Free Republic

A group of 11 sick, disabled and elderly Iraqi Christians — including an 80-year-old woman with breast cancer — defied terrorists who ordered them to convert to Islam or be beheaded, saying they preferred death to giving up their faith. The united resistance prompted the Islamic State extremists (formerly ISIS) to drop their demands and order the Christians to immediately leave their village of Karamless after first robbing them of their possessions, according to one of the survivors. Sahar Mansour, a refugee from Mosul, told Catholic News Service in an email that the group turned up at Ankawa refugee camp,...

The Prince of Wales has made a donation to Iraqi Christians who he said are suffering from “diabolic evil” under ISIS. In a letter to Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako, Prince Charles wrote that he was making his donation, described as a “very small token”, via the charity Aid to the Church in Need. “You can have no idea how heartbroken I am to hear of the truly unbearable and barbaric persecution suffered not only by Christians in Iraq but also by some of their neighbours of other faiths,” he said. “I wanted you to know above all that my heart...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has sought to encourage Iraq's beleaguered Christians under threat from Islamic militants, saying they are the "heart" of the church and that the church is proud of them. In comments translated into Arabic during his weekly Wednesday general audience, Francis said the Catholic Church is like a mother, and like any mother will "defend her defenseless and persecuted children." Francis has said it was legitimate to use force to stop the militants..."The church suffers with you and is proud of you."

It’s difficult to read Amnesty International’s report on ethnic cleansing in Iraq without imagining that you’re reading the script of a movie. Over and over, the report, issued today, relates accounts of men being taken out of their villages in pickup trucks, lined up in a deserted area, and shot. Often they were shot in the backs, many times at the edge of a “wadi” or a large hole in the ground, into which the bodies would tumble. Some were not gravely injured and feigned death so that they could escape—and tell the story. Enough Iraqis—Christians, Shia Muslims, Yazidis...

Reciting a list of assaults on Christians around the world, World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder told a large-scale gathering of Israel’s Christian allies that he would continue to speak out against the violence and oppression that is engulfing Christians, especially in the Middle East. Speaking in Budapest on June 15, Lauder said “I will speak out across the globe with world leaders and with ordinary citizens, and I will tell them that we will never tolerate any kind of anti-Christian threats, just as we will not tolerate anti-Semitism.” He was speaking at the Jerusalem Day Convention at the...

Weep for slaughtered Christians, not for dialogue with Islam By Phil Lawler | Aug 29, 2014 Faced with the savage violence of the Islamic State (ISIS), Christians can be tempted toward two unhelpful emotional reactions. On one extreme is the thirst for vengeance. If Muslims extremists kill innocent Christians, intemperate voices suggest that we should kill innocent Muslims. Then we, too, would be terrorists. I trust that rational readers recognize the problem here.But at the other extreme is another irrational urge: the desire to overlook the violence, an inclination toward the mawkish hope that we might “just all be friends.”...

While Americans like Douglas McAuthur McCain might be joining forces with the Islamic State in its effort to establish a caliphate throughout Iraq and Syria, others from the West also apparently are  taking up arms—to defend persecuted Christians in the region. McCain is the first American reported to have died fighting for the Islamic State in Syria. FBI Director James Comey said in June that roughly 100 people had left the United States to join the conflict in Syria But it's not just those who embrace the radical, fundamentalist version of Islam who are headed east. Apparently, a number of Christians from...

This is the difference between innocence... The Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, Mark Coleridge, said people should think about what social psychosis was driving some young Muslims to give their lives fighting “on the altar of the demonic’’ for the Islamic State. “The situation needs prayer, action and deep reflection,’’ he said. “The extremists’ barbarism seems apocalyptic. It has nothing to do with real Islam or God and is blasphemy of a kind.’’ … and real life experience… “Our sufferings today are the prelude of those you, Europeans and Western Christians, will also suffer in the near future,” said Archbishop Amel...

An article titled, “Iraq’s Christians See Putin As Savior,” appeared on the website of The Daily Beast in late June. It was picked up by literally dozens of “news” sites all over the Internet, contributing to the perception that Russia was actually prepared to do something on behalf of these Christians and other minorities. The article referred to “Russia’s increasingly cozy relationship with Middle Eastern Christians” and included a photo of Putin under a halo. But when the Christians in Iraq actually needed some help, it was the U.S. and Britain which intervened on their behalf. Humanitarian aid was delivered...

Erbil (Agenzia Fides) - The defense of the attacked is an absolute right. But only "the forces of the State should take charge of this defense", while the creation of differentiated militia on ethno-religious basis "can destroy Iraq". This is how - according to Lebanese sources - the Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans Louis Raphael I expressed himself during his participation in the initiatives and meetings organized by the Delegation of the Patriarchs of the Eastern Churches that arrived on Wednesday, August 20 in Erbil, capital of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, to express their closeness to refugees...

“Our sufferings today are the prelude of those you, Europeans and Western Christians, will also suffer in the near future. I lost my diocese. The physical setting of my apostolate has been occupied by Islamic radicals who want us converted or dead.”Archbishop Nona is correct, but Europeans and Western Christians will not heed his warning. To do so would harm the “dialogue”: “Talk about extreme, militant Islamists and the atrocities that they have perpetrated globally might undercut the positive achievements that we Catholics have attained in our inter-religious dialogue with devout Muslims.” — Robert McManus, Roman Catholic Bishop of Worcester,...

Assisted by US airstrikes, forces of the autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan have retaken the historically Christian towns of Tel Isqof (or Telskuf) and Batnaya from the Sunni jihadist forces. Christian residents who returned to Tel Isqof were “shocked” by the level of destruction committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Assyrian International News Agency reported. They restored crosses to their churches before beginning the task of cleaning up their town. Additional sources for this storySome links will take you to other sites, in a new window. Interactive Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Los Angeles...

Refugee Samo Ilyas Ali has nine children to feed but he can't focus on the future because the sounds of women and children crying out for help while being buried alive by Islamic State militants in northern Iraq often consume his mind. Tens of thousand of Yazidis fled their ancient homeland of Sinjar and other villages to escape a dramatic push by the Sunni militants who regard the ethnic minority as devil worshippers who must embrace their radical version of Islam or die. The refugees sit idle in camps in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Traumatized by Islamic...

The Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul has warned that Christians around the world would face suffering from Islamists as his diocese has, and decisions that challenge the underpinnings of Western political ideas. "Our sufferings today are the prelude of those you, Europeans and Western Christians, will also suffer in the near future," Archbishop Emil Nona told Italian daily Corriere della Sera Aug. 9 from Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. Archbishop Nona has been forced from his home by the Islamic State, a caliphate recently established in Iraq and Syria. He is among five bishops who have been forced from Mosul....

Your Catholic Voice Foundation is continuing in its sincere and faithful mission to save and support Chaldean Catholics displaced by the Islamic State in northern Iraq. These amazing and resilient people belong to some of the oldest Christian communities and societies on the planet. This is literally true, their Christian communities easily date to the time of the earliest apostles. Despite their ancient, fruitful and peaceful presence - they have never fought wars against their neighbors - they have been systematically rooted out of their homes and forced to flee. Those who stayed behind have been killed in one of...

After the kidnapping of more than 500 Yazidi girls by Islamic State (IS) militants, the women are being sold in Quds Neighborhood in Mosul through a special office. The Head of The Women’s Committee in the Kurdistan Parliament, Evar Ibrahim, told BasNews, “After kidnapping 500 Yazidi girls from Sinjar and taking them to Mosul, the IS insurgents are now, through a special office in the Quds Neighborhood of the city, selling them to people.” “The price of each girl starts from IQD 20,000 [US $17] to 30,000 [$26]. Despite selling them, the Yazidi girls have been raped by the IS...

TV host Nahi Mahdi broke down sobbing live on air during a TV show discussing the plight of the Christians in Iraq. "They are our own flesh and blood," he said, after wiping his tears on his kaffiyeh and regaining his composure. The show aired on the Iraqi Asia TV channel on July 20.

(CNSNews.com) – Amel Shimoun Nona, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul, Iraq, who is now living in exile, warned that his diocese is now run by radical Muslims and that “liberal and democratic principles are worth nothing here,” adding that “Islam does not say that all men are equal,” and if Westerners “do not understand this soon enough, you will become the victims of the enemy you have welcomed into your home.” The Chaldean Catholic Church is an Eastern Rite church, under the authority of Pope Francis. In an interview with Corriere della Sera, Archbishop Amel Nona, now living in...

FULL TITLE: Archbishop of Mosul: "I have lost my Diocese to Islam - You in the West will also become the victims of Muslims" Armenian Orthodox church in Raqqa, Syria, now an ISIS office Our sufferings today are the prelude of those you, Europeans and Western Christians, will also suffer in the near future. I lost my diocese. The physical setting of my apostolate has been occupied by Islamic radicals who want us converted or dead. But my community is still alive. Please, try to understand us. Your liberal and democratic principles are worth nothing here. You must consider again...

Islamists from the Islamic State (IS) killed 80 members of Iraq's Yazidi minority in a northern village on Friday, sources told Fox News. The Kurdish-speaking ethnic and religious group, which numbers in the hundreds of thousands in Iraq, has been persecuted in the north by IS, with at least 500 killed prior to Friday's news, according to Iraq's human rights minister. The latest killings came just a day after President Obama said U.S. air strikes and humanitarian aid drops on Sinjar mountain, where thousands of Yazidi have been stranded in an Islamic State siege had been ended. "They arrived in...