Last Safe Haven for Iraqi Christians Taken by Al-Qaeda

Inside Catholic ^ | October 12, 2008 | Deal Hudson

[NYer]

 

 

"Now the last safe haven for Christians is gone," said Canon Andrew White, the vicar of St. George's church in Baghdad. During the past week, twelve Christians have been killed and more than 3,000 have left the city of Mosul, once considered a safe zone for persecuted Iraqi Christians.

 

Mosul, on the plain of Nineveh in northern Iraq, has long been home to one of the largest remaining Christian communities in the nation. Furthermore, in recent years the city has been a destination for persecuted Christians.

 

Unfortunately, the safety of Mosul was only relative to the rest of Iraq, where Christians are in constant danger from Islamic extremists (including al-Qaeda). In February, in the most well publicized incident of anti-Christian persecution, Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul was kidnapped and killed. Still in possession of his cell phone, Rahho told his community not to pay the ransom being demanded for his return.

 

His Excellency Shlemon Wirduni, the auxiliary bishop of the Chaldean patriarch, received reports from Mosul that the assassins said they were murdering Iraqi Christians who "want an autonomous region." I recently reported on the effort of Chaldean bishops in the United States to lobby the Bush administration to support the creation of an autonomous area in the Nineveh Province to be administered by Christians.

 

The violence should not have been unexpected when CNN reported that, a week ago, leaflets distributed in several predominantly Christian neighborhoods contained threats that families should "either convert to Islam, or pay the jizyah, or leave the city, or face death." Jizyah is a tax paid by non-Muslims in exchange for protection -- the ransom Archbishop Rahho refused to allow to be paid for his life.

 

A few days later, checkpoints were set up in sections of Mosul where gunmen stopped vehicles and asked for identification papers in order to target Christians. According to one witness, some of the Christians killed were targeted in this way.

 

Hopes for more Christian participation in Iraqi politics were dashed recently when the Iraqi legislature voted to eliminate an article in the provincial election law guaranteeing a minimum level of Christian, and other minority, representation. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki immediately asked for the article's reinstatement, but not before Christian protests broke out in Mosul, Baghdad, Kirkuk, and elsewhere. The attacks against Iraqi Christians in Mosul began shortly after the protests started.

 

Chaldean leaders in the United States are alarmed by the increasing level of violence against Iraqi Christians in spite of both Iraqi and U.S. government promises to provide greater protection. Joseph T. Kassab is executive director of the Chaldean Federation of America. Kassab asks, "Why are these innocent people getting murdered and pushed out from their homes? They always insisted on being loyal Iraqis first. The capitals of the world open their doors to them, but most choose to stay."

 

It is estimated that about half of Iraq's 900,000 Christians have now left the country, leaving the remainder vulnerable to daily harassment, persecution, and violence. Kassab wonders why the situation keeps growing worse: "We appeal to the world leaders and the international community to save innocent lives, to preserve security, and to allow the displaced families to live in peace in their ancestral land."

 

As reported by McClatchey, Governor Kashmoula said the Christian deaths stem from the failure of security operations to control the movement of al-Qaeda in the region. Said Kashmoula, "Killing the peaceful Christians is a crime, and it doesn't pass without punishment."

 

Unfortunately, the likelihood that the murderers of these twelve Iraqi Christians will ever be brought to justice is growing more remote, despite Iraqi and U.S. promises that the remaining Christian communities will receive more, rather than less, protection.  

 

[NYer]

Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

Eastern Catholic Ping List
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[2banana]

Arm them and train them

[Biggirl]

Second it.

[gitmogrunt]

http://www.greek-genocide.org/

[ladyvet]

Where’s the media outrage? Oh, that’s only for the Muzzie’s.....Christian’s don’t count.

[Romulus]

Bush's fault.

Christians in the Middle East are in a perilous position everywhere -- especially in Iraq. If you think Saddam Hussein's secular Baathist thugocracy is a menace to the Christian community, just wait till "democracy" is installed, reflecting the views of the majority, who are fervently Shi'ite and have already indicated their intent to hold out for shari'a as the basis for their new islamic republic. If you're wondering whether US taxpayers are about to sponsor another triumph for Christianity along the lines of Kosovo, my guess is, Yes.

[Romulus]

The thread has a measly 7 posts, and you’re asking where the MEDIA outrage is? Open your eyes, lady. Why should the media care, if fine Christian Frepers couldn’t give a flip? The Chaldeans have been royally screwed by the United States — nor will they be the last Christians to get euthanasia packaged as the Democracy Special.

[ArrogantBustard]

The violence should not have been unexpected when CNN reported that, a week ago, leaflets distributed in several predominantly Christian neighborhoods contained threats that families should "either convert to Islam, or pay the jizyah, or leave the city, or face death." Jizyah is a tax paid by non-Muslims in exchange for protection -- the ransom Archbishop Rahho refused to allow to be paid for his life.

There it is: Convert or die; islam at its finest. Mohammedanism has been spread by the sword (or bomb-belt) since its beginning. It already has a toehold in America, and 0bama is a closet mohammedan.

[Jacob Kell]

You left out submit to dhimmitude.

[MinorityRepublican]

Whether we like it or not, Saddam was good to Christians.

[ArrogantBustard]

Saddam was a fascist, not an islamist ... It’s not so much that he was good to Christians as that he wasn’t specifically bad to them, and didn’t tolerate free-lance persecution.

[Romulus]

Mohammedanism has been spread by the sword (or bomb-belt) since its beginning.

And now by the United States of America. The sick joke is that all the time we're called crusaders.