Al-Monitor delivers one of the most sobering assessments of the bloody mess in Syria to date, as author Edward Dark returns to his hometown of Aleppo for a look at the plight of the dwindling Christian community, and finds them turning to dictator Bashar al-Assad for protection from the jihadis fighting to overthrow him.
The fate remains completely uncertain of around 220 Assyrian Christians who continue to be held captive in Syria by the Islamic State terror group.
ISIS believes “ancient relics promote idolatry that violates their fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law.”
A community in northeast Syria inhabited primarily by Assyrian Christians has been under steady assault by ISIS for the past 18 days, and they are barely holding on, according to Rima Tuezuen of the Syriac European Union. When the attack first began on February 23rd, ISIS abducted hundreds of Christian prisoners, only 23 of whom have been released so far.
The European Parliament passed a resolution on Thursday calling for the protection of Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities in the Middle East from the depredations of the Islamic State. A call for the establishment of safe havens for ethnic and religious minorities in the Nineveh Plains is part of the resolution.
Kurdish news agency Rudaw tells the poignant story of Teleskof, a Christian town of some 4,000 souls in the Nineveh Plains evacuated last August before the advance of ISIS, save for two elderly women named Sarya Matto and Madi Salim, who adamantly refused to leave their home.
Syrian Christians have this morning put out a desperate appeal for help as ISIS launches new attacks against them along the Khabour River in northeast Syria. According to Rima Tüzün of the European Syriac Union, members of the community who have taken up arms to defend themselves are without ammunition, and 17 Syriac Military Council fighters are surrounded by ISIS in the town of Tel Maghasneh.
The Assyrian International News Agency reports that four more Assyrian captives taken by the Islamic State during raids on their villages in Syria have been released.
The Assyrian International News Agency reports a dash of good news from the bubbling cauldron of horror that is the Islamic State.
Pope Francis once again denounced the atrocious situation in the Middle East on Sunday, promising closeness to the victims of kidnappings and violence and praying for a prompt end to the “intolerable brutality” brought upon the region by Islamic State militants.
Christian churches are under increasing assault all over Europe, reports a Vienna-based group charged with monitoring such attacks.
USA Today reports on the efforts of Assyrian Christians to put their own army together and fend off the Islamic State, which has been raiding Assyrian communities in the Nineveh Plains, taking hundreds of women and children for use as hostages and slaves.
The latest ISIS terror video is apparently running behind schedule—it was supposed to be released on Wednesday—but all indications are that it will include a threat to murder their Christian hostages, including women and children, if the bombing campaign against the Islamic State is not halted.
President Barack Obama has done little to stop the terrorist militias of the so-called Islamic State from abducting and murdering Christians in Iraq and elsewhere in the region. As a junior U.S. Senator from Illinois, however, Obama was outspoken on the fate of minorities in Iraq. Obama wrote two letters to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, demanding to know what the Bush administration was doing to secure Assyrian Christians and other minorities in Iraq.
An Assyrian Christian militia fighting the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL) near Mosul, Iraq may not be able to keep the jihadist group away for much longer because it is running out of ammunition, according to a British news outlet.
In 2012, authorities prevented Christians from protesting at a Muslim festival in Dearborn, Michigan, threatening them with arrest. The Christians charged that the police violated their First Amendment rights to free speech, and next month, they will have their day in court in an important en banc hearing before the entire 6th District Circuit Court.
Sunday on Fox News Channel’s “Media Buzz,” while discussing the controversy over President Barack Obama and his administrations unwillingness to label ISIS and other extremist groups as Islamic terrorists, investigate reporter Sharyl Attkisson pointed out the media and society at
A State Department spokesperson wonders why the world isn’t focused on Joseph Kony these days. But the reason is simple: African atrocities tend to be ignored, in part because there are a lot of them.
When one hears a story of Western civilians heading to the Middle East to volunteer for combat duty, one thinks of the hideously successful ISIS recruiting drive. However, as Reuters reports, “a handful of idealistic Westerners are enlisting” with a Christian militia group called Dwekh Nawsha, “citing frustration their governments are not doing more to combat the ultra-radical Islamists or prevent the suffering of innocents.”
A newly released video by Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists showing the mass beheading of 21 Christians condemns the faith’s believers as “crusaders.”
The Islamic State terror group released a video on Sunday showing the Islamic jihadis beheading 21 Egyptian Christians who were previously kidnapped in Libya.
(Reuters) – Islamic State released a video on Sunday purporting to show the militant group beheading 21 Egyptian Christians kidnapped in Libya.
On Sunday, NBC Meet the Press host Chuck Todd said he believes President Barack Obama intentionally stirred controversy at the National Prayer Breakfast because he does not like the event.
President Barack Obama sparked outrage among American Christians on Thursday when he decided to use the National Prayer Breakfast as a forum to lecture Christians not to get on their “high horse” in the wake of the burning of a caged live Jordanian pilot by Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists.
Islamist militants have opened a special market in Mosul for the sale of goods confiscated from the houses and churches of Christians. The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS) has dubbed the open-air market the “Spoils of Nasara” (Spoils of Christians).
Jean-Clément Jeanbart, the Melkite Greek Archbishop of Aleppo in Syria, has decried what he calls a “plot” to empty the Middle East of Christians. ISIS has a special fear of Christians, he said, because theirs are “the only voices to reach the West.”
The savage Muslim persecution of Assyrian Christians and Yazidi (Zoroastrian/Hindus) by Sunni Muslims in the Middle East and in Shiite Iran has reached fever-pitch. ISIS has systematically murdered, tortured, captured, and enslaved Yazidi girls and women. They have done likewise to the Assyrians in Syria and Iraq. Iran has persecuted Assyrians as well.
With a growing number of Christian groups supporting or considering endorsing the anti-Israel and often regarded as anti-Semitic Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the Jewish State, welcome news comes from Christians United for Israel (CUFI).
Archaeologists have uncovered what they believe to be the remains of King Herod’s palace in Jerusalem, where part of the trial of Jesus is thought to have taken place.
There’s a frequently heard complaint that while the mainstream media frequently report on jihadist attacks, they seem to ignore the attacks on Christians.