Tag: Syria

23 Assyrian Christians released in Syria

March 6, 2015 Syria Assyrians, Hasakah, Islamic State, Kidnapping, Kobani, Qamishli, Syria, Syriacs

Assyrians from Tel Goran village, abducted by Islamic State kidnappers in late February, were released and returned safely in Hassaka on March 2.Photo provided by CAPNI Ten days after the self-proclaimed Islamic State’s harsh offensive emptied out a cluster of Assyrian Christian villages in northeast Syria, the extremists’ intentions . . . Read More

Abandoned Syrian Christian leaders urge air strike

February 27, 2015 Syria Hasakah, Islamic State, Kobani, Kurds, Syria

A Syrian Christian leader is urging the US to strike IS held positions following the news earlier this week that up to 220 Syrian Christians were kidnapped from Hassaka province. “There is a need for immediate action similar to what took place in Kobani,” Bassam Ishak, president of the Syriac . . . Read More

‘Turkey failed’ 100+ Christians abducted by IS

February 26, 2015 Syria Damascus, Hasakah, Islamic State, Kurds, Syria, Turkey

The Syrian Catholic Archbishop of Hassaka-Nisibi has accused Turkey of preventing Christians from fleeing Syria to safety across the Turkish border, two days after Islamic State militants abducted at least 96 people. They lived in a cluster of villages in northeast Syria which had been under the control of Syrian . . . Read More

72 Assyrian Christian families captured, 50 besieged by IS after Syria attack

February 25, 2015 Syria Assyrians, Hasakah, Islamic State, Khabur, Qamishli, Syria

2009 Easter service at St Mary’s Church, Hassaka. Now only 200 Christian families remain in nearby villages.Photo: World Watch Monitor Sources from Syria’s embattled Hassaka province confirmed at midnight on Tuesday, Feb. 24, that at least 72 Assyrian Christian families – thought to be around 200 people – from three . . . Read More

Turkey ‘promises’ first new church in 90 years

January 20, 2015 Turkey Armenian Genocide, Greek Orthodox, Istanbul, Midyat, Mor Gabriel Monastery, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Syria, Syriacs

The Turkish government allowed the first Syriac pre-school to open in Istanbul in September 2014.Mor Efrem Syriac Preschool’s Facebook photo The Turkish government has renewed its promise to allow the construction of a new church in Istanbul, a promise first made by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) . . . Read More

2014: A year of rising hostility toward Christians

January 7, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Africa, Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab, Asia, Boko Haram, Buddhist nationalism, Central African Republic, China, Communism, Converts, East Africa, Fulani herdsmen, Hindu nationalism, India, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Latin America, Malaysia, Mexico, Middle Belt, Middle East, Narendra Modi, Nigeria, North Korea, Religious freedom, Sri Lanka, Sub-Saharan Africa, Syria

While the world’s eyes were riveted to Syria and Iraq in 2014, life for Christians worsened even more profoundly in Africa, according to an annual report on religious freedom. The situation deteriorated most rapidly in Sub-Saharan Africa, in countries where Islamic extremism is the main source of pressure upon Christians, . . . Read More

ISIS preparing for worldwide religious cleansing

December 22, 2014 Europe, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul, Raqqa, Syria

German author and former politician, Juergen Todenhoefer spoke with CNN after travelling into territory occupied by ISIS including Syrian cities Raqqa and Iraq’s second largest city Mosul. “I think the Islamic State is a lot more dangerous than Western leaders realize,” he said to CNN . Their main point of . . . Read More

‘Islamic State’ terror is 2014 top story

December 17, 2014 Iraq, Islamic State, Syria

The surge of the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” across Syria and Iraq, causing hundreds of thousands of religious and ethnic minorities to flee, is the top religion news story of 2014, according to the Religion Newswriters Assocation. The IS horror stripped northern Iraq nearly completely clear of its Christian population, which . . . Read More

Pope Francis addresses plight of Christians in Turkish visit

December 1, 2014 Turkey Ankara, Greek Orthodox, Islamic State, Patriarch Bartholomew I, Pope Francis, Syria

Turkey’s tiny Christian population was grateful for Pope Francis’s Nov. 28-30 visit to their country, during which he called for an end to all forms of violent fundamentalism in the war-torn Middle East. In a Nov. 30 joint statement with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual head of the Eastern Orthodox . . . Read More

Syrian Christians have wedding despite IS threat

November 17, 2014 Syria Islamic State, Kurds, Nineveh Plains, Qamishli, Syria

Just 15 miles away from territory now occupied by Islamic State, the Syrian Christians of Qamishli gathered in the church of the Holy Virgin for the wedding of Malek Aissa and Ilana Hacho. At the wedding priests told the Independent how IS has brought their church to its knees. The . . . Read More

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