Khazen

 

As President Barack Obama tries to rally the world around a proposed attack on Syria, Arab Christian leaders have come out as strongly opposed, worried an attack could create a backlash against their communities.

At a conference of more than 50 regional Christian leaders and a handful of global Christians and Muslim scholars in Amman this week, the dangers of Western intervention to the region's Christian minorities emerged as one of the strongest themes. With political Islam on the rise after the Arab uprisings of 2011, the region's ancient Christian communities are already feeling under threat and have the recent example of the devastation of Iraq's Christian community following the US-led invasion of 2003 to make them worry about the consequences of action.

“We stress that we reject foreign interference in Syria,” said Ignatius Joseph III Younan, Patriarch of Antioch for the Syrian Catholic Church, in a statement read before the conference, which was sponsored by Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan.

 

The U.N. refugee agency is to cut food aid to more than a quarter of Syrian refugees in Lebanon starting next month, …

 

.- The Greek Orthodox and Maronite Catholic patriarchs of Lebanon have urged the international community to help resolve the abductions of two Orthodox archbishops in Syria.

“The abduction of the two archbishops is among several other kidnapping cases that we can’t remain inactive about,” Greek Orthodox Patriarch Youhanna Yazigi of the Levant and Antioch said at an Aug. 31 news conference.

He said that help is necessary to discover the fate of the abductees, the Lebanese news site Naharnet reports.

“We are certain the international community could resolve the case.”

More than four months ago, Archbishop John Ibrahim of the Syriac Orthodox Church and Archbishop Paul Yagizi of the Greek Orthodox Church were kidnapped near Aleppo in northern Syria by armed men who killed their driver, Deacon Fatha' Allah Kabboud.

The identity of the kidnappers and the whereabouts of the kidnapped bishops remain unknown.

Khazen History

Historical Feature:
Churches and Monasteries of the Khazen family