ISIS militants ransack Syrian Catholic monastery in Iraq / missile strikes Franciscan monastery

RT ^ | July 21, 2014

[NYer]

Islamic militants have seized a monastery in northern Iraq, kicking out its Christian monks as well as Christian residents of Mosul.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS) insurgents stormed the ancient Mar Benham monastery in the Christian town of Qaraqosh Sunday, near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which was overrun by ISIS on 10 June.

Mar Benham is a 4th century monastery run by the Syriac Catholic church.

A member of the Syriac clergy said the monks pleaded to be allowed to save some of the monastery’s relics but the ISIS fighters refused and ordered them to leave on foot with only the clothes on their back.

“You have no place here anymore, you have to leave immediately,” one of the militants told the monks, according to the clergyman.

The monks then walked several kilometers along a road and were eventually picked up by Kurdish Peshmerga fighters who drove them to Qaraqosh, AFP reported Monday.

Christian families in the area said that as well as the monks there may have been another nine people living in the monastery.

This is the latest move by ISIS, which is trying to create a caliphate in north eastern Syria and northern Iraq, a Salafist-orientated Islamist state, which follows an extreme anti-western interpretation of Islam, promotes religious violence and regards anyone with a different interpretation of religion as infidels and apostates.

Over the weekend hundreds of families from minority religions fled Mosul, a once multi-cultural, cosmopolitan city, which is the second largest in Iraq.

Leaders of Iraq’s Chaldean church said that Mosul is now virtually emptied of Christians for the first time in almost two millennia.

The ISIS insurgents issued an ultimatum to all Christians that they had until 19 July to either convert to Islam, leave or pay a special tax. If they don’t comply “then there is nothing to give them but the sword,” read the ominous ISIS threat.

Other groups, who have been persecuted in the Mosul area, include Yazidis, Shabak and Shiite Turkmen populations.

Mosul Christians are mostly Assyrians, or Chaldean’s, known as the Church of the East and are an eastern rite of the Catholic Church.

But ISIS’s treatment of Shia Muslims has been much worse than their treatment of Christians. 13 Shia mosques and shrines have been destroyed and there are reports of Shiites being held captive for ransom, repeatedly beaten and in some cases murdered.

[NYer]

Wow ... you need to post that map to this thread. The Arabic Writing on the Wall: Europe Learns the Hard Way

It is Europe's warning to the US. Most Americans are totally ignorant of how progressively the muslims have infiltrated our country. Thank you!

[Salvation]

Prayer for Peace in Syria   

 

God of Compassion, 

Hear the cries of the people of Syria, 

Bring healing to those suffering from the violence, 

Bring comfort to those mourning the dead, 

Strengthen Syria’s neighbors in their care and welcome for refugees, 

Convert the hearts of those who have taken up arms, 

And protect those committed to peace.   

 

God of Hope, 

 

Inspire leaders to choose peace over violence and to seek reconciliation with enemies, 

Inspire the Church around the world with compassion for the people of Syria, 

And give us hope for a future of peace built on justice for all.   

We ask this through Jesus Christ,  Prince of Peace and Light of the World, 

Amen. 

[opentalk]

The other countries that will fight back the spread of this are Israel and Russia, both countries this administration is isolating