Maria Laura Conte

In the Balkans, it ispossible to have "a genuine exchange with those who are responsible for the Muslim community"

Boys and girls who fall victim to Islamist recruiting: from enlistment to the return home

With whole communities of persecuted Christians fleeing north, a bit of Middle East has been transplanted in Sweden. There, amidst surprising opportunities and risks of “rejection”, something is happening: a reciprocal contagion and a greater realization, on the part of the refugees, not only of the value of their bimillenary traditions risking extinction but also of the openings for something new to be born. Particularly in a small town to the south of Stockholm where a third of the population is now made up of Eastern Christians.

All they need is a low-cost flight to Istanbul then they vanish across the Syrian border, into the Caliphate's army. They're youngsters, sometimes even minors, who were raised and educated in Europe but can no longer stand it, and leave it behind. What triggered them? What do they hope spilling blood will offer them?

Mosul’s falling into the Caliph’s vicelike grip has been only the most recent black page in the history of Christian persecution in Iraq

Msgr Ignazio Bedini, for more than fifty years at the service of the Latin Catholic Church in Iran, describes the “Christian presence” in the country