15 February 2016 One year ago a video was released by so-called Islamic State showing the beheadings of 20 Egyptian Christians and one Ghanain believer. The following evening SAT-7 received a remarkable phone call of forgiveness from the brother of two of the slain men. In his tribute to the murdered men, Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox […]
Iraqi Refugee Child’s Startling Message to World Leaders An 11-year-old Iraqi refugee whose video message of forgiveness for Islamic State (IS) went viral worldwide has given startling advice on how world leaders should respond to a Middle East in crisis: “Walk with love and mercy in your hearts.” A year ago, Christian satellite television channel SAT-7 KIDS first filmed and […]
In a month when suicide bombers killed 43 civilians on the streets of Beirut, residents of the Lebanese capital also had the opportunity to hear far better news in a ground-breaking Gospel media campaign. The Power to Change united volunteers from some 57 cooperating churches for the first time. It also combined city-wide advertising using roadside and overhead billboards with […]
An accidental faux pas sometimes teaches you a lot about a culture. On this occasion it was a warning from a Lebanese friend that saved me – a Lebanese American living in Beirut – from breaking convention. What crime against custom had I been about to commit? Simply, I was planning to wear my very Californian flip flops in public. […]
Cry Freedom is a youth program that presents values including freedom, personal responsibility and the sanctity of life in light of biblical teaching. Each episode includes participants from countries across North Africa, each speaking in a different Arabic dialect, which helps to emphasise the universal nature of the truths being presented.
“From that moment on, everything became dark… I didn’t know how I could cope with this loss.” This is how Cyrus, the protagonist of Closure, describes his feelings after the murder of his father by the Iranian authorities. He is just 10-years-old when their peaceful family home is raided by the Islamic intelligence service, and his father Dariush is taken […]
The whirlwind that is the Middle East never ends. Taking centre stage in this month’s developments have been Yemen, Iran and Tunisia. News from the region The most promising development – albeit still unclear – has been a provisional agreement reached with Iran over its nuclear enrichment. While the details are yet to be made public or clearly outlined, a […]
SAT-7 Egypt Director sees impact of “Resistance through forgiveness” The videos of a ten-year-old Iraqi displaced by IS (Islamic State) and of a brother of two Egyptian labourers beheaded in Libya both voicing forgiveness for their persecutors have been watched by a million viewers and drawn the attention of mainstream Arab media which rarely covers Christian news. Under the title […]
2015 continues to be a challenging year for the region and the church. But, faced with death, faithful Christians – and the communities they belonged to – have offered the region a radical lesson in forgiveness and human dignity. News from the Region While the brutalities of ISIS continued, there were growing preparations for military campaigns against its advances in […]
Egyptian photo-journalist Jonathan Rashad visited the village that was home to 13 of the 21 Egyptian Christians murdered by Islamic State (ISIS) in February 2015. Between agony and happiness, the village of Al-Aour in the Egyptian governorate of Minya has witnessed thirteen Egyptian young men growing up — the majority of the 21 Egyptian Christians recently beheaded by the Islamic […]
