Christians and Muslims hope a project to reconstruct Mosul’s iconic places of worship, badly damaged by Islamic State militants during their 2014-2017 occupation of the city, will also help to rebuild trust between Iraq’s fractured religious communities.
Perhaps just hours or less before her murder in northern Mozambique as militants swept into the area, Comboni Sister Maria De Coppi left a voice message with her niece, urging her to pray for the people on the run.
Pope Francis told reporters flying back to Rome from Iraq March 8, 2021, that one of the reasons he became convinced he had to visit the nation was after reading Murad’s memoir, “Last Girl: My Story of Captivity and My Fight Against the Islamic State.”
The genocide conducted by the Islamic State against Christian communities in Iraq and Syria has turned into continued harassment by Iran-backed militias and shows no signs of abating soon, said speakers at a Sept. 26, 2019, hearing in Washington.
Christians are cautiously returning to Mosul, the once-bustling Iraqi city that for three years was the capital of the caliphate established by the Islamic State group.
The threat to religious freedom from Muslim fundamentalists is rapidly becoming a global phenomenon following the military defeat of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, said a new report.
A receptive, capacity crowd heard Bajoo, a former Syrian captive, U.N. ambassadors and leaders of aid organizations discuss “Peace, Reconciliation and Justice: The Future of Religious and Ethnic Minorities Victimized by Daesh” at a conference organized by the Vatican’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations.
Gunmen claiming to have links with the Islamic State group threatened to kill hostages, including a Catholic priest, who were taken from the southern Philippine city of Marawi May 23.
