Posted on 03/13/2008 5:56:58 AM PDT by NYer
A Chaldean Catholic archbishop kidnapped last month in northern Iraq has been found dead, the information service of the Italian Catholic Church said Thursday.
The body of Paulos Faraj Rahho, the archbishop of Mosul, was found near the northern city, the Church said, quoting the auxiliary archbishop of Baghdad, Shlemon Warduni.
"We recovered his body near Mosul," Warduni said, according to the Church's news agency SIR. "The kidnappers had buried him."
Rahho was kidnapped on February 29 in Mosul after a deadly shootout in which three of his companions were killed.
Iraqi forces in Mosul had fanned out to search for Rahho, whose abduction was branded as "atrocious" by Pope Benedict XVI.
Rahho was the latest in a long line of Chaldean clerics to be abducted in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003. Two priests were kidnapped in the city in October, and last June a priest and three deacons were attacked in front of their church.
Iraq's Christians, with the Chaldean sect by far the largest community, were said to number as many as 800,000 before the 2003 invasion.
Associated with the "Crusader" invaders and regarded as well-off, they are now victims of sectarian cleansing, killings and kidnappings at the hands of both Sunni and Shiite Islamists, as well as criminal gangs.
I know. They all come crawling out of the woodwork on threads like this, displaying their bravado and self-righteous indignation.
I thank God I got to experience all of this so that I could see how it really is instead of being filled with irrational, wide-brush hate.
Oh, wait...isn't that exactly what these people are accusing every single Muslim of...?
;-)
Second it. Since 9/11 this is not only a world war but also a clash of civilizations.
Ironic this Christian’s martyrdom comes a little less then a week before Holy Week.
Well, you're wrong.
But people who make baseless assumptions usually are.
No, it’s true. Most Iraqis are firmly on our side. During the Saddam regime, there was actually a group of Marsh Arabs who had a little cult thing going where they believed their deliverance from evil would come from a star in the west. They called it “ ‘Merica.”
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So true, as the saying goes, the blood of Christian martyrs is the seed for new Christians.
It also guarantees freedom of religion, freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom to own private property and a host of other things. You don't get it. We are NOT nation building. Writing their constitution FOR them is nation building. Iraqis are FREE. That was the POINT. One of the points.
There is a reason, because both Muslims and Secularists Humanists are purly ENVIOUS of anyone who does better then they.
I appreciate your perspective, but it's naive. Here's an analogy... in any war, only about 10-20% of soldiers are actually on the front lines shooting. The rest are in a support role.
Just so in Islam. Whether they are moderate or extremist, they still have the same goal. They seek to turn Dar Al Harb (the world at war--the world that hasn't yet submitted) into Dar Al Islam (the world at peace--the world that has submitted). The extremists represent those who are fighting on the front lines while the moderates are those who work toward the same goals, albeit in a different, "peaceful" fashion. Islam's borders around the world wouldn't be so bloody without the cooperation of more than a small group of radicals.
One of the five pillars of Islam is charity. However, the only charity that qualifies is charity to Muslims. Since it has been shown that as many as 90% of Muslim charities are complicit in funding terrorism, it isn't a huge stretch to point out that even the moderates are fueling the beast... and they are not ignorant of the purpose their charity supports.
A moderate Muslim who truly seeks peace with his neighbors is one who is ignorant of his religion or one who is practiciing "taqqiya"... lying to the stupid infidels in order to hide their true intentions.
Sorry. Islam is a cancer and there is no "good" cancer.
Jihad is crusade. Crusade is a valid word, not just several historical events.
Amen brother.
The author is MSM. In the author's mind, USA = EVIL.
The Archbishop has a kind face, this is so sad. He is in the arms of The Lord now and we on earth should try to remember compassion and good will towards others is what Jesus preached.
Fox News is right now talking about the kidnapping and death of the archbishop, and about how Christians are under siege. Saying that Christians will not talk to reporters, for fear of being identified, kidnapped, or killed.
Ransom of 2 million demanded, but speculation is that he was already very ill or deceased.
Thanks, Fox News, for reporting on this.
I think it’s true that most Iraqis do not want these things to happen in their country. I do think there’s a fundamental structural weakness in the US approved constitution that unfortunately undermines the moderates, and that was the enshrinement of Islam and sharia.
Since Islam is both a political and religious system, this means that the radical nuts among the respective Islamic groups feel that they actually do have some hope of ending up in charge, because after all, Islam is already part of their constitution.
I’m sure the decent Iraqis are suffering as much as anybody else from these lunatics, but I think the union between the religious and political/legal system that is an essential part of Islam makes it a very difficult problem to solve even for people with the best will in the world. I think we should have insisted on a purely secular constitution, not merely a toleration clause, but something that was aimed at avoiding the theocratic potential from the start.
But hindsight is wonderful.
It is a crime that our MSM refuses to acknowledge that fact. Stay safe Allegra!
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