Free Republic

The archaeologists working at Ziyaret Tepe, the probable site of the ancient Assyrian city of Tushan, believe that this language may have been spoken by deportees originally from the Zagros Mountains, on the border of modern-day Iran and Iraq. In keeping with a policy widely practiced across the Assyrian Empire, these people may have been forcibly moved from their homeland and resettled in what is now south-east Turkey, where they would have been set to work building the new frontier city and farming its hinterland. The evidence for the language they spoke comes from a single clay tablet, which was...

Numerous archaeological excavations are underway at a huge site in Anatolia which will uncover an ancient and rich yet forgotten kingdom known as Tuwana from the darkness of history, which will be featured in an open-air museum. The news was reported by Lorenzo d'Alfonso, an Italian archaeologist leading the joint mission by the University of Pavia and NYU, who provided details on the excavation campaign in a press conference in Istanbul this month, during which the details of the Italian archaeological missions in Turkey were explained. This "new discovery" from the pre-classical age which "needs to be continued" in southern...

There they go again. The story is so old already. Arab militia or Arab army or Arab terrorist attacks non-Arab. Or was that Muslim fanatic attacks non-Muslim? This time, it's happening in Sudan. While we're sitting and talking, probably a few hundred more black Africans in Sudan have starved to death, or been brutally killed, raped, enslaved, or simply pushed off their land by 7th century Arab imperialist invaders, or more rightly "Arab settlers". Oh yes, that's right. "Arab settlers". Like the ones Saddam Hussein brought into Kurdistan - i.e., the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq - in the 1970s...

The news that the Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar will be visiting Armenia mid-January might come as a surprise to some. Yet, Iran has always seen its Armenian population as well as its links with Armenia as an important asset. Armenians are the most favoured and relatively privileged of all non-Muslim communities in Iran today. It is tricky to establish the exact number of ethno-religious minorities in the country since the official numbers are politically shaped and minority communities guard such details and often are not clear themselves. However, various sources estimate that there are around 300,000 Baha'is, 110,000...

President Obama again declined to call the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians during World War I a genocide, instead on Saturday painting the massacre as "one of the worst atrocities" of the 20th century and "a devastating chapter" in history. In a statement issued as he and first lady Michelle Obama spent a weekend getaway here in western North Carolina, the president marked the 95th anniversary of the start of the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks with strong words but intently avoided branding it genocide.

'Arab Spring': The chilly cruel winter reality of Arab racism and Islamic bigotry Not that ethnic racism and religious bigotry weren't rampant before the so-called "Arab spring" sprung about. But the intolerance tide seems to be only worsening, and without an Arab dictator to "hold" various factions together, vulnerability expand, risks rise. --- RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY: As the D.B. puts it: "Violence Against Egypt's Copts in an Intolerant Arab Spring.. The elephant in the room of the Arab Spring is now the mistreatment of minority communities—Christians and others—across the Arab world." FPM asks: Hillary Clinton Promises to Save Egypt's Christians? ......

Media outlets in the U.S. have done a decent job telling the American people about violence directed at Christians in Iraq and Egypt, but have not informed their readers and viewers about a plan to establish a safe haven for indigenous minorities in Iraq. Clearly, the plight of minorities in the Middle East has attracted the attention of the American media. The murder of several dozen Christians at a church in Baghdad on Oct. 31, 2010 drew attention to an ongoing campaign of religious and ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Islamists in Iraq. Another attack on a Coptic Church in Alexandria...

For the last 10 days, Christians throughout Iraq have been holding meetings to decide whether to stay and risk being killed or flee into exile and an uncertain future. Most Iraqi Christians have Assyrian, Chaldaean and Babylonian backgrounds, peoples who have lived in "the Land of the Two Rivers" for more than 3,000 years and thus must feel at home. If many of them don't, it is because their community has become the latest target for terrorists dreaming of the "religious cleansing" of Iraq. This year, more than 180 Christians have been killed, either by snipers or in suicide attacks...

Turkey and Israel are at it again, but this time it's over reports that Turkey has added Israel to its so-called "Red Book," the top-secret security document that lists the country's threats and enemies. Israeli tourism minister Stas Misezhnikov struck back on Sunday by calling on Israelis to boycott Turkey as a tourist destination out of "national honor." According to Turkish media, the Red Book, which is amended every five years, now identifies Israel as a "strategic threat" to Turkey. The document, which is drawn up by Turkey's National Security Council, accuses Israel of being a destabilizing force and says...

University of Toronto archaeologists find cache of cuneiform tablets in 2,700-year old Turkish templeTORONTO, ON – Excavations led by a University of Toronto archaeologist at the site of a recently discovered temple in southeastern Turkey have uncovered a cache of cuneiform tablets dating back to the Iron Age period between 1200 and 600 BCE. Found in the temple’s cella, or ‘holy of holies’, the tablets are part of a possible archive that may provide insights into Assyrian imperial aspirations. The assemblage appears to represent a Neo-Assyrian renovation of an older Neo-Hittite temple complex, providing a rare glimpse into the religious...

A team of researchers -- excavating a 2,700 year old temple at the ancient city of Tayinat in southeastern Turkey -- have discovered evidence that its inhabitants prominently displayed a tablet which bore a pledge of loyalty to the heir of an Assyrian king... Professor Tim Harrison of the University of Toronto... leads the Tayinat excavations. The city itself was built on the Amuq plain, on the Orontes River near the modern day Syrian border... a sort of crossroads that connected Anatolia, Mesopotamia and the Levant -- allowing Tayinat to flourish. The Assyrian Empire conquered it in 738 BC, with...

How radical Islam makes you: a bigot religiously - a racist ethnically UNIQUENESS OF ISLAM'S INTOLERANCE While Christianity, ever since the termination of the Crusades and the Spanish inquisitions has no plans to "convert by force" anybody else, nor is ever Buddhism or Judaism, Islam --on the other hand-- even modern day Islam is about to Islamize the world, with any means possible. When (thank God) not "yet" accomplished, the Islamists bigotry has a few levels, the "people of the book" a.k.a. Christians & Jews are "allowed" to stay as an inferior class [Dhimmis], the other non-Muslims are "totally"...

Next Year, 2011, marks 60 Years to the FARHUD brutal pogrom on innocent Iraqi Jews by Muslim masses, and the fascist al-Futuwwa ("Hitler-youth" type, Arab-Islamic) group, initiated by Iraqi army, incited by Palestinian Mufti It came after a wave of Muslims attacks on Christian Assyrians.   Identity, conflict and cooperation in international river systems, Jack Kalpakian, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2004 [ISBN 0754633381, 9780754633389, page 134] The Jewish community was among the mid-sized communities in the country at the time of Iraq's creation. At a time when Iraq's population was much smaller, it numbered somewhere between 100,000-300,000 making it a significant player...

NOTE: It is wonderful to see that there are still "foreigners" who come to America and truly appreciate all that America stands for and has done on behalf of "Freedom and Liberty" in other countries. I'd like to see every big city in the United States follow Manteca, California's example. Thank you to the Assyrians, this new contingent of American citizens who are living proof that some "new citizens" truly deserve to be here.Aleksandra Rebic***** A contingent of new American citizens – Assyrians who fled the repressive regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq to settle in Turlock – will be...

AINA) -- All over the world, Assyrians, Armenians and Pontic Greeks are remembering the victims of the genocide perpetrated during World War One, where the Christian population of Asia minor was annihilated systematically by the so-called Young Turk government. While Assyrians call the genocide Seyfo (Sword), Armenians refer to the events as Aghet (Catastrophe). In worldwide initiatives, Assyrians too work for the recognition of the genocide that Turkey still denies. Most recently, the Swedish Parliament recognized the genocide (AINA 3-12-2010), calling on Turkey to acknowledge it. Turkey as the legal and political successor state of the Ottoman Empire vehemently rejects...

Meticulous ancient notetakers have given archaeologists a glimpse of what life was like 3,000 years ago in the Assyrian Empire, which controlled much of the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf. Clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform, an ancient script once common in the Middle East, were unearthed in summer 2009 in an ancient palace in present-day southeastern Turkey... A team led by University of Akron archaeologist Timothy Matney has been excavating the massive mud brick palace, once inhabited by the governor of the empire's Tushhan Province, for more than a decade. The palace is located in Ziyaret...

Non-Arab and/or non-Muslims in the "Arab" worldOne key element missing from the discussion is the question of non-Arab and/or non-Muslims in the "Arab" world.  The Arab nationalists have succeeded in establishing some 23 non-democratic, ethnically (Arab) and religiously (Islam) defined nation-states in over 1 million square miles of territory, often at the expense of non-Arabs, such as the Kurds (Muslims, non-Arabs), Assyrians (Christians, non-Arabs), Copts (Christians, non-Arabs), southern Sudanese (Christian and pagan non-Arabs), Maronite Lebanese (Christian and mostly identified with their Phoenician ancestors) and Mizrahi Jews.  Arab nationalist ideology claims all this territory exclusively as "Arab" despite the legitimate claims...

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi Christians still reeling from a string of murders last fall find themselves caught in the middle of a power struggle between Kurds and Sunni Arabs that was fueled by this weekend's elections. The minority community has faced years of violence and intimidation from al-Qaida in Iraq and other Islamic extremists. In the northern city of Mosul and surrounding areas, many also fear the Kurds want incorporate parts of the area into their semiautonomous region in northern Iraq. The issue came to the fore in Saturday's vote for members of ruling councils in most of Iraq's...

Fascism in the Arab world - Pan-Arabism, etc. (Part 4)   Colonial Citizens: Republican Rights, Paternal Privilege... by Elizabeth Thompson - 2000 - History - 402 pages...pan Syrianism... pan Arabism... najjada... Lebanese...The fascist nature of the groupshttp://books.google.com/books?id=5L7QGODjdEkC&pg=RA1-PA193   The Baath Party and FascismThe Ba’ath Party and Fascism. (Leadership Cult). ...Unity has taken the form of a pan- Arabism that envisions the elimination of artificial boundaries fixed by imperial powers after the First World War and the foundation of a single Arab State. The nationalism of the Ba'ath calls for an unquestioning faith: a questioning of reason, a doubting of Party...

An Islamist group has sent threatening letters to Assyrian churches in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, asking them not to cooperate with US forces. The letter sent by The Batallion of Just Punishment, Jihad Base in Mesopotamia, also opposes the establishment of a sectarian Assyrian-Christian police force, reported the Assyrian International News Agency on Wednesday. "We caution and warn anyone who tries to rob us through dealings with the Americans or through the spreading of American forces and/or police to protect the Holy Shrines in the Islamic Republic of Iraq, that these shrines would remain target of the freedom...

Sodertalje has taken in more Iraqis than U.S., but mood is changing... SODERTALJE, Sweden - In this lakeside town, once best known as the home of Swedish tennis hero, Bjorn Borg, neighborhoods nicknamed "Little Baghdad" and "Mesopotalje" now echo with arguments over Assyrian soccer. Along the city's tree-lined waterfront, young Iraqi families and groups of older men chat in Arabic, enjoying long summer evenings.

Muslim militants are crucifying children to terrorize their Christian parents into fleeing Iraq, a parliamentary committee studying the persecution of religious minorities heard yesterday. Since the war began in 2003, about 12 children, many as young as 10, have been kidnapped and killed, then nailed to makeshift crosses near their homes to terrify and torment their parents. One infant was snatched, decapitated, burned and left on his mother's doorstep, the committee was told. Filham Isaac, speaking for the Nineveh Advocacy Committee, told the human rights committee that Iraqi Christian churches were bombed, clergy murdered and unveiled Iraqi women raped or...

In early June, the German television network ARD aired a film called GOD AND THE WORLD: THE PERSECUTED CHILDREN OF GOD. The “children” referred to are Iraq’s largest Christian community: the Assyrians. While any attention to the plight of Iraqi Christians is welcome, I only wish that the film could have aired in the country that is in the best position to help them: the United States. The film tells the story of the suffering and persecution endured by Assyrian Christians through interviews with Christian refugees - or “internally displaced persons,” as bureaucrats call them - who escaped the most...

(CNSNews.com) - Days before Sweden hosts an international conference aimed at pushing ahead the political and economic reform process in Iraq, hundreds of exiled Iraqi Christians demonstrated outside the country's parliament Sunday to draw attention to the minority's plight in their homeland. "A new wave of ethnic cleansing is going on in Iraq," Iraqi Christian representative Behiye Hadodo told the gathering. "If these atrocities continue, the Chaldean, Syriac and Assyrian communities there will be wiped out altogether, creating a new catastrophe for humanity." Iraq's Assyrians are a non-Arab ethnic minority located mainly in northeastern Iraq, and adherents of Christian denominations...

Baghdad (AsiaNews) - There is a climate of "great fear" in the Iraqi Christian community in Baghdad, where the funeral was held yesterday for the Assyrian Orthodox priest, Youssef Adel, killed in cold blood last April 5 in the capital. The funeral, in the church of Saints Peter and Paul in the neighbourhood of Karrada, was celebrated by the Assyrian Orthodox archbishop of Baghdad and Basra, Saverius Jamil Hawa. Various members of the faithful and religious representatives from all the Christian denominations were present, including Athanase Matti Shaba Matoka, the Assyrian Catholic bishop of the capital, the patriarch of the...

  Muslim Claims of Accomplishment   By Peter BetBasooChristiansOfIraq.com | Friday, January 04, 2008 EDITOR'S NOTE: There is great need for setting the record straight on the history of the Middle East. The revisionism of the last few years will lead Western Civilization into bondage. The following letter by Assyrian scholar Peter BetBasoo is a very important step in the right direction. It was sent by Assyrian scholar Peter BetBasoo to Carly Fiorina, CEO of Hewlett Packard Corporation, in response to a speech she presented in Minneapolis on September 26, 2001. It is reprinted by permission. Please read and...

TEENA, Iraq -- Something seems out of place in the little village in the valley. First, there are the low-slung homes with the pastel exteriors -- yellows and pinks -- that scream for attention against the rugged backdrop of pine trees and mountain peaks. Then, up on the hill, sits the church with the squat steeple. But it's the cross reaching toward the magnificent blue sky that really stands out in this predominantly Muslim region and country. The Assyrian Catholic Church serves 32 families who fled the violence of Baghdad for the relative calm and security of Kurdistan here in...

August, 1933 The Simele massacre, Iraq, the massacre & ethnic cleansing by Arab Muslims on Christian Assyrians, indigenous people August 7th ~ "Assyrian Ethnic Cleansing," The New Assyrian Martyrs Day “Though the body may perish, the soul lives on” August 7th of every year marks the Assyrian Martyrs Day, what began as the commemoration of the Simele massacre in 1933, where an estimated 3,000 Assyrians were systematically targeted by the Iraqi government to cleanse the Assyrian race, the indigenous people of Iraq whose roots date back to the Sumerians, the earliest recorded civilization in the mid 4th millennium B.C. The...

Fear of Muslims Forced Elderly Assyrian Couple to Stay Home, Die AINA The Assyrian couple were living alone besieged in their home due to the imposed blockade on Christians by terrorist groups.

Mosul, Iraq (AINA) -- An unidentified armed group kidnapped eight Assyrian Christian students and teachers returning home to the Nineveh Plain from Mosul university Wednesday afternoon. The students of the Nineveh Plains travel on church provided community buses that transport them daily to school. One of the buses returning to Qaraqosh (Bakhdeda), one of the largest Assyrian Christian towns in the Nineveh Plain, was pursued by eight vehicles that surrounded and eventually stopped it. Eight people, among them a number of University professors, were taken to an unknown location. It is noteworthy that the abduction took place directly in front...

Iraq’s Assyrian Christians face extinction four years after the toppling of Saddam, says Ed West “When they cook a dish in the Middle East, it is traditional to put the meat on top of the rice when they serve it. They kidnapped a woman’s baby in Baghdad, a toddler, and because the mother was unable to pay the ransom, they returned her child – beheaded, roasted and served on a mound of rice.” The infant’s crime was to be an Assyrian, but this story, reported by the Barnabus Fund, went unnoticed in the West, like so many other horrific accounts...

Donny George, man of history, had vowed never to leave Baghdad, where he was the keeper of the keys to the looted Iraqi National Museum. Then his teenage son opened a letter with a bullet inside and a threat to cut off his head because his father "worked for the Americans." An estimated 1.8 million Iraqis have fled their country since the U.S. invasion, but George, an archaeologist, along with his wife, Najat, and 17-year-old son, Martin, are some of the very few -- only 500 a year -- who've been granted a visa to live in the U.S... His...

Continuation of excavations by a team of archeologists in Rabat Tepe 2, northwest Iran, led into discovery of the second enameled brick inscription written in Assyrian cuneiform script. A few weeks ago, the team succeeded in discovering the first such inscription written in white glaze in the same area. Archeologists believe that studying the two inscriptions could shed light on the prehistoric civilizations of northwest Iran. The newly discovered brick inscription is measured 33x34x8 centimeters in dimension... Second season of archeological excavations at Rabat Tepe started in late October this year with the aim of finding traces of invasion of...

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...

How [radical] Islam makes one into a fascist, whether you are Arab, black, etc. The broader view of the deep & wide reality of Islamofascism What do the Arab Muslim massacre in NYC WTC, The Pakistani Muslim bombing in London, the Arab Muslim bombing in Madrid, an Indonesian attack on Australians in Bali, an Arab Muslim racist attack on an ordinary Jew in Paris, Arabs' onslaught in the genocide campaign in Sudan, WW2's Bosnian Muslims attacking Christian Serbs, Jordanian Arab murderer: Zarqawi that seperated (Nazi style) between Shiite & Sunni kids on a bus, Arab slave masters in Mauritania, a...

General The Wrong Kind of Mass Murderer by Ariel ...Non-Arab Muslims such as the Kurds in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran; the Berbers ¯ also known as the Amazighes ¯ in ... Once again, Arab racism marches on. ... http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=14118Uncle Boutros and Uncle Tom: A lesson in Arab tolerance ...Having written somewhat myself on the subject of the forced Arabization of ... keep in mind that Arab racist attitudes also extended to those who--to jump ... http://www.kurdmedia.com/articles.asp?id=11344Arab leaders 'Reap what they saw', their failed racist attempts distinguishing between blood all these years - terror comes home to roost. http://lightonthings.blogspot.com/2006/04/terror-made-in-arabia-in-islamia.htmlRADICAL ISLAMISM...

Iraqi General Georges Sada has an incredible story to tell. A passionate evangelical Christian, he once served as a top advisor to Saddam Hussein. Today, he serves as a senior advisor to Iraq’s President and is the author of Saddam’s Secrets: How One Iraqi Defied and Survived Saddam Hussein. Come hear him take you inside his world – where Jesus is drawing Iraqis to Himself in the most amazing way. Monday, May 22, 2006 7:30pm Smith Center McLean Bible Church McLean, Virginia General Sada be interviewed by Joel C. Rosenberg, the New York Times best-selling author of The Last Jihad,...

<p>BASRA, Iraq (AP) - Ali Hassan al-Majid, dubbed ``Chemical Ali'' by opponents of the Iraqi regime for ordering a poison gas attack that killed thousands of Kurds, has been found dead, a British officer said Monday.</p> <p>Maj. Andrew Jackson of the 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment told The Associated Press that his superiors had confirmed the death of the man who is also President Saddam Hussein's first cousin.</p> <p>Jackson said the body was found along with that of his bodyguard and the head of Iraqi intelligence services in Basra.</p>

Please click the following link and send an email to the Mayor of Rome protesting the erection of a mass murderer Mustafa kemal Ataturk. http://www.ian.cc/acciones.php

PRISTINA (AA) - Filizler Turkish Cultural and Arts Association (TKSD), one of Kosovo's most active cultural associations, is organizing a ''Turkish Cultural Week'' in Kosovo for the first time in history. Sponsored by the Kosovo Cultural, Youth and Sports Ministry, a painting exhibition of Kosovo Turkish Writers Association Chairman Zeynel Beksac has opened and poems were read, accompanied by ''Filizler'' pianists. TKSD Chairman Ferhat Dervis delivered a speech indicating that they will do every thing to keep Turkish culture alive in the region. ''We expect more support from Turkey and want to make the Turkish cultural week an annual event,''...

Turkey Allows a First New Year for a Tiny Minority By KATHERINE ZOEPF Published: April 4, 2005 MIDYAT, Turkey, April 1 - A windswept hilltop here in southeastern Anatolia has become the site for a reunion that once would have been unthinkable, as thousands of Assyrians from across the region have converged to openly celebrate their New Year in Turkey for the first time. Like many other expressions of minority ethnic identity, the Assyrian New Year, or Akito, had been seen by Turkey as a threat. But this year, the government, with an eye toward helping its bid to join...

No, this is not a blonde joke. If you want one of those, go to this week’s Humor File. Cleopatra was in fact a blonde. That’s because she was not Egyptian. She was a Macedonian Greek, with hair as blonde as Alexander’s. Alexander conquered Egypt in 332 BC, then went on to subdue all of the Middle East. When he died nine years later, his just-conquered empire was fought over and carved up by his generals. The one who ended up running Egypt was Ptolemy (367-283 BC). Declaring himself Pharaoh, he founded the Ptolemaic Dynasty, with twelve Ptolemies in succession,...

(AINA) -- The Assyrian Universal Alliance issued the following statement yesterday on the lockout of Assyrian voters in north Iraq. AUA appeals to World Governments to restore voting rights to Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs and Yazidis The Assyrian Universal Alliance on behalf of its officers, Executive Board and Affiliates throughout the world has taken a very strong position condemning the denial of Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriac and other minorities of the right to vote in the Iraqi General Election where 275 members are to be elected to the National Parliament and election of Officers to the district councils in the 18 provinces...

The Struggle of Iraq's Christian Assyrians One day last October a small parcel was left at Sait Yildiz's home in Sodertalje, Sweden. Sait, who is the Chairman of the Assyrian Democratic Association of Sweden, realized that something was amiss when he saw that there was no return address and that the CD that it contained was unlabelled. When he, despite his misgivings, played the CD he realized that it was a video. It begins with men chanting Islamic fundamentalist slogans, accompanied by a mixture of soft pop with Arabic folk music. Shortly someone can be heard shouting "Traitors! Betrayers!...

Iraq's Christians Disenfranchised at Home and in U.S.Assyrians are fighting for survival in a region that has long sought their ouster.Last weekend was the first time in their 6,700 year history that Iraq's Assyrian community was able to participate in a free, democratic election. But Ron Michael, who cast his vote Sunday, says it was insignificant. "It's not going to matter," he said before going to The Assyrian National Council of Illinois Community Center in Skokie, a suburb north of Chicago where the Out of Country Voting Program (OCV) placed one of Chicago's two polling centers. Though the community center...

(AINA) -- In a brazen and nearly unbelievable move, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) headed by warlord Masoud Barzani has prevented voting by Assyrian (also known as Chaldean and Syriac) Christians of the Nineveh Plain in northern Iraq. According to a series of reports from inside Iraq, the KDP effectively blocked the delivery of ballot boxes to six major Assyrian towns and villages in the Plains around Mosul including Baghdeda, Bartilla, Karemlesh, Shekhan, Ain Sifne and Bahzan. Thousands of would be voters were left stranded outside polling places awaiting an opportunity to cast their ballots. Inquiries to voting authorities brought...

The escalation of terrorism against religious places of worship, holy sites and believers in Iraq is causing non-Muslim minorities to flee in ever increasing numbers, threatening their survival, says an independent panel in a letter to President Bush. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, created by Congress to advise the president and secretary of state, said it has urgently requested a meeting with Bush to discuss the "dire" situation.

Bigotry and violent Muslim fanatics have forced many Christians to flee the region of Jesus' birth -- but the world has barely noticed, writes Salim MansurBy SALIM MANSUR -- For the Toronto SunAgain this year, in the land between two rivers, the Nile and the Indus, Christians will gather to celebrate the birth of Christ and pray for deliverance from their ancestral homes. The cradle of Christianity is the Middle East, but in recent times Christians have been departing in record numbers from the Arab-Muslim world to escape organized bigotry and violence of Muslim fanatics and terrorists. The August bombings...

According to www.ankawa.com, an unidentified group in Mosul kidnapped Christian Michael Daddeza, a teacher (50 years old, married with children), from the Assyrian town of Baghdeda, was kidnapped as he was returning from the elementary school of Hawsalan village where he taught. Michael was with his friend at the time and it seems that his friend was kidnapped as well. Earlier on Sunday, December 19, 2004, two more Christians, Ghassan Michael Kacho (married with four children) and Ammar Habib Jallo (married with two children), of Baghdeda too, were kidnapped while they were cultivating at Qeeraj.

-- Less than one week after the deadly Assyrian Church bombings in Baghdad and Mosul [1], Iraq, Assyrians once again will gather to commemorate Assyrian Martyr's Day. August 7 marks the memorial day for legions of Assyrian (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs) victims of massacres, pogroms, and genocide in general, but in particular commemorates the fateful day in 1933 when the newly established Iraqi army massacred upwards of 3000 Assyrian civilians in and around Simmele, Northern Iraq (account of the massacre). This year's Church bombings coinciding with the 71st anniversary of the massacre have rekindled the same Assyrian concerns...