Tag: Syria

Calais church shows migrants’ ‘gigantic’ faith

August 18, 2015 Calais, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Migrants, Refugees, Sudan, Syria

A “contentious” church built in the midst of a makeshift refugee camp in northern France was featured on the BBC’s flagship Christian worship programme, Songs of Praise, on Sunday (16 August). The episode, available in the UK for 30 days on the BBC’s iPlayer, focuses on the “faith aspect” of . . . Read More

IS ‘enshrines theology of rape’

August 14, 2015 Boko Haram, Chibok girls, Iraq, Islamic State, Kidnapping, Nigeria, Rape, Syria, West Africa

In 2014, following the kidnapping of 230 teenage girls from the mainly Christian enclave of Chibok in northern Nigeria, World Watch Monitor asked the question: How does Boko Haram justify its actions? A year later, The New York Times reports that the self-proclaimed Islamic State has “enshrined a theology of . . . 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

IS turns ancient Mosul church into mosque

July 14, 2015 Hasakah, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul, Ramadan, Syria

Islamic State has turned an ancient Chaldean church in Mosul, Iraq into a mosque, according to Fides. St Joseph church, which is considered to be one the oldest churches of the Chaldean denomination and overlooks the Tigris river, has been turned into the Abi Abd El-Rahman Elbilawi mosque, named after a . . . Read More

Kidnapped Syrian priest released unharmed

July 13, 2015 Syria Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda, Catholics, Kidnapping, Syria

Rev. Dhiya Aziz, a Catholic priest kidnapped July 4 in northwest Syria, was released unharmed July 9, to which he belongs. Aziz was abducted from the town of Yacoubieh, where he serves as a parish priest. Initial reports were that he was en route to a meeting with the Emir . . . Read More

4 million have fled Syria – sixth of population

July 10, 2015 Syria Civil War, IDPs, Refugees, Syria, UN

More than four million Syrians have fled their country to escape the current conflict announced the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) today. The head of the UN’s refugee agency, Antonio Guterres, called it the “worst humanitarian crisis of our generation”. Syria’s civil war, which is now in its . . . 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

Iraqi Franciscan priest abducted in northwest Syria

July 8, 2015 Syria Al-Nusra Front, Assyrians, Boulos Yazigi, Greek Orthodox, Hasakah, Idlib, Islamic State, Jacques Mourad, Kidnapping, Paolo Dall’Oglio, Syria, Yohanna Ibrahim

Father Dhiya Aziz was kidnapped by militants from Yacoubieh, Idlib Province, where he serves as parish priest on Sat 4th July. The militants were purportedly taking him for a brief meeting with the Emir who exercises authority in that area, which is under the control of the Al-Qaeda affiliate group, . . . Read More

Islamist forces battle for Hassaka and Aleppo

June 5, 2015 Syria Aleppo, Hasakah, Iraq, Islamic State, Kidnapping, Syria

Islamic State jihadists have begun closing in on two cities in northern Syria where there are still significant Christian communities. “IS is attacking Hassaka, and the situation is not that secure,” Father Emanuel Youkhana from the Christian Aid Program in Northern Iraq (CAPNI) told the Catholic Aleteia network on June . . . Read More

EU ‘must do more’ to stop religious freedom abuses

June 4, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Brunei, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Europe, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Maldives, Myanmar, North Korea, Pakistan, Religious freedom, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen

Left to right: MEP Dennis de Jong, USCIRF’s Katrina Lantos Swett, EEAS’s Silvio Gonzato, and MEP Peter van Dalen at the report’s launch in Brussels on 3 June.Courtesy European Parliament Intergroup The new European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini, said in October 2014 that upholding the . . . Read More

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