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Remarkable culture of religious tolerance in northeast Syria: former official
Publication Date: 6/6/2022
Source: Rudaw
Former Chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Nadine Maenza spoke to Rudaw on Wednesday about her recent trip to northeast Syria (Rojava) and the current situation of religious freedom in the region, specifically for Muslims who have converted to Christianity.
Iranian Christians Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison and “Deprivation of Social Rights”
Publication Date: 12/5/2022
Source: Persecution - International Christian Concern
Iranian-Armenian Anooshavan Avedian was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He, alongside two members of his house church, Abbas Soori and Maryam Mohammadi, were also given a 10-year “deprivation of social rights” upon their release. Abbas and Maryam were fined $2000 USD each and also face two-year international travel bans, membership of any political or social group and of their homes in Tehran.
Iranian Church Leader’s 10-Year Prison Sentence Upheld
Publication Date: 10/6/2022
Source: Persecution - International Christian Concern
Recently on May 29, an appeal court in Iran upheld a decade-long prison sentence for a house-church leader. The Iranian government is imprisoning the Iranian-Armenian Christian solely for teaching Christianity, which the notorious appeal court judge in charge of his case referred to as “propaganda contrary to and disturbing to the holy religion of Islam.” The Christian leader originally received his 10-year prison sentence on April 11, along with a sentence of 10 subsequent years’ “deprivation of social rights.” This additional penalty, to be enforced after his release from jail, will restrict his possible employment.
Iranian Christian explains the plight of women
Author: Omeed Jouyandé
Publication Date: 12/5/2022
Source: Metro Voice News
Iranians have recently been shocked by the news of two “honor killings” of women, including one woman believed to have been killed for her faith in Christ. Iranian Christian Omeed Jouyandé discusses these brutal crimes and explains how Iran’s laws reinforce the discrimination that can underly them. He also shows how the Christian satellite ministry SAT-7 PARS offers an alternative in the Christian message of freedom.
How Syria made Putin's Russia an Orthodox power
Author: Kamal Alam
Publication Date: 11/5/2022
Source: Middle East Eye
When Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Damascus to meet his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, in January 2020, it was viewed as a significant entrenchment of Russian support for Assad.
However, some - more precisely Eastern Christians, but also the Greek Orthodox Church - saw the two leaders' lighting of candles on Orthodox Christmas Day as a much-needed boost to Christianity.
No Place For Converts: Iran's Persecuted Christians Struggle To Keep The Faith
Author: Michael Scollon
Publication Date: 5/5/2022
Source: Radio Free Europe
Ali Shahvari grew up in a traditional and religious Muslim family in Iran. He was devoted to his country to the extent that he twice volunteered to fight on the front lines in the devastating Iran-Iraq War. But after one of his brothers was killed and another wounded in the 1980-88 conflict, he turned to drugs.
Two decades later he found salvation on satellite television. After initially questioning the messages of Jesus Christ broadcast in Persian from abroad, Shahvari eventually converted to evangelical Christianity under a new name, Iman (Faith).
Three Christians sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran for hosting worship at home
Publication Date: 9/5/2022
Source: Syriac Press
Iran’s policy of repression and marginalization against Christians continues, with Iranian Christians arrested under various pretexts.
London-based “Article 18”, a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of religious freedom in Iran, stated that the Revolutionary Court in Tehran sentenced three Christians for 10 years in prison on charges of forming hosting religious worship in their homes, or what a notorious judge called “propaganda contrary to and disturbing to the holy religion of Islam.”
Few Christians in the Middle East but more influential than ever before
Author: Pedro González
Publication Date: 8/5/2022
Source: Atalayar
The phrase that heads this article is from the Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad, Louis Raphael Sako. It was quoted by Monsignor Pascal Gollnisch, who presented at Casa Árabe the establishment in Spain of L'Oeuvre d'Orient, the French association which has been working for more than 160 years in the service of the Eastern churches.
Unholy politics and a Christian exodus
Ιn Baghdad, shortly after the 2003 war, I visited the place which the city’s Jews had used as their community centre and school. All was quiet in the street as we approached; only a slight movement in a window opposite showed that the neighbours were watching. Inside, dust awaited us and the feel of a place hurriedly abandoned. From a great pile of books I tried to extract one. The others slid and crashed into an antique typewriter. The book, a schoolbook introduction to Hebrew for Arabic speakers, had been printed in the 1950s.
Worrying violations of religious freedom in Iran, Christians arrested
Publication Date: 27/4/2022
Source: Asia News
Iran remains a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) in terms of religious freedom because of “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom”, this according to the US International Commission on Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
In view of the situation, the commission wants the US State Department to keep the Islamic Republic on its list of countries that limit freedom of worship, including that of Christians even though the latter are recognised in Iranian law.
