Christians in one corner of Iraq have tripled in number over the past 15 years according to a leading bishop who is grappling with an influx of people escaping persecution and oppression. Christians in Ankawa, a suburb of the Kurdish capital Erbil, have increased from more than 8,500 in the mid-1990s to more than 25,500 […]
The situation of Christians in Syria could worsen under a new government. This was the fear voiced by Bishop Samir Mazloum of the Maronite Patriarchate of Antioch, in a discussion with international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). According to Bishop Mazloum, whose See is in Bkerke, Lebanon, the Church is […]
This series was developed in order to collate some—by no means all—of the foulest instances of Muslim persecution of Christians that surface each month. It serves two purposes: Intrinsically, to document that which the mainstream media does not: habitual, if not chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians. Instrumentally, to show that such persecution is not “random,” […]
“We are a growing Church, and each year around 1000 people find their way to the Faith.” This was the report of a bishop from India during a visit to international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). Bishop Cyprian Monis, from the Diocese of Asansol in West Bengal, on the eastern […]
The isolated ruling class in charge of a bloated government increasingly turns its back on the millennial religious traditions that had once made their nation great. Under the prods of a small cadre of activists, they strip the public square of the symbols of that old time religion. All that their ancestors revered they now […]
Christians in Orissa, who suffered the worst persecution in India in modern times, have continued to be targeted and harassed in 2011, according to a new report. Three years after the series of attacks on Christians beginning in August 2008 – which saw 18,000 injured, 50,000 displaced and perhaps up to 500 killed after 4,104 […]
Rosaries and medals blessed by Pope John Paul II were given to young Catholics from persecuted countries at World Youth Day. Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), which held an exhibition about Christian persecution as part of World Youth Day’s cultural program in Madrid, gave the blessed objects to visitors to the […]
Because the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is endemic, on its way to reaching epidemic proportions, I begin with this article a new series called “This Month in Muslim Persecution of Christians,” wherein some—by no means all—of the foulest instances of persecution that surface each month will be collated and assessed. The purpose […]
The persecution of Christians is being highlighted by an exhibition which has been organized as part of World Youth Day (WYD) 2011’s cultural program. The photographic and multimedia exhibition, “Persecuted Christians Today,” takes place in the Royal Church of Saint Jerome in Madrid from the 15th – 21st August, but a special preview was held […]
Obtaining permission to build new churches in Egypt could become almost as easy as constructing mosques, according to new government proposals which have won the backing of leading clergy. The plan, now in public consultation, proposes to do away with the existing laws whereby church-building plans require permission from the president himself. Instead, such proposals […]
Dozens of churches in Indonesia come under attack every year and the country’s president is failing to take action to stop it – according to a leading Catholic peace activist who has produced a report describing the scale of the problem. Since 2006, more than 200 attacks on churches have been recorded by the Indonesian […]
Last week witnessed popular Muslim preacher Abu Ishaq al-Huwaini boast about how Islam allows Muslims to buy and sell conquered infidel women, so that “When I want a sex-slave, I go to the market and pick whichever female I desire and buy her.” This week’s depraved anachronism comes from a Muslim woman—Salwa al-Mutairi, a political […]
Plundering the possessions, lives, and dignity of Christians in the Islamic world: is this a random affair, a product of the West’s favorite offenders—poverty, ignorance, grievance—or is it systematic, complete with ideological backing? Consider the very latest from the Muslim world: Pakistan: Muslim landowners used tractors to plough over a Christian cemetery in order to […]
The brutal murder of the head of Turkey’s Catholic Church, Bishop Luigi Padovese, on June 3, 2010, has rattled the country’s small, diverse, and hard-pressed Christian community.[1] The 62-year-old bishop, who spearheaded the Vatican’s efforts to improve Muslim-Christian relations in Turkey, was stabbed repeatedly at his Iskenderun home by his driver and bodyguard Murat Altun, […]
The recent murder of a Christian in the north-Iraqi town of Kirkuk has again instilled terror in the small community. Ashur lssa Yaqub, a 29 year old working class citizen, was found dead by the police on Monday morning after being kidnapped Friday night. His body was badly mutilated and his ear severed after his […]
Days ago in Egypt, throngs of Muslims (henceforth, “Islamists”), estimated at 3,000, fired guns and rifles and hurled Molotov cocktails at Coptic churches, homes, and businesses in the Imbaba region near Cairo: twelve Christians were killed—some shot by snipers atop rooftops—232 injured; three churches were set aflame to cries of “Allahu Akbar,” while Coptic homes […]
Following the violent attacks on Christian churches in Cairo last weekend, the Coptic Catholic Patriarch of Alexandria, Cardinal Antonios Naguib has spoken of a “very serious situation,” but one not without hope. Last Sunday, May 9, the president of the Sunni Al Azhar University in Cairo issued a joint declaration, together with representatives of all […]
Not only does last week’s jihadist rampage against Ethiopia’s Christians highlight the travails Christians encounter wherever Islam has a sizable population, but it offers several insights, including some which should concern faraway, secular nations with Muslim minorities. According to Fox News: Thousands of Christians have been forced to flee their homes in Western Ethiopia after […]
Irony is defined as “the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning.” The term doublespeak means “evasive, ambiguous language that is intended to deceive or confuse.” There is perhaps no greater example of ironic doublespeak than inclusion of the phrase “civil liberties” within the inapt designation: “American Civil Liberties […]
The outlook for Christians in Pakistan is bleak according to the country’s Catholic leader, who described how Shahbaz Bhatti’s death has robbed minority groups of a “great leader” and left them feeling “oppressed, repressed and depressed.” Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore said the murder of the Federal Minister for Minorities showed how extremist religious parties […]
