Tag: Lebanon

‘We have no voice’: Christians in Jordan 2 years after fleeing N. Iraq

August 5, 2016 Iraq Genocide, Islamic State, Jordan, Lebanon, Mosul, Qaraqosh, Refugees, Tel Kaif, Women

Bahar (left), 81, with her daughters, Samira and Bahija. IS beat Bahija and ransacked their home in Tel Kayf, outside Mosul. Bahar’s family shares a one-bedroomed house in Amman with another family of three, who sleep in the lounge.World Watch Monitor Bahija, 65, a housekeeper, told me she cries . . . Read More

5 killed in suicide attacks in Lebanese village

June 27, 2016 Lebanon Hezbollah, Islamic State, Lebanon, Migrants, Refugees, Sunni, Syria

At least five people were killed and 15 wounded in suicide bomb attacks early on Monday in the predominantly Christian village of Qaa, northern Lebanon – on a road linking its Bekaa valley to Syria. Four bombers blew themselves up on Qaa’s streets starting at 1am GMT. No group has . . . Read More

Italy takes 1,000 refugees via humanitarian visas

February 9, 2016 Ethiopia, Europe, Italy, Lebanon, Migrants, Morocco, North Africa, Refugees, Syria

Italian Protestant churches will help settle 1,000 refugees arriving there this month through a “humanitarian corridor” from camps in Lebanon, Morocco and Ethiopia. The refugees, including both Christians and Muslims, will travel under the safety of humanitarian visas so they are not tempted to risk deadly sea crossings to Europe. . . . Read More

‘You come here and take our jobs,’ Lebanese tell refugees

November 19, 2015 Lebanon Beirut, Lebanon, Refugees, Syria, Turkey, UN

World Watch Monitor has an occasional diary from a church leader still in Aleppo, the Syrian city that is now a key battleground between rebels and President Assad’s forces. Recently, however, pastor Samuel* visited Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon to meet some of that country’s one million Syrian refugees. This is his edited . . . Read More

Global Church meets to seek unity in face of persecution

November 6, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Albania, Aleppo, Algeria, Catholics, Churches, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, India, Iraq, Islamic State, Kenya, Kidnapping, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nigeria, Nineveh Plains, Orthodox, Pakistan, Pentecostals, Protestants, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Yohanna Ibrahim

Twenty-five years ago, on 4 Nov. 1990, a priest risked his life to hold a mass in a cemetery in Albania. In 1967 his president, Enver Hoxha, had declared that he had “abolished” the Christian faith, and that his country was henceforth the world’s first atheist state. On 4 Nov. . . . Read More

Call to the European Church to stand with refugees

September 23, 2015 Europe, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Migrants, Muammar Gaddafi, Qatar, Refugees, Saudi Arabia, Syria

As Europe struggles to manage the migrant crisis, some church leaders in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq are saying that some refugees are ‘fed up with Islam’ because Gulf countries aren’t offering them help. These leaders’ message to the European Church is ‘be prepared’ to welcome the many Muslims who are . . . Read More

‘We won’t let diversity of ME disappear’

September 9, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Europe, France, Iraq, Islamic State, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East, Paris, Syria, Turkey, UN, Yazidis

A UN conference has announced a plan to protect minorities persecuted by the so-called Islamic State in the Middle East. Speaking at the conference in Paris of 60 countries on Tuesday, 8 Sep., French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said several countries would announce financial pledges in the coming months for . . . Read More

Belgium rescues Aleppo Christians from Syria

July 8, 2015 Syria Aleppo, Chaldeans, Human rights, Lebanon, Middle East, Refugees, Syria, Yazidis

Some 240 people, mainly Christians, have been brought out of Syria’s second city of Aleppo and taken to Belgium, the government in Brussels says. All the families had fled their homes and were at risk of repeated human rights abuse, a spokesman told the BBC. Civil society groups helped take . . . 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

‘We’re tired, so tired …there’s so much to do and we’re only human’

October 29, 2014 Syria Aleppo, Bibles, Lebanon

‘We are tired, so tired…It is going on so long and there is so much to do. We are only human.’ Sylvia works in her home town of Aleppo with internally displaced people (IDPs) who’ve fled other parts of Syria. She’s one of a group of young Syrians speaking about . . . Read More

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