Resources
Sundays Off: U.A.E. Changes Its Weekend to Align With West
Author: Mona El-Naggar
Publication Date: 7/12/2021
Source: The New York Times
The United Arab Emirates, a hub of international commerce, announced Tuesday that it would shift its weekends to bring them more in line with the Western calendar and global markets, once again showing its willingness to part ways with its Arab neighbors.
The government declared a four-and-a-half day workweek, moving the weekend from Friday and Saturday to Saturday and Sunday. It made Friday, the Muslim holy day, a half-day of work that ends at noon, just in time for the communal prayer that is normally held in mosques and customarily observed by Muslims.
Christians struggle to be counted in Iraq
Author: Ben Joseph
Publication Date: 8/12/2021
Source: UCA News
The minority Christians in Iraq want to be part of the social mainstream but its political system continues to yield to the sectarian calls of majority Muslims, challenging both the democratic process and social integration.
Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, the patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, has been a stern opponent of the sectarian mentality. He criticized the US-introduced "quota system" in Iraq as the war-torn nation completed recounting of contested ballot boxes of the October polls on Nov 30.
Arabian peninsula’s biggest Catholic church opens in Bahrain
Publication Date: 10/12/2021
Source: Alarabiya
Against the backdrop of mosque minarets and a desert oil field, the biggest Catholic church in the Arabian peninsula opened its doors in Bahrain on Thursday.
The cavernous Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia, with seats for 2,300 people, will serve the majority-Muslim Gulf country’s small Catholic community.
Nobel Peace Prize nominee fights to help Assyrians in Middle East
Author: Saeed Abdullah
Publication Date: 10/12/2021
Source: Medill Reports
Activist Juliana Taimoorazy, 48, helped so many Christian Assyrians from the Middle East that this year she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Next year the Skokie, Illinois, resident hopes to publish “Daughter of Nineveh” – a memoir about living in Iran before and after the Islamic Revolution, escaping into Switzerland and settling in the United States as a refugee. It also covers the history and genocide of the Assyrians and the rule of Iraq’s former leader Saddam Hussein, al-Qaida and then the Islamic State group. The final chapter calls for world leaders to help Assyrians survive. “We are on the verge of extinction, our language is dying, our ethnicity is dying,” Taimoorazy said. “We don’t want to be a group of people that is going to remain in the museums.”
Vicariate of Arabia inaugurates the first church in al-Dhafra region
Publication Date: 15/12/2021
Source: Asia News
Having recently archived the celebrations for the inauguration - in the presence of the Prefect of Propaganda Fide Card. Luis Antonio Tagle - of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia in Bahrain, the Catholics of the southern vicariate are preparing to consecrate another place of worship: the Church of St John the Baptist in Ruwais, about 240 km west of Abu Dhabi.
Kuwait Removes Christmas Tree Fixture From The Avenues Mall
Publication Date: 16/12/2021
Source: Al Bawaba
Despite the fact that an estimated 650,000 - 750,000 Christians are currently living in Kuwait, authorities have decided to remove a Christmas tree fixture from one of the country's malls.
The Kuwaiti authorities' decision to remove the Christmas tree from ‘The Avenues’ mall, which is the largest shopping mall in town that opened in April 2007, came after complaints from town residents.
LISTEN: Why Christians and Christianity Are Disappearing From the Middle East
Publication Date: 6/12/2021
Source: Haaretz
All across the Middle East, Christian communities are in decline. In Gaza, once an early Christian city, there are only 800 Christians left. In Iraq, Christians whose lands were taken over by the Islamic State were forced to convert – or die.
We are hopeful about the next 50 years in the UAE
Author: John Folmar
Publication Date: 26/11/2021
Source: Gulf News
Late one night in September 1968, three years before the UAE became a nation, a Bedouin woman was giving birth at the Oasis Hospital, a Christian mission hospital in Al Ain. Complications required a C-section delivery, and the mother needed blood. A member of the missions staff who was there recalled personnel “chasing around to all the companies at midnight trying to find a donor with the right blood type.” Out of 50 people tested, only the attending physician, Dr. Marian Kennedy, and one of the nurses had the right blood type! So, Dr. Marian interrupted the procedure, gave blood herself, and then completed the delivery.
