Newsfeed
Lebanon’s delicate religious balance at risk amid ongoing crisis
Author: Elise Ann Allen
Publication Date: 9/7/2021
Source: Crux Now
In addition to Lebanon’s political and financial woes, another major challenge the country faces, according to Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï, is the issue of refugees and the religious imbalance their presence represents.
Duhok: Christians Displaced by PKK-Turkey War Live in Limbo
Publication Date: 29/5/2021
Source: Basnews
Since the beginning of the heavy conflicts between the Turkish army and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) guerrillas in Kani Masi area of Duhok, the Christian residents of an entire village are displaced.
Chalke village is located in an area where Turkey repeatedly bombards as it suspects the presence of the PKK fighters in the area. The Christian residents of the village, however, have been relocated to Bersive Complex, where they live in uncertainty.
The villagers are also concerned about their farmlands and crops being burned to ashes with the ongoing armed conflicts, saying if not destroyed by war, they will be destroyed by the fact that there remains no farmer to take care of crops.
Lebanon’s Christian Schools Are Full of Muslims—and They Need Help
Author: Jayson Casper
Publication Date: 16/6/2021
Source: Christianity Today
Devastating deflation means evangelical and Catholic schools can barely pay teachers and keep classes open. Yet it’s cheaper than ever for the global church to support them.
Assyrian monk gets two years in a Turkish prison for giving a piece of bread
Publication Date: 7/4/2021
Source: Asia News
A Turkish court sentenced Assyrian monk Sefer (Aho) Bileçen to two years and a month in prison after he was convicted of providing “help to a terrorist organisation”.
The clergyman found himself up on terrorism charges after he gave a piece of bread to two people who had turned up at the gates of his monastery; prosecutors told the Mardin High Criminal Court that the people in question were members of the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK).
The clergyman, who was not present in the courtroom, has always protested his innocence, and rejected the charges.
Turkey accused of cynical motives for restoring churches in north Syria
Author: Mohammed Hardan
Publication Date: 12/7/2021
Source: Al Monitor
The Turkish Ministry of Defense recently announced that its armed forces carried out maintenance work on the Syriac Orthodox Church of Mar Tuma (St. Thomas) in the center of Ras al-Ain in northern Syria.
The ministry added in the July 14 statement that the Turkish armed forces have paid great attention to the restoration and maintenance of religious buildings in the Operation Peace Spring area.
Turkey's illegal renditions of Syrian nationals back in spotlight
Author: Amberin Zaman
Publication Date: 1/7/2021
Source: Al-Monitor
The rendition of Syrian nationals to Turkey, where they are prosecuted and jailed on thinly evidenced terror charges, has returned to the spotlight with the life sentencing by a Turkish court of three men of the Syriac Orthodox Christian faith to life in prison. Lawyers say the June 22 verdict violates Turkish and international humanitarian law and reflects the unlawful actions of Turkish forces and their Sunni rebel proxies in the large swaths of territory that Turkey occupies in northern Syria.
The project to erect a church in Ur of the Chaldeans takes off
Publication Date: 12/7/2021
Source: Agenzia Fides
A project to erect a church in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the Iraqi governorate of Dhi Qar, also equipped with a meeting room useful in particular to welcome Christian pilgrims who from Iraq and all over the world want to reach the place where Prophet Abraham's journey to the Promised Land takes off.
Papal statement would help mobilize int’l community: Erdoğan
Publication Date: 17/5/2021
Source: Daily Sabah
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a phone call with Pope Francis Monday underlined that the pope's continued messages and reactions concerning Israeli attacks on the Palestinians will help mobilize the international community, as well as the Christian world.
Stating that an “atrocity” is being committed in Palestine, Erdoğan added that Israel is answerable to not only the Palestinian people but the whole of humanity, including Christians and Muslims.
Erdoğan further highlighted that Israel, which is blocking access to Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and limiting freedom of worship, is undermining human honor while also endangering regional security.
He stated that all of humanity must unite in the face of Israel’s illegal and inhumane practices that also violate the status of Jerusalem.
For Iraqi Christians, scenes of both horror and hope
Author: Inés San Martín
Publication Date: 21/7/2021
Source: Crux
As Iraqis sort through the rubble of the latest terrorist attack Tuesday, an attack on a busy market in downtown Baghdad that left at least 30 people dead, one Catholic priest in Iraq says it’s important not just to focus on the horror of life in the country but also the hope.
Interview: Reopening Muslim Minds to Freedom and Tolerance
Author: Todd Johnson
Publication Date: 21/6/2021
Source: Christianity Today
In 1900, 7 million Christians lived in countries that were majority Muslim; in 2020, 84 million Christians did.
Also in 1900, 9 million Muslims lived in countries that were majority Christian; in 2020, 154 million Muslims did.
Meanwhile, Christians and Muslims have grown from comprising a third of the world’s population in 1800 to more than half today and are projected to comprise two-thirds by 2100.
These statistics from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (CSGC) at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary underscore the need for Christian and Muslim minorities to better flourish in each other’s contexts.
CSGC codirector Todd Johnson interviewed Turkish journalist Mustafa Akyol about his new book, Reopening Muslim Minds, and about how an honest examination of the best and worst of Islamic history offers lessons for improving religious freedom and pluralism today:
