Tag: Islamic State

Egypt’s Copts nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

September 28, 2018 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Copts, Egypt, Giza, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Mohamed Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood, Pope Tawadros II

In October last year the Coptic church in Sohag, Minya governorate, had its electricity and water supply cut by police, who said they had received complaints from Muslim villagers (Watani)

Egypt’s Coptic Christians have been nominated for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for choosing peaceful coexistence over retaliation in the face of persecution, reports the US-based news site PR Newswire. It is believed to be the first time in the 116-year history of the prize that an ethnic religious group . . . Read More

Boko Haram kills midwife, threatens to kill other hostages, including Leah Sharibu, unless demands met

September 18, 2018 Nigeria Boko Haram, Borno, Islamic State, Leah Sharibu, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria, UN

Boko Haram has killed an aid worker and threatened to kill three other hostages, including the Christian schoolgirl Leah Sharibu. Saifura Hussaini Ahmed Khorsa, 25, who worked as midwife with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), had been abducted on 1 March, alongside two other health workers, when . . . Read More

‘UN must recognise persecution of Christians in Middle East as genocide’

September 17, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Europe, Genocide, Iraq, Islamic State, Jan Figel, Middle East, Sam Brownback, Syria, UN, Yazidis

At the moment of the photo taken, ISIS had just been pushed out of the home towns of these Christians. People were hoping and anticipating to return to their towns some day.

The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) is appealing to the United Nations to recognise the persecution of Christians in Iraq and Syria as “genocide”, reports the US-based National Review. The ECLJ, an affiliate of the American Center for Law and Justice, said a “genocide” declaration is necessary to . . . Read More

Attacks against Copts ‘among deadliest acts of religious persecution’ – report

September 14, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, Copts, Egypt, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Lake Chad, Sahel, Somalia, Syria, Tony Blair, Women, Yemen

This is one of the fifty five photos that is part of the photo story "Renewed day by day," commissioned by World Watch Monitor, exploring the extensive damage to churches in Egypt's Minya region that took place in late August 2013.

Attacks by members of the Islamic State group against Egypt’s Coptic Christian community “were among the deadliest acts of religious persecution” last year, according a new report presented in Washington DC yesterday, 13 September. “Fifty-three per cent of ISIS attacks against the public in 2017 were aimed at the Coptic . . . Read More

Philippines: Mindanao Christians present ‘policy agenda’ for new Muslim region

September 11, 2018 Philippines Bangsamoro, Islamic State, Marawi, Mindanao, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte

Christians form a minority in southern Philippines and policy proposals dealt with their concerns once they become citizens of an autonomous Muslim region. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Christian leaders have submitted a “Christian policy agenda” to the transitory body that will facilitate the formation of a new autonomous Muslim region in the southern Philippines, reports the Catholic news website UCAN. The agenda, put together after consultations last month in several areas set to become part of the . . . Read More

‘World leaders can’t continue to ignore persecution of Copts’

September 10, 2018 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Islamic State

More than 20 people lost their lives in the Palm Sunday attack on the St George Cathedral in Tanta, Egypt.

The US should make further cuts in foreign aid to Egypt if its government does not tackle the escalation in violence against the country’s Coptic Christians, an imam has said. “World leaders cannot continue to ignore the ongoing persecution of Coptic Christians,” Imam Tawhidi, president of the Islamic Association of . . . Read More

‘Iraq without Christians is like a garden without a rose’

August 31, 2018 Iraq Chaldeans, Churches, Iraq, Islamic State, Qaraqosh, Syriacs

Four years ago this month, the northern Iraqi city of Qaraqosh, or Baghdeda in the Syriac language, was invaded by the Islamic State group, forcing most of its population to flee for their lives. Prior to IS’s invasion, 50,000 Christians resided in Qaraqosh, 97 per cent of the population. October . . . Read More

Religious freedom violations in Asia increasing – UN rapporteur

August 24, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Ahmed Shaheed, Asia, Hindu nationalism, Human rights, India, Islamic State, Maldives, Minorities, Religious freedom, Southeast Asia

Pakistani Christians experience an increase in violence such as a suicide attack on the Bethel Methodist Church in Quetta in December last year that killed more than ten and injured dozens of people. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Religious freedom in Asia is “eroding”, with an increase in religious fundamentalism across much of the continent, according to the UN’s religious freedom rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed. Shaheed spoke during an event, hosted by the Foreign Correspondents Club in Thailand’s capital Bangkok, on the back of the 4th Southeast Asia Freedom of Religion or Belief Conference. “Freedom . . . Read More

‘ISIS won despite defeat as West was unwilling to confront it’

August 23, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Andrew Brunson, Genocide, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Minorities, Rape, Syria, Turkey, USA

Iraqi Christians ask the international community for help as they are facing annihilation by Islamic State. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The Islamic State group may have been defeated on the battlefield, but the West has allowed its ideology to “percolate” and in that case it won, writes Seth J. Frantzman for the Jerusalem Post. “[ISIS] won in Iraq and Syria by destroying minority communities. It won because today the international . . . Read More

Egypt: IS murder of Coptic vet followed warnings to ‘leave or die’

August 22, 2018 Egypt Copts, Egypt, El-Arish, Islamic State, Ismailia, Sinai

The string of attacks on Coptic Christians last year in the coastal Egyptian city of El-Arish, which caused a mass exodus, followed warnings “to leave or to die”, say relatives of the Coptic vet who was killed by suspected IS militants. Bahgat William Zakhar, 40, was shot dead by a number . . . Read More

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