Explainer: What’s Going on in Iraq?

What just happened in Iraq? Conflicts in Syria and Iraq have converged into one widening regional insurgency and Iraq risks a full-scale civil war after an al-Qaeda-linked militant group called ISIS quickly seized a large section of the country’s northern region. Continue Reading...

The Syrian Refugee Crisis: ‘Historic’

Recent events in Syria have created what The New York Times is calling an “historic” refugee crisis, with more than 2 million people leaving the country. In August, hundreds of thousands poured over the border to Iraq, describing “a campaign by jihadi fighters to destroy agriculture and cut power and water supplies in Syrian Kurdish areas.” Continue Reading...

Michael Novak, George Weigel: Iraq Yesterday, Syria Today

The National Catholic Register asked prominent Catholic intellectuals Michael Novak and George Weigel to address the current U.S. involvement in Syria and its involvement with Iraq 10 years ago. While both supported the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003, they have a different take on the current situation with Syria. Continue Reading...

Christians in Syria Fear ‘Ethnic Cleansing’

As the civil war in Syrian continues to escalate, Christians are increasingly becoming the target of violent attacks. Catholic and Orthodox groups in Syria say the anti-government rebels have committed “awful acts” against Christians, including beheadings, rapes and murders of pregnant women. Continue Reading...

Links: Egypt in Flames

Egypt: Coptic church cancels Sunday mass for 1st time in 1,600 years “We did not hold prayers in the monastery on Sunday for the first time in 1,600 years,” Priest Selwanes Lotfy of the Virgin Mary and Priest Ibram Monastery in Degla, just south of Minya, told the al-Masry al-Youm daily. Continue Reading...

Religious Persecution: Syrian Christians Are ‘Exhausted’

The plight of Syrian Christians is well-documented, and includes the kidnapping of two Syrian bishops. In an address to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland this week, Dr. Mary Mikhael of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria, said Syrian Christians are “exhausted” from the strain of life in that nation. Continue Reading...

Report: Mass Murder of Christians in Syria

(HT: Pravoslavie.ru. Also see the interview with Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) in the new issue of Religion & Liberty on the dire situation of Christians in Syria.) In his interview to the MEDIA, a Hierarch of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, Bishop Luke of Seidnaya, has disclosed the scale of persecutions suffered by Orthodox Christians of this region since the very beginning of the uprising against the regime of Bashar Al-Assad, reports Agionoros.ru Continue Reading...