Syrian Female Refugees on Sale on Facebook

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

• A few thousand euros are enough to buy Syrian women, including minors, who have fled their war-torn country and are living in refugee camps, Arab human rights groups have denounced.
• The groups are sounding the alarm on the plight of women who are on sale as "Syrians up for marriage" on Facebook.
• This phenomenon is not new. Last year, reports alleged that Syrian women living in refugee camps in Jordan, Turkey and Iraq had been sold to men from Arab countries, in particular from the Gulf area. Rights groups also denounced cases of violence and sexual harassment in which victims were as young as 12 and 13 years of age.
• The Facebook page publicizing Syrian refugees who could be bought as wives was closed on Thursday after hundreds of activists and human rights' lawyers protested. But it had thousands of followers between May 17-21 including prospective clients interested in the women who were portrayed with little on. Some posts showed the picture of women "looking for a husband" with a brief profile on their chastity and their ability in domestic work.
• But to get a better insight into the "goods" on sale, men had to send an email to start negotiations. According to Arab NGO Kafa, which has repeatedly denounced the phenomenon, clients mostly hail from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, as well as Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Yemen and Bahrain.
• Among the announcements was one publicizing "refugee girls of all ages and religious confessions" to satisfy all applications from Sunnis, Shiites and Christians in a climate of growing religious polarization.

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Syrian Female Refugees on Sale on Facebook

We must stand up for Middle East's persecuted Christians | Fox News

The following excerpts are from the Opinion section of FoxNews.com:

• Christianity began in the East, not the West, yet today Christians in the East are enduring an all-out-assault by Islamic terrorists, while Christians in the West live their lives largely oblivious to it all. This has to change.
• This is no imaginary persecution; in Syria alone there have been reports of kidnappings, Christian communities intentionally displaced by militants and, worst of all, shootings and beheadings of Christians who refused to convert to Islam. 
• In Egypt radicals have recently destroyed dozens of churches, and the once vibrant Christian population in Iraq has been decimated.
• Christians in the West should stand up for those in the East out of regard for all they have given us over these thousands of years, if for no other reason.

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We must stand up for Middle East's persecuted Christians | Fox News

Assyrian International News Agency: Christians in Middle East Deserve Better

The following excerpts are from Assyrian International News Agency (AINA.org):

• Since the so-called "Arab Spring," there has been a new Middle East Christian leadership that has emerged with policies that are more coherent, intellectual, and courageous in challenging the status quo and bringing into the open the plight of the Middle East Christians in their countries. This positive leadership has brought their various denominations together and has given new confidence to the local Christians in their countries because they all face similar challenges.
• The plight of the Middle East Christians has also brought The Vatican and Arab and Muslim leaders to the understanding that emptying the Middle East of Christians and the rise of religious fundamentalism does not bode well for their governments or religion, and have initiated national and international conferences in the Middle East and abroad.
• Even westernized Muslim leaders, such as Baroness Sayeeda Warsi (the British government minister for faith and the first Muslim member of British cabinet), called on western governments to do more to protect besieged Christian minorities across the world, particularly in the Holy Land where they are now seen as outsiders.....
• However, European and American leaders seem to have reversed roles regarding the preservation of Middle East Christianity, Christians, their rights, and their existence. While President Vladimir Putin is publicly demanding the safeguard of Syrian and Middle East Christians, the American government is seen as doing the opposite by cooperating with politically-religious-minded political groups, such as in Egypt, the Syrian opposition, or by turning a blind eye to Iraqi Christians' dilemma after invading Iraq.
• Pope Francis, like his predecessors, has been eloquent and outspoken regarding the Middle East Christians. Unfortunately, his message has been dimmed by the western press, who has been more interested in his "liberal" view than in his efforts to preserve the Middle East Christians....

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Assyrian International News Agency: Christians in Middle East Deserve Better

The Silence of Our Friends -- the Extinction of Christianity in the Middle East

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

• The last month and a half has seen perhaps the worst anti-Christian violence in Egypt in seven centuries, with dozens of churches torched. Yet the western media has mainly focussed on army assaults on the Muslim Brotherhood, and no major political figure has said anything about the sectarian attacks.
• Last week at the National Liberal Club there was a discussion asking why the American and British press have ignored or under-reported this persecution, and (in some people's minds) given a distorted narrative of what is happening.
• Among the four speakers was the frighteningly impressive Betsy Hiel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, who has spent years in Egypt and covered Iraq and Afghanistan. There were lots of stories of Muslims protecting Christian neighbours, but there were also incidents with frightening echoes; Hiel described a man riding on his bike past a burned down church and laughing, which brought to my mind the scene in Schindler's List when local Poles make throat-slitting gestures to Jews en route to Auschwitz.
• Some of this has been reported, but the focus has been on the violence committed against the Brotherhood. Judging by the accounts given by one of the other speakers, Nina Shea of the Center for Religious Freedom, the American press is even more blind, and their government not much better; when Mubarak was overthrown one US agency assessed the Muslim Brotherhood as being 'essentially secular'.
• The night ended with historian Tom Holland declaring sadly that we are now seeing the extinction of Christianity and other minority faiths in the Middle East. As he pointed out, it's the culmination of the long process that began in the Balkans in the late 19th century, reached its horrific European climax in 1939-1945, and continued with the Greeks of Alexandria, the Mizrahi Jews and most recently the Chaldo-Assyrian Christians of Iraq. The Copts may have the numbers to hold on, Holland said, and the Jews of Israel, but can anyone else?

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The Silence of Our Friends -- the Extinction of Christianity in the Middle East

Chaldean Catholic Patriarch urges Assyrian counterpart: restore full unity : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

• The leader of the Chaldean Catholic Church has written to his counterpart in the Assyrian Church of the East, proposing that they bring their churches into full communion.
• Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako sent a birthday greeting to the Assyrian Patriarch Mar Dinkha IV, and suggested that the two Eastern churches should “begin dialogue for unity, which is the desire of Jesus.” Full union with the Chaldean Church would also bring the Assyrian Church into union with the Holy See, he noted.

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Chaldean Catholic Patriarch urges Assyrian counterpart: restore full unity : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Syrian Minister: US Strike on Syria 'Would Benefit Al-Qaeda'

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

• Any US military action against Syria would amount to "support for al-Qaeda and its affiliates," Damascus has said.
• Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad also told the BBC that armed groups backed by America - not Syrian troops - had used chemical weapons.
• The US says it has evidence that Damascus used the nerve agent sarin in a deadly attack in August.
• President Barack Obama has vowed punitive action but wants Congress to vote on the issue first.

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Syrian Minister: US Strike on Syria 'Would Benefit Al-Qaeda'

Syrian Rebels Used Sarin Nerve Gas, Not Assad's Regime: U.N. Official

The following excerpts are from Assyrian International News Agency:

• Testimony from victims strongly suggests it was the rebels, not the Syrian government, that used Sarin nerve gas during a recent incident in the revolution-wracked nation, a senior U.N. diplomat said Monday.
• Carla del Ponte, a member of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, told Swiss TV there were "strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof," that rebels seeking to oust Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad had used the nerve agent.
• But she said her panel had not yet seen any evidence of Syrian government forces using chemical weapons, according to the BBC, but she added that more investigation was needed.
• Damascus has recently facing growing Western accusations that its forces used such weapons, which President Obama has described as crossing a red line. But Ms. del Ponte's remarks may serve to shift the focus of international concern.

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Syrian Rebels Used Sarin Nerve Gas, Not Assad's Regime: U.N. Official

Lebanon, Middle East consecrated to Immaculate Heart of Mary : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

• The patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church has consecrated Lebanon and the entire Middle East to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
• Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, a Catholic, and Prime Minister Tammam Salam, a Muslim, were present at the consecration.

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Lebanon, Middle East consecrated to Immaculate Heart of Mary : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Pope to send delegation of 7 prelates, including Cardinal Dolan, to Damascus : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

• Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, announced that Pope Benedict will send an international delegation of seven prelates to strife-torn Syria next week.
• The delegation, said Cardinal Bertone, will express “our fraternal solidarity to the whole population, with a personal offering from the synodal fathers as well as from the Holy See; our spiritual closeness to our Christian brothers and sisters; our encouragement to all those who are involved in the search for an agreement that respects the rights and duties of all with particular attention to what is demanded by humanitarian law.”

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Pope to send delegation of 7 prelates, including Cardinal Dolan, to Damascus : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

U.S. Silent on Top Saudi Cleric’s Call to ‘Destroy Churches’ | CNSNews.com

The following excerpts are from the cnsnews.com article U.S. Silent on Top Saudi Cleric’s Call to ‘Destroy Churches’ by Patrick Goodenough:

Ten days after Saudi Arabia’s foremost religious leader called for a demolition of all churches in the Arabian Peninsula – in line with a purported injunction by Mohammed – the U.S. government and other allies of the kingdom have yet to react.

Major media outlets also have largely ignored the incident; a Nexis search finds reporting on the issue has been restricted to blogs and opinion columns, including a Washington Times editorial on March 16.

On March 12, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh was quoted in Arabic media reports as telling a visiting Kuwaiti delegation that it was “necessary to destroy all the churches of the region.”

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U.S. Silent on Top Saudi Cleric’s Call to ‘Destroy Churches’ | CNSNews.com