Foreign Policy Category Archive

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Will Christianity Perish in Its Birthplace?

Pat Buchanan • April 14, 2017

• 900 Words • 109 Comments • Reply

"Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? (My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?)" Those are among Jesus' last words on the Cross that first Good Friday. It was a cry of agony, but not despair. The dying Christ, to rise again in three days, was repeating the first words of the 22nd Psalm. And today,... Read More

The Iraqi Christians Who Are Struggling to Survive After Isis

Patrick Cockburn • November 8, 2016

• 1,000 Words • 2 Comments • Reply

In the half-burned church of St Mary al-Tahira in Qaraqosh, several dozen Syriac Catholics are holding a mass in Aramaic amid the wreckage left by Isis. The upper part of the stone columns and the nave are scorched black by fire and the only artificial light comes from three or four candles flickering on an... Read More

War with Isis: Why Syria’s Christians Can Never Go Home

Even when Isis retreats, its strategy is to ensure a state of terror and insecurity is left in its wake

Patrick Cockburn • October 11, 2015

• 1,200 Words • 9 Comments • Reply

Syrian Christians are too terrified of past kidnappings and present suicide bombings by Isis to return to their homes in towns and villages from which the Islamist militants have been driven. Much the same is true of other communities in Syria, meaning that few of the 4 million Syrian refugees now outside the country and... Read More

Isis in Iraq: the Trauma of the Last Six Months Has Overwhelmed the Remaining Christians in the Country

After 2,000 years, a community will try anything – including pretending to convert to Islam – to avoid losing everything

Patrick Cockburn • November 22, 2014

• 1,600 Words • 6 Comments • Reply

Two years ago Jalal Yako, a Syriac Catholic priest, returned to his home town of Qaraqosh to persuade members of his community to stay in Iraq and not to emigrate because of the violence directed against them. "I was in Italy for 18 years, and when I came back here my mission was to get... Read More

Time Runs Out for Christian Iraq

The ultimatum imposed by militants for Christians to convert to Islam, pay a tax or be killed has passed with the...

Patrick Cockburn • July 20, 2014

• 1,000 Words • 2 Comments • Reply

The last Christians in northern Iraq are fleeing from places where their communities have lived for almost 2,000 years, as a deadline passed for them to either convert to Islam, pay a special tax or be killed. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) issued a decree last week offering Christians the three... Read More

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