Many Christians – all of them former Muslims – feared a genocide as they saw radical Islamic groups on their way to the Syrian city of Afrin. CBN News Middle East Bureau Chief Chris Mitchell talked with one humanitarian aid worker who helped these Christians find a safe haven.
A city in Northern Syria, once a refuge for those fleeing the fighting all around them, is now the scene of suffering and death. Afrin is a Kurdish city, but it has welcomed Christian and Yazidi refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war and ISIS militants.
For years, Syrian Christians had been praying for a revival. 'But never did we imagine it would come because of war,' said one church leader. Seven years of civil war has left Syria in ruins. Many of those who came from Christian families left early on in the war, a cause of great despair as church leaders watched their congregants slowly disappear.
The United Nations has 'failed miserably' when it comes to protecting Christians from genocide, a charity has said, noting that a mere 1.5 percent of Syrian refugees accepted by Western nations in 2016 were followers of Christ.
Syriac Orthodox Christians in the northeastern city of Hasakeh celebrated on Saturday the inauguration of Archbishop Maurice Amseeh, giving the community a bishop for the first time in four years, since the last one left the country.
A persecution watchdog group has shared the story of a Muslim extremist who upon witnessing a church service led by Christians in war-torn Syria decided to abandon his radical lifestyle and turn to Jesus Christ.
The House of Commons in Canada recently voted against a motion declaring that the atrocities committed by the Islamic State against religious minorities in Syria and Iraq were actually acts of genocide.
Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II and other senior leaders of the Syriac Orthodox Church survived an assassination attempt on June 19.
A Syrian has been crucified by the Islamic State for collaborating with what it called a "Crusader coalition."
After the April liberation of an ancient Syrian town from the Islamic State's control, many of its churches and Christian buildings were found to have been destroyed, or badly damaged.
Out of a total of 281 refugees, the U.S. State Department has admitted only two Syrian Christians into the U.S. in the first two months of 2016.
The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee has unanimously passed HR 75, a resolution declaring that those who commit or support mass murder against religious minorities are guilty of "genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity."
A coordinated attack on three restaurants owned by Assyrian Christians in Syria killed 16 and injured dozens more during Christmas celebrations.
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bipartisan resolution in September that called for the murder of Christians and other religious minority groups in Iraq and Syria to be officially classified as "genocide," according to Barnabas Aid.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned the U.K. Prime Minister that his government's policy on refugees discriminates against Christians trying to leave Syria.
A Syrian Catholic leader has issued an impassioned plea for young people to stay in Syria, according to the Catholic Herald.