Tag: Islamic State

Ethiopians executed in Libya identified

April 22, 2015 Ethiopia Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Europe, Islamic State, Libya, Migrants, Refugees

At least two of the 30 or so Ethiopians killed by Islamic State in Libya on Sunday 19 April have been identified by their families in Addis Ababa. The families confirmed to AP that the two, Eyasu Yikunoamlak and Balcha Belete, left Ethiopia two months ago, and had been intending to try . . . Read More

‘IS deeply evil’ – Archbishop of Canterbury

April 21, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Copts, Ethiopia, Europe, Islamic State, Justin Welby, Migrants, Refugees

The Archbishop of Canterbury was on a ‘visit of condolence’ to Egypt for its 20 Christians (one was from Ghana), beheaded by IS just before Easter, when news of the murdered Ethiopians came through. During his visit he described the treatment of Christians in Egypt as “the worst since the 13th . . . Read More

30 Ethiopian Christians executed by IS

April 20, 2015 Libya Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Libya

Islamic State released a video on Sunday showing what is believed to be the execution of about 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya. The 29-minute-long footage, in which the militants call Christians ‘crusaders’ who are out to kill Muslims, shows one group of men being beheaded on a beach and a . . . Read More

‘Fabric of Iraqi society depends on Christians’

April 15, 2015 Iraq Erbil, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul

The head of the Catholic Church in Britain said after a weekend visit to the Iraqi city of Erbil that “the presence of the Christian community is essential” for the rebuilding of Iraq’s fractured society, once the Islamic State is overthrown there. But he admitted, “There is no way the . . . Read More

ISIS commentators ‘too simplistic’

April 14, 2015 Iraq Assyrians, Chaldeans, Iraq, Islamic State, Syria, Syriacs

After ISIS’s arrival in Iraq, Assyrian Christians have been “reduced to 1% or less of the general population”, but many commentators are “far too simplistic” in their explanations, says Jeremy Courtney, an American Christian living in Iraq. Assyrians link back to the ancient Assyrian Kingdom of the Bible, across the . . . Read More

Turkish authorities ask tiny Christian community to help Yazidi refugees

April 9, 2015 Turkey Diyarbakir, Iraq, Islamic State, Jerry Mattix, Refugees, Suruç, Syria, Turkey, Yazidis

As a Turkish Christian, Ender Peker is used to facing hostility from religious Muslims, particularly because he lives in Turkey’s conservative southeast. So he was shocked last fall when an imam asked him to take over food distribution at a nearby refugee camp. “He said to me, ‘I want you . . . Read More

Turkey’s Orthodox and Protestants mend centuries of mistrust

April 1, 2015 Turkey Armenians, Assyrians, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Islamic State, Mardin, Protestants, Syria, Syriacs, Turkey

On a Saturday in late March, a group of 20 volunteers went to an abandoned church in Turkey’s southeastern city of Mardin. They cleaned out broken chairs, a cracked pulpit, and books that haven’t been opened in decades. In the corner sat a 100-year-old organ. The church, in the heartland . . . Read More

Assyrian Christians flee jihadists to southeast Turkey

March 27, 2015 Syria Armenians, Assyrians, Bashar al-Assad, Genocide, Iraq, Islamic State, Khabur, Kidnapping, Lebanon, Qamishli, Syriacs, Turkey

A harsh Islamic State offensive begun in late February against Syria’s dwindling Assyrian Christian population is accelerating a steady trickle of Christian refugees trying desperately to reach safety in Turkey, northern Iraq and Lebanon. But their future is far from guaranteed as refugees in Muslim-majority Turkey, where according to Turkish . . . Read More

Christian forgiveness of IS goes viral

March 20, 2015 Iraq Iraq, Islamic State, Middle East, Qaraqosh

Two videos of Christians forgiving members of the so-called Islamic State for atrocities committed against their families have gone viral on social media. In the first, a 10-year-old Iraqi girl named Myriam says she forgives IS for forcing her family out of their home in Qaraqosh. The second features an . . . Read More

US ‘passive’ on IS’s ‘war on Christianity’

March 13, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Assyrians, Chaldeans, Genocide, Islamic State, Middle East, Syria, USA

The Islamic State is “crucifying Christians and demolishing ancient churches” in a “war on Christianity” in the Middle East, according to an opinion piece on the US-based website, Foreign Policy. Why, the title asks, is this being met with silence from the halls of Congress to Sunday sermons? In-house writers . . . Read More

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