By Marta Jiménez

Istanbul, Turkey, Dec 1, 2014 / 02:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Living as a Catholic in the majority Muslim country of Turkey can be difficult, but it can also be a blessing and a call to witness, says Mexican priest Father Ruben Tierrablanca Gonzalez. A Franciscan friar who has served for 11 years at St. Mary Draperis Parish in Istanbul, Fr. Tierrablanca spoke with CNA Nov. 27. “Living as a Christian in Turkey is a huge challenge and a grace,” Fr. Tierrablanca said. “A grace because we live where the Church has its roots and the presence of Christians is important, since God himself wanted his Church to expand here. And a challenge because it has become de-Christianized, in terms of population. We are very few.”

“We are a minority within a religious minority,” the priest explained. “Of the 100,000 Christians in Turkey, 65 percent are Armenians and Catholics number only 25,000.” Christians came to Turkey 2,000 years ago, centuries before the birth of Islam. The early Christian communities in Asia Minor were founded largely as the result of St. John's preaching in Ephesus, St. Philip's in Hierapolis, and St. Andrew, who is considered the evangelizer of the region. Today, however, Christians are the minority in Turkey, where some 98 percent of the country is Muslim.

By Paul Wood, BBC

The Lebanese army's Brig Gen Ali Mourad got a WhatsApp message from the Islamic State (IS). It was short and to the point. "We are the heroes of Qalamoun," it said, referring to the mountains on Syria's border with Lebanon, "and we're going to kill you."

Gen Mourad has a robust attitude to this threat.

"We want them to come, these terrorists," he told me, at one of the heavily fortified positions paid for by the British government.

"We are waiting for them [here].

"When we see them, we shoot them, all the time."

We were at Tango Ten, the 10th of 12 new posts built so far with UK money and expertise along Lebanon's border with Syria. It looked down over a dusty plain to the snow-covered mountain that is controlled by various jihadist groups and used by them as a base to launch attacks.

The Lebanese soldiers at Tango Ten say they come under fire almost every night. They used to crouch behind a few tyres filled with concrete, "eyes like saucers, gripping the 50-cal [heavy machine gun," said one of the former British army officers advising the Lebanese. Now they have proper defences, and morale is good.

Tango Ten had shades of Northern Ireland in the guard tower and Afghanistan in the Hesco barriers - which are earth-filled defensive walls. There was even a fleet of Land Rovers parked inside. The UK has spent some £20m to stop the jihadists from invading Lebanon.

  BEIRUT: The Maharat Foundation, a media watchdog, slammed Monday a policy that forces detained bloggers and Internet activists to sign a …

  BEIRUT: The biggest obstacle facing Lebanon’s economy lies in the fall of oil prices, which reduces the remittances it receives from …