Free Republic

The recent beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian workers in Libya by Islamic State (IS) affiliates prompted a conversation with Joseph Hakim, President of the International Christian Union (ICU), an umbrella organization that seeks to secure the wellbeing and survival of Middle Eastern Christians. Hakim is a Lebanese-born Orthodox Christian and a proud American.

Sitting in front of the family Christmas tree dressed in military fatigues, Amir Shalayan seemed in no doubt about his identity. “When you go back back in religion, I consider myself a real Jew,” he said, unabashed by the non-Jewish festive decorations in his living room. “Jesus was Jewish and he was observing the Shabbat (Jewish sabbath).” Mr Shalayan is in fact an Arab Christian, a category he refers to as “Aramean”, but his strong identification with the Jewish faith is offered as explanation for his keen army service. It also accounts for his vocal support of legislation that envisages...

Fr. Gabriel Nadaf with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Netanyahu Israeli Christians' New Nationality: Aramaean, not Arab. 130,000 of Israel's 160,000 Christians, hitherto registered as Arabs, are expected to re-register as Aramaeans; their leaders are ecstatic.Interior Minister Gideon Saar has instructed the Population, Immigration and Border Authority (PIBA) to allow the registration of a new nationality – Aramaean – in the identity cards of Christian citizens who were registered as Arabs until now. In a letter to PIBA Director Amnon Ben-Ami, Saar wrote that he has “received rulings according to which the existence of the Aramaean nationality is clear and obvious,...

In Defense of Christians, the nonprofit organization that has made protecting Christians in the Middle East its mission, challenged media reports Friday that Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was booed offstage at their inaugural Summit Gala Dinner Wednesday for supporting Israel. A 30-second YouTube clip from the dinner shows Cruz declaring to a restive audience: "I will say this, that I am saddened to see that some here, not everyone, but some here, are so consumed with hate …" At the mention of the word hate, guests at the gala became loud enough to drown out portions of Cruz's voice. He...

A federal appeals court ruled against a group of Christian evangelists who were forced to leave an Arab-American street festival in Dearborn, Michigan, in 2012. Festival-goers threw rocks and water bottles at members of the Bible Believers group when they denounced Islam and called Mohammed a false prophet. In response, Wayne County authorities threatened to ticket the Christian group if they did not leave. On Wednesday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals backed county authorities, ruling 2-1 that police were only trying to keep public order. "The video from the 2012 festival demonstrates that (evangelists') speech and conduct intended...

In the past week someone posted an article from a young supposedly Christian Arab girl who calls herself Arab Girl. I attempted to respond to her article at the website that the article was posted from, but there was no way to make comments. Today I got an email from Marvin Rosenthal about the Israeli situation and at the very end, he has a CD available about the cult of so-called Arab Christians in Palestine. These people have a lot of support from American churches here because they claim to be Christian. Here is a link to the last page...

Taking shape in parts of Iraq and Syria, the Islamist caliphate known as ISIS is already a rival in lunacy and horror to North Korea. The caliph has decreed that women from puberty up to the age of the menopause — estimated to be as many as four million — must undergo compulsory genital mutilation. I am waiting to find out what feminists have to say about this. Christianity has roots in that same territory going back to the first centuries after Jesus Christ. Raqqa in Syria is one of the cities under ISIS, and Assyrian Christians there are the...

A retired army general says he has filed a court case pushing for Egypt's historic Saint Catherine's Monastery to be demolished and its Greek monks deported on the grounds that they pose a threat to national security. In May 2012, Ahmed Ragai Attiya obtained 71 administrative orders regarding the demolition of the monastery's multiple churches, monk cells, gardens and other places of interest on the grounds, which he claims were all built in 2006 and thus not historic, according to Ihab Ramzy, the monastery's lawyer. ... In the same ONTV interview, Attiya levelled a host of accusations against the monastery's...

Israel’s Knesset on Monday signed into law a bill that legally distinguishes between local Christians and the bulk of the Arabic-speaking population, which is primarily Muslim. The stated goal of the law is to boost Christian employment rights by recognizing them as an independent minority, and thereby granting them separate representation on local councils and employment committees. Israeli Arab (mostly Muslim) members of Knesset blasted the new law, insisting it would undermine Arab identity in the Holy Land. But beyond the increased employment rights, that is precisely the point for many Arabic-speaking Christians in Israel.

Pope Francis attends a meeting with the patriarchs and major archbishops of the Eastern Catholic churches in Syria, Iraq and and other parts of the Middle East, at the Vatican Nov. 21. (CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano via Reuters) Pope to Eastern Catholics: Never resign ourselves to a Middle East without Christians - YouTube Video Pope Francis announced this month he will visit the Middle East in May this year. While it has been foreshadowed since the first weeks of his papacy, this event will place the Church’s first South American Pope in the historic homeland of Christian faith, the “Holy Land”,...

Up to 600,000 of Syria’s 2.2 million Christians have fled their homes and are now either refugees or internally displaced persons, according to Aid to the Church in Need. In all, 1.8 million Syrians have left their homes, the charity reported. “The number of Christians killed because they are targeted for their faith is growing,” said Father Andrzej Halemba, the charity’s Middle East projects coordinator. Referring to an October massacre, the priest said that “Sadad is a very clear case. They were slaughtered like animals.”

Prince Charles has said he is “deeply troubled” by the plight of Christians in the Middle East. In an address on Tuesday at London’s Clarence House, the Prince of Wales said that Christians in the Middle-East were being persecuted by “Islamist fundamentalist militants,” and he called upon the followers of Christianity, Judaism and Islam to unite to end the suffering. Prince Charles said: “I have for some time now been deeply troubled by the growing difficulties faced by the Christian communities in various parts of the Middle East. “It seems to me that we cannot ignore the fact that Christians...

It was at 11.44am that time stood still at All Saints' Church. The clock on the wall is frozen at the very minute seven-year-old Shyam Emmanuel lost his parents. In that same moment, seven children were sent to their deaths along with 78 adults who had congregated outside the gleaming white walls of Peshawar's main Christian place of worship.

A young Christian girl beheaded in Syria. The sign of extremism and fanatics, the long beards, is present in each and everyone of these subhuman Muslims who killed this small child, in their jihad to Allah – inspired by the Quran. This is Obama, Britain, France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey funded and supported handiwork. Don’t put your support behind any of these people, whether for military action in Syria, asylum, immigration, another hate preaching mosque. This is what is moving into your town, your country, your society, your neighborhood: video... This video is written with false propaganda claiming...

The village of Maaloula has been taken over by Syrian rebels associated with al Qaeda, who have stormed the Christian center and offered local Christians a choice: conversion or death. .. The village is located just 25 miles from Damascus, and sites within the village are dedicated as United Nations world heritage sites. Residents still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. The rebels who took over the city are associated with the al Nusra Front, an al Qaeda-associated Islamist group. Villagers reported foreign dialects ranging from Tunisian to Libyan, from Moroccan to Chechen.

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Al-Qaeda Vows to Slaughter Christians After U.S. ‘Liberates’ SyriaPosted By Raymond Ibrahim On September 5, 2013 @ 12:36 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 13 Comments While U.S. leaders continue pushing for war against the Syrian government, today “Al-Qaeda-linked rebels,”reports AP, “launched an assault on a regime-held Christian mountain village in the densely populated west of Syria and new clashes erupted near the capital, Damascus, on Wednesday…  In the attack on the village of Maaloula, rebels commandeered a mountaintop hotel and nearby caves and shelled the community below, said a nun, speaking by phone from...

The New York Times story, "President Gains McCain's Backing on Syria Attack," is predictable, considering that Obama had invited Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to the White House for the specific purpose of supporting his proposed military strike on Syria. Obama has also asked the same two senators to travel to Egypt to undermine the military leaders who overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood government there. What is lacking from the media coverage is any recognition that the inevitable result, according to congressional testimony, will be the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood and associated terrorist groups in Syria, and...

SYRIAN CHRISTIAN: WHY IS OBAMA BACKING ISLAMIST REBELS WHO ARE KILLING US ? July 02, 2013 (CBN) -- Syrian Christians are asking why the United States supports extremists who want to turn Syria into an Islamic state. That testimony came during a congressional hearing on Syria’s religious minorities Tuesday. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who chairs the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights, called on President Barack Obama to defend the rights of Syrian Christians. In an opening statement at Tuesday’s hearing, Smith said statistics show “that Christians are even more fearful for their lives and safety...

Towns and villages in Syria that have been home to Christians for hundreds of years are being steadily emptied by sectarian violence and targeted kidnappings.Tens of thousands Syriac Christians – members of the oldest Christian community in the world – have fled their ancestral provinces of Deir al-Zour and Hasakah in northeastern Syria, residents have said. "It breaks my heart to think how our long history is being uprooted," said Ishow Goriye, the head of a Syriac Christian political Hasakah Mr Goriye, told The Daily Telegraph how, over the past two years he has watched as Christian families from Hasakah...

Capital city of nearby country becomes haven for converts—even though denied refugee status. The New York Times sheds fresh light on the challenges faced by Afghan Christians seeking religious freedom, spotlighting the growth of a refugee church in India's capital city, New Delhi. As the Times observes in a report worth reading, more than 200 Christian converts from Muslim backgrounds have fled to New Delhi, seeking refuge from the Taliban and from political backlash after television coverage resulted in one Afghan politician's urging the government to execute converts in 2010. As CT noted in July 2010, the Afghan government also...