In 1988, Ronald Reagan went to the newly restored Danilov Monastery in Moscow. Founded in the 13th century, the monastery had been restored not by the generosity of the Soviet state but by, as Reagan noted, “35 million believers” who had given “personal contributions.” “Our people feel it keenly when religious freedom is denied to Read more
Restrictions imposed by the Israeli government are preventing Christians from worshipping freely in the Holy Land this Holy Week. Yusef Daher, secretary-general of the Jerusalem Interchurch Center, said the network of Israeli police barriers disrupt the flow and number of people who are able to reach the church of the Holy Sepulchre for Good Friday Read more
The Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need expressed concern over the reported increase of incidents of persecution of Christians in China. The concern follows reports that Chinese officials ordered the removal of a cross from a church in Zhejiang province last week. “This incident fits into a pattern of government aggression … involving the Read more
The European Parliament has recognised as genocide the Islamic State’s killing of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East. This is the first time the European Parliament has acknowledged an ongoing conflict as genocide. Lars Adaktusson, the Swedish MEP who tabled the resolution, said the significance of the move is the obligations that Read more
New Zealand cannot stand aloof from involvement in the Middle East when so many people are suffering and dying says Archbishop John Dew, President of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ Conference. He has written to Prime Minister John Key, offering the support of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops for the cautious and measured approach to making Read more
The persecution of Christians by radical Islamic groups in Syria over the past two years has been appalling—and largely ignored. I suppose I should wear it as a badge of honour. My first death threat over my new book, Hatred: Islam’s War on Christianity (Signal, 2014)—was sent to me a couple of weeks ago. Apparently Read more
WHEN the long, grim history of Christianity’s disappearance from the Middle East is written, Ted Cruz’s performance last week at a conference organized to highlight the persecution of his co-religionists will merit at most a footnote. But sometimes a footnote can help illuminate a tragedy’s unhappy whole. For decades, the Middle East’s increasingly beleaguered Christian Read more
The New York Times published a piece last week called “The Data of Hate.” Much of the data came from Stormfront.org, which Times contributor Seth Stephens-Davidowitz called “America’s most popular online hate site.” It was founded in 1995 by former Ku Klux Klan leader Don Black. The frightening thing is that 76 percent of Americans Read more
The expulsion of Christians from Iraq’s second largest city has been compared to 1930’s Nazi Germany by a former British ambassador to the Holy See. Francis Campbell, who served in Rome from 2005 to 2011, said he was deeply disturbed by the West’s indifference to the events in Mosul. The extremist Islamic State of Iraq Read more
The number of Russian residents who call themselves Christian has more than doubled according to PewResearch. Between the years 1991 and 2008, Russian adults identifying at Orthodox Christian rose from 31% to 72%, and the share of Russia’s population not identifying with any religion dropped from 61% – 18%, the February 2014 international survey shows. However Read more