Three Killed, 34 Wounded in Iraqi (Orthodox) Church Explosion

The Christian Post ^ | 11/8/2004 | Kenneth Chan

[miltonim]

Masked men detonated a bomb near an Orthodox Church in southern Baghdad on Monday, killing three people and wounding 34, Iraqi police officials reported.

According to the Associated Press, the St. Bahnam and Sheik Matti Orthodox Church in the Iraqi capital’s Doura neighborhood—which was originally reported as having been a Catholic Church—was hit by the explosion after armed militants reportedly drove up in a pickup truck and opened fire for over a minute.

The blast, which left a crater over 12 feet wide and 3 feet deep, shattered church windows and blew the doors off their hinges, collapsing the outer wall, a church deacon told AP. The deacon said there was no service at the church at the time of the blast, and that the dead and wounded were mostly neighbors.

Sources say after the explosion, police then sealed off the area and fired shots into the air to disperse the crowd.

[miltonim]

Muhammad-inspired persecution of Christians, Jews and all non-Muslims continues...

[Valin]

Hammorabi
http://hammorabi.blogspot.com/2004_10_01_hammorabi_archive.html

Friday, October 29, 2004

Sistani meets the Iraqi Christians

Leaders and priests from all the Churches of Iraq visited Sayid Ali Sistani in Najaf. Sistani stated clearly his support with the Christians Iraqi brothers against those who bombed their Churches. He also called them to join the election and all other Iraqis.

The Patriarch Emanuel III Dali stated after the meeting that the meeting was brotherly and we are all sons of one family. The Patriarch added that Sistani said he considers the Churches as holy as mosques to worship God and for peace and love and should be highly respected.

Others who attend the meeting in Najaf are Patriarch Georges, The Archbishop of Arman Orthodox Afacosodrian and The Archbishop of Surrealian Orthodox Surries Hawa.


The messopotamian
http://messopotamian.blogspot.com/2004_08_01_messopotamian_archive.html
Sunday, August 01, 2004

In the Name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful
The God of All

This is the limit. Ever since Mesopotamia came into being from the very first birth of civilization, never has terror of this kind been known. A coordinated attack on six Christian churches at the time of Sunday prayers, to the horror of unsuspecting worshipers: unbelievable act of cowardice and treachery that is unprecedented in all our six thousand years of history. And what scenes! makes the blood boil and freeze at the same time. Elderly men and women and young ones of our dear Iraqi Christian community with bloodied faces coming out of their hour of peaceful worship; dazed and unbelieving; and deaths, and destruction of some of the most ancient and historical Christian churches in the World. Never in our whole history has there been such an attack on the Christian community in particular, for it is a peaceful and well beloved of all Iraqis; and besides, its members are the remaining descendants of the original ancient Mesopotamians; the Chaldeans, the Assyrians, the Babylonians etc. etc.

What can we say? One is speechless, numb, shocked, bleeding internally, and angry; oh, so angry, never been angrier in a whole lifetime.

Whoever did this and whoever organized and financed this; whoever remotely tries to find excuses and justification for this, whoever even keeps quiet or is indifferent to this here and everywhere, in the East or in the West; must be pronounced excommunicate from membership of the sensible human race. All those calling for retreat and submitting to the intimidation of these monstrous zombies are traitors and cowards and will not reap but their own destruction when horror comes to their own front doors. Those who think that turning their backs and escaping the confrontation to barricade themselves in their secluded islands, is going to save their skins, are in profound and fatal delusion.

The horror will come to your own cities and your own houses. The time to fight is now and here; and the security of the Iraqis and your own security is one and indivisible.

Humans of the World: Remember.

Alaa