Assyrians

ISIS Uses Churches as Torture Chambers for Forced Conversions

The first stories about ISIS desecrating churches and turning them into torture chambers, where Christians were slaughtered or forced to convert to Islam, began surfacing at the end of 2014. A new report from Christian Freedom International found the persecution of Christians was even more brutal and widespread than believed, with centuries-old Christian communities across the Islamic State war zone completely wiped out.

ISIS Brutality Against Christians AP PhotoHassan Ammar

On the Run From ISIS, Assyrian Christians Face a New Threat: Turkish Air Strikes

The Assyrian Christian community has already suffered greatly at the hands of ISIS, driven from their homes in the Nineveh Plain to find shelter in Iraqi Kurdistan. Human rights groups have already expressed concern about the dangerous conditions in these refugee camps, including brutal temperature extremes and supply shortages. Now the Assyrians face a new menace: Turkish bombs.

syrian archbishop

Syrian Christian Fighter Reportedly Beheads ISIS Militant

Eye for an eye, reap what you sow, what goes around comes around: choose your favorite aphorism for the wheel of karma turning, as the Christian Post relays a report from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights about a Syrian Christian fighter beheading an ISIS militant. The veracity of this report has been challenged by the Catholic bishop of Aleppo.

YouTube via NBC News

ISIS Sets Eyes on Syrian UNESCO Site Palmyra

The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) is on the doorstep of Palmyra, another UNESCO World Heritage Site in Syria. Officials warn if ISIS is not stopped, they will destroy another important historic city as they expand the caliphate.

Reuters

Turkish Pride in the Armenian Genocide

As if on safari, the hunters proudly display their dead prey. But the circa 1915 photograph depicts an undeniable horror. The hunters flank a dozen or so human bodies, laid out upon a dirt mound. The distinctive hunters’ uniforms identify them as Turkish soldiers of the Ottoman Empire; their victims are Armenian Christians.

Twitter/@ianbremmer

Breitbart Exclusive: Syria’s Christians Plead for Help from U.S. and Europe

A community in northeast Syria inhabited primarily by Assyrian Christians has been under steady assault by ISIS for the past 18 days, and they are barely holding on, according to Rima Tuezuen of the Syriac European Union. When the attack first began on February 23rd, ISIS abducted hundreds of Christian prisoners, only 23 of whom have been released so far.

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EU Parliament Resolves to Defend Christians, Other Minorities from ISIS

The European Parliament passed a resolution on Thursday calling for the protection of Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities in the Middle East from the depredations of the Islamic State. A call for the establishment of safe havens for ethnic and religious minorities in the Nineveh Plains is part of the resolution.

AP Photo/Hussein Malla

Report: ISIS to Slaughter Christian Hostages Unless Airstrikes Stop

The latest ISIS terror video is apparently running behind schedule—it was supposed to be released on Wednesday—but all indications are that it will include a threat to murder their Christian hostages, including women and children, if the bombing campaign against the Islamic State is not halted.

Reuters

Westerners Journey to Iraq and Join Christian Militia to Fight ISIS

When one hears a story of Western civilians heading to the Middle East to volunteer for combat duty, one thinks of the hideously successful ISIS recruiting drive. However, as Reuters reports, “a handful of idealistic Westerners are enlisting” with a Christian militia group called Dwekh Nawsha, “citing frustration their governments are not doing more to combat the ultra-radical Islamists or prevent the suffering of innocents.”

AP Photo/Vivian Salama

Persecuted Christians Join Yazidis in Iraq’s Fight Against ISIS

The savage Muslim persecution of Assyrian Christians and Yazidi (Zoroastrian/Hindus) by Sunni Muslims in the Middle East and in Shiite Iran has reached fever-pitch. ISIS has systematically murdered, tortured, captured, and enslaved Yazidi girls and women. They have done likewise to the Assyrians in Syria and Iraq. Iran has persecuted Assyrians as well.

Reuters