Christianity

By a Special Correspondent via Niqash.org NIQASH’s correspondent takes a walk around Mosul to see how the city has changed since extremists took it over last week. Despite masked men at checkpoints and burned out military facilities, things are strangely calm. Two hundred meters from the eastern entrance to Mosul, the Iraqi Kurdish taxi driver […]

Christianity

Pope Francis hosts Israeli, Palestinian Leaders as “Brothers”

contributors

Deborah Lutterbeck reports: “Pope Francis, Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attend a peace prayer meeting in “neutral” Vatican gardens.” Reuters: “Pope calls on Israelis, Palestinians to find “courage” for peace” The Catholic News Service reports the spiritual side of the event in more depth: “Pope, Peres, Abbas pray at Vatican” AFP […]

Apartheid

Pope Francis Calls for Palestinian State, Prays at Apartheid Wall

contributors

On Sunday in Bethlehem, Pope Francis called for recognition of an independent Palestinian state. CNN reports that he asked for “the acknowledgment by all of the right of two states to exist and to live in peace and security within internationally recognized borders.” As the AFP piece below makes clear, Pope Francis’s unscheduled stop at […]

Christianity

The Pope in Palestine: O Little Town of Bethehem caught in Apartheid Wall

contributors

Papal pilgrimage heads to Bethlehem (via AFP) Pope Francis arrives in Bethlehem Sunday to begin the most sensitive part of his three-day Middle East tour aimed at forging regional peace and easing an age-old rift within Christianity. After beginning his trip in Jordan on Saturday with an urgent… —— Related video: Pope Francis arrives […]

Christianity

Pope Francis in Jordan Reaches out to Forgotten Syrian Refugees, Christians and Muslims

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole AFP Arabic reports that Syrian refugees, and Christian refugees in particular, are hoping that the visit of Pope Francis to Jordan on Saturday will raise the profile of their plight. Jordan is a country of 6.3 million citizens, but it has another 600,000 or so Syrian refugees. Likely on the order of […]

Apartheid

Pope Francis to call for Sovereign, Independent Palestinian State from Bethlehem

Juan Cole

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin is signaling that Pope Francis in his visit to Bethlehem on Sunday will strongly support the right of Palestinians to a sovereign state. Implicitly, Pope Francis will condemn the Apartheid system of military rule used by Israel in the West Bank, though he likely won’t use the word. […]

Christianity

Will Pope Francis’s Visit to the West Bank be a Challenge to Occupation?

contributors

"This visit will help us in supporting our struggle to end the longest occupation in history." (By Lauren McCauley) On an upcoming trip to the Middle East, Pope Francis is expected to prioritize his visit with Palestinians, including a refugee camp, in a move interpreted by many as a 'recognition' of a future Palestinian state. […]

Christianity

Israeli Squatter anti-Church Terror in Jerusalem “Poisons” Papal visit

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) The Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, has said that Israeli squatter attacks on and desecration of Christian churches has poisoned the atmosphere in advance of Pope Francis’s planned visit to Jerusalem. Suspected Israeli extremist squatters have committed 24 acts of vandalism against Jerusalem churches in the past year, many of them […]

Africa

Boko Haram and the Lord’s Resistance Army: Hunted Children & the Problem of Fundamentalism in Africa

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) The horrific story of the kidnapping of nearly 300 girls from their school in Borno Province, northeastern Nigeria, by the Boko Haram terrorist group has again underlined the problem of violent fundamentalism in Africa. Reports say more kidnappings have been undertaken today. Boko Haram, which was founded in 2002, has many resemblances […]