"We are living in a small hell on earth." From Compass Direct:
ISTANBUL, May 22 (Compass Direct News) – A Chaldean priest kidnapped in Iraq on Saturday morning (May 19) was released last night.Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni told Compass from Baghdad that he had personally collected Father Nawzat Hanna from his captors at 9:30 p.m.
“For about one hour I was going here and there, here and there, until they told me to stop,” Warduni told Compass, describing his interaction by telephone with Hanna’s captors. “I was afraid then, because at 10 o’clock there was a curfew.”
Refraining from mentioning the exact location, Warduni said that after he stopped his car he recognized Hanna coming towards him.
“He came crying and saying, ‘Oh Father, Monsignor, thank you, thank God, thank our Lady,’” Warduni commented.
Sitting next to Hanna today at an undisclosed location in Baghdad, Warduni told Compass that Hanna had undergone a “little bit” of torture, but that he had not been hospitalized....
Warduni pleaded with Christians around the world to do everything possible to provide security for all religious and ethnic groups in Iraq. Expressing the daily fear that faces his community, Warduni said that it might even be better to die than to continue living in the “small hell on earth” that Baghdad has become.
"Warduni said that it might even be better to die than to continue living in the “small hell on earth” that Baghdad has become."
....or for what is is worth....anywhere else that Muslims have gained control.....
If they ain't muslim then they get no protection! after all we don't want to offend our muslim allies now do we?
and if a moslem cleric were captured by Christians?????
"and if a moslem cleric were captured by Christians?????
Posted by: infidel! "
...this probably has not happened in 800 years...don't you just miss the good old days!...
Don't some of our own military stationed in Iraq read this blog? If so, can't you do something? Find out where the Christians live, provide escort for them to leave if necessary, slip them some of that Green Zone cash to ensure that once they get to Syria or Jordan they will have the cash to pay a smuggler to get them to Sweden or South America? (I understand that we throw around cash all the time to Muslim tribal leaders so who would question that?). Or better yet, who over there is compiling the list of Iraqis who will supposedly be granted permission to immigrate to the US? How can the Christians be assured of a spot on that list? Can't some of our military over there be bothered to take it upon themselves to look into this situation? I don't get it.
Don't some of our own military stationed in Iraq read this blog? If so, can't you do something?
Can we put a few troops in or near an Assyrian church, so when the muslims come and try to attack it, they can be sent to their virgins?
Jews disapeared from Iraq by 1960. Christans are done now it seams.
It is so sad to read articles like this. A wonderful Chaldean community is being destroyed. I can only think that satan is hard at work using his minions to root out and destroy one of the original Christian communitites of the East. Such a rich history of Christianity. These are the true victims.
I often wonder how much courage I would have to continue in such an enviornment. I would like to to think I would be brave, but it's hard to imagine living in "a small hell on earth" as they do. These people are the true example of living out your faith, of dying as Martyrs.
I do no not know why our military and government allow this to happen. Its shameful and pathetic that we cannot post security for that community. I truly hope it is ignorance of the situation they face and not a calculated decision. Either way ignorance is not an excuse, our military/civilian leaders have an obligation to know about this and protect them.
Here is one small way we can help another oppressed Christian community:
http://www.mirezo.com/
Exactly what is a "little torture"???
Even if U.S. troops offered some protection now, sooner or later the U.S. will have to pull out of Iraq, hopefully sooner, unsuccessful in attempts to install democracy, or even some semblance of unified stable Iraq government in place. When that occurs, civil war is likely to occur, and those fissures Hugh points out regularly will rupture. This is not a good time to be in Iraq, muslim or Christian, but especially Christian. Is not the safest thing to do pack up and leave? Easy for me to say and where does one go, but staying in Iraq seems the most dangerous option. I am all for a policy of cherry picking the most eligible and worthy Iraqi refugees to come to the U.S. We ought to have Christians and Jews first, muslims second, policy.
Apparently our leadership, especially the great Christian leader George Bush (who ironically has been accused of being on a "Crusade" in the ME), are deaf to the cries of the most ancient Christian communities in the ME. And so it must fall upon our ordinary military already sacrificing everything in Iraq to hear their pleas. And so what choice do we have but to implore ordinary Christian men and women, serving in Iraq, many maybe only 20 years old, who may have already become disgusted about their mission and feel personally compromised morally, in the impossible situation they have been placed - to perhaps become aware of this situation and do something to salvage the insane moral calculus (bringing Shariah to Iraqi Muslims) - by not undermining that mission exactly, but merely doing something really good, that they can be genuinely proud of, and tell stories about after they get home.
You can tell stories about how you "got it", and then used the apparent anarchy of how funds are distributed there etc. to do what you could to preserve a truly ancient, and irreplaceble Christian people.
Iraqi Christians are pleading with you to do something. I don't know what to do other than to plead with any soldiers who may be stationed in Iraq and reading this blog right now - to take this issue to your commanding officers and if that gets you nowhere, then to use your ingenuity, to use your creativity in getting around the rotten system that you've been thrust into, to do something, even if its dangerous (and what about Iraq isn't dangerous anyway?) - to help these Christian people, who represent your most ancient heritage - to help them, in whatever small way you can!
They're already begging you! I'm merely begging you on their behalf because it's obvious that our government isn't listening and so it may come down to a very individual sort of heroism on the part of our soldiers there.
Are there any soldiers in Iraq who can shed some light here on why this is being allowed to happen? I know about the millblogs so it apparently isn't the case that no one over there can comment on the internet. Is there anyone in the military who can explain why this is being allowed to happen?
I suspect the ransom was paid...