News

By Deal W. Hudson    Iraq – insidecatholic — The numbers are stark, and the situation is getting worse. Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, there were 1.2 million Christians living there. Over 400,000 Christians have left the country since the war started. Many others have been kidnapped and killed; …

      DAMASCUS, Syria- UPI — Syrian officials returned an Assyrian artifact to the Iraqi Ministry of Tourism and Archeology after it was confiscated from smugglers, authorities said. Syrian Culture Minister Riadh Naasan Agha returned a 40-inch by 15-inch relic thought to be part of the Temple of Nimrod located …

      Berlin – the Earth Times — Berlin – German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier pledged increased German help for Iraqi Christians after meeting Iraqi bishops in Berlin on Wednesday. Steinmeier also said the legal status of Iraqi Christians living in Germany would be reviewed with a view to facilitating …

By Marianne Brückl    Baghdad, Iraq – pressemitteilung — How can it happen, that people ignore the signs of history, where minorities always were hunted, tortured and murdered? This is a question concerning everybody on our globe. To Islamists, Christians, Buddhists, and all the other religious groups. “Human Rights” is …

      Mosul, Iraq – AINA — An Islamic group calling itself “The Battalion of Just Punishment, Jihad Base in Mesopotamia” has sent a letter to churches in Mosul. The letter (shown below and translated by AINA) threatens the Assyrians and asks them to refrain from cooperating with Americans, and …

      Fairfield, Australia – fairfieldadvance — The city’s Assyrian community will be celebrating in October, with a festival of Middle Eastern food and entertainment set for the long weekend. A group of friends from Fairfield is organising the first Assyrian-Australian Convention, in the hope of it becoming an annual …

By Charles Colson    Iraq – Prison Fellowship — In early June, the German television network ARD aired a film called “God and the World: The Persecuted Children of God.” The “children” referred to are Iraq’s largest Christian community: the Assyrians. While any attention to the plight of Iraqi Christians …

      Adýyaman(Turkey) – todayszaman — The 10th Great Ritual of the Syriac Kadim Community took place in the eastern Turkish province of Adýyaman on Saturday with the participation of Assyrians from Turkey and abroad. The ritual was conducted by the patriarchal vicar of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Turkey, …

      Istanbul- turkishdailynews — The Housing Development Administration of Turkey, or TOKI, has plans to build villa type houses in the southeastern province of Mardin in order to encourage the return of Syriacs [Assyrians], news agencies reported Wednesday. Although the Syriac community welcomed the project, they still harbor doubts. …

By Bernardo Cervellera    Amman – AsiaNews — Christians closed up in Islamic societies “as in a cage”; Christians as a presence to be eliminated from all of the Middle East; Christians made the scapegoat for the faults of the West; free (in Jordan) to hold in public all of …