I have posted here many stories about the persecution of Christians in Iraq over the last few months. The situation is not improving. Christians felt safer when Saddam was in charge because, genocidal murderer that he was, he was not interested in enforcing Sharia provisions of dhimmitude. But people like Muqtada Al-Sadr are. From AP, with thanks to Nicolei:
BAGHDAD, IRAQ (AP) -- On a Sunday afternoon, attendance at mass at St. Peter and Paul's Cathedral in Baghdad was decidedly thin.A handful of Syrian Orthodox loitered on the steps of the church afterward, women removing their dainty white lace veils as they chatted with friends. For many, church on Sunday is the only time they can really socialize because of safety fears.
Most Christians blame concern over a tumultuous security situation for keeping them away from church, but it's only a small part of a greater, and growing, predicament.
Numbering some 750,000, Christians are a minority here, and even as secular Iraqis worry about the growing tide of Islamic fundamentalism, so long repressed under Saddam Hussein, their Christian compatriots are feeling the effects closer to home. They're anxious about their place in the new world around them, one that often sees them as collaborators with their American occupiers.
The new Iraq seems destined to be dominated by a mix of Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites, leaving many Christians wondering if it is time to leave....
Eighteen-year-old Fadi, studying accounting at Baghdad's university, spoke of learning to hold his tongue when Muslim students turned on him and his Christian friends.
"They think that because the Americans are Christians and we're Christian that we must be collaborating with them," he said. "There's more of them than there are of us, so we have to pull back without answering back."
Christians who fled Iraq before the war are in neighboring Jordan and Syria, waiting and watching before deciding whether to return, said Bishop Andreas at the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Church.
"They're very afraid," he admitted.
Of the 750,000 Christians in Iraq, the majority are Chaldean Roman Catholic, the rest Syrian Catholic, Syrian Orthodox and Assyrian. Most live in Baghdad and its outskirts and some dwell further to the north.
Islamic radicals have warned Christians running liquor stores to shut down their sales, and have turned their sights on fashion stores and beauty salons. The increasing attention on this minority community has many within looking for a way out.
Local newspapers reported that last week, the Chaldean Patriarch, the Rev. Emmanuel Delly, met with Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and told him that Christians wanted to flee the country because they feared for their lives in the new Iraq.
Allawi's office wouldn't comment on the report and Delly reacted furiously when confronted with the question.
"How can you ask me a question like that? Do I ask you who you visit?" he raised his voice at a reporter, knocking down a tape recorder.
He later softened to say the visit was "merely to congratulate him and his new government and to wish him all the best." He told his diocese to stand firm.
"I tell them that we love our nation, and we will work for a better Iraq," he said, fingering a large silver crucifix around his neck. He said he didn't know anything about threats to Iraqi Christians and their livelihoods.
What else can he say?
Shaking the hands of the last worshippers to leave the Cathedral, Father John could only shake his head at the dwindling number of parishioners coming to Mass each week. He said that while Saddam Hussein dragged the country through "war after war," Christians felt safer when he was in charge."We have no future in Iraq now," he said.
There is an anti-Jihad site at http://p197.ezboard.com/ftheantijihadforumfrm1
It's a really good board.
I'm absolutely amazed at how many anti-Islamic sites that there are out there.
Apparently there's a lot of anti-muslim activity in Corsica. They have a slogan, the suitcase or the coffin. They sure are direct in Corsica.
I always felt that it wasn't a good thing to wage war against Iraq.
War against Saudi Arabia yes, Iraq no.
The war on Iraq was NOT wrong.
It is the prosecution of the war to its desired objective that is being debated.An easier and less costly way to have done it would have been not to enter the towns but encircle them and break them down.
Well, since the U.S. is 82% Christian, and the U.S. is paying for the reconstruction of Iraq, Christians should be in a better position than worrying about persecution.
If we look at what the American taxpayer is forced to fund, we own that country.
Why surely it is the muslims who should be fearing persecution from the evil of Christianity, or so the liberals and socialists would have you believe.
Are we all going to be honest with each other now and finally admit that although we've acheived our goals in Iraq , it was really one big waste of time and money (not to mention energy)? What are we giving these no-hopers our money for they don't want a democracy, Allah will punish them for not following his divin.....blah...blah
Exactly Rikki
Since the coalition is there, why don't we make it safe for christians to live there.
I don't get it.
A waste of time and money? I think not.
The Iraq war is not a separate war, but the current western front in a larger War on Terror.
For the money and lives we've invested, we've throttled the Taliban, severely depleted the reserve of experienced al Qaeda operatives, and removed a dictator and his murderous offspring from their position of tyranny in Iraq.
The West has served notice that battle lines have been drawn, and that continued support of Islamic extremism will come at a terrible political, economic and military price. We have freed 50 million people from oppression, and are giving them a chance for a better life. These efforts even convinced Libya to turn over WMDs that no one even know they had. How is that for results?
We devised an excellent "honeypot" strategy that not only draws, traps, and kills the most rabid Islamic fundamentalists in the Middle East; it also depletes their not unlimited military and monetary reserves, forcing terrorists to increasingly desperate acts that further isolate them from the general population. This isolation makes them more obvious and inviting targets as civilians begin to realize that their best interests and the interests of the terrorists are not the same. And so the terrorists become more and more easy to find, target, and kill, while respect for the coalition and a newly free Iraqi government goes up.
If you need proof, look no further than the blogs of the average Iraqi. They have hope for a better country, a hatred for the insurgency that is killing them, and a deep appreciation for what we have done for them.
We are making a tremendous difference in a country where the vast majority of the country is still young and impressionable. Change in Iraq and Iran is indeed possible, and real. We see evidence of that every day, despite the last flickering embers of a dying insurgency being propped up by external enemies that are sure to be the next targets on the list. Change does not happen overnight, but if you bother to do the legwork and seek out the voices of those inside Iraq as opposed of being spoon-fed what various media outlooks would like to spin, you might just find something closer to “truth.”
This war is justified, and we serve everyone’s interests by seeing it through.
Think Christians in Iraq have every reason to be afraid with family members killed and business's
destroyed.Why can't we take Christian Refugees instead of Muslim bloodsuckers who have no intention of integrating but only of eventually taking our countries over? Makes sense,eh!
Political correctness prevents the coalition from offering even the protection that it would offer to general Iraqis. That is the sad state of affairs in the US and the UK. Muslims OTH have no difficulty in making their allegiances quite clear.
There is hardly any doubt that the best policy would be to allow immigration of the terribly persecuted Christians in Muslim nations at the expense of Muslims. This is not only normal but humane and fair. Christians have no where to go except Christian countries, to be safe. Howver PCness mandatse that 7000 Muslims be flown over evemn they are under no threat, are Muslims living in Islamic nations, and are o the same ethinicity to those around them.
Political correctness is the going to be the death of us all.
Hi DP111, I agree with everything you say except your last line. From what I am seeing in British society at least, I would say that we, the slowly awakening silent majority, are going to be the death of political correctness.
LOVE LIFE - HATE ISLAM !!!
Forget Iraq,I live in Canada and at the rate were taking in Muslims refugee's from Islamic States that allow killing Christians,I'm worried
about be murdered right here in Canada by Jihadists that harp about the Palestinian issue.
We have a Son of the Al-Quida member from Afghanistan and he praised Osama and now screams racism because Canada won't issue him a passport to get into the USA.
We have TV shows where I have seen campaigns
every Easter by Muslim Cleric's that use the Quran and Muhammed to point out that Jesus didn't die on the cross,the whole thing was a scam because a look-alike was put on the cross over night,and that's how people believed he came back to life and rose to the heavens. The fact that they use Muhammed as the basis for this annual "hate-fest" forces Muslims to accept the lie or suffer the wrath of the ever loving,ever merciful Allah that sent the Prophet(pbu)5 centuries after Christ.
Some organizations are funded by the Suadis to hold seminars in Canada based on Wahabbeism and they also fund rallies that burn American and Israeli flags.
The www.canadianislamiccongress.org collects
info on media reports the make racist and Islamophobic inferrences.The C.I.C. has people that burn their life away watching TV,reading news papers,and monitoring radio broadcasts and write these attacks on Islam. Reports list companies and individuals by levels of Islamophobia,any news item that quotes a Muslim terrorists and claiming to be a Muslim terrorist killing innocent infidels for Islam,is deemed Muslim-bashing and racists.
To prove my point,the 9/11 report in the USA mentioned Islamists as a direct threat.The Canadian news website sanitized the report and left out any connection to Islam even though the 19 Jihadists were Muslims and praised Allah befor cremating thousands of infidels.
Muslims are using fear to stop the public from seeing the true Islam.Their silence on the mocking of Christ on Muslim TV shows makes it obvious what their goals are.
One Imam said that Westerners are Christian because their ignorant of the Koran and Islam,once they read the Koran they'll convert because they'll see the truth and understand Allah is the real God and the world is destine be a Islamic domain under Koranic laws.
Voltarie,
I2225pl;ololb zinteresting that you think the US should not have attacked Iraq.
Are
2% christians in Pakistan are having a bad time. In Malaysia the christians have problems in new churches. http://mggpillai.com/sections.php3?op=viewarticle&artid=7171
Get the Iraqi christians to the US. Muslims are not needed. These Iraqis with their knowledge of Arabic will be an invaluable asset to the war on Islamic terrorism.
Remember ISLAM is an evil cult.
Son of infidel
Sorry, don't fully understand your post.
Voltaire
We bend over backwards for muslims, yet ignore the plight of Iraqi christians.
Yet we say that we live in christian nations.
Maybe we're taking the "love thy enemies" just a bit too seriously.
thank you 'brother bush' for bringing 'christian democracy' to irag.