Posted on 12/05/2006 11:40:17 AM PST by Kaslin
Demonstrators at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. tell of 'ethnic cleansing'
Faced with growing repression by Muslims, Christians from an ancient tradition in Iraq are calling on American political leaders for help before their entire community is extinguished.
Christian Assyrians and some of their supporters demonstrated in front of the White House yesterday, highlighting an alarming trend reported by the U.N.: While representing just 5 percent of the Iraqi population, 40 percent of the refugees fleeing the country are Assyrians.
One of the speakers at the rally, Nina Shea of Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom in D.C., told WND that because of the "ethnic cleansing," the Christians want an autonomous district in Iraq they can administrate.
The zone, called the Nineveh Plains Administrative Unit, would allow Assyrians and other Christians to practice their faith, speak and teach their language, and work their land without fear of persecution.
Unlike the Sunnis and Shiites, the Christians have no militia and are completely defenseless, Shea said.
"They need to administrate their own governmental unit to protect themselves," she said. "Otherwise, with the chaos and violence and persecution targeting Christians for religious reasons, which the U.N. has documented, they will disappear.
Shea insisted it's in the interest of the U.S. to take a stand.
With the loss of the highly educated and skilled Christians, she argued, Iraq is "experiencing a brain drain as well as sane drain – a force of moderation and a bridge to the West."
"They have served the U.S. in Iraq nobly, and they will leave a real vacuum," said Shea.
While the Christians in Iraq have been repressed for decades, Shea pointed out, they have suffered more since the war began, with kidnappings, crucifixions and dozen of churches bombed by jihadist terror.
Among the atrocities documented this year:
Father Paulos Eskandar, of Mor Afrem Syriac Orthodox Church, was kidnapped Oct. 9 by Muslims and decapitated two days later. He was murdered despite Christians fulfilled a demand to post a text on the church doors condemning the pope's statement about Islam.
On Oct. 4, a car bomb detonated in a Christian area and killed nine people, including Georges Zara, member of the Assyrian Chaldean Syriac National Council.
A 14-year-old boy was crucified and stabbed in the stomach, mimicking what was done to Jesus, in Albasra.
On Oct. 21, in Baquba, a group of veiled Muslims attacked a workplace where a 14-year-old boy named Ayad Tariq worked. The men asked the boy for his identity card. After seeing he was Christian the men asked whether he was a "dirty Christian sinner." Ayad answered: "Yes, I am Christian, but I am not a sinner." The rebels yelled he was a dirty Christian sinner and continued to grab him and to scream, "Allahu, Akbar! Allahu, Akbar!" The boy then was decapitated.
In August, 13 Assyrian Christian women in Baghdad were kidnapped and murdered.
In January, churches were bombed in Basra and Baghdad.
Shea noted that the Kurds, who control the north, have been denying the Christian Assyrians many of the benefits that have come from U.S. largesse.
The electric grids created by the U.S., for example, are left to the discretion of local governments to distribute and manage, and the Christians say they aren't getting their fair share. They cite instances of Kurdish villages receiving electricity while neighboring Christian villages are denied service.
Shea said she has been raising the plight of the Iraqi Christians with the U.S. government for several years, including in a face-to-face meeting with President Bush in her role as a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
She has not received a positive response.
"One of the issues here is that the Christians don't create trouble, they are just victims," she said. "They don't blow up things, so they don't get attention.
Some have told her the U.S. government doesn't want to establish a precedent of favoritism, by responding to special pleadings.
But Shea argues, "It's not favoring one group to make sure they get their fair share of U.S. construction aid.
The White House did not respond to WND's request for comment.
I'm so sick of muslims I'm getting a headache.
While we're at it, I'd like a district in Brooklyn where I don't have to suffer the non-assimilating foreigners.
Very disturbing article.
Dictionary definition of Antichrist includes, "...a great antonist expected to fill the world with wickedness but to be conquered by Christ at his (sic) second coming."
That's what will be in store for what's left of the U.S. shortly -- my guess is some time around the year 2017. Geez, I hope they enjoy what they have created -- Frankenstein's Country.
Just think...almost 100% of the children aborted and almost 100% of the couples choosing not to have children in the USA and Europe are NOT Muslims.
Maybe we should be making love (and babies) and not war.
Again, partition Iraq and Lebanon. Create a Christian Arab country in the south of Lebanon that borders Israel (yes all the Shia will have to move to the Iraqi Shia country whatever that is named) and be done with it. Yes it will be painful, yes there will be lots of people hurt, but there will be a lot more hurt or dead if we don't.
Guess what?
It will never happen because it makes too much sense and it is politically incorrect.
Christians (generically, they could or could not be Christian) are also going from the Palestinian territories, especially since Hamas took control.
I'd have given anything to have more than one, but it wasn't to be -- the one I have is a "miracle" and a gift beyond what I deserve. I have learned more about grace under fire from him than I ever thought any one could teach me or ever imagined I'd have to endure, much less his having to endure it.
He's not perfect (sometimes far from it), but he'll always be my hero because of what he's been though and what he's become. If I could have given the world a dozen more like him - warts and all -- I think it would be a better place.
Nowadays I really don't think one exists in Brooklyn---I grew up there, my mother still lives there. The main language I hear on the streets is OTE (Other Than English).
BTW I think I would prefer 1 million Assyrian Christians in exchange for 1 millions illegal Mexicans (besides, there would still be 5/6 million illegal Mexicans still here anyway).
Ethnic cleansing by any other name.
In 1900 40% of the Palestinian population was Christian. That's way before Hamas---but they were still treated like dhimmis. The whole Maronite population in Lebanon would have been wiped out if the French didn't get involved in the 1860s or so. Christians have been boogeying out of Muslim esp. Arab countries, as fast as their backsides can carry them. Jesus is basically considered a nasty critter in Islamic lands even for all his staus as a prophet before Muhammad.
Certainly was evil of the Allah-ites to do this, but why did the kid say he was not a sinner? Christian theology, including Assyrian, teaches that we are all sinners. Then again, how do we really know what the kid said, I'm sure there were no reporters there, and if there were, they would be even more religiously ignorant and botch the quote.
It is surprising that some of the groups of American Christians out there (you could call them fundamentalists, though that has sort of been tainted by islamic fundamentalism) haven't tried to immigrate at least to Bethlehem to keep it Christian, sort of a Christian settlement in the Palestinian territories.
Indeed. All human creatures are sinners in need of a Savior. Christians have found [the only] one.
If these Christians have to depend on American politicians to save them, they are DOOMED. I don't see the President, even though he's a Christian, doing anything about this problem. Oh, they will have a "meeting" about it and "dialog" but that is all. Gee, why don't we just let the UN take care of this as that is their job. (smirking)
High volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel, WOT
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