Tag: Iraq

Mass grave of Christians found in Iraq

March 6, 2018 Iraq Iraq, Mosul, Syria

A mass grave holding the remains of 40 Christians has been found in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, reports Iraqi News. Iraq’s second city was held by the Islamic State group for three years until its liberation by government forces in 2017. After capturing the city in 2014, IS . . . Read More

Iraq archbishop invites Muslim nations to rebuild Christian villages destroyed by IS

February 20, 2018 Iraq Bashar Warda, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State

The Archbishop of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan has called for Muslim nations to help rebuild the Christian and Yazidi villages destroyed by Islamic State (IS). Archbishop Bashar Warda said: “It is not enough to say ‘ISIS does not represent Islam’. We need more.” Helping to rebuild what IS destroyed would . . . Read More

The Christian teenager IS turned into an atheist

February 9, 2018 Iraq Bartella, Iraq, Islamic State

Seventeen-year-old Ibrahim* found himself trapped in the northern Iraqi town of Bartella along with his elderly mother in 2014. The website of the US-based Public Radio International (PRI) tells the story of what happened to them after Islamic State jihadists had expelled all the other Christians and installed themselves as . . . Read More

Rome’s Colosseum to be floodlit red to remember Asia Bibi and Boko Haram victim

February 8, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Asia Bibi, Boko Haram, Iraq, Italy, Paris, Syria

The Colosseum in Rome will be floodlit in red later this month to highlight the persecution of Christians around the world, particularly in Iraq and Syria. The iconic landmark, in which some of the earliest Christians are believed to have been martyred under the Romans, will be floodlit red on . . . Read More

Iran protests saw people ‘turn their backs on political Islam’

January 25, 2018 Iran Ayatollah Khamenei, Ayatollah Khomeini, Donald Trump, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, Iran, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Mashhad, Shia, Syria, USA, Yemen

Ayatollah Khomeini spoke about human rights and religious freedom when he returned to Iran 40 years ago. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Iranians are challenging the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic because corruption and inequality undermine its ideals, a human rights activist has claimed. In an interview with World Watch Monitor, Mansour Borji, Iranian-born advocacy director of UK-based human rights charity Article 18, said the street protests that spread across the country . . . Read More

A Middle Eastern Christian’s view of Pence’s agenda

January 22, 2018 Donald Trump, Egypt, Human rights, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jerusalem, Middle East, Mike Pence, Palestinian Territories, Refugees, Saudi Arabia, Syria, USA, West Bank

A Jordanian Christian trauma counsellor has urged US Vice President Mike Pence to recognise Palestinian statehood to make good his pledge to help Christians in the Middle East. Issam Smeir, who has worked with refugees in the Middle East and in the US, wrote a first-person piece for the Washington . . . Read More

US and UN strike $55 million deal for Iraq’s religious minorities

January 12, 2018 Iraq Iraq, Islamic State, Minorities, Nineveh Plains, UN, USA

Iraqi families like that of 12-year old Noeh will receive assistance in returning home after they fled IS. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Ethnic and religious minorities in northern Iraq are set to receive assistance worth US $55 million from the UN’s international development agency (UNDP), funded by the US government. USAID, the development agency of the US government, said the money would be used to help minorities living in parts of Iraq . . . Read More

Netherlands joins UN Security Council to shine light on IS genocide

January 11, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Genocide, Iraq, Islamic State, Lord Alton, Middle East, Netherlands, Syria, UK, UN, Yazidis

A church in Karamles, a town near Mosul, after IS was pushed out in October 2016. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The Netherlands has just joined the UN Security Council as a temporary member for a year. Ten days before, its Foreign Minister, Halbe Zijlstra, published a letter explaining the Dutch government’s response on the use by politicians of the term “genocide”. The Dutch Parliament had had several debates on the . . . Read More

‘Unprecedented’ persecution of Egypt’s Christians heads 2018 World Watch List

January 10, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Africa, Anti-conversion law, Boko Haram, Cairo, Central Asia, Churches, Converts, Copts, Egypt, Eritrea, Fulani herdsmen, Hindu nationalism, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Jharkhand, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Marawi, Middle Belt, Middle East, Mindanao, Minorities, Nepal, Nigeria, North Korea, Philippines, Somalia, Southeast Asia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Upper Egypt

More Christians abused in India than in all other countries combined; Nepal enters list Islamic extremists driven out of Iraq and Syria are behind a new intensity of Christian persecution in surrounding countries, says global charity Open Doors in its latest annual survey of countries where it is most difficult . . . Read More

Mosul Christmas Mass hailed a ‘victory over IS’ as Sunni youth install giant Christmas tree

January 5, 2018 Iraq Chaldeans, Christmas, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul, Orthodox, Saddam Hussein, Sunni, Youth

Christmas 2017 in Iraq
The celebration of a first mass in Mossul (Mosul) since 2014. His Beatitude Raphael Sako and Bishop Shlemon Warduni (from the Chaldean Church) are presiding the Mass. Archbishops Mouche (Syriac Catholic) and Abp Nicodemus Dauod Matti Sharaf (Syriac-Orthodox) were participating. Muslim representatives were present at the celebration.

The celebration of a Christmas Eve Mass in Mosul after the city’s devastating three-year occupation by Islamic State (IS) marked “a kind of victory” over the extremists, a church leader there said. And the installation of a number of large Christmas trees around the city was unprecedented, said the leader, . . . Read More

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