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before the civil war the city of Qusayr, located in eastern portion of Syria near the Lebanese border, had around 40,000 people, including 7,000 Christians. “In late 2011, the Sunni townsmen came and told us to either join us in anti-regime demonstrations or leave the town. If we didn’t, we would be killed,” Fadul Abu Yohanna Kasouhah, a Christian resident of Qusayr, described to CSI. According to Fadul, the Sunni Islamists in his village used the loudspeakers from the Mosques to name the Christian families by name and told them to leave. Fadul told CSI how his cousin was gunned...

We are living through one of the largest persecutions of a religious group in history. Few people realize that we are today living through the largest persecution of Christians in history, worse even than the famous attacks under ancient Roman emperors like Diocletian and Nero. Estimates of the numbers of Christians under assault range from 100-200 million. According to one estimate, a Christian is martyred every five minutes. And most of this persecution is taking place at the hands of Muslims. ... In Crucified Again, Ibrahim performs two invaluable functions for educating people about the new “Great Persecution,” to use...

Middle Eastern Christians decry how Western media misrepresent the increasingly violent events in Syria.Now that Syria is in shambles—with an estimated 93,000 dead, 1.5 million refugees, and 4.5 million internally displaced; ancient churches torched, destroyed, or vandalized; Christians targeted for murder and kidnapping and even used as human shields—now the mainstream media is starting to admit that, yes, the rebel forces appear to include quite a few Islamist guerrillas. Now that even chemical warfare has made its appearance, with Carla Del Ponte, a member of the International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, confirming that “the chemical weapons are being used...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Syria, Lebanon and Christian GenocidePosted By Joseph Puder On July 16, 2013 @ 12:06 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 5 Comments The destinies of Syria and Lebanon have been intertwined since the days of French colonial rule, in between the two world wars.  It is for this reason that the ongoing civil war in Syria has had its impact on Lebanon.  Lebanon is more divided on the issue of the Syrian uprising than any other country in the region.The Syrian regime has dominated its smaller Lebanese neighbor since the mid-1970s.  It has loyal allies...

Palestinian faithful are keeping their eyes and prayers on those affected by the strife in Syria and Egypt. BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Palestinian Christians are watching the civil war in Syria and the unrest in Egypt with great concern, not out of fear for their own safety, but for the safety of their brethren. While the Christian minority has always been vulnerable in the predominantly Muslim Middle East, the volatility that has shaken the region during the past two to three years has unleashed even more attacks against them. Many Christians are among the millions of Syrians who have been...

The Muslim ethnic cleansing of Christians in Syria has begun .... Christians in Syria Fleeing Country as Crisis Reaches 'Unprecedented Levels of Horror' CP World, February 2, 2013 The Hindus have suffered untold horror at the hands of jihadists. Here's an article about the crisis in Syria from a Hindu point of view. Mideast fears Syria crisis spillover, Madav Nalapat, Sunday Guardian, Kuwait City | 2nd Feb 2013 (thanks to Tom) ..... here are multiplying reports of the foreign fighters "marrying" unwilling Syrian women for short periods of time, or otherwise treating them as war trophies, reports thus far ignored...

An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube on December 22, 2012, allegedly shows rebels speaking at an undisclosed location in Syria on December 22, 2012. AFP PHOTO / YOUTUBE JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia: The world's largest Muslim body on Sunday condemned threats made by Islamist rebels in Syria against two Christian towns, warning of fresh confessional strife in the war-torn country. Such threats "are contrary to the precepts of Islam which calls for tolerance, brotherhood and peace," said the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation based in the Saudi city of Jeddah. It warned against the risks of...

Pope Benedict XVI at the April 18, 2012 general audience. CNA file photo. Vatican City, Oct 9, 2012 / 12:34 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Arab Christians are reacting positively to the decision to include Arabic as one of the official languages used at the Pope’s weekly general audience. “In this way, in the wake of his recent trip to Lebanon and the publication of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation ‘Ecclesia in Medio Oriente,’ the Holy Father intends to express his perpetual concern and support for Christians in the Middle East, and to remind everyone of their duty to pray and work...

BEIRUT (AP) — The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says one person has been killed in clashes that erupted at dawn in a Christian neighborhood in the old city of Damascus. The report said the fighting between rebels and security forces took place Wednesday morning in Bab Touma, a predominantly Christian neighborhood on the eastern side of the medieval city center. Residents said shots lasted for about half an hour between 3 and 4 a.m.

The message sent out by the military chief of the armed opposition has spread panic and lead to a Christian exodus An exodus of Christians is taking place in Western Syria: the Christian population has fled the city of Qusayr, near Homs, following an ultimatum issued by the military chief of the armed opposition, Abdel Salam Harba. This is what local sources told Vatican news agency Fides, pointing out that since the conflict broke out, only a thousand of the city’s ten thousand faithful, were left and they are now being forced to flee immediately. Some of the city’s mosques...

Catholic bishops are warning that if the Bashar al-Assad (left) regime in Syria falls to Islamists, there may well be a mass genocide of Christians, such as seen in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Though Christians cannot support the brutality of the Assad dictatorship, few believe that rule by Muslim extremists will be any better. Syria — home to Damascus, one of the most important cities of the ancient world and of special religious significance to Christians — has long had a tolerant attitude toward religious minorities. Syria's Christians — estimated to be about 10 percent of the...

The killing of dozens of Coptic Christian protesters during the recent turmoil in Cairo is one of the by-products of the Arab spring – and, unfortunately, a predictable one. Secular dictatorships such as those of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, and even of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Muammar Gadaffi in Libya were a bloody nightmare for political dissidents. But Christian minorities felt protected from Islamic persecution and were allowed to practise their religious faith. In exchange, respecting a tacit compromise, they stood at a distance from politics. This is known in the Vatican as "the panda syndrome", after the name...

An influential Muslim adviser to the White House who has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood has succeeded in canceling a meeting between President Obama and the leader of the persecuted Maronite church in Lebanon, according to the Beirut news agency el Nashra Read more: Report: Top Muslim adviser blocks Obama meeting with Christian leader http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=361725#ixzz1cDTGDzIz

“Catholic Church: Christ nullified God’s promises to the Jews,” reads the headline on the Israel Today website. That is not quite true: At the just-concluded Synod of Middle East Bishops, a cleric from the tiny group of Melkite Greeks, Archbishop Cyril Salim Bustros, made such a statement on behalf of the Melkites, not the Catholic Church. The head of the same church, the Syrian-based Patriarch Gregorios III Laham, also attacked priestly celibacy before the Synod. He wasn’t speaking for Rome, either. Clerical marriage hasn’t helped the Melkites; they claim just 1.3 million members worldwide, fewer than the Korean Methodist Church...

On October 15, the State Security Court of Jordan imposed jail sentences of 15 to 20 years on 12 alleged Jordanian members of al-Qaeda accused of attacks against a church in the Kingdom last year (Al-Ghad [Amman], October 16; Al-Rai [Amman], October 16). In a reaction similar to those seen in trials of Salafi-Jihadis, plot leader Shaker al-Khatib and the rest of the convicted group prostrated themselves, thanking Allah as a sign of defiance against the court (al-Jazeera, October 15). Al-Khatib and four others in the group, aged between 19 and 28, received the death penalty, but the court commuted...

A century ago, Christians dominated the intellectual and commercial life of the Levant, comprising more than one-fifth of the 13 million people of Turkey, the region's ruling power, and most of the population of Lebanon. Ancient communities flourished in what is now Iraq and Syria. But starting with the Armenian genocide in 1914 and continuing through the massacre and expulsion of Anatolian Greeks in 1922-1923, the Turks killed three to four million Christians in Turkey and the Ottoman provinces. Thus began a century of Muslim violence that nearly has eradicated Christian communities in the cradle of their religion. It may...

Racist Arabism & fascist Islamism: Anti-Copt The word Copt is an English word taken from the Arabic word Gibt or Gypt. The Arabs after their conquest of Egypt in 641 A.D. called the indigenous population of Egypt as Gypt from the Greek word Egyptos or Egypt. The Greek word Egyptos came from the ancient Egyptian words Ha-Ka-Ptah... The word Copt or Coptic simply means Egyptian, however the Muslim population of Egypt calls themselves Arabs. In contemporary usage, the word Copt or Coptic refers to the Christian population of Egypt. The Arab's oppression led the Copts to several rebellions, [source], Coptic:...

Syrian Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan is veiled as he walks in procession at his installation Mass at Our Lady of the Annunciation Syrian Catholic Church in Beirut, Lebanon, Feb. 15. He is immediately followed by Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington. (CNS) BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNS) -- Amid cheers and ululation, the former head of the Syrian Catholic diocese in the U.S. and Canada was installed as patriarch of the Syrian Catholic Church. Saying that he will "serve, not for personal interests, but to win Christ," Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan was installed Feb. 15 at a...

Arab Christians and their right to coexist GulfNews, United Arab Emirates - Dec 31, 2008 Even Pan-Arabism and nationalism have become empty of any meaning of unification, and are being used for conflicts with a neighbouring Muslim or Arab ... http://www.gulfnews.com/opinion/columns/region/10271492.html

Iraq Christians face 'bleak future' Story Highlights: · Iraq's Christians face killings, intimidation; many have fled to other countries · Community has decreased from 1.4 million in 2003 to half that · One expert sees diversity decreasing, fears Muslim extremist majority in Iraq · Christians in Iraq face "horrible situation," says U.S. congresswoman By Joe Sterling CNN (CNN) -- It's a bittersweet Christmas season for Joseph Kassab, who grew up in Iraq under Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime and now lives in Detroit, Michigan. Tempering the season's joy is his concern for fellow Iraqi Christians, who have endured killings, displacement and...