CENTRE for RELIGIOUS PLURALISM in the MIDDLE EAST

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Latest news and headlines from Turkey.

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Today, along with news of general interest to the Armenian-American community, the Armenian Weekly publishes editorials, political analyses, regular columns, and short stories and poems.

MCN is the first professional and independent News Agency specialized in covering timely, accurate and reliable events concerning Christian minorities in the Middle East.

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Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations promotes the scholarly study of Islam as a religious and intellectual tradition, and its relations with Christianity and other religions.

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The Palestinian Bible Society is an inter-confessional Christian Society committed to making the Word of God available to Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

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Abouna is a research center, issued by the Catholic Center for Studies and Media in Jordan, that provides news and information on the Catholic World, and aims in promoting dialogue between Christians and Muslims.

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The CEMMIS research and analysis group is designed to form a Political Risk Evaluation Unit, which geographically covers the countries of North Africa, from Morocco and Mauritania to Egypt, the countries of the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf including Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. In addition, it covers the Horn of Africa from Sudan and Somalia to Ethiopia and Eritrea. There is special focus on general economic, cultural and political trends in the whole of the

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Periodical of the Institute of Eastern Christian Studies in Nijmegen, in collaboration with the Faculty of Theology and the Institute of Early Christian and Byzantine Studies at the Catholic University of Leuven.
The Journal of Eastern Christian Studies (JEastCS) is the continuation of Het Christelijk Oosten, which appeared in Dutch from 1948 till 2001. It publishes studies and reports on the traditions and present-day situation of Eastern and Oriental Christian churches in the Middle

Al-Qalamoun is a Syrian mountain range extending from the eastern mountains of Lebanon. It is also the access point for Damascus, to the north, and a border crossing with harsh and steep, rocky terrain that is home to a number of small towns. Al-Qalamoun can perhaps be considered one of Syria’s hidden treasures, with stories and anecdotes hidden among its

Director of the Catholic Center for Studies and Media in Jordan.

Many Iraqi Christian refugees have given up on the Middle East and refuse to ever go back to Iraq, even if the Islamic State is completely annihilated.

BEIRUT — Lebanon has been witnessing activities by the Catholic and Orthodox churches. As the papal envoy to Lebanon, Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, was meeting with Lebanese officials and politicians during his visit to

Interview with the Parish priest of the Holy Family in Gaza, Fr Mario de Silva, who replaced Fr George Jorge Hernandez.

Christianity began as a religion of the Levant. Christian holy sites still dot its landscape, and it was in one of its cities that the believers were first called Christians. Since ancient times early Christian sects, Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, and more recently Evangelical communities have provided part of the foundation of the Near East’s social fabric. But unfortunately, this longstanding history provides no defense against the challenges these communities currently face, which may

Hundreds of Christian Palestinians have received rare, temporary permission to travel outside the besieged Gaza Strip this holiday season, and for many, a permit to leave might be their ticket to a new life. While most will spend Christmas with relatives in the West Bank, Israel or abroad, before returning home, some will also leave Gaza for good in something of an exodus.

The leader of a right-wing Jewish group has called for a ban on Christmas in Israel and the expulsion of Christians, describing followers of the religion as "blood-sucking vampires".

Assaults on churches by right-wing Jews, a new phenomenon, raise concern about movement’s increasingly aggressive tactics.

The holy night of Christmas was celebrated across Turkey late Dec. 24, gathering people of all religions and cultures visiting from around the world.

'Tensions and violence persist' in land where Jesus walked, says Pope Francis in speech calling for peace around the world.

President Rivlin: We all have a duty, at the beginning of the New Year, and every day, to stand together, and show the world that the conflict in this region is not a war about religion, it is a war against hate.

On Dec. 31, thousands of families in Israel who immigrated from the former Soviet Union celebrated Novy God (Russian for New Year’s) — a secular, civic Russian holiday that marks the start of the new year. The first toast of the night includes a traditional Russian blessing that is followed by the main event, a festive dinner that includes zakuska, an offering of caviar, seafood, various Eastern European

Palestine – This historical bilateral agreement concerns the presence and activity of the Catholic Church in Palestine. It went into effect on Saturday January 2nd, 2016.

Turkey's Oriental Orthodox Christians, the country's largest Christian denomination, held mass on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning to celebrate Christmas, the birth of Jesus, which they observe on Jan. 6.

Abstract

Based on ethnographic work carried out in Jerusalem's Old City over a period of fifteen months, this article outlines the historical background necessary to understand the development of the diversity of Christianity in Jerusalem.

The Holy Land Coordination Bishops held a press conference at the Our lady of Peace Center on January 11th, attended by bishops from the United States of America, Canada, European countries, and South Africa. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem said that this annual pilgrimage to the Holy Land is aimed at familiarizing bishops with the latest situation on the ground amongst other things.

On Sunday, January 10, the Franciscans of the Custody went to Jericho to commemorate Christ's baptism. The Franciscans, led by the Custos, Br. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, as well as pilgrims, first made their way to the small Latin parish of the Good Shepherd. There, the Custos was welcomed by local authorities and various representatives of the Spanish, Italian, French and Belgian consulates.

Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill has praised Turkey's policies toward the country's non-Muslim minorities, and sent messages of peace amid tense relations between the two countries since the downing of a Russian jet for violation of Turkey's airspace.

The Holy Land Coordination Bishops have concluded their visit to the Holy Land which took place during the period January 9-14, 2016. At the conclusion of the visit, they issued a statement which stressed that "With a promise of active solidarity, we make our own the prayer of Pope Francis in Laudato Si: 'O God of the poor, help us rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this Earth, so precious in Your eyes'.”

When Turkey’s official Religious Affairs Department, the Diyanet, denied a request from the Boyacikoy Yerits Mangonts Church Foundation to pay salaries to Christian clergy in Turkey, the move was challenged by the country's chief ombudsman, who asked the Prime Ministry to pay salaries to non-Muslim clergy. The Prime Ministry has not made a decision known, but non-Muslim clergy members are clearly delighted with the proposal.

Police arrested a 16-year-old Israeli boy overnight Tuesday and a second suspect, 15, on Wednesday for allegedly daubing anti-Christian graffiti on a wall of the capital’s Dormition Abbey.

Fed up and fearful, Christians are leaving the Middle East.

Far from spreading cheer this holiday season, Pope Francis has been in a Grinch-like mood. “There will be lights, parties, Christmas trees and Nativity scenes,” he said in late November. “It’s all a charade.” As the Vatican unveiled its own giant spruce, he sounded downright depressed: “We should ask for the grace to weep for this world, which does not recognise the path to peace.”

Christian refugees who have fled ISIS in Iraq and Syria are practising their faith in secret now they live in a Muslim-majority nation, according to a Turkish newspaper.

AMMAN — Fifty bishops from Europe, North America, and South Africa are currently in the Kingdom to express solidarity with Christian refugees who were forcibly displaced from Iraq and Syria.

AMMAN — Church bells rang in Balqa's Rmeimeen town on Friday in celebration of the opening of a neighbouring mosque after renovation, in an expression of coexistence among Jordanians, Awqaf Minister Hayel Dawood said on Saturday. 

A landmark Christian holy site in Jerusalem was vandalised with Hebrew graffiti in what appears to be the latest attack by "extremist" Jews.

Dozens of crosses destroyed at the Catholic monastery of Beit Jamal near Beit Shemesh; a spate of hate crimes has targeted churches and cemeteries in recent years.

Interview with Msgr. Michel Dubost, Bishop of Evry Corbeil-Essonnes, member of the Bishops of the Holy Land Coordination, President of the Council for Interreligious Relations of the French Bishops’ Conference and member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

Armenians fled from Turkey to Syria 100 years ago, now they are fleeing again.

The Arab communities who helped Armenian refugees 100 years ago are now hosting different traumatised refugees.

The pope and the European Parliament recently urged the Turkish government to recognise the Armenian mass killings as "genocide", while others - including the US - have stopped short of using the term and called for a "full, frank" recognition of historical facts. But it is worth remembering that the people of the Arab Middle East have long recognised what the Armenians

Abstract

Some of the oldest Christian communities in the world are disappearing in the very lands where their faith was born and first took root. During the past decade,Christians around the Middle East have been subject to vicious murders at the hands of terrorist groups, forced out of their ancestral lands by civil wars, suffered societal intolerance fomented by Islamist groups, and subjected to institutional discrimination found in the legal codes and

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israel is continuing to annex Christian church endowments in Palestine, both covertly and blatantly. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon recently approved the annexation of the Beit al-Baraka church compound to the Gush Etzion settlements established on Palestinian territories south of the West Bank, according to a Jan. 6 Haaretz report.

The Future of Religious Pluralism in the Middle East

Abstract

Andrew Doran, special advisor at In Defense of Christians, Faith McDonnell, director of the religious liberty program at the Institute on Religion and Democracy, and David Saperstein, ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom at the U.S. Department of State, join National Public Radio's Thomas Gjelten to discuss the state of religious pluralism in the Middle East. The

I was one of the many Muslim scholars and other faiths leaders invited to a major summit of its kind in Morocco to debate the rights of religious minorities living in the Muslim world. The summit opened on 25 January and brought together 300 influential thinkers from across the globe to reassert the principles stipulated by the Charter of Medina. The Charter is the first constitution for Muslims which enshrines the principles of tolerance, co-existence and pluralism.

Beit Gemal: Last December, vandals – not yet identified – destroyed several tombs in the cemetery of Beit Gemal. On January 22, 2016, a group of Jews came to express their sadness and solidarity following the vandalism.

ISTANBUL -- A Turkish court ruled on Tuesday (Jan. 26) that the government was negligent in its duty to protect three Christians who were tortured and killed in 2007 and ordered it to pay damages to the victims' families.

The government is preparing a reform package that will expand freedoms and end restrictions on identity-related issues, sources from the Prime Ministry have said. Accordingly, the new reform package to be introduced by the end of February will address issues related to cultural rights of the Kurdish population, minorities and some religious groups.

The first major council of the world’s Eastern Orthodox churches in over 1,200 years will take place in Crete after the influential Russian Orthodox Church said political tensions between Moscow and Ankara ruled out holding it in Turkey.

Abstract

Is it accurate and/or expedient to use the word “genocide” to describe the persecution of religious minorities by the terrorist group known as Islamic State, Daesh or a variant of that name? Hypothetical as it might seem, that question is a real dilemma for people in high places in western Europe and America.

The CEMMIS Middle East Bulletin Issue 28/June 2015 is a Greek Review of Middle Eastern Affairs that explores the situation and the role of the Christian communities across the Middle East.

Abstract

In the world of religion, many observers suggest that the Sunni-Shia rift in Islam is similar to the Catholic-Protestant one in Christendom.

Israeli prosecutors pressed charges on Sunday against three Jewish teenagers for allegedly scrawling anti-Christian graffiti on some of Christianity’s holiest sites in Jerusalem, the justice ministry said.

Plans to build churches in Kuwait have been rejected by MPs because they "contradict Islamic Sharia law". The Gulf country's government, which is unelected and seperate from the elected MPs in parliament, initially accepted the church building proposals and allocated a number of sites for construction.

The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research hosted, on Sunday and Monday, January 17-18, 2016, the proceedings of " First Arab Thinkers Forum," at its premises in Abu Dhabi. A large group of Arab intellectuals participated, including, notably, H.E. Dr. Jamal Sanad Al-Suwaidi, Director General of the ECSSR, and a number of Muslim and Christian religious figures, including H.E. Dr. Mohammed Mokhtar Gomaa, Minister of Religious Endowments (Awqaf), Head

Father Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, on Sunday said “to counter extremism we have to commit ourselves to a sincere dialogue.”

Islamic State has perpetrated some of the most fearsome acts of the War on Terror. On Wednesday (3 February), the European Parliament will vote on a resolution that seeks to class their brutality as genocide, writes Lars Adaktusson.

The international community is struggling to come up with a strategy to defeat the Islamic State (IS) -- but on the ground in northern Iraq, a Roman Catholic priest has found his own way to fight the jihadists.

Bitter experience has bred skepticism when self-proclaimed “moderate” or “peace-loving” Muslims declare they represent the true face of the faith, since such claims to date haven’t put much of a dent in the global spread of Islamic-inspired terrorism.

An ancient Syriac Orthodox church in Turkey is under threat as violent clashes between Kurdish militias and the Turkish army draw closer.

The Supreme Court of Israel dismissed the latest petitions in the Cremisan case, submitted by the Salesian Sisters Convent, represented by the Society of St. Yves – Catholic Center for Human Rights, and the Beit Jala Municipality and landowners, represented by advocate Ghayyath Nasser.

Each year, the world watch list ranks the top 50 countries where Christians face the most persecution. Types of persecution, severity and other elements are all monitored in the reporting period. The world watch list is audited by an outside human rights organization to ensure credibility and authenticity.

The Bureau of the European Parliament adopted on Monday evening (February, 1st) a report which clearly denounces the suffering of Christians under “Islamic radicalism.”

Turkey has announced a decision to return its ambassador to the Vatican, Mehmet Paçacı, nearly 10 months after withdrawing him in protest at Pope Francis’ description of the killings of Anatolian Armenians during World War I as “the first genocide of the 20th century.”

Abstract

The religious profile of the world is rapidly changing, driven primarily by differences in fertility rates and the size of youth populations among the world’s major religions, as well as by people switching faiths. Over the next four decades, Christians will remain the largest religious group, but Islam will grow faster than any other major religion.

Masarat for Cultural and Media Development (MCMD), an NGO based in Baghdad, called for the involvement of minorities in any peace negotiations over the future of the disputed areas in a Saturday report.

The Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, has appealed for increased funding to support refugees from the Syrian crisis, saying the Holy See will “continue its humanitarian assistance” to the region over the coming year.

The head of the Middle East’s Franciscans said more help is needed to keep Christians in the region – as an international conference on Syria’s refugee crisis got underway in London.

From Syria to Iran, Palestine to Egypt, stories from the region's Christian minority.

Cyber threats and physical attacks against people and churches are among the hate crimes suffered by the Protestant Church in Turkey, according to its latest Human Rights Violations report.

Pope Francis will meet with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill on February 12 in Havana, Cuba, according to a joint statement published between the two churches earlier on Friday.

"This might be one of Pope Francis's most important firsts," Catholic University of America (CUA) Theology Professor Reverend Regis Armstrong said on Friday.

Abstract

This article will show that, for centuries, perhaps a millennium, during which Islam dominated the area, conflict between Jews, Christians and Muslims was the exception, not the norm. The norm was peace, harmony, coexistence and cooperation among those of the three religions.

Israeli documents have revealed that the Israeli army deliberately adopted a policy based on the destruction, vandalism and harm of the sanctity of churches in Palestine, during and after the 1948 war. An Israeli book, which will be published next month, explains how the Israeli army carried out seizure and destruction operations against churches located in the Palestinian cities, towns and villages the army took control off after expelling their people.

There is a rising tide of religious persecution emerging worldwide and it disproportionately threatens religious minority groups.

Statistics indicate that the Christian population across the Middle East has dropped from 13.6% to 4.2% in the past century. As the Egyptian Christian community continues to decrease, Valentina Primo speaks to those leaving the country to unveil the reasons behind this post-modern exodus.

The Association of Protestant Churches has published reports since 2007 which explain the situation of Protestant churches in Turkey. The Association of Protestant Churches gives importance to the freedom of religion and belief for all people everywhere, and makes an effort to ensure this becomes reality. In order to serve this purpose, the Association desires to prepare and distribute this annual monitoring report which describes the Protestant community’s situation. In particular, we

In a meeting with Cardinal Peter Turkson, the president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Hashem Hoseyni-Bushehri, the director of Islamic Seminaries across Iran, stressed upon the relations between Muslim and Christian leaders, saying they are a necessity for the current world and counted oppression, corruption, irreligiousness and anti-spirituality approaches as some of the joint challenges of both religions.

The majority of the Middle East’s population today is Muslim, as it has been for centuries. However, as the place of origin of a range of world religions – including Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and many lesser-known faiths – it remains a region of remarkable religious diversity. This article considers the place of religious minorities in the modern Middle East from three angles: their distinctive religious and communal identities, their place in the major transformations of the

Within the scope of the Anatolian Cultural Heritage Project, the Hrant Dink Foundation has listed the churches, synagogues, monasteries, schools, hospitals and cemeteries built by Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians and Jews. Based on the results of the activities carried out over the past two-and-a-half years, the Foundation has listed 10,000 structures, of which 4,600 are Armenian, 4,100 are Greek, 650 are Assyrian and 300 are Jewish. The Foundation has made an interactive map including all

Christian and Muslim religious leaders on Saturday, February 6, stressed the role of the media in spreading a culture of tolerance, respecting the "other", and human dignity.

Hundreds of Muslim Georgians who live in the autonomous republic of Adjara, in southwestern Georgia, held a protest rally, on February 5, in the regional capital of Batumi. The protesters demanded that Georgian authorities give them permission to construct a new, large mosque in the city. The participants of the rally handed authorities a petition with 12,000 signatures of Muslim Georgians. According to the head of the New Mosque Construction Initiative Group, Tariel Nakaidze, “The demands

The pro-government Bugün newspaper has run a front-page story in the paper's Tuesday edition targeting a spokesperson from the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Selin Sayek-Böke, because of her religion.

Pope Francis's dynamic papacy has been one of many firsts, the latest being the monumental meeting in Havana on February 12 with Russian Orthodox patriarch Kirill. A convergence of Francis's great emphasis on ecumenism with the geo-religious context of virulent persecution of Christians, both Orthodox and Catholic in Syria, and throughout the Middle East and North Africa have resulted in the unprecedented meeting in Cuba. The systematic slaughter of Christians at the hands of IS and