Newsfeed
Today’s Arab Women Theologians Have Plenty of Past Exemplars
Author: Grace al-Zoughbi
Publication Date: 30/6/2023
Source: Christianity Today
The Middle East today is at a kairos moment in time. As women across the region fight for their rights and freedoms, the tectonic shift is felt also in Christian academia. What was once a trickle of female theologians has developed into a growing number of developing leaders, enabling and emboldening other women to rise in leadership.
Inside Iraq’s Chaldean Catholic Church battle with Iran-backed Christian group
Author: Adam Lucente
Publication Date: 22/7/2023
Source: Al-Monitor
The Babylon Movement and its sanctioned leader, Rayan al-Kaldani, are feuding with Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako, leading to significant controversy that now involves the United States and the Vatican.
Israeli journalist poses as Christian monk to investigate Jewish extremist harassment
Author: Ibrahim Husseini
Publication Date: 27/6/2023
Source: The New Arab
An Israeli journalist went undercover in occupied East Jerusalem to personally witness the extent of harassment inflicted upon Christian clergy by Jewish extremists within the Old City.
Israel's Christians horrified by hate crimes in Jerusalem
Author: Mazal Mualem
Publication Date: 19/6/2023
Source: Al-Monitor
Verbal and physical attacks are rising against Christians and Christian sites in Jerusalem.
“We feel forgotten, we feel alone”: young Christians in Middle East speak out
Publication Date: 27/6/2023
Source: Open Doors
Across North Africa and the Middle East, church leaders are seeing young Christians feeling hopeless. Many want to leave the region, because of economic decline and limited job opportunities, on top of discrimination and persecution.
Iraq’s Christians fight to save threatened ancient language
Publication Date: 7/6/2023
Source: Al Jazeera
Iraq’s conflict-scarred Christian community is launching a new television channel as part of efforts to save their dying, 2,000-year-old language.
Emigration empties Qamishli of its Christian people
Publication Date: 22/6/2023
Source: Enab Baladi
The deteriorating security and living conditions have affected the historic presence of the Christian community in the northeastern region amidst an increasing emigration movement of Syrian Christians.
Persecution of Christians in Iran, Part Two
Author: Ioannis E. Kotoulas
Publication Date: 24/5/2023
Source: The Algemeiner
Iran’s Christian and other minority religious communities are subject to monitoring, restrictions, constant harassment, and judicial procedures. Recognized minority religions, according to Article 13 of Iran’s constitution, include Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity. In general, non-Islamic religious minorities face wide discrimination and are subjected to arrest and excessive prison sentences. Iran’s Jewish population shrank from 100,000 before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, to less than 10,000 today. Iran also persecutes smaller religious communities, including Baha’is, Yarsanis, and Ahmadis.
The Syriacs of Northeast Syria: The last exodus and new beginning
Author: Hadeel Oueis
Publication Date: 28/6/2023
Source: The Christian Post
Eleven years ago, I had to leave Hasaka, Syria, my hometown. I came from a large family of mixed Syriac and Greek Orthodox, consisting of five uncles, three aunts, and 25 cousins. Between 2012 and 2015, all of them, like many other Christians from Northeast Syria, were forced to leave the city. I was the first to depart because I actively participated in the Syrian uprising of 2011. At the age of 19, I was arrested, and upon my release, the fear of repeating the harsh experience of imprisonment made it impossible for me to continue living in Syria.
The Persecution of Christians in Iran
Author: Ioannis E. Kotoulas
Publication Date: 23/5/2023
Source: The Algemeiner
Iran’s small Christian community enjoyed a rare reprieve last month when Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani was released from prison before finishing a six year sentence.
The reasons why Nadarkhani, 38, was in prison to begin with, provide a stark example of the restrictions that Iran’s Christians, especially those who converted from Islam, live with each day. His work running a 400-member “house church” was deemed to be “acting against national security.”
