Iraq
Pope celebrates Christmas at home as deputy presides in Iraq
By Associated Press — December 24, 2018
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Mass on Christmas Eve is one of the highlights of the Vatican's liturgical year and starts a busy week for Francis.
Water pollution in Iraq threatens Mandaean religious rites
By Philip Issa — October 18, 2018
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's soaring water pollution is threatening the religious rites of its tight-knit Mandaean community, already devastated by 15 years of war that has also affected the country's other minority sects.
When Christians sell out Christians for political power
By Don Golden and Shane Claiborne — August 29, 2018
(RNS) — The cost of a White House dinner celebrating evangelical Christian leadership may be silence on the plight of persecuted Christians and other religious minorities around the world.
Rebuilding with US funds, Iraq’s minority religious communities still await security
By Jack Jenkins — July 13, 2018
(RNS) — U.S. evangelical leaders have applauded a move to fund the restoration of Iraqi religious minority communities through USAID. But most parties involved say the real vexing issue is security.
Francis cardinals make up almost half of electors of next pope
By Thomas Reese — May 22, 2018
(RNS) — Pope Francis continues to remake the College of Cardinals so that almost half of the men who will choose his successor have been chosen by him.
Iraq patriarch looks to life after war with ISIS
By Cathy Lynn Grossman — December 20, 2017
Without security and stability Christians are not going back home, he said.
More than 13 million gather in Karbala for Arbaeen
By Jerome Socolovsky — November 10, 2017
BAGHDAD (AP) — The Shiite holiday marks the end of the mourning period for the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson and a central figure in Shiite Islam.
Archaeologists say rebuilding Jonah’s mosque should wait
By Gilgamesh Nabeel — November 3, 2017
(RNS) — Now that ISIS has been driven from Mosul in Iraq, Muslim traditionalists say it is imperative to start reconstructing the Mosque of the Prophet Jonah, which had marked the site since the 12th century, along with the ruins of a seventh-century Christian church.
Christians and Yazidis in Iraq stand on the brink of extinction
By Chris Smith — October 5, 2017
(RNS) — U.S. Rep Chris Smith, R-N.J., blames 'U.S. government bureaucrats' for the failure to provide promised aid to persecuted religious minorities in Iraq.
After the Hobby Lobby scandal, a spotlight on antiquities sales in Israel
By Lauren Markoe — August 16, 2017
(RNS) — “The removal of artifacts from a country belongs to the imperial era and this should not be happening anymore," said Gabriel Barkay, a renowned Israeli biblical archaeologist. "It dates to a time when archaeologists thought the nations where they excavated were primitive and saw themselves as the guardians of cultural treasures.”
Experts say Hobby Lobby must have known it was illegally importing artifacts
By Lauren Markoe — July 6, 2017
(RNS) 'No dealer in his right mind would have been involved in this,' said Jerome Eisenberg, an antiquities dealer who has specialized in ancient art for more than 60 years.
Hobby Lobby to forfeit ancient Iraqi artifacts in settlement with DOJ
By Yonat Shimron — July 5, 2017
(Reuters) The forfeiture will include some 5,500 artifacts from the region of modern-day Iraq that were shipped under false labels, as well as an additional $3 million to settle the civil charges, the Department of Justice said.
Iraq declares end of caliphate after capture of Mosul mosque
By Maher Chmaytelli — June 29, 2017
MOSUL/ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) Iraqi authorities expect the long battle for Mosul to end in coming days as remaining Islamic State fighters are bottled up in just a handful of neighborhoods of the Old City.
Shock and anger in Mosul after ISIS destroys historic mosque
By Reuters — June 22, 2017
MOSUL/BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) For many in Mosul, the city can never be the same after Islamic State militants blew up the leaning minaret that had graced the city for nearly 850 years.
ISIS blows up historic Mosul mosque where it declared ‘caliphate’
By Reuters — June 21, 2017
MOSUL/IRBIL, Iraq (Reuters) It was from this medieval mosque three years ago that the militants' leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a self-styled "caliphate" spanning parts of Syria and Iraq.
