Tag: UK

BBC’s Syrian refugee game criticised

April 30, 2015 Europe, Refugees, Syria, UK

An interactive game, published by the BBC showing the choices Syrians face if they choose to flee their country’s conflict, has attracted criticism despite its popularity. ‘Syrian Journey: Choose your own escape route,’ has received over one million hits, according to the BBC. But the UK’s Daily Mail says the . . . Read More

UN Security Council is ‘failing Syria’

March 12, 2015 Syria Civil War, Syria, UK, UN, USA

Leading humanitarian groups, including Oxfam and Save the Children, in a report to mark four years of the Syrian war, accuse UN Security Council members of lacking the will to stop the fighting. The Failing Syria report says the 15-member Security Council, which includes the US and UK, has not . . . Read More

Iranian President’s broken promises to minorities

March 12, 2015 Iran Ayatollah Khamenei, Hassan Rouhani, UK

Christians in Iran are still regularly arrested, imprisoned and harassed despite President Hassan Rouhani’s promise of “justice” for religious minorities, according to a report launched March 10 at the UK Parliament. “All Iranian people should feel there is justice. Justice means equal opportunity. All ethnicities, all religions, even religious minorities, . . . Read More

What Islamic State really wants

February 18, 2015 Al-Qaeda, Genocide, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Osama bin Laden, UK

Few Western leaders understand what ISIS really is but, argues a detailed analysis in The Atlantic, they are wrong to think it applies the logic of Al-Qaeda. ISIS has eclipsed Bin Laden’s organisation and jihadism has evolved. The West needs to see ISIS as “more than a collection of psychopaths” . . . Read More

Iraqi Archbishop ‘begs’ Britain to send in troops

February 10, 2015 Afghanistan, Bashar Warda, Chaldeans, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, London, Nineveh Plains, UK

The Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Erbil – the city in Iraqi Kurdistan where thousands of Christians have fled to safety from Islamic State fighters -‘begged’ Britain to send troops to his country to help save Christians there from being wiped out. He said an estimated 125,000 Christians in northern Iraq have . . . Read More

Christmas arrests in Iran: 11 still detained

January 15, 2015 Iran Apostasy, Armenians, Assyrians, Christmas, Converts, Evin Prison, Human rights, Iran, Minorities, Religious freedom, UK, Victor Bet-Tamraz, Zoroastrians

As the US Secretary of State meets his Iranian counterpart in a bid to revive stalled talks over Iran’s nuclear programme, human rights experts are keen that issues of freedom of religion are not overlooked. This week, the UK Foreign Office has said that it’s raised its concern with the . . . Read More

UK in need of a Global Envoy for Religious Freedom

December 22, 2014 Andrew Bennett, Canada, Religious freedom, UK, USA

Writing for The Telegraph, British Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander said, “A future Labour Government would appoint a Global Envoy for Religious Freedom.” He said there is no time to waste and that the UK has fallen behind others, such as the US and Canada, that are showing stronger leadership; . . . Read More

Warnings of draining the Middle East of Christians

November 21, 2014 Islamic State, Justin Welby, Middle East, UK

According to The Telegraph, “offering asylum in Britain to Christians fleeing the forces of the so-called Islamic State risks ‘draining’ the Middle East of communities which have been there since the time of St Paul, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has warned.” Welby said in extreme cases the UK . . . Read More

Iran appears to fight Islamic State, but are their ultimate goals too similar for comfort?

October 16, 2014 Iran Behnam Irani, Hamas, Hassan Rouhani, Hezbollah, Iran, Iraq, Islamic State, UK, UN, USA

ISISKarl-Ludwig Poggemann / Flickr / Creative Commons It says something about the depths of worldwide revulsion to the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” that Western powers such as the US and the UK have been sitting at the same table with Iran to discuss how to defeat the deadly Islamist movement . . . Read More

‘The work of a generation’

September 24, 2014 Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Tony Blair, UK

UK former Prime Minister Tony Blair has penned a seven-point assessment of what he calls “the issue of our time”: the threat of Islamic extremism. Blair’s essay, posted Sept. 22 on the website of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, has attracted attention for its acknowledgment that Western ground forces likely . . . Read More

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