Iran: Regime warns Chaldean and Assyrian Christians not to participate in anti-government protests

Christians belonging to the Chaldean Catholic Church and Assyrian Church of the East denominations in Iran have been threatened by state security forces not to join the ongoing nationwide anti-regime protests or even to post support for the uprising on social media, on pain of arrests and persecution, the Christian Post reports.

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Iraq: Christian families are leaving in droves

The Chaldean Patriarchate has issued a statement attesting that Iraqi Christians are leaving their country in droves due to compelling sociological and political factors, which include discrimination, Agenzia Fides reports. The Christians of Iraq make up one of the oldest continuous Christian communities in the world; there are an estimated 500,000 Christians still in the country.

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Two Christians suddenly released from jail after convictions for leading churches

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei unexpectedly ordered the release of two church leaders imprisoned in the notoriously harsh Evin Prison in Tehran a few days after a fire broke out at the jail on October 15, Morningstar News (MSN) reports. Christian advocacy activists have said they do not know the reason for the Supreme Leader’s decision.

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Iran: Lawyer who defended a Pastor on death row has been imprisoned too, together with his former client

An attorney in Iran who helped save an Iranian pastor accused of ‘apostasy’ from the death penalty has now been imprisoned himself, together with his former client, who has again been jailed, Article 18 reports.

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Syria: Christians increasingly vulnerable to fraudulent property confiscation

Christians from the north-eastern region of war-torn Syria have reportedly become increasingly susceptible to fraudulent property confiscations at the hands of both Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad and the Kurdish Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.

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