Persecution

From forced conversion to genocide: How Yazidis carry centuries of persecution into exile

MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS: The Islamic interpretation of the Yazidi faith is what members of ISIS used to justify the enslavement of over 6,000 women and children and the murder of more than 5,000 people.

A Yazidi woman holds a flame during the Charshama Sor Red New Year ceremony at the Lalish temple in Iraq in April. For a community repeatedly driven from its ancestral homes and subjected to forced conversions, religious tradition has become an enduring expression of survival and continuity.
 New Year's Eve celebrations at the Saint Sarkis Cathedral in Tehran, 2023; illustrative.

Tehran has arrested at least 21 Christians since Israel ceasefire, non-profit claims

IRAQI JEWS in Israel protest their counterparts’ persecution under the Ba’ath regime. (Fritz Cohen)

'Ensuring their story is remembered': Report highlights forgotten exodus of Iraqi Jews

Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi

Iranian rapper who took part in Mahsa Amini protests sentenced to death


Over 900 lawmakers protest Chinese persecution of Falun Gong

"Millions of Falun Gong practitioners in China have been arbitrarily arrested and jailed [...] and many have been tortured and even killed.”

Members of Falun Gong or Falun Dafa, a Chinese religious spiritual practice, march to the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in New York City, US, May 16, 2019.

For Iraq's persecuted Yazidis, return plan is fraught with risk

The Yazidis have suffered since IS marauded into Sinjar in 2014, one of the Sunni extremist group's conquests that shocked the West into military action to stop it.

A girl from the Yazidi sect fleeing the violence in Sinjar rests at the Iraqi-Syrian border crossing in Fishkhabour, Dohuk province, in 2014

Jewher Ilham - a Uighur woman fighting for her father

Ilham Tohti, an Uighur activist and 2020 Nobel Peace Prize finalist, has not been seen since 2017. His daughter talks about her efforts to free her father and fight for China's Muslim minority.

JEWHER ILHAM accepts the Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament on behalf of her father.

Kosovo is a test of Israel’s moral character

In the 1990s, 10,000 Kosovo Albanians died and about one million were displaced as a result of Serbia’s aggression.

‘ISRAEL’S RECOGNITION of Kosovo would affirm its commitment to justice and ethics in international relations.’ Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti talks to media outside the Assembly building in Pristina early this summer.

US politicians blast Algeria for church closures

Algerian authorities shut one church because it ‘celebrates non-Muslim worship’

Doug Lamborn

China’s people of faith: Canaries in Xi Jinping’s coal mine

Thanks to the coronavirus, a sickened world is taking a second look at China’s extreme despotism, typified by its policies on religious freedom.

A poster with a portrait of Chinese President Xi Jinping is displayed along a street in Shanghai, China, October 24, 2017

UN Rapporteur blasts Iran’s execution of gays based on Islamic morality

Iran imprisoned LGBT activist in solitary confinement

UNHRC 521

US designates five Iranians for 'preventing free and fair elections'

"The unelected Guardian Council has purged sitting parliamentarians, reformists, and even select traditional conservatives from this election." Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior fellow at FDD, said.

Electoral employees sits next to ballot boxes before closing vote for the presidential election in a polling station in Tehran, Iran, May 19, 2017.

Iran’s regime sentences Christian convert to prison for “insulting Islam”

Iranian Christian forwarded message making fun of mullahs.

Iranian women gather during a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to walk out of a 2015 nuclear deal, in Tehran, Iran, May 11, 2018

Iran continues to persecute Christians in violation of international law

Although Iran's constitution nominally protects religious minorities, ex-Muslim converts are afforded no such protection and are considered enemies of the state.

Assyrian Christian family sit together at their house in Tehran, Iran December 24, 2019.