Christian Persecution – Middle East

For one man, the release of eight kidnapped Christians from his hometown of Qaraqosh on Friday (June 22) was bittersweet.

An unidentified armed group kidnapped eight Assyrian Christian students and teachers returning home to the Nineveh Plain from Mosul University Wednesday afternoon.

Lebanese Christians, already shaken by several bombings, faced the prospect of civil war Wednesday, June 13, as officials confirmed that a key anti-Syrian legislator and nine others were killed in an explosion in Beirut, apparently from a bomb-rigged car.

Iraqi Christians are mourning the deaths of a Catholic priest and his three assistants who were gunned down by Islamic militants over the weekend, shortly after another Christian couple working for the US embassy was reportedly killed, BosNewsLife established Tuesday, June 5.

As night fell, “hungry” and “frightened” Christians remained trapped in their houses in Gaza on Monday, May 21, as rival Palestinian factions continued their battles while Israel increased air strikes against militants, a Christian aid group said.

Christians in the Gaza Strip faced new tensions Sunday, May 13, amid reports that a Palestinian Islamic group’s armed wing is targeting “Christian missionary activity” in the Gaza Strip.

Iraq was named Wednesday, January 3, as the world’s “second-worst persecutor of Christians” after North Korea in an influential report expected to underscore concern about sectarian violence in the war-torn county.

One of eight Iranian house church leaders arrested last month for “evangelization” and threatening security remained detained Thursday, January 4, on new charges that he must pay “an outstanding debt,” Iranian Christians reportedly said.

Iranian secret police began to raid and arrest leaders of the Islamic republic’s indigenous “Jesus Only” movement last Sunday (December 10), arriving unannounced in the early morning hours to search their homes in Tehran, Karaj, Rasht and Bandar-i Anzali.

Tensions were rising Wednesday, December 13, in the Iraqi town of Mosul after an Islamic group reportedly threatened to attack Christian female students.

Grieving Christians in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul completed three days of mourning for a murdered Presbyterian Church elder yesterday, only hours before another Iraqi clergyman was grabbed off the streets of Baghdad this morning.

Unknown assailants bombed the entrance of a Catholic church in Mosul last week, destroying three sets of doors as well as windows in the church, monastery and guest house.

There was mounting international concern Tuesday, October 31, about the persecution of Christian teenagers in Iraq amid reports that a 14-year old boy was beheaded while a 13-year-old girl is being held in prison.

A former Muslim sheikh remained in an Egypt jail Saturday, October 21, after 18 months of “provisional detention” for allegedly “insulting Islam” by becoming a Christian.

Relatives of an Orthodox priest who was kidnapped and beheaded three days later said Thursday, October 12, that the captors demanded his church condemns the pope’s recent comments about Islam and pay a US$350,000 ransom.