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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).
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.
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.
Christian woman convert begins two-year prison sentence
Publication Date: 16/4/2022
Source: Article 18
A 51-year-old woman Christian convert today began serving a two-year prison sentence in Tehran’s Evin prison for “acting against national security by establishing and leading an Evangelical Christian church”.
Syrian Christians: Life Between War and Migration
Author: Vicken Cheterian
Publication Date: 6/4/2022
Source: Agos
The church of the Virgin Martyr Febronia of Nisibis (Nusaybin) of Syrian Orthodox church is located in the village of Himo few kilometres to the west of Qamishli. The church was built in 2004 over a shrine that dates according to tradition from the 4th century. This is the land of early Christianity, and in the villages nearby there was once a thriving Assyrian community. But now there are few left to attend the Sunday mass.
A Bold Act of Unity for Syrian Christians
Author: Bassam Ishak
Publication Date: 18/4/2022
Source: Syrian Democratic Times
Syriac Christians in Syria made a historic agreement this month. They laid aside their differences and declared a shared agenda of protecting and promoting religious and ethnic pluralism and human rights in Syria. As a persecuted religious and ethnic minority in Syria, they are now uniting around constitutional recognition of universal principles — ethnic and identity rights.
Syrian Greek Orthodox Priest Found Dead in Cathedral
Publication Date: 11/4/2022
Source: Persecution - International Christian Concern
65-year-old George Rafiq Housh, a Syrian priest, was found dead at a Greek Orthodox cathedral in Latakia on April 6. Preliminary news suggested that Housh committed suicide, though the narrative is questioned. St. George’s Cathedral is one of the oldest and largest Greek Orthodox churches in the city.
First communions of children, new hope for the Churches of Iraq and Syria
Publication Date: 3/5/2022
Source: Agencia fides
"The land that was attacked a few years ago by the militants of the Islamic State, who wanted to eliminate Christians, today rejoices aloud. Our faith and our Cross have won". Father Karam Shamasha, a Chaldean priest from Mosul, thus expresses his emotion at the spectacle that he has seen happen in the cities of the Nineveh Plain.
