CHRISTIANS: On the Front Lines of Muslim Violence

[Valin]

Today?

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A DESPERATE CRY FROM IRAQ'S CHRISTIANS

 

Iraq’s Christian leaders have just made a desperate cry for help. Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako, head of Iraq’s Catholic church, has issued an appeal “to all who have a living conscience in Iraq and all the world.”

The situation for Iraq’s Christians has been steadily deteriorating ever since the 2003 invasion, in part because the U.S. never acknowledged that Christians were being targeted by Islamists and did not prioritize protection of Christians or other minorities.

But with the recent sweep through Mosul and other Iraqi cities by the jihadi group ISIS, Iraq’s Christians look to be on the verge of genocide.

On June 16th it was reported that ISIS had marked the doors of Christians in red. Patriarch Sako’s letter confirms that rumor. While no one yet knows what this ominous sign foretells, Sako and other Christian leaders are pleading with the world to intervene before the meaning of the sign is made clear.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/07/18/A-Desperate-Cry-from-Iraq-Christians

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SEBASTIAN GORKA: CHRISTIAN HOLOCAUST UNDERWAY IN IRAQ, USA AND WORLD LOOK ON

 

When U.S. troops invaded Iraq in 2003, there were at least 1.5 million Christians in Iraq. Over the last ten years, significantly in the last few months with the emergence of ISIS, that figure has dropped to about 400,000.

In a region where Christians predate Muslims by centuries, over one million Christians have been killed or have had to flee because of jihadi persecution, while America is basically standing by and watching. This is the sad news that Breitbart’s National Security Editor and one of the world’s leading experts on asymmetric warfare, Dr. Sebastian Gorka, brought to Breitbart News Saturday, hosted by Editor in Chief Alex Marlow on Sirius XM Patriot Radio.

Dr. Gorka explained that “in the last 48 hours, ISIS, which is now called the Islamic State in Mosul, has painted the letter “N” for Nazarene on the houses of all the surviving Christians in the city. ISIS has basically given an ultimatum to all the Christians left: You can either flee or convert to Islam, or we will kill you.”

Gorka points out that, over the last 20 years, America has stood up around the world to save Muslims. “Whether it was to save the Muslims in Bosnia or the Albanians, Kosovars, and Muslims in Serbia, it is now time for a humanitarian operation to save the remaining Christians in Iraq,” he said. “It is time for the American people and our representatives to do something for our co-religionists remaining in the Middle East.”

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/07/19/Christian-Holocaust-Underway-in-Iraq-as-USA-and-World-Looks-On

[Draggingtree]

20Jul

After 2,000 Years, the Last Christian is Forced to Leave Mosul

Breitbart:

ERBIL, Iraq – The last Christian reportedly left Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul at 12:00pm on Saturday, ending over 6,000 years of Assyrian history in the city. Assyrians have lived in Mosul for over 6,000 years, converting to Christianity over 2,000 years ago. This all came to an end on Saturday, when the last Assyrian Christian left the city.

 

On Thursday, July 17th, the Islamic State (IS)– formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)– released a statement demanding the Christians in Mosul either to convert to Islam, paying the jizya (tax on non-Muslims), leave the city, or be killed. The threat was to be implemented on Saturday. It is being reported locally that by noon yesterday, every Christian had chosen to leave. http://floppingaces.net/most_wanted/after-2000-years-the-last-christian-is-forced-to-leave-mosul/

[Geee]

20Jul

After 2,000 Years, the Last Christian is Forced to Leave Mosul

Breitbart:

ERBIL, Iraq – The last Christian reportedly left Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul at 12:00pm on Saturday, ending over 6,000 years of Assyrian history in the city. Assyrians have lived in Mosul for over 6,000 years, converting to Christianity over 2,000 years ago. This all came to an end on Saturday, when the last Assyrian Christian left the city.

 

On Thursday, July 17th, the Islamic State (IS)– formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)– released a statement demanding the Christians in Mosul either to convert to Islam, paying the jizya (tax on non-Muslims), leave the city, or be killed. The threat was to be implemented on Saturday. It is being reported locally that by noon yesterday, every Christian had chosen to leave. http://floppingaces.net/most_wanted/after-2000-years-the-last-christian-is-forced-to-leave-mosul/

 

Tears. (sorry we don't have an emoticon with tears)

[Geee]

ISIS JIHADISTS SEIZE FOURTH CENTURY CHRISTIAN MONASTERY, EXPEL MONKS

 

The purge of Christians from northern Iraq continues under the hands of the Sunni jihadist group, the Islamic State--formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). ISIS militants seized the famous Mar Behnam or St. Behnam monastery this week, a fourth century Christian landmark, and forced monks to leave immediately.

According to the Agence France-Presse, the monastery, a famous landmark of early Christianity, is now fully in the hands of ISIS jihadists. A cleric and residents of the monastery reported on Monday that the monks inhabiting the monastery were told that they "had no place here anymore" and to "leave immediately" from the town of Qaraqosh, a short distance from the fully ISIS-controlled Mosul. Witnesses report that they were forced to leave everything behind, taking only the clothes they were wearing. The monastery was previously run by the Syriac Catholic church; up to nine people reportedly still lived there when ISIS terrorists arrived.

Though only a small number of monks remained at the monastery, the capture is extremely significant for its symbolism. The St. Behnam monastery was built by Assyrian King Sennacherib II and named after his son, whom he martyred after he and his sister, Sarah, converted to Christianity. He is one of the oldest martyrs in the Christian tradition.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/07/21/ISIS-Jihadists-Seize-4th-Century-Christian-Monastery-Expel-Monks

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Mosul Christians: And Then There Were Nun

 

By ROD DREHER • July 19, 2014, 5:37 PM

 

That’s the Arabic letter pronounced “nun.” The genocidal Muslims of ISIS used it to mark Christian houses, businesses, and properties in Mosul, according to a report (with photographs) in Rorate Caeli. Why ‘nun’? Here:

 

Nun (ن), the 14th letter of the Arabic alphabet (the equivalent of letter N in our Roman alphabet), is the first letter of the word Nasara (نصارى : Nazarenes), the way Muslims have called Christians since the beginning of their invasion of the Christian world in the 7th century — Christians under Muslim rule never called themselves thus, since the intent of Muslims was to portray Christians as a contemptible and disobedient sect.

 

Rorate Caeli goes on:

 

They mean it as a mark of shame, we must then wear it as a mark of hope: Yes, we are in the army of the Resurrected Nazarene, the Master and Lord of the Universe, the Man who is God Almighty, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity. You may kill our brethren and expel them, but we Christians will never go away.

 

Read the whole thing,

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/nun-the-sign-of-genocide-mosul-christians/

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ANGLICAN VICAR: END OF CHRISTIANITY IN IRAQ IS 'VERY NEAR'

 

Andrew White, the vicar of the only Anglican church in Iraq, told BBC Radio 4 that Christianity is coming to an end in the Middle Eastern country. The Islamic State, formerly known as ISIS, is forcing Christians out of towns and into isolation.

“Things are so desperate, our people are disappearing,” he said. “We have had people massacred, their heads chopped off. The Christians are in grave danger. There are literally Christians living in the desert and on the street. They have nowhere to go.”

"Are we seeing the end of Christianity?” he continued. “We are committed come what may, we will keep going to the end, but it looks as though the end could be very near."

ISIS told Christians in Mosul, home to one of the largest Christian communities in the world, to convert to Islam, pay a protection tax, or die. The majority chose to leave, and for the first time in over 2,000 years, there are no Christians in Mosul. ISIS even marked Christian homes with an "N" for Nazarene.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/07/26/Anglican-Vicar-Says-End-of-Christianity-in-Iraq-is-Very-Near

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LONDONERS RALLY IN SOLIDARITY WITH IRAQI CHRISTIANS

 

Hundreds of Londoners rallied outside the British parliament on Saturday in a show of solidarity with Iraq's persecuted Christians. The rally, organised by Aid to the Church in Need, also attracted many Arabic Christians and a number of Iraqi Muslims showing solidarity with their Christian neighbours.

The demonstrators walked from parliament to the gates of Downing Street – the residence of the Prime Minister – chanting slogans such as "Save the Christians of Iraq", "Save the Christians of the Middle East" and "No, no ISIS".

Christians in Iraq are facing increasing persecution following the incursion into the country by ISIS. The terror group last week gave all the city’s Christians just hours to either convert to Islam, pay a tax known as a 'jizzya', or face execution.

Many of the demonstrators yesterday displayed the Arabic letter 'nun', which has been spray painted onto the houses of those Christians who remain in Mosul, marking them out from the rest of the population.

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/07/27/Londoners-Rally-in-Solidarity-with-Iraqi-Christians

[Geee]

Religious Communities Displaced at High Levels in 2013

 

More religious communities worldwide were displaced last year than at any time in recent memory, the State Department said on Monday.

The department’s annual report on international religious freedom also noted that several U.S. adversaries continue to repress the rights of religious groups.

Millions of Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and other groups were forced out of their homes in 2013 due to their beliefs, the report said.

“Out of fear or by force, entire neighborhoods are emptying of residents,” it said. “Communities are disappearing from their traditional and historic homes and dispersing across the geographic map. In conflict zones, in particular, this mass displacement has become a pernicious norm.”

The three-year civil war in Syria was a particular locus of concern. Forces aligned with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including Iraqi Shia and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, “targeted members of groups seen as aligned with the opposition, especially Sunnis.”

http://freebeacon.com/issues/religious-communities-displaced-at-high-levels-in-2013/

 

[Draggingtree]

As Mosul’s Christians Flee, Religious Freedom Gets an Ambassador

By SARAH ALBERS • July 29, 2014, 6:00 AM

The State Department’s annual report on International Religious Freedom paints a dark picture for religious liberty advocates. The AP says that “Millions of people were forced from their homes because of their religious beliefs last year,” referring to the IRF report’s summary of “the devastating impact of conflicts in Syria, Iraq and the Central African Republic.”

 

The IRF report itself opens by saying that, in 2013, “the world witnessed the largest displacement of religious communities in recent memory. … Communities are disappearing from their traditional and historic homes and dispersing across the geographic map. In conflict zones, in particular, this mass displacement has become a pernicious norm.”

 

In Mosul, the crisis of Iraqi Christians http://www.theamericanconservative.com/religious-liberty-an-exodus-in-mosul-an-appointment-in-u-s/

[Draggingtree]

France, Friend Of Iraqi Christians

By ROD DREHER • July 28, 2014, 11:47 PM

The nation that opposed the 2003 US attack against Iraq is now making a bold humanitarian offer to that nation’s Christian internal refugees. From the BBC:

The French government says it is ready to offer asylum to Iraqi Christians forced to flee by Islamist militants in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

 

Many fled Mosul after the Islamic State (IS) group which seized much of northern Iraq told them to convert to Islam, pay a tax or face death.

 

Iraq is home to one of the world’s most ancient Christian communities.

 

Two top ministers said, “We are ready, if they so desire, to help facilitate asylum on our territory.”

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/france-friend-of-iraqi-christians/

[Draggingtree]

IMAGINING THE PATH OF CHRISTIAN EXILE

 

ON LEAVING MOSUL by Elizabeth Scalia 7 . 29 . 14

 

Elizabeth Scalia puts herself in the place of an Iraqi Christian writing a letter to her former neighbors –Ed.

 

My Dear Friends,

To be ripped from our neighborhood, the ancient land we have shared, so companionably for so long, is a tragedy that must transform each of us. I have been forever changed by the experience of being marched away at gunpoint, empty-handed, my past wrested from me. They gave me two choices, leave or die. And you, too, are changed for having to quietly watch me go, or die yourselves. It is not how old neighbors should part.

 

Why do they do this? Because they can. Because the “great men” and peace-prize-winning princes of the age will not stop them. Because they have been given uniforms and arms, and the sense of strength and prestige that goes with them, and these things are like a salve to their weakness, a balm to their spiritual wounds of inadequacy. Yet, I believe that somewhere deep inside they know this is all an illusion of might, a falsity that feeds their sickness.

 

http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2014/07/imagining-the-path-of-christian-exile

[Geee]

China Ramping Up Persecution of Christians

 

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-ramping-up-persecution-of-christians/

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As France Grants Asylum to Iraqi Christians, Rep. Wolf Slams ‘Silence’ in Washington

CNSNews.com) – The French government says it is willing to grant asylum to Iraqi Christians in the face of a jihadist onslaught against them.

“We are assisting displaced persons who are fleeing the Islamic State’s threats and seeking refuge in Kurdistan,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a joint statement this week. “Should they so wish, we are prepared to offer them asylum on our soil.”

 

In Washington, meanwhile, a leading religious freedom advocate on Capitol Hill slammed both President Obama and Congress Tuesday for their “silence” about the plight of Iraq’s Christians, which he said amounted to “genocide.”

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/france-grants-asylum-iraqi-christians-rep-wolf-slams-silence

[Draggingtree]

Don’t Close Your Eyes: Iraq Is Torturing And Purging Christians

AUGUST 1, 2014 By Leslie Loftis

To listen to the news, one would think that the only grave problems in the world right now are Vladimir Putin, Israeli war crimes in Gaza, the humanitarian crisis on the southern U.S. border, and the possibility of Ebola reaching the West. Granted, those are all huge concerns—in part because those stories as presented are riddled with questionable assumptions and relevant omissions—but there is another story of the world in meltdown: the Christian purge in Iraq.

 

“Every day we think that the crisis cannot get worse and every day it does. Yesterday, over 1,500 people were killed and the Islamic State (formally known as ISIS) simply said, ‘We can do anything now, the world is just looking at Gaza.’”

 

That was Wednesday’s plea from the “Vicar of Baghdad,”

 

http://thefederalist.com/2014/08/01/dont-close-your-eyes-iraq-is-torturing-and-purging-christians/

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Denial Is Not A Strategy: Isis Persecution Should Not Be Met With Silence

 

By Mollie Hemingway AUGUST 1, 2014

 

We’re not talking enough about the situation for Christians in Mosul, Iraq. I am guilty of this, too. Yes, my pastor is sending out reminders for us to pray for our brethren in the region. Yes, we include petitions for the ancient Christian community there, which has now been wiped away, in our prayers. We discuss their plight in Bible Class. But the world is not speaking much about — much less thinking much about — what this religious cleansing means and what we should be doing about it.

 

“Why is the West so afraid of Islam?” asks Micheal Brendan Dougherty, suggesting that fear of Islamic radicalism is shutting us all up:

 

It’s time for more Americans to learn about what happened to the Christians of Mosul and think about what we can do to help.

http://thefederalist.com/2014/08/01/denial-is-not-a-strategy-isis-persecution-should-not-be-met-with-silence/

[Valin]

Denial Is Not A Strategy: Isis Persecution Should Not Be Met With Silence

 

By Mollie Hemingway AUGUST 1, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

Says The Media

[Valin]

 

H/T Legal Insurrection

[Draggingtree]

Gaza ethnic cleansing of Christians

Posted by William A. Jacobson ▪ Saturday, August 2, 2014 at 10:54am

The story about Hamas and other Islamists the Western media is not telling.

The ethnic cleansing of Christians in Gaza by Hamas and other Islamists is a story rarely told in Western media.

It doesn’t fit the dishonest media narrative of Hamas and its supporters being victims.

This report by Israeli channel i24, which we have been using for a live feed during the current war, is from January 2014:

http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/08/gaza-ethnic-cleansing-of-christians/

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The Spreading Scourge of Christian Persecution

 

Dr. Ben Carson

 

Intolerance that fosters pogroms abroad is taking root in U.S. communities. Sobering and unforgettable images are projected across our television and computer screens. They should elicit the most basic instincts of both fear and compassion.

 

I’m referring to images showing the persecution of hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of our fellow brothers and sisters by incomprehensible religious zealots. Their intolerance of Christianity is beyond horrible. People are beheaded for their faith. Women and young girls are sexually violated, and whole families are wantonly slaughtered in cold blood. Perhaps just as abhorrent is the profound silence of the current administration. Even though President Obama has declared that we are not a Judeo-Christian nation, we are still compassionate people who should not ignore humanitarian atrocities, much less ones where the victims are only guilty of maintaining a belief in the principles espoused by Jesus Christ.

 

 

We have an obligation as Americans to denounce these acts of persecution. Even those who do not worship a higher deity should be concerned. For when we stand up to such intolerance, we are defending the root of freedom. We are defending choice — the ability to worship and call on the name of a heavenly being without fear of torture and abandonment.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/384668/spreading-scourge-christian-persecution-ben-carson

[Draggingtree]

France Opens Borders to Persecuted Iraqi Christians While America Does Nothing

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Tim Brown

America watches as the Islamic State has ripped through Iraq and virtually cleansed the entire country of Christians. What is Obama currently doing? Playing golf.

France, the once atheistic land, has really begun to find a spine in recent weeks. I reported a little over a week ago that France had banned Pro-Palestinian terror protests and leveled stiff penalties for violators. Now, word is that France is opening up their borders for asylum to Christians suffering persecution from Islamists in Iraq.

 

“We are providing aid to displaced people fleeing from the threats of Islamic State and who have sought refuge in Kurdistan,” said France’s foreign and interior ministers. Continue reading →

[Draggingtree]

The World-Wide War Against Christians

World Ignores Christian Exodus from Islamic World

Daymond Ibrahim, The Gatestone Institute

While the world fixates on the conflict between Israel and Hamas--and while most mainstream media demonize Israel for trying to survive amid a sea of Arab-Islamic hostility--similar or worse tragedies continue to go virtually ignored. One of the most ancient Christian communities in the world, that of Iraq--which already had been decimated over the last decade, by Islamic forces unleashed after the ousting of Saddam Hussein--has now been wiped out entirely by the new "caliphate," the so-called Islamic State, formerly known by the acronym "ISIS." As Reuters reported: Islamist insurgents have issued an ultimatum to northern Iraq's dwindling Christian population to either convert to Islam, pay a religious levy or face death, according to a statement distributed in the militant-controlled city of Mosul...It said Christians who wanted to remain in the "caliphate" that the Islamic State declared this month in parts of Iraq and Syria must agree to abide by terms of a "dhimma" contract--a historic practice under which non-Muslims were protected in Muslim lands in return for a special levy known as "jizya."
READ MORE http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4572/christian-exodus-islamic-world

[Valin]

Jihadist offensive in Iraq sparks mass Christian exodus
Tens of thousands said to be fleeing for their lives as Islamic State fighters sweep across Kurdish area
Marwan Ibrahim

August 7, 2014

 

The northern Iraqi town of Qaraqosh. (photo credit: Wikicommons media/Chaldean)

 

KIRKOUK, Iraq (AFP) — Jihadists took over Iraq’s largest Christian town and surrounding areas on Thursday and sent tens of thousands of panicked residents fleeing towards autonomous Kurdistan, officials and witnesses said.

 

Islamic State (IS) militants moved into Qaraqosh and several other towns overnight after the withdrawal of Kurdish peshmerga troops, who are stretched thin across several fronts in Iraq, residents said.

 

“I now know that the towns of Qaraqosh, Tal Kayf, Bartella and Karamlesh have been emptied of their original population and are now under the control of the militants,” Joseph Thomas, the Chaldean archbishop of Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah, told AFP.

(Snip)

 

[Draggingtree]