Posted on 01/17/2005 10:33:57 AM PST by Pyro7480
Don't forget the murder of the Coptic Christian family in New Jersey. All signs point to the religion of peace. One of the daughters had a stab wound through a tattoo of a cross on her arm. Barbarians.
The Iraqi Christians who died under his tender ministrations might disagree.
"In fact, we all would have been better off if Saddam went on to take Mecca right after Kuwait - women in Suadi Arabia would have ditched the burkha by now and have been allowed to become doctors and drive cars."
Saudi was his main protector but would have bombed the crap out of Iraq had he dreamed of taking advantage of his tie (by marriage) to the House of Saud.
Nah, boogey man fantasy that Saddam could turn his small nation into a world empire - he would have been a regional dictator - hell under Saddam ruled Arabian peninsula, he may have even allowed Churches to open in former Saudi Arabian soil. Things would have sucked for the Israeli's though.
To some extent, I think the protection of Christians was temporary. Because Christians tended to be better educated and more Westernized than Muslims, they were useful to Saddam. However, in the latter part of his reign, he had definitely come to cultivate a more and more radically Muslim image, mainly to gain the support of the extremist Muslim factions, and I think that time was running out for Christians in Iraq.
My main dispute with our approach is that we, like Rome, never insist on protection of Christians, because we are afraid it will look like favoritism. My question is, what's wrong with that? Christians are not the ones causing problems in those countries, and we should reward them, rather than abandon them.
I don't think Israel or most Palestinians would agree with you.
But if you feel that the holy land is indeed free, I invite you to take your spouse and kids (if any) and go for a two week stay at the Jerusalem Sheraton Inn.
I'm sure you'll enjoy the freedom!
My prayers are with the Catholic Bishop. Praying he doesn't end up with his head sawed off or his throat slashed like the Egyptian Christian family in New Jersey.
Islam is a gutter filthy cult that kills wherever they slim.
Iraqi church bombings prompts Vatican concern for Christians' fate
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The bombing of five more churches in Baghdad, Iraq, has prompted new Vatican concern about the fate of Iraqi Christian communities.
The rudimentary but powerful bombs exploded within an hour and a half of each other beginning at 4 a.m. Oct. 16. No one was injured or killed, but heavy damage was reported to several of the churches.
At the Chaldean Church of St. Joseph, which was gutted by the bomb blast and a subsequent fire, Sunday Mass was celebrated Oct.17 following an all-night cleanup effort.
Other churches that suffered damage were identified as the Latin-rite Church of Rome, the Orthodox churches of St. Jacob and St. George, and the Syrian Orthodox Church of St. Thomas.
Last August, car bombs at five Catholic churches killed 11 people and sparked an exodus of at least 10,000 Iraqi Christians into neighboring Syria and Jordan, church officials said.
Syrian Catholic Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa of Mosul, Iraq, who was in Bangkok, Thailand, at the time of the latest bombing, expressed shock and sorrow at the news. One of the churches bombed in August was in Mosul.
The terrorist groups that carry out such attacks "hope that many, many more Christians will go," Archbishop Casmoussa told Catholic News Service.
"Their strategy is to create fear among the Christians and push them out of Iraq," he said.
Following the latest bombings, the Vatican's missionary news agency, Fides, published a dossier of information asking: "What future lies ahead for Christians in Iraq if this massacre continues?"
It published what it called a "list of horrors," the names of 88 Iraqi Christians and the dates they were killed, almost all of them during the last nine months. The latest was a 14-year-old girl, a Chaldean Catholic, kidnapped by an Islamic group for ransom and killed "in cold blood" Oct. 14, it said.
Vatican officials have confirmed that acts of violence and intimidation against Iraqi Christians are increasing, as Muslim extremists consolidate their influence in Iraqi society.
Fides quoted an unnamed Iraqi nun from Mosul, who said Christians even in the once-safe northern part of Iraq were living a "nightmare of being attacked in their homes, kidnapped and killed by groups of radical Islamic terrorists."
"The fact is that there is no presence of police or civilian authority to govern this situation of anarchy. Many members of these extremist militias are well-known, but no one does anything," she said.
Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel-Karim Delly of Baghdad said the recent church bombings were clearly designed to frighten Christians. The important thing was that no one was killed or injured, he told the Italian-based Catholic news agency, Asianews.
"These are inhuman acts. In the name of Iraqi Christians I ask everyone to pray that God may enlighten the minds of the people who are carrying them out," the patriarch said.
He noted that the homes of many Iraqi Muslims were also being attacked. It is a problem shared by all those working for peace, he said.
Patriarch Delly said only prayer would stop these kinds of attacks.
"May the Lord touch the minds of these people, who do not love Iraq," he said.
Iraq has about 700,000 Christians in a population of more than 25 million.
Prayers for the Archbishop.
They did not doe for being Christians - if you died under Saddam it was for being a Muslim militant and for anti-Saddam regime political intrigue.
This story needs to be monitored for MSM neglect and/or spin. Both stories I read, so far, only mentioned that they had their throats slit. This is a new piece of information. Thank you for posting it!
They did not done for being Christians - if you died under Saddam it was for being a Muslim militant and for anti-Saddam regime political intrigue.
"Nah, boogey man fantasy that Saddam could turn his small nation into a world empire - he would have been a regional dictator "
Oh didn't know the ME was considered a world empire....sounds kinda regional to me.....but you digress....I say steal the oil and screw the ME...
This is what led the Maronites to flee Syria to the safety of Lebanon.
Ahhhh! I get it!
I guess I just connected missing family members in an Islamic country to religion. My mistake.
I stand corrected and will continue to pray.
(FReepers know it all!)
Islam means "Peace" Ping
Are we allowed to call this a religious war yet?
Remember Lepanto. It's unfortunate we no longer have warrior popes and papal armies.
Some Lepanto style prayer asking for Pope St. Pius V's intercession may be in order.
----
Battle of Lepanto
On October 7, 1571, a great victory over the mighty Turkish fleet was won by Catholic naval forces primarily from Spain, Venice, and Genoa under the command of Don Juan of Austria. It was the last battle at sea between "oared" ships, which featured the most powerful navy in the world, a Moslem force with between 12,000 to 15,000 Christian slaves as rowers. The patchwork team of Catholic ships was powered by the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Knowing that the Christian forces were at a distinct material disadvantage, the holy pontiff, St. Pope Pius V called for all of Europe to pray the Rosary for victory. We know today that the victory was decisive, prevented the Islamic invasion of Europe, and evidenced the Hand of God working through Our Lady. At the hour of victory, St. Pope Pius V, who was hundreds of miles away at the Vatican, is said to have gotten up from a meeting, went over to a window, and exclaimed with supernatural radiance: "The Christian fleet is victorious!" and shed tears of thanksgiving to God.
What you may not know is that one of three admirals commanding the Catholic forces at Lepanto was Andrea Doria. He carried a small copy of Mexico's Our Lady of Guadalupe into battle. This image is now enshrined in the Church of San Stefano in Aveto, Italy. Not many know that at the Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Spain, one can view a huge warship lantern that was captured from the Moslems in the Battle of Lepanto. In Rome, look up to the ceiling of S. Maria in Aracoeli and behold decorations in gold taken from the Turkish galleys. In the Doges' Palace in Venice, Italy, one can witness a giant Islamic flag that is now a trophy from a vanquished Turkish ship from the Victory. At Saint Mary Major Basilica in Rome, close to the tomb of the great St. Pope Pius V, one was once able to view yet another Islamic flag from the Battle, until 1965, when it was returned to Istanbul in an intended friendly token of concord.
Yes, we should all pray for our brothers and sisters in the Middle East.
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