Christianity

Pope Francis on Saturday forthrightly reminded Big Oil that climate change is a moral issue

Pope, after Gaza violence, says ‘defenceless’ being killed in Holy Land

Middle East Monitor | – – Pope Francis, in his Easter address on Sunday, called for peace in the Holy Land two days after 15 Palestinians were killed on the Israeli-Gaza border, saying the conflict there “does not spare the defenceless”, Reuters reports. The pope made his appeal in his “Urbi et Orbi” (to the […]

Christianity

Jesus wasn’t white: he was a brown-skinned, Middle Eastern Jew: & why that matters

Juan Cole

By Robyn J. Whitaker | (The Conversation) | – – I grew up in a Christian home, where a photo of Jesus hung on my bedroom wall. I still have it. It is schmaltzy and rather tacky in that 1970s kind of way, but as a little girl I loved it. In this picture, Jesus […]

History

‘These are the keys of this paradise’: how 700 years of Muslim rule in Spain came to an end

contributors

By Elizabeth Drayson | (The Conversation) | – – It was the moment which set Spain on a course to become the greatest power in early modern Europe. On January 2, 1492 Abdallah Muhammad bin Ali, or Muhammad XII, known as Boabdil, the last Moorish sultan of Granada and head of the Nasrid dynasty, surrendered […]

Protestants

American Christian Zionism: The Deep Background and the Current Situation

contributors

By Shalom Goldman | (Informed Comment) | – – This season, the best-selling book in the U.S. is Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu are mentioned frequently in Michael Wolff’s account of the chaos and confusion in the Trump White House. Wolff points out that for […]

Christianity

Priests close Church of Holy Sepulchre over Israeli “attack on Christians”

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – Church leaders in Jerusalem shut the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Sunday in protest at a new Israeli tax policy and a proposed land expropriation law which they called a “systematic and unprecedented attack against Christians in the Holy Land”. Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian church leaders […]

Israel/ Palestine

Turkey & Vatican tag team Trump over Jerusalem

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – Both Erdogan and Pope Francis are opposed to US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which many US allies say could doom Middle East peace efforts. Tayyip Erdogan made the first visit by a Turkish president to the Vatican in 59 years on […]

Copts

Egypt: Armed attack on Church south of Cairo leaves 10 Dead

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – Egyptian media sources have reported that the Mar Mina Church in Helwan, south of Cairo, was attacked this morning, resulting in the death of several people, including the attacker. The sources reported that an armed gunman tried to raid the church and an exchange of fire occurred between him […]

Christianity

What does the Muslim Scripture say about the Birth of Jesus?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | The Qur’an, the scripture Muslims believe was brought from God by the Prophet Muhammad (d. 632), has a number of passages that mention Mary and the virgin birth of Jesus. The Chapter of Mary, 19:16, says (my interpretation): And mention in the Book Mary, when she withdrew from […]