Hope and Fears of Christians in Syria under the New Islamist Leadership | DW News

Dec 24, 2024 | Christians in Syria are preparing to celebrate their first Christmas since the overthrow of president Bashar al Assad. After nearly five decades under the rule of the Assad family, the country faces a new era following this month's sudden rebel victory. While some Christians express hope for the future, there are concerns about the fate of religious minorities under Syria's new Islamist-led government.

For more on this, we talk to Priest Firas Lutfi. He is a Parish Priest in Damascus and Head of Franciscan community in Damascus, Syria.

Christians in Syria prepare for Christmas

LIVE: Christians in Syria Celebrate Christmas

Dec 24, 2024 | Christians attend mass in Damascus, Syria, celebrating Christmas for the first time since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad and the control of Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

Christians vs. Muslims – A Bloody History of Spanish Traditions over the Centuries | Documentary

Nov 30, 2024 | Alpuxarras narrates the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula and the subsequent Christian conquest, until the end of the expulsion of the Moriscos in the XVII century. Focusing on the presence of the Muslims in Galicia and the forced colonization of the Alpuxarras by the Galicians, the similarities between common traditions, today almost forgotten, are exposed.

A look to Alpuxarras allows us to know a past that is necessary to understand the present reality.

Trump Tells Supporters They Won’t Have to Vote in the Future: ‘It’ll Be Fixed!’

THE OBSERVER: Former president implores Christian supporters to vote ‘just this time’, then ‘in four years, you don’t have to vote again’

Donald Trump has ignited alarm among his critics after telling a crowd of supporters that they won’t “have to vote again” if they return him to the presidency in November’s election.

“Christians, get out and vote! Just this time – you won’t have to do it any more,” the Republican former president said on Friday night at a rally hosted in West Palm Beach, Florida, by the far-right advocacy group Turning Point Action.

“You know what? It’ll be fixed! It’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote any more, my beautiful Christians,” he said with a slight shake of his head and his right hand pressed against the left side of his chest.

He added: “I love you. Get out – you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.”

Trump’s remarks – delivered not far from his Mar-a-Lago resort and home – were immediately met with consternation in some political quarters.

The constitutional and civil rights attorney Andrew Seidel, for instance, replied to video of Trump’s comments circulating on X by writing: “This is not subtle Christian nationalism. He’s talking about ending our democracy and installing a Christian nation.” » | Ramon Antonio Vargas | Saturday, July 27, 2024

Trump is such a dangerous man. Democracy will never be safe in his hands. In fact, it won't even last very long in his hands. – © Mark Alexander

Arrests, Beatings and Secret Prayers: Inside the Persecution of India’s Christians

Villagers praying in secret in Bihar, India, amid an uptick in violence against Christians in the country. | Photograph: Atul Loke
THE NEW YORK TIMES: “They want to remove us from society,” a Christian farmer said of Hindu extremists. Rising attacks on Christians are part of a broader shift in India, in which minorities feel less safe.

INDORE, India — The Christians were mid-hymn when the mob kicked in the door.

A swarm of men dressed in saffron poured inside. They jumped onstage and shouted Hindu supremacist slogans. They punched pastors in the head. They threw women to the ground, sending terrified children scuttling under their chairs.

“They kept beating us, pulling out hair,” said Manish David, one of the pastors who was assaulted. “They yelled: ‘What are you doing here? What songs are you singing? What are you trying to do?’”

The attack unfolded on the morning of Jan. 26 at the Satprakashan Sanchar Kendra Christian center in the city of Indore. The police soon arrived, but the officers did not touch the aggressors. Instead, they arrested and jailed the pastors and other church elders, who were still dizzy from getting punched in the head. The Christians were charged with breaking a newly enforced law that targets religious conversions, one that mirrors at least a dozen other measures across the country that have prompted a surge in mob violence against Indian Christians.

Pastor David was not converting anyone, he said. But the organized assault against his church was propelled by a growing anti-Christian hysteria that is spreading across this vast nation, home to one of Asia’s oldest and largest Christian communities, with more than 30 million adherents. » | Jeffrey Gettleman and Suhasini Raj | Photographs by Atul Loke | Undated

US Criticizes Saudi Arabia and Bahrain for Lack of Religious Freedom

US criticizes Saudi Arabia and Bahrain for lack of religious freedom. US President Donald Trump's administration says the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant group remains the biggest threat to religious freedom around the world. The US State Department says the murders of Yazidis, Christians and Shia Muslims at the hands of ISIL amounted to genocide.

The annual report says almost 80 percent of the world's population continues to live under threats limiting freedom to worship.

The countries criticised include US allies Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Al Jazeera's Mohammad Vall reports.

A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian World

Mar. 13, 2017 - 4:23 - Author and conservative columnist Rod Dreher tells American Christians how to prepare for a coming Dark Age in new book, 'The Benedict Option' #Tucker

I see someone else is now talking of the coming Dark Age. – Mark

Battle of the Billboards: Christians vs. Atheists

Famous Imam Praises ISIS, Condemns Christians! | Louder With Crowder

Louder With Crowder »

Christian Group Wants To Out Gay Republican Candidates And Staff

Cenk Uygur (http://www.twitter.com/cenkuygur) host of The Young Turks discusses a Christian group that wants Christians to investigate Republican Candidates and out any homosexual candidates or homosexuals on their staff.

Resentment Grows between Christians and Muslims in France (2015)

Bill Maher: I Wish Liberals Would Have Same Intolerance For Muslims That They Do For Christians

Read the Real Clear Politics article here | Saturday, January 30, 2016

Raymond Ibrahim: Obama’s Love for Jihadis and Hate for Christians

JIHAD WATCH: Obama recently lashed out against the idea of giving preference to Christian refugees, describing it as “shameful”: “That’s not American. That’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion,” loftily added the American president.

Accordingly, the administration is still determined to accept 10,000 more Syrian refugees, almost all of whom will be Muslim, despite the fact that some are ISIS operatives, while many share the ISIS worldview (as explained below).

Yet right as Obama was grandstanding about “who we are,” statistics were released indicating that “the current [refugee] system overwhelmingly favors Muslim refugees. Of the 2,184 Syrian refugees admitted to the United States so far, only 53 are Christians while 2,098 are Muslim.”

Aside from the obvious—or to use Obama’s own word, “shameful”—pro-Muslim, anti-Christian bias evident in these statistics, there are a number of other troubling factors as well. » | Raymond Ibrahim | Monday, November 23, 2015

When Will Obama Defend Christians and Defeat Radical Islam?

America has the strongest fighting force and most advanced military technology on Earth. There's no reason we should be losing to these evil thugs.
FOX NEWS: Radical ISIS snakes sliver outside Damascus, just miles from where God revealed himself to the Apostle Paul. The dead bodies of decapitated ISIS victims are rotting in Palmyra, the ancient city that Chronicles tells us was built by King Solomon. ISIS black flags now wave on the same streets where the Lord commanded Jonah to witness to the people of Nineveh. In the ancient Christian village of Sadad, an armed Christian militia will soon clash with ISIS jihadists that have overrun a neighboring city. Sadad is home to many Christian churches and its people even speak Christ’s native tongue: Aramaic.

While President Obama sits silently, the same soil that sustained our Biblical forefathers is now stained with blood. Anyone who who defies these evil Islamic radicals risks death. The White House abandons Christians and denies, disguises and hides the existence of Radical Islam, but I will not!

You don’t negotiate with sin and evil, you destroy it. You don't contemplate what to do with cancer, you kill it before it kills you! » | Mike Huckabee | Friday, November 6, 2015

Christians 'Martyred for Beliefs Every FIVE MINUTES by Islamic State and Other Terrorists'

SUNDAY EXPRESS: CHRISTIANS are being martyred for their faith every five minutes by barbaric Islamic State militants and other terror groups, a shocking new report has claimed.

Believers are often singled out, tortured and faced with the brutal choice of converting to Islam or being slaughtered, according to Christian Freedom International.

Those who refuse to comply have reportedly had their limbs cut off or have been crucified.

Research by CFI found that more than 200 million followers are facing persecution in 105 countries making Christianity the most at-risk faith group in the world.

More Christians have been martyred in the 20th and 21st centuries than during the previous 19 combined, the organisation has claimed.

The human rights group's president Jim Jacobson said: “Islamic State Militants in Iraq are using Christian churches as torture chambers where they force Christians to either convert to Islam or die.

“Islamic State militants are also stripping the former places of Christian worship of ancient relics which in turn are smuggled to Western collectors to help fund their terrorist activities." » | Scott Campbell | Sunday, September 20, 2015

Obama Blasts 'Less-than-loving Christians' at Easter Prayer Breakfast

President Obama appeared to break from his script for a moment at Tuesday morning's Easter Prayer Breakfast to opine on Christians who espouse "less-than-loving" views. "On Easter, I do reflect on the fact that as a Christian, I am supposed to love," Mr. Obama said toward the end of his speech. "And I have to say…

Franklin Graham: New Obama Danger for Christians

WND: 'The storm is coming, I believe'

Globally known evangelist Franklin Graham says President Obama is so sympathetic to those of the Muslim faith, he’s actually endangering Jews and Christians, opening the doors for them to be persecuted in the United States.

“We’re going to see persecution in this country because our president is very sympathetic to Islam, and the reason I say that … is because his father was a Muslim, gave him a Muslim name, Barack Hussein Obama,” Graham said in an interview on “The 700 Club” on the Christian Broadcasting Network.

“His mother married another Muslim man. They moved to Indonesia. He went to Indonesian schools. So, growing up, his frame of reference and his influence as a young man was Islam. It wasn’t Christianity; it was Islam.”

Graham’s remarks aren’t much of a surprise to those who listen to him frequently. He’s been an outspoken critic of Obama’s presidential policies and has decried what he’s characterized as a curious White House reach-out to Muslim groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood. » | Cheryl Chumley | Monday, March 02, 2015

Bill O'Reilly to Liberal Christian: Islamic State 'Would Behead You'

Bill O'Reilly of Fox News took to task a liberal Christian leader who used his television time to suggest that promoting peace via diplomatic discussion could go far in curbing the types of terrorism furthered by the likes of the Islamic State, telling him outright: You're wrong. The context of the comments came while the Rev.…

'We Will free India of Muslims and Christians by 2021': DJS Leader Vows to Continue 'Ghar Wapsi' Plans and Restore 'Hindu Glory'

MAIL ONLINE: Even as Opposition parties up the ante over alleged incidents of religious reconversion, the Dharm Jagran Samiti has declared that it will ensure India becomes a Hindu Rashtra by 2021.

Licence to stay

Speaking in Agra on Thursday, a Dharm Jagran Samiti (DJS) functionary said Muslims and Christians will have to convert to Hinduism if they want to stay in this country.

The DJS has been at the forefront of the reconversion - or ‘ghar wapsi’ - programmes in recent times in which some Muslims have been reportedly ‘reconverted’ to Hinduism.

However, their action drew widespread condemnation, leading to the arrest of one activist.

“Our target is to make India a Hindu Rashtra by 2021. The Muslims and Christians don’t have any right to stay here.

“So they would either be converted to Hinduism or forced to run away from here,” Uttar Pradesh DJS head Rajeshwar Singh said. » | Piyush Srivastava | Friday, December 19, 2014

ISIS Call for Jihadists to Target Catholics, Christians