Monthly Archives: January 2017

Church announces survival plan for Iraq’s suffering Christians

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By Murcadha O Flaherty and John Newton ARCHBISHOP Bashar Warda of Erbil has unveiled plans to provide a future for Iraq’s displaced Christians – despite fresh reports showing the extent of the destruction of their homes in the Nineveh Plains. Archbishop Warda said the Churches aim to rebuild “so that the IDPs are able to…

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Should America’s Refugee Policy Put Persecuted Christians First?

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Four Christian experts offer their take on Trump’s controversial plan. David Curry, Nina Shea, Matthew Soerens, and Jeremy Courtney/ January 31, 2017 Should America’s Refugee Policy Put Persecuted Christians First? Phil Roeder / Flickr Under President Donald Trump’s new executive order, religious minorities claiming…

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Iraq church leader sees ‘no future’ for Christians in Mosul

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By Premier Journalist An Iraqi church leader has said that Christians are unlikely to return to the city of Mosul, a place once home to tens of thousands of believers. After visiting the recently liberated city last week, Fr Emanuel Youkhana of the Assyrian Church of the East told Catholic News Service: “I don’t see…

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Local EU statement on the liberation of eastern Mosul

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Baghdad, Iraq – 26 January 2017 – The European Union Delegation to Iraq issues the following statement in agreement with the EU Heads of Mission in Iraq: The PM’s announcement that Iraq’s security forces have achieved the liberation of eastern Mosul represents an important milestone in the long journey to liberate those oppressed by Da’esh.…

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Iraqi patriarch: Fast track for Christian refugees will fuel tensions

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Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad is seen at the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ainkawa, Iraq, Oct. 25, 2016. He told Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples at the Vatican, that giving priority to Christian refugees for resettlement programs would be “a trap” that…

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Iraqi patriarch: Fast track for Christian refugees will fuel tensions

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By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Giving priority to Christian refugees for settlement programs would be “a trap” that discriminates and fuels religious tensions in the Middle East, said Iraq’s Chaldean Catholic patriarch. “Every reception policy that discriminates (between) the persecuted and suffering on…

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Iran-Allied Militia Attacks Kurdish Peshmerga in Iraq

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TOPSHOT – An Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighter, next to a Kurdish flag, holds a position in Sheikh Ali village near the town of Bashiqa, some 25 kilometres north east of Mosul, on November 6, 2016 during an operation against Islamic State (IS) group jihadists to retake the main hub city. / AFP / SAFIN HAMED…

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Middle Eastern Christians are Trump’s pawns

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By Daniel Williams President Trump signs an executive order on Friday at the Pentagon in Washington. (Carlos Barria/Reuters) Daniel Williams is author of “Forsaken: The Persecution of Christians in Today’s Middle East.” President Trump dropped a sectarian bombshell on Friday into his quick and confused…

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Christians being ‘excluded’ from reconstruction plans for northern Iraq

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World Watch Monitor Christians are being excluded from the reconstruction plans for northern Iraq, further eroding the likelihood of their return once Islamic State has been militarily defeated there, an alliance of UK-based charities has warned. Iraqi Christians firmly believe that Iraq is their spiritual homeland; their presence dates…

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Chaldean Patriarch visits towns liberated from Islamic State

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On January 27, Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Raphael Louis Sako visited the region of Iraq recently recaptured from the Islamic State, to confer with officials who are beginning the rebuilding process there. The Chaldean patriarchate and other Iraqi Catholic dioceses have contributed over…

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Evangelical Christians speak out against Trump’s proposed ban on refugees

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Jardine Malado (Reuters/Umit Bektas)Yazidi refugees stand behind fences at a Syrian and Iraqi refugee camp in the southern Turkish town of Midyat in Mardin province, Turkey, June 20, 2015. Evangelicals have expressed their opposition to President Donald Trump’s plan to stop accepting refugees in the U.S. for the next four months.…

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