Published on Dec 28, 2013
Hatune Dogan, a Syrian-Orthodox nun of Turkish origin, explains here the dire situation that Christians find themselves in, as Islamist warriors take every concievable liberty against those they consider ‘infidel’, ‘impure’ and of inherently lesser value than Muslims.
Not only is this situation threatening to wipe out Christianit from where it arose, it also constitutes very grave suffering for the victims of Jihadists, Wahhabis and other ‘holy’ warriors out to establish Islam as the undisputed ruling principle in Syria and elsewhere.
The speech was held in a classical liturgic context, and was followed by an ecumenical prayer with representatives from a variety of churches:
Episcopus emeritus Mag. Herwig Sturm, Evangelical Church,
Dr. Mihailo Popovic, Russian Orthodox Church,
Episcopus Auxiliaris Dr. Franz Scharl, Roman Catholic Church,
Archbishop Matta Roham, Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch,
Corepiskopos Dr. Emanuel Aydin, Syrian Orthodox Church,
Deputy Bishop Karl Rühringer, Vienna,
Pastor Dr. Hanna Ghoneim, Greek Catholic Church, Damascus
Stephansdom, Vienna, Austria, December 10th 2013, International Human Rights Day.

When audacity meets stupidity, this is the result: In Herne/Germany a DHL courier has recently delivered parcels dressed in costume that allegedly represented Saint Nicholas and greeted his customers with the familiar “ho, ho, ho”. Many of his customers appreciate this nice gesture especially in the weeks before Christmas, something he had done in his district for years. Now, a “customer of a different faith” (guess which one) has complained because his religious feelings had been offended. DHL and police have now asked the courier to leave off the garment.

On the night to Thursday, the Arabic words “Allahu Akbar” were painted on the portals of several churches in the city centre of Augsburg. According to local police, the Cathedral, the Church of St. Maurice and the Protestant Ullrich Church are affected. At the Cathedral both the north and the south portals were painted with white letters. Hard to imagine a mosque would have been affected. Claudia Roth (Member of Parliament for the Green Party) probably would have organized a candlelight vigil in her hometown because of an “Islamophobic attack” and would have called for an alliance against fascism. However, it were churches, and thus, that “little night time graffiti prank” is only worth small footnotes in the newspaper 