By Carey Lodge, Christian Today. Around 250 Christians have been abducted by Islamic State in a key strategic town in the province of Homs, Syria, sources have told Christian Today. Founder of campaign group A Demand for Action (ADFA) Nuri Kino confirmed that those missing are all from the Syriac Orthodox or Syriac Catholic churches,…
By Vanessa Rodriguez , Christian Examiner. Targeted threats to wipe out Christianity in the Middle East are successfully eliminating the faith from its birthplace. Islamic extremism is the main source of hostility in nations where the most severe persecution is seen, according to an annual World Watch List, released earlier this year by the non-profit organization Open Door….
By Joan Desmond, The National Catholic Register. Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York marked the desperate plight of Christians in Iraq and Syria with an urgent plea for Americans to take action before it’s too late. “When it comes to the persecution of Christians, we are talking about an … international emergency,” Cardinal Dolan said, expressing…
By Lisa Daftari, FoxNews.com. Islamic State militants are demanding up to $30 million in ransom to release the hundreds of Christian hostages in Syria, according to an officer within the Assyrian leadership. In ongoing negotiations between ISIS terrorists and the Assyrian leadership to free the 250-300 Christians abducted by the militant group in February, ISIS is demanding…
By Samuel Smith, The Christian Post Four Iraqi Christian children, who were all beheaded by the Islamic State, refused to betray Jesus and graciously died in his name when the ISIS militants gave them one last chance to say the Islamic words of conversion, the Rev. Canon Andrew White revealed in a recent interview. In…
By Jessica Winch, The Telegraph Christians in the Nineveh region of northern Iraq are unable to celebrate communion for the first time in two millennia, after Islamic State militants captured the area and took over the churches. Canon Andrew White, vicar of the only Anglican church in Iraq, told The Telegraph that Isil have…
From BBC News Amnesty International says it has new evidence Islamic State militants are carrying out “a wave of ethnic cleansing” against minorities in northern Iraq. The human rights group said IS had turned the region into “blood-soaked killing fields”. The UN earlier announced it was sending a team to Iraq to investigate “acts of…
By Raheem Salman and Matt Spetalnick (Reuters) – U.S. warplanes struck Iraq on Friday for the first time since American troops pulled out in 2011, attacking Islamist fighters advancing towards the Kurdish region after President Barack Obama said Washington must act to prevent “genocide”. The fighters had advanced to within a half hour’s drive of…
By Kristen Powers (RNS) Iraq’s Christians are begging the world for help. Is anybody listening? Since capturing the country’s second largest city of Mosul in early June, the Islamic State, formerly known as ISIS, has ordered Christians to convert to Islam, pay taxes levied on non-Muslims, or die. The extremist Sunni group is also persecuting…
By Sameer N. Yacoub and Sinan Salaheddin BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s prime minister on Sunday condemned the Islamic State extremist group’s actions targeting Christians in territory it controls, saying they reveal the threat the jihadists pose to the minority community’s “centuries-old heritage.” The comments from Nouri al-Maliki come a day after the expiration of a…