"They told me I should become a Muslim like the other Shias in that area. They held my hands in the fire and beat me with sticks and rifle butts calling me an infidel."
The jizya is also being collected, as per Qur'an 9:29.
Islamic Tolerance Alert: "Iraqi Christians flee gunmen for sanctuary of monastery," by Angus McDowall in the Telegraph, December 21 (thanks to Kasper):
In peaceful times, the cool mountain air and breathtaking views afforded by the ancient monastery of Mar Matti provided a congenial day trip for the local people. Clinging to the upper slopes of a steep escarpment, its ancient stone walls echoed to the hushed tones of Aramaic hymns and the Orthodox mass.But the tranquil life of Mar Matti's black-robed monks has been shattered by the arrival of hundreds of Christians fleeing a campaign of persecution in Mosul, just 20 miles away.
Their homes raided, their priests attacked and their relatives murdered, Assyrian and Chaldean Christians have become the latest victims of violence in the city, once the most cosmopolitan in Iraq.
"First they came against the Kurds, then against the Yazidis and now they have come for the Christians," said Jalal Mansour, 43, a former marble worker who fled to Mar Matti with his family after they were threatened by gunmen. "My uncle, an old man, was killed just because of his faith." [...]
Christians believe they attracted the ire of the vigilante groups that roam Mosul's dangerous streets when they considered a plan to take up arms themselves. The people of the city have also come under attack from al-Qaeda fighters.
The scent of fear has now spread to Mar Matti, where guards armed with assault rifles lolled against a crude drawing of a dove on the concrete wall of a gatehouse. [...]
"Ten days ago my sister-in-law's family was attacked: three of them were shot dead," said one of them, a 25-year-old market stall holder from Mosul who would not give his name in case of reprisals. "Other relatives have been kidnapped and forced to pay the tax levelled by the Muslim empire on non-believers." [...]
"It's very bad for all Iraqis, but Christians suffered the most," said the priest, Father Sabri al-Magdassy. "The lack of strong political parties or a tribal system like the other ethnic groups means we have nobody who can defend our rights. We only have the church." [...]
Many of them had been forced to leave all their belongings behind. A young man with an intense, haunted stare, said he had been kidnapped in Baghdad by the Mahdi Army and tortured for seven days.
"They told me I should become a Muslim like the other Shias in that area," he said. "They held my hands in the fire and beat me with sticks and rifle butts calling me an infidel. Finally my family negotiated my release for £7,000 and they freed me. When the police came I was too scared to tell them who took me, so I left and came to Irbil."
At least this is appearing in a standard daily paper, the Telegraph, rather than in a Christian news clearinghouse such as Compass Direct or AINA.
Perhaps jihadwatchers should send letters to the reporter, Mr Angus MacDowall, encouraging him to read 'Legacy of Jihad' and 'The Dhimmi' and 'The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam' and '70 000 Assyrians' and 'The Burning Tigris'.
To the above, I may add that the editor of the Telegraph is also to be commended for publishing this story.
New readers here should note this passage from the report:
"Christians believe they attracted the ire of the vigilante groups that roam Mosul's dangerous streets *when they considered a plan to take up arms themselves*" {my emphasis added - dda}.
Dhimmis - non-Muslim communities living under the dubious 'protection' of dominant Muslims, for which they paid a steep price i.e. the jizya, which gets a mention in the article as "the tax levelled by the Muslim empire on non-believers" - were absolutely forbidden to bear arms or to actively defend themselves against ANY attack from Muslims, whether physical or verbal, no matter how severe.
Here is the relevant part of the legendary 'Pact of Omar', template for all subsequent discriminatory and indeed revoltingly cruel and unjust legislation enacted by Muslims against dhimmis:
"We will respect Muslims, move from the places we sit in if they choose to sit in them. {does not this remind you of Jim Crow and Apartheid? - dda}
'We will not imitate their [Muslims'] clothing, caps, turbans, sandals, hairstyles, speech, nicknames and title names,
'or ride on saddles,
'*hang swords on the shoulders, collect weapons of any kind or carry these weapons* {my emphasis added - dda}'. END QUOTE.
Any perceived (or, indeed, rumoured/ fabricated) breach of this rule was normally met by annihilatory collective punishment inflicted on the dhimmis by the Muslims. For more, see Bat Yeor, 'The Dhimmi', or some of the essays in Spencer's 'Myth of Islamic Tolerance'.
This is why some among the Muslims of Mosul, upon hearing that the resident Christians - in breach of the Rules for Dhimmis - were thinking of arming themselves (a wholly natural and sensible thing, one would think, in an atmosphere of total lawlessness), ATTACKED.
Is it possible, that westerners are beginning to realize that they, (those arrogant atheists and secularists) and the Christians they sneer at and ridicule are considered one and the same in the minds of the armies of Mohammed? One match is lit, and soon, maybe a whole candle will follow.
Dumbledore -
Nice call on citing the Pact (I have also heard it called the Oath) of Omar.
Don't let any apologist tell you that the Pact of Omar is no longer in effect. One of the key issues with Islam is that nothing is ever changed (or even reconsidered).
The only time Muslims and kuffars "get along" is when Muslims live under a non Islamic government and the law is applied equally to all. (a tradition we inherited from the Romans)
A potential plus from the otherwise wasteful Iraq aventure might be the establishment of Christian homelands.
Such homelands would protect the indigenous Christian populations. Prosperous, Christian homelands set up in the face of the surrounding Moslem masses would not only provide a haven for Christians from the region but would potentially lead to further demoralization of dar al-Islam, which writers on this site have been calling for, for some time.
It is also possible that such homelands would provide political centers that might be friendly to Western interests, certainly more so than the sullen, grasping Moslem polities in that region.
The terrorists operate on a mafia-type basis. Where you have to pay them protection money to be left alone and even then you're only left alone till they decide they want to ask you for money is what we read.
"A potential plus from the otherwise wasteful Iraq aventure might be the establishment of Christian homelands." - Chatillon
That's why Lebanon was created. It didn't quite work out.
Lets face it. muslims live in the toilet and feed off of the feces. i cannot imagine the place in hell they will all share. islam is filth.