Monthly Archives: August 2018

Chaldean-Assyrians aren’t safe in their home country. But reuniting with family in a new one feels impossible. Matthew Petti |||MOHAMED AZAKIR/REUTERS/NewscomMOHAMED AZAKIR/REUTERS/NewscomAMMAN—”Can you believe that I will be the grandson of…

Doreen Abi Raad CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai, pictured in a 2015 file photo. (Credit: Omar Sanadiki/Reuters via CNS.) BEIRUT, Lebanon – Lebanon’s Christian and Muslim religious leaders, meeting with the…

By Rudaw Syrian Christians wave flags of the party during a protest organized by the Syriac Union Party on August 30, 2013 in Qamishli. Photo: Benjamin Hiller | AFP ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The efforts of the Northern Syrian Federation and its allied Syriac and Christian parties and organizations to preserve their language have been…

The numbers of Christians in Iraq have plummeted and those who claim to help ensure their survival, often don’t even understand what they need. Christians in Iraq are dwindling. Chased out, targeted and caught in the middle of rival sectarian conflicts, the minority religious sect is struggling to survive.…

Photos have emerged of hundreds of Syrian Greek Orthodox Christians, gathered in the town of Kafroun to celebrate the Feast of the Virgin Mary on the 15th of August. Kafroun is a Syrian village in the Tartous Governorate, whose inhabitants are predominantly Greek Orthodox Christians.…

HASAKAH, SYRIA – AUGUST 28: Syrian Christians gather in northern Al-Hasaka city to protest terrorist PYD/PKK’s closing down their schools in Qamishli, Syria on August 28, 2018. (Footage by Freelance – Habat Ahmed/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)…

Chris Boulous Singing means different things to different people. For the women of the Assyrian Women’s Choir, singing is hope. It is freedom. It is a form of expression.…

Known today also as Qal’at Sherqat, the ancient Assyrian city of Assur is located in the Saladin Governorate of modern day Iraq, about 280 km (174 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad. This city was first settled by human beings during the 3 rd millennium BC, and is believed to have been occupied up until…

On 28 August 2018, the YPG proxy Sutoro/Syriac Military Council closed four schools in Qamishli, Derik and Darbasiyah (Al-Malikiyah). This comes after the YPG had announced the closure of minority schools earlier this month. However, the people are marching the streets of Qamishli to raise up against the unrecognized YPG government and its cronies.…

ANADOLU AGENCY/HATAY, Turkey The historic cave church of St. Peter in southern Turkey, one of the oldest churches in the world, has become a major destination for faith-based tourism. In the province of Hatay, the cave church was carved out of the mountainside of Mount…

Historic cave church, also known as world’s first cathedral, attracts thousands of local, foreign tourists every year By Salim Tas /HATAY, Turkey The historic cave church of St. Peter in southern Turkey — one of the oldest churches in the world — has become a major destination for faith-based tourism.…

Adnan Abu Zeed Facebook/Al-Aqeeda High School for GirlsA group of young girls sit at their desks in a classroom at the Catholic al-Aqeeda High School for Girls, Baghdad, 1970. Baghdad’s small Christian community is up in arms about plans to raze a Catholic school for girls, Al-Aqeeda, which means “faith,” and in its place build…

By Gus Burns fburns@mlive.com A federal judge on Wednesday, Aug. 22, gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement a warning regarding the treatment of Iraqis being detained in Battle Creek’s Calhoun County Jail.…

Niraj Warikoo Detroit Free Press A federal judge in Detroit slammed ICE on Wednesday for threatening some Iraqi detainees with solitary confinement and for pressuring them to drop out of a lawsuit filed on their behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).…

No delegation from Iraq will be present at the global event being held in Ireland. About 20 families were ready to leave from Erbil, Baghdad and Basra. But the embassies rejected their visa applications. Auxiliary of Baghdad: “We are not fanatics or terrorists”. Even today in Iraq the family plays a central role, but government…

Meanwhile, Washington’s only interest is for the next Iraqi government to follow its sanctions policies – whatever the political price Zvi Bar’el Supporters of Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr carry his image as they celebrate in Tahrir Square, Baghdad, Iraq, May 14, 2018.Hadi Mizban,AP…

Geoffrey P. Johnston Geoffrey P. Johnston Tim Uppal meets a girl who survived the genocide perpetrated by ISIS in northern Iraq and is considered an internally displaced person. “I want my father and brothers back,” the girl told Uppal. Her father and brothers were abducted by ISIS and are still missing. (Khalsa Aid northern Iraq…

No delegation from Iraq will be present at the global event being held in Ireland. About 20 families were ready to leave from Erbil, Baghdad and Basra. But the embassies rejected their visa applications. Auxiliary of Baghdad: “We are not fanatics or terrorists”. Even today in Iraq the family plays a central role, but government…

by Louis Raphael Sako* In a letter the Chaldean primate recalls the sufferings and persecutions of community in the last decade. He calls for future “guarantees” and a “common foundation” based on equal citizenship. The challenge of emigration, can only be defeated by restoring a social and political fabric on which to rebuild life.…

By Paula Tutman – Reporter, Derick Hutchinson UTICA, Mich. – Friends, family members and fellow officers gathered Monday at a Utica church to pay their last respects to slain Detroit police Officer Fadi Shukur. Many people were moved to tears as a Detroit dispatcher delivered the end-of-watch call for Shukur.…