Jihad Watch: Iraqi Churches Bombed: Link with Danish Cartoons?

February 3, 2006

Iraqi Churches Bombed: Link with Danish Cartoons?

Some Christians in Iraq suspect that there is such a link. From the Barnabas Fund, with thanks to XXX:

A spate of car bombs exploded outside churches in Iraq last Sunday 29th January in what appears to have been a coordinated attack. The explosions occurred within a half hour period, apparently chosen to coincide with the time at which Christians would be going to church.
Two churches in the northern city of Kirkuk and at least two others in the capital Baghdad were targeted. At least three people, including a 13-year-old boy, were killed and an estimated 16-20 people injured. According to some reports as many as seven churches were bombed.

The bombings were condemned by some Muslim political leaders including Ali al-Adeeb (Shi’a) and Naweer al-Ani (Sunni).

A similar incident of near-simultaneous explosions at Iraqi churches happened on Sunday 1st August 2004 during the time of the evening service. Four churches in Baghdad and one in Mosul were bombed on that occasion, with some 15 fatalities.

LINKS WITH DANISH CARTOONS?

Many Christians in Iraq are connecting this week’s church bombings with the growing furore across the Muslim world caused by the publication of some cartoons caricaturing Muhammad in a Danish newspaper on 30th September 2005....

On the same day, 29th January, Christian students at Mosul University were beaten up by Muslim students. Some days earlier a number of fatwas had been issued by sheikhs in Mosul, acting in reponse to pressure from Islamic militias in the city. The fatwas called for their followers to “expel the crusaders and infidels from the streets, schools and institutions because they insulted the person of the prophet in Denmark”.

Posted by Robert at February 3, 2006 6:40 AM
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Comments
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This time it is the cartoons. Last time it was something else. They don't need an excuse. Not being a Muslim, and the right type of Muslim at that, is quite sufficient.

Posted by: Granny Weatherwax

at February 3, 2006 7:17 AM

Granny et al:

The link if any, will be found when we find out who paid for the cartoon roadshow and the three "additions" that did not originate with Jyllens Poste. Alhamedi (aka The Religeous Policeman) at muttawa.blogspot.com speculates that if there's anyone behind this, four months after JP's publication date, perhaps its the Saudi government looking to divert attention from the incredibly incompetent crowd control at the recent Hajj.

Posted by: waterdragon52

at February 3, 2006 8:10 AM

We should do an exchange program, Iraqi Christians for the more radical moslems living in the US.
Of course the exchange ratio would be 9 moslems for one Christian.

Posted by: FIVEOFNINE

at February 3, 2006 8:11 AM

If we swapped Iraqi Christians for muslims here in the US and took ALL the Christians any ideas of how many muslims we'd get rid of?

I don't like having them in this country simply because they seem to have no interest in being good Americans.

Posted by: fireangel

at February 3, 2006 8:28 AM

"We should do an exchange program, Iraqi Christians for the more radical moslems living in the US."
-- from a posting above

Middle Eastern Christians, of the non-islamochristian variety, could be resettled in Judea and Samaria (renamed in 1948, by the Jordanians, as the "West Bank"), and the Muslim Arabs moved out. This would be particularly important in Bethlehem, where the Christian population has fallen from 60% to 30% under "Palestinian" rule, and where the remaining Christians are under assault -- though some, of course, nervously assure visitors that things are "okay" which is not what they say when they get out of Bethlehem and are able to tell the truth.

Should Assyrians and others wish to remain, as a Christian presence, in the Middle East, the protection of Israel's army, in what is the Christian Holy Land, would also help maintain the Christian claim -- never threatened by Israel, always threatened by the Muslims -- to the Christian sites in the Holy Land.

And outside the MIddle East, Christians might volunteer -- it could be a kind of activity to attract especially the young -- to live, for varying but temporary periods, in the same area, making clear that Christians, who with the Jews were the original inhabitants of the Mesopotamia (Iraq), Syria, Egypt, and North Africa (Tertullian, St. Augustine), are not going to be driven out. And this idea might revive a certain spirit, for Christians in and out of the Middle East. It is important not to allow Muslims to de-Christianize Bethlehem, Nazareth, and other areas, important to the very survival of Christianity. This is not sufficiently understood in official Christian circles. Certainly the various official church bureacracies -- Presbyterians, etc. -- who have been so busy passing anti-Israel legislation (with a little help from agents of influence, including "Palestinian" islamochristians in this country working hand-in-glove with "Palestinian" agent Naim Ateek) that is passing legislation to harm the one state in the entire area on which the Christians of the Middle East can count, the one state that, as the Maronites in Lebanon know, needs to remain strong if the Christians are to have a chance.

Perform the thought experiment: Israel disappears. What happens to the Christians in Lebanon, and the few in Jordan, and the Copts in Egypt? Will the Muslims feel so sated, so delighted, with their victory, that they will cease any persecution or murder or driving-out of Christians? How will the Christian holy sites fare if the men of Hamas come striding through them, triumphantly clutching their kalashnikovs? What do you think?

Posted by: Hugh

at February 3, 2006 8:32 AM

I received this from a Christian in Iraq. Thought it appropriate to include for the rest of the "watchers":

"I wish all of you pray for Iraqi Christians, as you know at sunday evening, seven churches being exploded at the same time and this is not the first time ,

We need help
We need support
While we are being attacked, the whole world is silent. why???????
all christians are one body acording to the Holy Scriptures........

They attacked many sects, differnt places in Iraq and kirkuk, Syrian Orthodox, Chaldeans .Assyrians.. etc

This is not the first time
I wish you all pray for us at this critical time.

the problem , they want us stop going to churches and want us out of Iraq
We don't know why till now!!!"

Keep the persecuted in our thoughts and prayers. Contact your elected reps and church leaders and request a response for their silence.

Posted by: jhl952

at February 3, 2006 9:14 AM

I expect this will be on the Barnabas Fund website shortly.
*****
03 February 2006

PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS TO BE SCAPEGOATS FOR DANISH CARTOONISTS?

Gunmen from Islamic Jihad and Fatah announced their intention yesterday of attacking churches in Gaza in protest against the cartoons of Muhammad published in Denmark last September. But the newly elected armed Islamist group Hamas publicly rejected the targeting of churches over this issue,even offering to provide military protection for one church building.

A growing movement of Muslim protest around the world since the cartoons appeared has gained strength this week as the cartoons were republished in six other European countries and Jordan. Amidst economic boycotts, demonstrations outside embassies, burning of the Danish flag and calls for a "Day of Anger", Christian minorities in Muslim countries have begun to be targeted. The threats to Palestinian church buildings follow attacks on Iraqi Christian students and bombs outside Iraqi churches last Sunday.
These attacks were seen as retaliation for the Danish cartoons, not least because of recent explicit fatwas in Iraq to expel Christians "from
streets, schools and institutions" because of events in Denmark.

Muslims seem to have little hesitation in insulting Christian images, for example trampling on the cross as depicted on the Danish flag. For a recent Al-Jazeera picture of this happening in Iraq see link [1].

MUSLIM FEELINGS VS. NON-MUSLIM LIVES

Yesterday King Abdullah of Jordan addressed the National Prayer Breakfast Leadership Luncheon in Washington. The king is generally considered a
voice of moderation in the Muslim world. He condemned Sunday's bombing of the Iraqi churches, but went on to criticise the publication of caricatures of Muhammad.

"Why should the hurting of Muslim feelings be equated with the injury and destruction of non-Muslim persons and property?" asks Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund. "This gross injustice has gone unremarked. Christian minorities in Muslim countries strive continually to demonstrate that they are loyal citizens of their homelands, yet over and over again they are punished for the deeds of people they do not know in "Christian" countries far away. They are desperately vulnerable, knowing that few would dare to come to their aid or to seek to bring their attackers to justice."

PRAYER ITEMS

* Pray that Christian minorities in Iraq, Gaza and elsewhere will not be victimised by Muslims who have been angered by the actions of other people far away in Europe.