President Michel Suleiman stated on Friday that Lebanon’s economy and democratic system will protect it against challenges. He added: “The Baabda Declaration and a defense strategy that places the resistance’s arms at the will of the army will protect Lebanon against any Israeli assault.” He also stressed the need to equip the army with modern weapons. […]

  انها حتما المرة الاولى التي تتم فيها مناقشة كتاب حول طانيوس شاهين بمشاركة خازنية. وهي ايضا المرة الاولى التي يتم فيها تناول هذا الموضوع في اطار ندوة فكرية في زوق مكايل، حيث تشكلت النواة الاولى لحركة الاعتراض الكسروانية. عندما طلب مني الاستاذ انطوان سلامه المشاركة في ندوة حول كتابه الجديد، لم اتردد بالقبول، حتى […]

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – "The flight of Christians out of the region is unprecedented and it’s increasing year by year," the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said. In our lifetime alone "Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt." It appears that Iraq was the earliest indicator of the fate awaiting Christians once Islamic forces were liberated from dictators. The church attack in Baghdad in 2010, in which nearly 60 Christian worshippers died, is only the beginning.

Iraq’s Christian population was at least one million in 2003. Today, fewer than 400,000 remain the result of an anti-Christian campaign that began with the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Countless Christian churches were bombed and countless Christians killed, including by crucifixion and beheading.  The same pattern has come to Syria, after the U.S. has shown its support for the jihad on Syria’s secular president Bashar al-Assad. Regions and towns where Christians lived for centuries before Islam came into being have now been emptied, as the opposition targets Christians for kidnapping, plundering, and beheadings.

The last Christian in the Syrian city of Homs, in October of last year — which previously had a Christian population of some 80,000, was murdered. "We left because they were trying to kill us. because we were Christians . Those who were our neighbors turned against us. At the end, when we ran away, we went through balconies. We did not even dare go out on the street in front of our house," a teenage girl said.

  UNITED NATIONS – The UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon has protested to Israel after it observed increased violations of Lebanese air space by Israel, which carried out raids in Syria to target what it said were Iranian missiles bound for Hezbollah militants. Intelligence sources said Israel on Friday and Sunday attacked Iranian-supplied missiles stored […]

  BEIRUT: Acting President of the Syrian National Council George Sabra said Wednesday that the two Greek Orthodox bishops kidnapped in Syria are being held in a small village north west of Aleppo by a rebel group. In a telephone conversation with Kataeb Party leader Amin Gemayel, Sabra said that Aleppo’s Greek Orthodox Archbishop Boulos Yazigi […]

  Last week – clearly and officially – the war in Syria widened to become an extraordinary regional conflict. First, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, formally acknowledged that his forces are indeed fighting alongside those of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad. Meanwhile, in Iraq the confrontation between the government of Nouri al-Maliki and demonstrators […]

  BEIRUT: Lebanon is set to launch negotiations with Syrian authorities to secure the release of the remaining nine Lebanese being held hostage by rebels, a statement from the office of caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said Monday. According to the statement, Charbel received a list containing the names of 371 female prisoners in Syria that […]

ALEPPO, SYRIA (Catholic Online) – The news out of Syria continues to shock the conscience of anyone who still has one. However, the solutions, at least from a geopolitical perspective, evade a clear answer. The regime of Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria, is committing atrocities against the Syrian people.  The allegations I they have used chemical weapons against their own people.

However, the opposition is composed of some groups which may be even worse than the regime. For example, the militant Islamists. In the crosshairs of this escalating violence are the Christians. Just this week, Bishop Boulos Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church and Bishop John Ibrahim of the Assyrian Orthodox Church were kidnapped. They were traveling from the Turkish border to Aleppo, Syria.

Among the strongest voices in the growing international outcry calling for the release of the Bishops is Pope Francis, a champion of peace who is also well aware of the dangers of militant, extremist versions of Islam. He referred to the kidnapping as "a dramatic confirmation of the tragic situation in which the Syrian population and its Christian community is living."

Like most of my readers, the continual images coming out of the Syrian tragedy trouble me greatly. The horrors inflicted upon men, women and children by a regime which seems to have no conscience continually fill our television, computer and smart phone screens with an almost surreal regularity.

However, the infliction of these wounds and the multiplication of murderous acts is not limited to the current regime in Syria. Some who claim to be combating the regime seem just as hell bent on killing, maiming and inflicting evil upon the people of Syria, and, in particular, upon the Christians of that ancient land. Our Christian faith precedes in time and history the presence of Islam in Syria.

  United States President Barack Obama came close Friday to ruling out deploying US troops to Syria, saying he did not foresee a scenario in which it would be beneficial to the United States or Syria. "As a general rule, I don’t rule things out as commander-in-chief because circumstances change and you want to make sure […]

  A company owned by Saudi royal Prince AlWaleedbin Talal has sold large amounts of Dell computer equipment  to the Syrian government, Ron Nixon of The New York Time reports. The transactions, detailed in documents obtained by The Times, are odd primarily because Saudi Arabia has been arming rebels seeking to topple Assad. In 2011 […]