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Posted on 10/07/2006 5:14:38 PM PDT by NYer
Three years after the invasion of Iraq, it's believed that half the Christians in the country have fled, driven out by bomb attacks, assassinations and death threats. So why haven't the coalition forces done more to protect them?
Three members of his family had already been murdered before Shamon Isaac decided to leave Baghdad. First, his son-in-law Raid Khalil was killed in January 2005 as he fled gunmen who had tried to pull him and his father into a minibus. Like many Christians, Khalil had received a death threat signed by the Islamic Army in Iraq. He left behind a widow and baby girl, who is now nearly two.
Four weeks after Khalil was killed, Isaac's brother was stopped at a checkpoint by seven men in Iraqi army uniforms as he was on his way to collect passports to take his family out of the country. "People in the neighborhood shouted to his daughter that her father had been assassinated," Isaac said, "and she came out and found his body in the street." Then last August Isaac's brother-in-law was shot dead in his shop by three gunmen.
Finally Isaac and his family had no choice. When in January, cars started to circle the family home in al-Dora with men shooting in the air, they escaped to another Baghdad neighborhood, al-Jediya. But major demonstrations were taking place throughout the Muslim world in response to the Danish cartoons and on January 29 bombs ripped through seven churches in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk, killing 16. Then one day a man walked into the small shop that the family had just opened next to their new home, bought some cigarettes and walked out, but not before he had left a letter on the counter. On opening it, they found it contained a single word: "Blood."
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
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Ping!
I am involved in a group called Crescent Project, an organization devoted to bringing Christ to Islam. Christianity is really growing in the Middle East. It is estimated there 35,000 Christians in Iran.
Or Western Europe.
I just spoke to a Chaldean lady who belongs to my parish. I asked her what she thought about the situation in Iraq. She said the untold story there is the Christians. 35 years ago when she left, they were the only Christians in the neighborhood. The Muslims would bring candles to their home altar because they have a huge devotion to Mary (they believe that Miriam and her son were actually sinless). She says now in Mosul, where her family is from, Christians dare not leave their houses. Her sister-in-law was here but went back because her husband refused to leave his sons who could not get Visas. She says it is horrible.
She firmly believes that Mary is the key. She believes that Our Lady of Fatima (I didn't know that the town was named for the wife of the founder who was a converted Muslim) may help with the softening of Muslim souls.
Correction Fatima Zahra, daughter of prophet Muhammad and wife of the 4th Caliph of Islam Ali.
And then God will turn out the lights.
Heck, in 20 years there will be darn few Christians left in America!
"I am involved in a group called Crescent Project, an organization devoted to bringing Christ to Islam."
Is it not a capital offense against islam, to convert away from it? According to their good book?
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**She firmly believes that Mary is the key. She believes that Our Lady of Fatima (I didn't know that the town was named for the wife of the founder who was a converted Muslim) may help with the softening of Muslim souls.**
Say the Rosary!
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Our Lady of the Rosary of La Naval (A Mini-Lepanto in the Philippines)
Swiss Guards at the Battle of Lepanto, 7 October 1571
LEPANTO, 7 OCTOBER 1571: The Defense of Europe
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Call to Prayer 12:00 EST 17 November: This Lepanto Moment [Read only]
Not to say that's not possible, but as the German Jew said in Jerusalem in 1948, a whole hell of a lot can happen in twenty years.
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
Pastor Martin Niemöller
Community and individuality are not opposites. People cannot survive on their own. When the odds are stacked against you, you must rally with the oppressed and hated.
When a growing oppressive regime is taking hold, you must act, otherwise you will soon face your enemy alone and hopeless.
Strength of community is a strength as much as individualism, as long you are willing to face weaknesses in your own community. Ignoring slacking values will mean that you will be rallied against by those you oppress.
Niemöller affirms we must rally against unhealthy organized regimes. We must also stay vigilant with those that appear to be good natured, as all organisation attracts corruption. Niemöller also warns us that if it is you who are corrupt, then you will face a stronger combined force of foe!
Vexen Crabtree
bump
Could be tomorrow or last week..
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