By Ruth Sherlock Tens of thousands Syriac Christians – members of the oldest Christian community in the world – have fled their ancestral provinces of Deir al-Zour and Hasakah in northeastern Syria, residents have said. “It breaks my heart to think how our long history is being uprooted,” said Ishow Goriye, the head of a…
By Rupert Short The encounter was revealing. Stuck in traffic on a recent visit to Cardiff, I began to put the world to rights with my Afghan cab driver. Yes, we agreed, the invasion of Iraq was worse than a crime: it was a mistake. Yes, the United States in particular had given an unwitting…
By Open Doors USA SANTA ANA, Calif. — “It’s scary. We hear a lot of bad stories about what is happening around us. On the streets there are soldiers everywhere. We see smoke from fighting and hear bombings all the time.” Those are the words of Youmna *, 13, a Christian girl who lives in…
World Watch Monitor Middle Eastern Christians are experiencing one of the most significant periods in their history, according to religious and political leaders meeting in London last week. Regime changes in Egypt and Iran and sectarian violence in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq have presented an opportunity for the Christian minority to speak out, or for…
By Enza Ferreri, Frontpage Magazine A recently released video of an interview with a Syrian rebel — and would-be-martyr – gives extraordinary insight into the mentality of the Syrian opposition. Believing that he’s speaking to European jihadist volunteers, the rebel says that Christians must be killed to impose a Sharia state in Syria, after which they…
By Christian Today A Syrian Christian leader has spoken of the desperate plight of the church in the war-torn country. Dr Mary Mikhael, of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria, said churches were being targeted in the conflict and that many Christians were being displaced. As refugees, they lack adequate shelter, medicine, food supplies and…
By Richard L. Russell Americans of all political stripes have embraced the promotion of democracy as a centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy. But this American democracy crusade has caused huge, and largely overlooked, collateral damage since the 9/11 Al Qaeda attacks against the United States in 2001. The fall of authoritarian regimes throughout the greater…
By Katherine Weber As Christians in Syria continue to suffer persecution in the midst of an ongoing civil war, Open Doors USA is encouraging Christians worldwide to pray for the war-torn country on May 11. “As Christians in Syria continue to suffer from the devastating effects of the two-year-old civil war including killings, kidnappings, homelessness,…
Christian Newswire Churches in Syria will unite in prayer on Saturday, May 11 in many places around the war-torn nation. This will be an extraordinary show of unity of Christian denominations in Syria, where the on-going civil war has claimed over 70,000 lives. Syrian Christians are asking their brothers and sisters around the world to…
By Lisa Pearce (Lisa Pearce is deputy CEO of Open Doors UK and Ireland, which works with partners worldwide to support Christians who are under pressure for their faith. She traveled to Lebanon in April to meet with Syrian Christians who have fled the violence in their homeland. Here are some of her observations:) About…