Tag: Iraq

US ‘sidelining’ role of religion in diplomacy is ‘devastating’

September 11, 2017 Iraq, USA

Shaun Casey (centre) in his role as Special Representative to Cyprus for Religion and Global Affairs of the State Department of the United States of America, speaks during a press conference at the end of a meeting with the religious leaders of Cyprus in March 2016.

The elimination of the Office of Religion and Global Affairs within the US State Department by the Trump administration is “devastating”, writes Shaun Casey, and shows its failure to understand the importance of the role of religion in diplomacy. In his article for ‘Religion and Politics‘, Casey, former US special . . . Read More

Nineveh Christians rebuild their homes, but threats remain in Iraq

September 7, 2017 Iraq Bashiqa, Dohuk, Iraq, Islamic State, Nineveh Plains, Qaraqosh

With towns and cities such as Qaraqosh and Bashiqa in Iraq’s Nineveh Plains now liberated from Islamic State (IS) forces and their original inhabitants beginning to return, there is confidence among some local Christian leaders that life is slowly beginning to get back to normal. “I am optimistic, yes, very . . . Read More

Iraqi Archbishop of Mosul: ‘My cousin, my friend, my teacher – all killed by terrorists’

August 31, 2017 Iraq Al-Qaeda, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Saddam Hussein, Salafism

The last Christian leader to leave Mosul after it was invaded by the Islamic State group in 2014 has spoken about his personal loss to terrorism, as Nuri Kino reports in the Huffington Post. Archbishop Nicodemus Daoud Sharaf, who risked his life to stay as long as possible in Mosul, . . . Read More

Christian woman freed from Islamic State after 3 years in captivity

August 31, 2017 Iraq Iraq, Islamic State, Nineveh Plains, Qaraqosh

A Christian woman held in captivity for three years at an Islamic State stronghold in Iraq is finally home. Rana Esso had been held in Tal Afar, in north-west Iraq, since IS invaded the Nineveh Plains in August 2014. She was released on Sunday (27 August) after Iraqi security forces . . . Read More

‘Small window to act’ to restore Christianity in Middle East

August 22, 2017 Iraq Erbil, Iraq, Islamic State, Nineveh Plains, Qaraqosh, Syria, USA, Yazidis

As Christians are returning to Qaraqosh, Iraq, many have called for action if Christianity is to stay in the Middle East. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

“If something bold is not done by the United States and the international community, I believe we will see the end of Christianity in the cradle of Christendom and a loss of religious and ethnic diversity throughout the region,” says former US Representative Frank Wolf upon his return from a . . . Read More

IS guilty of genocide, says US Secretary of State

August 17, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Al-Shabaab, Andrew Brunson, Blasphemy, Donald Trump, Genocide, Iran, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Lord Alton, NATO, Pakistan, Qatar, Rex Tillerson, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Taliban, Turkey, USA, Wahhabism, Yemen

The US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has stressed that the actions of the Islamic State (IS) group against Christians, Yazidis and Shia Muslims constitute genocide, and also criticised America’s ally, Saudi Arabia, for religious freedom violations. Tillerson made his “genocide” comments in the preface to the State Department’s annual . . . Read More

Iraqi Christians returning to Nineveh Plains after 3 years ‘need protection’

August 7, 2017 Iraq Iraq, Islamic State, Jordan, Kurds, Lebanon, Nineveh Plains, USA

Iraqi women and children are demonstrating in front of the UN office in Erbil where they present a declaration to the UN calling for protection of minority groups on 13 August 2015. (Photo: Open Doors International)

Three years after Iraq’s Christians fled the Nineveh Plains, driven away by the Islamic State group, human rights lawyer Ewelina Ochab has charted the movements of the Christians and evaluated the likelihood that they will now return. A report published earlier this year showed that 50% of Iraq’s Christians have . . . Read More

Archbishop fears persistence of IS ideology despite military defeat

August 4, 2017 Iraq Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul, Peshmerga

A former archbishop of Mosul has warned that the totalitarian ideology of the Islamic State (IS) group may continue despite the recent recapture of the city and its surrounding areas by Iraqi forces. Chaldean Archbishop Amel Nona was among the thousands of Iraqi Christians who fled their homes in northern . . . Read More

Why Syrian and Iraqi Christians eye different futures

August 3, 2017 Syria Asylum seekers, Iraq, Refugees, Syria, UN, USA

Despite the violence, around 30,000 of Aleppo's 250,000 Christians have remained in Syria's ancient second city

Iraqi Christians who decide to flee the Middle East feel they have no future there, whereas Syrian Christians wish to return home because they believe they have a future there under President Bashar Al-Assad. That is the view of human rights lawyer and genocide expert Ewelina Ochab, who has interviewed . . . Read More

Eight Baghdad churches close down as Christians still flee Iraq

August 2, 2017 Iraq Baghdad, Catholics, Iraq

The closure of eight churches in Baghdad “represents a symbolic defeat” for the Church in Iraq’s capital city, reports International Christian Concern (ICC). The Catholic churches were closed in May by the Vatican after seven years of falling or no attendance, said the charity which monitors persecution, pointing to three . . . Read More

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