christians in Iraqi Kurdistan were determined to keep their Christmas Christian traditions, even though attacks from the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) and al-Qaeda have…

Washington D.C. Friday, December 18, 2015 To ensure protection and the safe return or resettlement of hundreds of thousands of persecuted and displaced Christians and other minorities from Iraq and Syria, the White House invited Mr. Mr. Joseph T. Kassab, Founder and President of Iraqi Christians…

By Rudaw The Ainkawa Royal Hotel warns parents through its website to remember Santa. ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The war with ISIS may be keeping some tourists out, but it’s not enough to stop Santa Claus from coming to the Kurdistan Region.…

Spokesman for Iraq’s Badr Organization Karim al-Nouri A high-ranking Iraqi military commander has accused Turkey of providing members of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group, who are wreaking havoc in neighboring Iraq, with shelter. Spokesman for Badr Organization Karim al-Nouri said on Thursday, “Turks are clearly…

A volunteer wearing a Santa Claus costume distributes presents to children at a poor community in Najaf, south of Baghdad, December 19, 2015. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani By Reuters Media BAGHDAD (Reuters) – With Christmas falling this year a day after Prophet Mohammad’s birthday, the city of Baghdad is holding Christmas celebrations in a sign…

By Adam Taylor December 24 at 12:01 PM Displaced children who fled the Islamic State militant group listen to Christmas carols at Zayuna camp in Baghdad on Wednesday. (Khalid al-Mousily/Reuters) In a bid to show solidarity with Iraq’s embattled Christian minority, local authorities in…

Iraqi security forces recaptured a large part of the city of Ramadi this week in one of their most significant military victories over the Islamic State (IS) to date. Backed by warplanes from the US-led coalition, Baghdad’s troops have been fighting to secure territory around Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s vast western province of Anbar,…

AFP By Maher Al Mounes Syrians attend mass at a church in Sadad, a majority Syriac Orthodox Christian ancient town which is believed to be the same town referred to as Zedad in the Old Sadad (Syria) (AFP) – As military vehicles roll by, Syrian boys and girls gingerly decorate a large Christmas tree in…

A volunteer wearing a Santa suit distributes presents to children at a poor community in Najaf, south of Baghdad. Photo: A volunteer wearing a Santa suit distributes presents to children at a poor community in Najaf, south of Baghdad. (Reuters: Alaa Al-Marjani) Map: Iraq…

by Joseph Mahmoud In Mosul, the jihadists posted signs that prohibit Muslims from celebrating Christmas, branding Christians as “heretics.” In Kirkuk extremist groups desecrate two cemeteries. But the Christian community claims the right and the desire to celebrate the holiday. Christian lawmaker denounces decimation of the community.…

Internally displaced Christian children, who have fled from Islamic State, color at a church in Baghdad. REUTERS/Khalid al-Mousily BAGHDAD — The president of the Rafeedain group in Iraqi Parliament, Yonadam Kanna, reported in a Parliament session that over 700 thousand Iraqi Christians have left the country due to the conflict.…

By Dr.Hashim Abood Al-Mousawi 1. Sorrows Oh ! You city ! Do you know when once a poet compared what he was bearing of concerns to what were bearing, he, astonishingly, found that your concerns were much more than his.…

Channels Television. British MPs on genocideOver 60 British parliamentarian in a letter to Prime Minister, David Cameron, have said that the killing of minorities by the Islamic State (ISIS) should be recognised as genocide. The lawmakers urged Mr Cameron to use his influence to reach an agreement with the…

By Julie McDonald-Smith Compared with all of the talk of whether to continue to admit Muslim refugees and asylum seekers into the United States, another important aspect of the Middle East inferno is getting relatively less attention. Christians are quite literally being exterminated in the Middle East, and I can find very…