Middle East

For one man, the release of eight kidnapped Christians from his hometown of Qaraqosh on Friday (June 22) was bittersweet.

An unidentified armed group kidnapped eight Assyrian Christian students and teachers returning home to the Nineveh Plain from Mosul University Wednesday afternoon.

Lebanese Christians, already shaken by several bombings, faced the prospect of civil war Wednesday, June 13, as officials confirmed that a key anti-Syrian legislator and nine others were killed in an explosion in Beirut, apparently from a bomb-rigged car.

Iraqi Christians are mourning the deaths of a Catholic priest and his three assistants who were gunned down by Islamic militants over the weekend, shortly after another Christian couple working for the US embassy was reportedly killed, BosNewsLife established Tuesday, June 5.

As night fell, “hungry” and “frightened” Christians remained trapped in their houses in Gaza on Monday, May 21, as rival Palestinian factions continued their battles while Israel increased air strikes against militants, a Christian aid group said.

Christians in the Gaza Strip faced new tensions Sunday, May 13, amid reports that a Palestinian Islamic group’s armed wing is targeting “Christian missionary activity” in the Gaza Strip.

Iraqi Christians fled their homes over the weekend after armed Sunni extremists threatened to kill them if they did not convert to Islam within 24 hours, Christian sources said.

The murder of two Christian women in their Kirkuk home this week highlights growing insecurity facing Christians, often targeted for money in war-torn Iraq.

One of the top Islamic leaders in Iran accepted Christ and left the country after facing death threats and imprisonment, according to an Iranian pastor living in the U.S.

A Christian child has been sentenced to five years in juvenile detention in Northern Iraq for fatally stabbing her Muslim uncle while he beat her for converting to Christianity, her lawyer said.