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Iraqi Christians driven from their homes by Islamist terrorists should not flee their country, a French cardinal reportedly said this week. Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon celebrated Mass in St Joseph’s Church, Ankawa, and was quoted as telling the Iraqis that Pope Francis wanted Christians to remain there. Sahar Mansour, a refugee who attended the July 28 Mass for peace in Iraq, said the cardinal told the congregation of more than 1,000 people, many of whom had fled Mosul as the city fell to Islamic State fighters in June, that the Pope’s wish was for them “to be strong and...

(Baghdad) The Islamic State (IS) has a new yellow star to identify the Christians. The identification of the members of the other "religions of the book" of Christians and Jews is an invention of Islam, where it has an old tradition that goes back to the late Early Middle Ages. Jews and Christians had to each carry their own clothes, so that they were recognized by all Muslims. Therefore, the yellow color is due in clothing for the Jews, which was first documented in the 9th century in  Islamic occupied Sicily.The yellow Star of David in the Nazi Reich to designate  Jews was borrowed from...

The Archbishop of Lyon has travelled to Iraq to show the country’s Christians his solidarity. “I will say the Our Father in Aramaic until you are finally able to return home. French visas are not the solution” BARBARIN ON HIS VISIT TO IRAQ (PHOTO BY: LYON.CATHOLIQUE.FR) Rome On Saturday he was out in the streets of Mosul demonstrating, in an act of solidarity towards the city’s Christians who are forced to flee their homes. On Monday he flew to Erbil in person to go and meet Christians. The Archbishop of Lyon, Philippe Barbarin, one of the French Catholic Church’s most...

The Middle East Council of Churches (MECC)-- a regional ecumenical body whose members include Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Protestant churches-- has issued a statement calling upon the international community “to take bold initiatives and stand against” attacks on Iraqi Christians. The council of churches called upon “believers of all religions and people of good will to pray God to come for the rescue of people of Iraq, especially the Christians who are deeply suffering as if they are sheep taken to be slaughtered, and no one is there to advocate for their right for justice, mercy and life.”

G-d's word is amazing. 3500 years ago He shows his sense of humor by giving the ancient Hebrews a word for "violence"....."HAMAS"! Ancient Hebrew word for violence

PARIS: France said Monday that it was ready to welcome Christians from northern Iraq who have been told by the Al-Qaeda offshoot group now ruling the region to either convert to Islam, pay a religious levy or face death. Islamic State insurgents seized large swaths of northern Iraq last month, prompting hundreds of Christian families in Mosul to flee a city that has hosted the faith since its earliest years. "We are providing aid to displaced people fleeing from the threats of Islamic State and who have sought refuge in Kurdistan. We are ready, if they wish, to facilitate their...

Spare us the pieties and righteous indignation of Europe. The final solution turned out to be Israel and they can't handle it. Europe is in an uproar. Frankfurt, Germany is rioting, along with France, the UK and in other places where it’s Springtime for Hitler all over again. But even over here in America the streets are filling up with hateful marches and (slogans) against the Jewish State. Much of this is triggered by Muslims who arrive here with a grudge and stay with a grudge. But also…television termite Jon Stewart sleeps comfortably in his own bed but can find...

Fr Amado Baranquel, pastor at Tripoli's Church of Mary Immaculate, appeals to his government after Islamists killed a 50-year-old Filipino "for not being a Muslim." The cities of "Benghazi and Tripoli are under the control of militias," with "tanks, the gunshots, and explosions."Manila (AsiaNews/CBCP) - As Libya's political crisis plunges the country into ever greater chaos, a Filipino priest in Tripoli urges his government to ensure the safety of some 13,000 Filipinos trapped in the country. Fr Amado Baranquel, pastor of the Church of Mary Immaculate in the Libyan capital, issued his appeal after radical Islamists killed a Filipino in...

Muslims want to do another holocaust of Christians, and they will succeed, just as they did in the Armenian Genocide, the genocide of the Assyrian Christians, the Chaldean Christians, and all of the Christians who were slaughtered by Islamic regimes. Dr. Sebastian Gorka has recently made some prudent, yet harrowing statements of truth, saying that what ISIS is doing is “a Christian version of the Holocaust and nothing less.”Christian Kaldo Oganna, who is living in Iraq, had this to say: Our people are under the threat of killing, ethnic cleansing… We are all in fear. The Jihadis are going to...

Hundreds have found shelter in areas between Mosul and Irbil that are controlled by Kurdish Peshmerga fightersIraqi Christians who were forced to flee the northern city of Mosul under threat of forced conversion or execution by jihadists have spoken of their terror as churches were turned into mosques and their homes and property confiscated. The expulsion of one of the world's oldest Christian communities provoked condemnation and anguish from figures as diverse as the pope and Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who lambasted the Islamic State (Isis) for its "criminality and terrorism". Last weekend Isis gave the city's Christians a...

When the Americans (“and allies”) took Kabul, they discovered that one of the clichés about Afghanistan was wrong. It was not true that there were no Jews left in that country. An elderly gentleman emerged from the rubble, a certain Ishaq Levin (may he rest in peace). All these years he had kept his head down, but was now under the impression he could come out.It turned out there was another one. Perhaps gentle reader has heard the story, which was made into a little play in London. Zabolon Simenov (various spellings), carpet dealer and kebab-seller, also survived the...

FULL TITLE - "An Appeal for the Christians of the Middle East" French elected officials lead the way: will those elsewhere follow suit, or remain silent? As in Turkey in 1915, a Christian Genocide is happening once again. One week after the terrorists of the so-called "Islamic State" expelled all Christians from Mosul, no statement on the matter has been made by the heads of state or government of any major nation -- no permament member of the Security Council, no major world power... The only relevant exception was Prime-Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, for which he is to be thanked...

ROME — Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese Christian who was flown to Rome after her death sentence was overturned, is now dreaming of building a future in the U.S. “We will begin a new life,” Ibrahim told Antonella Napoli, head of Italians for Darfur, according to the daily La Repubblica. “My husband, a chemist, lost his job because of my event. Now we will go to New Hampshire where my brother-in-law Gabriel lives. They will help us. We will be all together as a true family.” Ibrahim, 27, was spared a death sentence for apostasy and then barred from leaving Sudan....

In an urgent message to UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako has said that the UN “cannot stand by and be a witness to the ongoing atrocities committed against Christians” in Iraq. While thanking the UN leader for his public condemnation of the violence against Christians in areas controlled by the Islamic State, the Chaldean prelate asked for energetic international pressure to stop the persecution. He emphasized that “the militants want to wipe out the Christian community.” “The instability in Iraq threatens the entire region,” the Patriarch reminded the UN leader. He pleaded for diplomatic action...

Pope Francis blesses Meriam Ibrahim (Vatican Radio) Meriam Ibrahim, the woman who was sentenced to death in Sudan for refusing to renounce her Christian faith, arrived Thursday in Italy and met with Pope Francis in the Casa Santa Marta. During the meeting, she was accompanied by her family: Husband Daniel Wani,  Martin (a year and a half), and Maya, born in prison two months ago. Her family was accompanied by the Italian Deputy Foreign Minister, Lapo Pistelli, who helped negotiate and arrange her departure from Sudan and travelled with her to Italy. Pistelli spoke to Susy Hodges after the meeting...

© Allen Kakony If anyone imagined that the militia of the self-proclaimed Islamic Caliphate would be satisfied when it pushed all the Christians and Shiites from the city of Mosul, think again. According to the Fides news agency, Islamic State militants launched a mortar attack against the village of Tilkif in an attempt to break into one of the towns in the Nineveh Plain, where Mosul families found refuge. "The attack started from a village controlled by jihadists,” Father Paul Thabit Mekko, a Chaldean priest, told Fides, “but was rejected by the Kurdish Peshmerga troops. In the night, panic...

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has removed the crosses from all 30 churches and monasteries in Mosul and converted the Syriac Orthodox cathedral into a mosque, according to the Assyrian International News Agency. ISIL, also known as Islamic State and ISIS, took over Iraq’s 2nd-largest city in June and later ordered all Christians to leave, pay an unspecified tax, or convert to Islam. The jihadist group now controls 40% of Iraq and 30% of Syria.

(Photo: Reuters)Families fleeing the violence in the Iraqi city of Mosul wait at a checkpoint in outskirts of Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region in June 2014. At least five Christian families who were not healthy enough to flee Mosul, Iraq after the militant group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) ordered them to convert to Islam or be executed, have renounced their faith for Islam, according to a local government minister."There are five Christian families who converted to Islam because they were threatened with death," Younadim Kanna, a Christian and a member of Iraq's Parliament told The New...

DOHA (Reuters) - An influential group of Islamic scholars has denounced the forced expulsion of Christians from northern Iraq by Islamist hardliners, saying it paves the way for fighting between the country's ethnic and religious groups. The Christian community of Mosul fled to the Kurdish autonomous region last week, ending a presence stretching back nearly 2,000 years, after Islamic State militants set them a deadline to submit to their rule or leave. "The International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) condemns the forced expulsion of the Christian brothers of Iraq from their homes, cities and provinces," the group said in a...

Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, addressing the annual Washington conference of Christians United for Israel, July 21, 2014.With sharp jabs at the Obama administration, Christians United for Israel launched its annual Washington rally with appeals to Congress to impose new sanctions on Iran and cut off funding to the Palestinian Authority. David Brog, the group’s executive director, said CUFI regarded the Iran nuclear talks as a failure and would back legislation proposed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that would impose new sanctions immediately. The Cruz measure is tougher than legislation already under consideration that would trigger sanctions...