Newsfeed
Pandemic Heightens Dangers to International Religious Freedom
Author: Dale Gavlak
Publication Date: 30/12/2020
Source: Catholic News Agency
Christians and others practicing their faith experienced serious challenges to religious freedom around the world this year, heightened by dangers posed by the coronavirus pandemic.
The challenges ranged from institutionalized practices to violent killings and kidnappings. Others saw threats to religious freedom in pandemic lockdown restrictions.
Iran's Christians face renewed fears ahead of Christmas
Author: Joe Snell
Publication Date: 18/12/2020
Source: Al Monitor
In 2009, Iran began a crackdown on its religious community that led to the arrest of Dabrina Bet Tamraz. The government eventually shuttered her family’s Assyrian Pentecostal church.
Watch groups: Christians in Turkey face suppression, exploitation
Publication Date: 8/12/2020
Source: Catholic News Agency
Christians in Turkey are being systematically suppressed or exploited for political gains, warns a new report from two human rights watch groups, International Christian Concern and Middle East Concern.
Turkish Christians Targeted in Hate Speech
Publication Date: 5/12/2020
Source: Persecusion - International Christian Concern
Turkish magazine Gerçek Haya has published a special 176-page edition which targeted leading members of religious minorities in Turkey.
Iraqi parliament formally declares Christmas a national holiday
Author: Elise Ann Allen
Publication Date: 18/12/2020
Source: Crux
In a move some have said is already a direct result of Pope Francis’s highly anticipated visit to the country in March, Iraqi parliament earlier this week voted to establish Christmas as an annual national holiday.
Pandemic, economy worsen situation for Syria's minority Christians
Author: Dale Gavlak
Publication Date: 1/12/2020
Source: UCA News
The worsening coronavirus pandemic and economic conditions in Syria are further deepening poverty and hardship for Christians, who find themselves trapped in a political stalemate, religious freedom advocates say.
Bleak Christmas for Iraqi refugees stuck in Jordan
Publication Date: 20/12/2020
Source: CNA
Saad Polus Qiryaqoz bitterly remembers the festive Christmas season in his Iraqi hometown of Bartella before he was forced to flee to neighbouring Jordan when extremists took it over.
Christians in Syria face poverty and continued violence
Author: Maria Lozano
Publication Date: 14/11/2020
Source: Church in Need
In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, Chaldean Bishop Antoine Audo, S.J. of Aleppo, Syria, discusses the situation in his country that is passing through a grave economic crisis, even as fighting continues in parts of Syria.
A recipe for intolerance: Iran’s blueprint for cracking down on Christians
Author: Mansour Borji
Publication Date: 9/12/2020
Source: Middle East Institute
Every year at Christmas, Iranian regime figures line up to offer their best wishes to their Christian compatriots.
Such well-wishing is a well-established practice of the regime, dating back to founding father Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, who, before he returned to Iran to usher in a new Islamic republic in 1979, made a series of promises that sounded very liberal, tolerant, and inclusive of people with varying opinions and beliefs.
After ISIS: Ensuring a future for Christians and other minorities in North and East Syria
Publication Date: 30/09/2020
Source: Rojava Information Center
North and East Syria is both religiously and ethnically diverse. It is inhabited not only by (primarily Sunni Muslim) Arabs and Kurds, but also by Syriac-Assyrian Christians, Armenian Christians, Turkmen, Circassian, Alevi, Yezidi, Nawar and Chechen minorities.
