36 church members disappear (in Iraq), 1 returns Minister warns increased persecution Christians

WND ^ | September 1, 2007

[NYer]

Three dozen members of one Christian church in Iraq disappeared over the course of a week, and only one returned, according to a minister who is warning of the increase of persecution of Christians in that violence-ridden nation.

The warning from Rev. Canon Andrew White is being reported by Voice of the Martyrs, the ministry to persecuted Christians around the world.

VOM cited an interview with White on CBNNews.com in which the Anglican minister from Baghdad was describing the conditions for Iraqi Christians for a committee on religious freedom. He said kidnappings, torture and executions of Christians are rising.

He also noted the people's desire for Christ sometimes is overwhelming. The small church he leads in Baghdad was small, but has exploded to an attendance of more than 1,300 recently.

"It is an Anglican church, and none of my people are Anglicans," he said. "They simply some to church because it is the closest church to come to in the midst of great danger."

But White said the conditions have deteriorated at an increasing pace in the past few months, and it's sometimes hard to quantify the extent of the persecution. But he said he asked members of his congregation for their perspective on the situation.

"Things are bad for everybody in Iraq. I said them (church members); tell me what has happened over the past week. And the people went through what had happened and I realized that 36 of my congregation in that past week [had] been kidnapped," White said. Only one was returned.

[NYer]

Satan thrives in those three cases, not in Islam.

Excellent points! Thank you for the commentary. I truly appreciate it.

[Barnacle]

Too late. The majority of Iraqi Christians (Chaldean Catholics) have fled, many to the US. They arrive here with only the clothes on their backs. Those who remain behind are persecuted and killed.

That is a shame, and a pretty well kept secret as far as media reporting is concerned.

Though I believe is standing with one's faith to the point of martyrdom, martyrdom is not the wisest choice when a choices available. I believe God would prefer we live out our lives rather than volunteer to be slaughtered by Muslims.

I did not know that this has happened. We owe these folks a home to here in America.

[Barnacle]

I believe in the First Amendment and much as I do the Second. The bottom line my friend is that Islam is an intolerant religion and Europe is loosing its Western Civilization identity to it.

We will too if we are not careful.

[marshmallow]

Fearing Islam is a problem. Having living in a Muslim country, I don't fear Islam.
- I fear communism (like China), athiests and secularists more. The communists have no morals other than what the State decrees.
- I fear athiests because God doesn't exist so moral absolutes are made up by themselves.
- I fear secularists because God doesn't belong in the public sector, that is, laws, culture...our lives.
EITHER one of those is frightening.

It's not an either/or situation. Both the godless atheists and those who kill in the name of God are doing evil. There is one thing which you overlook, however. An atheist whose heaven is in this world and who believes in nothing beyond, can be intimidated by the threat of weapons to postpone or abstain from his evil desires by the prospect of anihilation. A religious fanatic, on the other hand, who believes he will be eternally rewarded for his bloodletting is not so easily dissuaded.

My .02 is that the atheists and Islam are in fact, two different sides of the same coin for the west. Specifically, that Islamic terror is what we reap from our own embrace of secularism and atheism and our abandonment of the Christian faith.

Nobody is blaming Islam for everything which is wrong in this world. It is a threat and if you rewind 40 years and compare the situation then to what it is today, it is clear that the threat is increasing.

From your writing, I think you believe that the fanatics are the exception and the majority are peaceful and moral people. Here's another take on that picture. It's put forward rather eloquently in this essay:

The 1,400 Years War.

To summarize, the author's thesis is that those of us born in the west between 1919 and 1979 were born into what he calls the "60 year gap". A period when Islam was in retreat and we falsely assumed that this was the real Islam. Have a read. It's an interesting essay.

[Celtman]

I’m afraid Bush and buddies really messed up when they allowed the Iraqi government to be established on Islamic law. It seemed like a mistake at the time. Now, we’ll see it was a blunder of Biblical proportion.

Yup.

[Barnacle]

It's not an either/or situation. Both the godless atheists and those who kill in the name of God are doing evil. There is one thing which you overlook, however. An atheist whose heaven is in this world and who believes in nothing beyond, can be intimidated by the threat of weapons to postpone or abstain from his evil desires by the prospect of anihilation. A religious fanatic, on the other hand, who believes he will be eternally rewarded for his bloodletting is not so easily dissuaded.

My .02 is that the atheists and Islam are in fact, two different sides of the same coin for the west. Specifically, that Islamic terror is what we reap from our own embrace of secularism and atheism and our abandonment of the Christian faith.

Nobody is blaming Islam for everything which is wrong in this world. It is a threat and if you rewind 40 years and compare the situation then to what it is today, it is clear that the threat is increasing.

Dear Mr./Ms. Mallow,

Thank you for expressing what I had not the energy for this past weekend. Well done.