A message from the Sabian Mandaean Association (thanks to Keith Roderick):
The Sabian Mandæan Association has now been advised that Khairi Abdul Sattar Nasir (born 1951) and three (3) other Mandæans were killed by Muslims in Dawra, a suburb of Baghdad, on 2 April 2005 at about 1.00 p.m. The Sabian Mandæan Association has been informed that Khairi Abdul Sattar Nasir was in his shop when two (2) car loads of Muslims armed with shotguns suddenly appeared. The Muslims sprayed Khairi Abdul Sattar Nasir's shop with gunshots, killing him.At the same time the Muslims also sprayed with gunfire the shops of Khairi Abdul Sattar Nasir's three (3) Mandæan neighbours, also killing them. Having murdered the four (4) Mandæans the Muslims immediately sped away. The fact that the Muslims at once departed demonstrates the Islamic purely theological motivation for the murders as no robbery took place. The Sabian Mandæan Association has been informed that Khairi Abdul Sattar Nasir's daughter who was assisting him in his shop had left the shop for ten (10) minutes and returned to find her father dead as a result of the gunshot wounds inflicted upon him by the Muslims.
The Sabian Mandæan Association has been informed that Khairi Abdul Sattar Nasir's daughter was severely traumatised and continues to suffer as a result of this Islamic action. This latest incident illustrates once again the plight of Mandæans in Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein was a cruel tyrant but he was not an Islamist fanatic and his regime did impose some restraint upon the Muslims. Unfortunately, that restraint was removed by the invasion...
"Saddam Hussein was a cruel tyrant but he was not an Islamist fanatic and his regime did impose some restraint upon the Muslims. Unfortunately, that restraint was removed by the invasion..."
This is true. In Muslim countries, it is unfortunately some despots who are most likely to protect non-Muslims, just as it is other despots who are most likely to whip up Muslim masses against them. Had there been Jews left, they would have been the first victims. But there aren't, so it is the turn of the Christians. And that, of course, is also the model of what will happen if Israel's retreat is allowed to take place, which will whet, rather than sate, Arab appetites and Muslim triumphalism, and will have direct consequences in Europe -- none of them good. But many in Europe do not realize this, and continue to count on throwing Israel to the wolves as the best way to save themsevles. They are dead wrong.
In your scrupulous employment of the diphthong ligature, you do Jihadwatch proud. Few website masters would have taken the trouble.
Where on the computer did you locate the right symbol? And while we're at it, why doesn't Typekey make allowance for accent marks. While there is a lot to be said for parishes, this linguistic parochialism annoys.
The Mandaeans are a small group of religious believers who follow the teachings of John the Baptist. In the past year many of their places of worship have been destroyed and their bishop has been forced to flee Iraq. They are particularly vulnerable when they worship as their liturgy requires them to spend a great deal of time in the open air by rivers. Of course, their Muslim neighbors know this and it is "open season" on these poor people as they conduct their religious services. A good number of Mandaean shopkeepers have also been killed and their stores stripped bare, leaving their families without a husband and father and any means of support for the wife and children. Unfortunately, the US officials in Iraq don't seem too concerned about the persecutions of the minority religions, Christians, Mandaeans, Zorastians, Yedzis, etc. The persecutions of these non-Christian minorities prove that jihad goes much beyond a war against the 'Christian crusaders' and that Islam is at war with all of non-Muslims.
Hugh, the dipthong ligature is a character mapping feature which is part of Windows (charmap, exe) or alternatively a free download called foreign.exe
In DOS it took three keystrokes to produce these characters.
I am using foreign.exe and here are some examples
ÆÇæñ£™œ
Here is a link to Foreign .exe
BTW Character mapping or charmap.exe is a built in feature of Win95, Win98, I don't know about subsequent versions though.
You can access it from start/run type in charmap
or drag and drop charmap from the Windows directory to the desktop.
Back on topic, persecution (in some form) for non Muslims is a built in feature of the Muslim program.
Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians while allowed to exist in Iran, are second class citizens, however it is open season on Bahai's, pagans, atheists.
Christians enjoyed safety and rights under Saddam, but not so under the Bush approved Islamic Republic of Iraq, last I saw 40,000 have fled the country due to persecution and it will only get worse.
This new Islamic Republic of Iraq, is making accomodations for Sunni's (who boycotted the election),and Kurds, but I've heard not a word (especially from the Bush administration) about Christians being included. On the other hand Saddams minister of information was a Christian.
Boy, am I confused. But I'll give it the old college try.
So should the US stay in Iraq and attempt to build a regime that will protect all of its citizens, or as is so often recommended on this site, just leave and let them all kill each other?