Christianity

NewsBeat Social | (Video News report) | – – “A Muslim businessman in Iraq put up an 85-foot-tall Christmas tree in Baghdad to show solidarity with Iraqi Christians and help Iraqis “forget their anguish”” NewsBeat Social: ” LOOK: Christmas Tree in Baghdad ‘Represents Love and Peace’”

Archaeology

Top Five ways Jesus was not White

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Given the alarming rise of white nationalism in the United States and the ways in which it is often entangled with Christian nationalism, it is worthwhile remembering whose birth, exactly, is being commemorated today. The association of Christianity with whiteness is relatively new in history, as […]

Authoritarianism

Life under the Junta: Deadly Explosion at Cairo’s Coptic Christian Cathedral Kills 25

contributors

TeleSur | – – The Coptic cathedral explosion has reportedly killed 25 people and injured dozens more. A crowd gathered outside Cairo city’s biggest Coptic Christian cathedral Sunday morning chanting, “Tell the sheikh, tell the priest, Egyptians’ blood is not cheap!” after a deadly bombing killed at least 25 people in the worst attack on […]

Assyrians

Woman demeans Christian Assyrian-American as ‘Terrorist’ for Speaking Jesus’ Language

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Aramaic was the language spoken by Jesus. Although the New Testament survives in koine Greek, likely it had an Aramaic substrate. The Gospels make clear that Jesus spoke Aramaic by occasionally quoting his original words in that language. Jesus says to the little girl he heals, […]

Copts

Egypt: New Church Law Discriminates Against Christians

contributors

By Human Rights Watch | – – Authorities Fail to Prevent, Punish Violent Attacks (Tunis) – A long-awaited new law maintains restrictions over the construction and renovation of churches and discriminates against the Christian minority in Egypt. The law, passed by Egypt’s parliament on August 30, 2016, applies only to Christian houses of worship. Recent […]

Christianity

The Violent Christian West should drop Islamophobia and work on itself

contributors

By Johan Galtung | (Inter Press Service) | – – ALICANTE, Spain (IPS) – Watching Christianity nearly a century–fundamentalist Christians fighting ritualistic Christians fighting secularism, generally moving fundamentalism–>ritualism–>secularism–maybe the same for Islam? Their similarities make “Islam right now” a repetition of Christianity; their differences shout, Watch Out! Let us see where this leads us. Johan […]

Climate Change

Pope: Pollution, Carbon Emissions a Sin & Global Warming to harm the Poor

contributors

By Nika Knight, staff writer | (Commondreams.org) | – – Humans are turning the planet into a ‘polluted wasteland full of debris, desolation, and filth,’ says Pope Francis “The world’s poor, though least responsible for climate change, are most vulnerable and already suffering its impact,” Pope Francis said. Pope Francis on Thursday put forth an […]

Christianity

Pope and French Muslims try Muslim-Christian outreach instead of ‘War on Terror’ Polarization

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – AFP reported from the papal airplane on Pope Francis’s remarks about Islam in the wake of the brutal murder of an elderly priest by two teenagers of North African heritage in Normandy last Tuesday. Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) claimed responsibility. The pope said, “It’s not true and […]

Alawites

Is Religion really Driving Middle East Violence?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Pew Research has released a report saying that “As a whole, the region continued to have the highest levels of religious hostilities in the world. In 2014, the median level of religious hostilities in the Middle East and North Africa reached a level four times that […]