Tag: Arab Spring

‘Only jihadists want to see Christians leave the Middle East’

August 6, 2018 Arab Spring, Arabs, Cairo, Canada, Churches, Egypt, Europe, Islamic extremism, Lebanon, Middle East, Migrants, Minorities, North Africa, Palestinian Territories, Refugees, Syria, USA

Around 300 Christians went to Bartella during the Easter weekend of 2017, to have the very first Easter celebration in three years in their home town. A convoy of about 15 buses travelled from Erbil, crossing several Kurdish and Iraqi army checkpoints to reach the church. The people still live in Erbil and cannot go back to Bartella to live or to rebuild. But for this day many take the chance to celebrate Easter in their own church again. (Open Doors International)

“The only people that want to see all Christians leave are some of the violent jihadists,” concludes a new book. “Everyone else, including some we might term as Islamists, desires their continued presence. They recognise that it is Christians who are the leaven that permeates the whole of society.” The . . . Read More

Egypt: Protestant leader rejects community reconciliation system

April 20, 2018 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Al-Azhar, Andrea Zaki, Arab Spring, Cairo, Churches, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Protestants, Samaan Shehata

Thousands attend Kasr El Dobara Evanglical Church in Cairo each week. There are thought to be as many as 2m Evangelicals in Egypt

The head of Egypt’s Protestant Church has said he urges clergy not to take part in “reconciliation sessions” that aim to resolve community conflicts without the involvement of the police and legal system. Rev. Dr. Andrea Zaki said he “strongly” opposed the scheme because it renders the law “absent”. The reconciliation . . . Read More

Egypt’s elections and the man dividing the country’s Copts

March 14, 2018 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Arab Spring, Aswan, Asyut, Bahrain, Cairo, Catholics, Churches, Converts, Copts, Egypt, El-Ghad Party, Elections, Faiyum, Hosni Mubarak, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Minya, Mohamed Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood, Pope Tawadros II, Protestants, Samalut, Sinai, Sohag, Sunni, Tanta, Terrorism, Upper Egypt

Walking around Cairo you would be forgiven for thinking that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was the only candidate running in the elections later this month. His is the only grandiose face bearing down on passers-by, while billboards of his rival, Mousa Mostafa Mousa, are nowhere to be seen. Egypt’s 26-28 March presidential elections have . . . Read More

Why are attacks on Egypt’s Coptic Christians getting worse?

July 14, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Arab Spring, Cairo, Copts, Egypt, El-Arish, Hosni Mubarak, Iraq, Mohamed Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood, Salafism, Syria, Yemen

Attacks on Christians in Egypt have intensified in brutality because of an influx of arms and foreign jihadis, lax border security and increased local hostility to non-Muslims, according to a leading UK academic. Dr Mariz Tadros of Sussex University’s Institute of Development Studies said that the suicide attack on a . . . Read More

6 years on: what has the Arab Spring meant for Christians?

December 20, 2016 Arab Spring, Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, Iraq, Libya, Middle East, Muammar Gaddafi, Syria, Tunisia

Demonstrators on the streets of Cairo, Egypt in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, November 2012. World Watch Monitor The Arab Spring, which began 17 December, 2010, started with a wave of protests in Tunisia, followed by other Arab countries. It was positively acclaimed as a social movement demanding an . . . Read More

5 years on: what has the Arab Spring meant for Christians?

December 17, 2015 Arab Spring, Copts, Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, Iraq, Islamic State, Libya, Middle East, Muammar Gaddafi, Muslim Brotherhood, North Africa, Ramadan, Syria, Tunisia

The Arab Spring, which began five years ago today (17th December) started with a wave of protests in Tunisia followed by other Arab countries. It was positively acclaimed as a social movement demanding an end to human rights violations, government corruption and poverty. Yet, so far, the outcome is largely contrary to . . . Read More

Four years since teenage graffiti sparks Syrian civil war

March 12, 2015 Syria Aleppo, Arab Spring, Bashar al-Assad, Civil War, Daraa, Islamic State, Khabur, Syria

Four years ago this week a group of young teenagers with a can full of paint sprayed messages on a wall in the Syrian city of Daraa. They couldn’t have known it but, over the next nine days, their graffiti would escalate into the Syrian civil war, which reaches its . . . Read More

Homs priest killed by assassins

April 7, 2014 Syria Arab Spring, Civil War, Homs, Syria

Frans van der Lugt, a Jesuit priest who refused to leave the embattled city of Homs, Syria, in solidarity with the few Christians still living there, was killed by assassins Monday in his garden. Known among the people as Abouna Francis, the native Dutchman had worked in Syria for more . . . Read More

Freedom of religion an issue ‘whose time has come’

February 13, 2014 Global News -- No Particular Country Arab Spring, Barack Obama, China, Egypt, Eritrea, Europe, India, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Middle East, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Religious freedom, Saudi Arabia, Sharia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, UN, USA, Uzbekistan, Vietnam

Freedom of religion and belief is an issue “whose time has come”, the vice chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said yesterday. During the presentation of two reports on religious freedom at the European Parliament in Brussels on Feb. 12, commission Vice Chairwoman Katrina Lantos Swett said . . . Read More

Tunisian constitution finds no place for Sharia

January 20, 2014 Tunisia Apostasy, Arab Spring, Constitution, Ennahda, Islamic extremism, Sharia, Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

Al-Zaytuna Mosque, Tunis.Christopher Rose / Flickr / Creative Commons Three years after the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ started in Tunisia, the country’s National Constituent Assembly is close to passing a new constitution which rejects Islam as the “main source of law”, but states it is the State’s duty to “protect the . . . Read More

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