Tag: Sunni

Iraqi MPs reject ‘safe areas’ for Christians

September 28, 2016 Iraq Assyrians, Genocide, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Shia, Sunni, Yazidis

A majority of Iraq’s Members of Parliament have rejected any proposals to set aside safe areas for Christians and other indigenous minorities in the country’s Nineveh Plains, once the province is liberated from the “Islamic State” (IS). “The Parliament has voted to keep Nineveh’s provincial boundaries as they were prior . . . Read More

Iraq Patriarch to Shia clerics: ‘update discourse’

July 28, 2016 Iraq Iraq, Louis Raphael I Sako, Shia, Sunni

A high-ranking Iraqi Catholic leader has urged visiting Shia religious figures to stress more “equality and rights”, reports said. During a visit by representatives of major Shiite institutions in both Iraq and Iran, Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako outlined the experience of Christians, urging the language of religious . . . Read More

Copts attacked, forced to settle for nothing, in absence of Egyptian justice

July 27, 2016 Egypt Al-Azhar, Anba Macarius, Bishop Angaelos, Churches, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Luxor, Pope Tawadros II, Salafism, Sharia, Soad Thabet, Sunni

Eight Christian homes were attacked and an equal number of Copts were detained after Muslims in an Egyptian village went on a rampage following rumours of a house church being built. The attack last week in Saft el-Khirsa (180km south of Cairo) trails more than a dozen others that have, . . . 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

Al-Azhar: to leave Islam is ‘treason’

June 22, 2016 Al-Azhar, Apostasy, Cairo, Converts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Mohammed Hegazy, Ramadan, Sharia, Sunni

To convert away from Islam is “treason” that should carry the death penalty, according to Sunni Islam’s topmost religious authority. “The penalty for an open apostate, departing from the community, is well stipulated in Sharia,” Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayyib declared on Egypt television last week. “An apostate must be . . . Read More

The UN is about to take a very close look at Sudan’s treatment of Christians

May 4, 2016 Bahri, Converts, Darfur, Hassan Taour, Human rights, International Criminal Court, Kuwa Shamal, Mariam Ibrahim, NISS, Omar al-Bashir, Religious freedom, Sharia, South Sudan, Sudan, Sunni, Telal Rata, UN

What is happening? The UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights is scheduled to hold a 3 1/2-hour hearing in Geneva on Wednesday, 4 May, at which UN member nations will examine the state of human rights in Sudan. It promises to be an interesting meeting. Sudan’s president, . . . Read More

Hate speech fuels violence vs. Turkish non-Muslims

April 22, 2016 Turkey Armenians, Churches, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Kurds, Minorities, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Religious freedom, Sunni, Turkey

A new report analysing freedom of religion or belief in Turkey faults both strong nationalism and the Erdogan government’s public endorsement of a Sunni Muslim identity for rising levels of hate speech against the nation’s religious minorities. According to studies cited in the April report by Christian Solidarity Worldwide, “religious . . . Read More

Turkey backs down on closing Bursa’s only church

February 24, 2016 Turkey Bursa, Churches, Converts, Greek Orthodox, Protestants, Sunni, Turkey

The local government of the northwestern Turkish city of Bursa ordered that its only church, which serves four congregations, be vacated by Friday (26 Feb.) before rescinding the order on Tuesday. Ismail Kulakcioglu, the pastor of the Protestant congregation, said they were given less than a week to vacate the . . . Read More

Why do we not save Christians?

October 7, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Iraq, Israel, Jews, Middle East, Sunni, Syria, USA, Yemen

Why is the West, with its “overwhelming” majority of Christians, showing reluctance to offer a home to Christians fleeing the Middle East, asks Elliott Abrams, writing in The Weekly Standard. The former foreign policy advisor to President George W. Bush compares the reluctance with Israel’s willingness to accept Jews persecuted . . . Read More

More Christians ‘abducted’ in Syria

August 7, 2015 Syria Aleppo, Homs, Kidnapping, Qaryatain, Refugees, Sunni, Syria

Islamic State has taken over a Syrian town southeast of Homs, its first major success since capturing Palmyra, a World Heritage site, in May 2015, about 100km to the northeast. At least 230 people are reported to have been abducted from Al-Quaryatayn, a town of 40,000 mainly Sunni Muslims and . . . Read More

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