Of course the MSN and the bush administration are going to hush this one up. If only those darn christians would just die so that they can't embarass us anymore when we tell the world islam is a religion of peace.

Posted by: pissedoffcanadian at August 20, 2006 4:56 AM

"All people want freedom." "Democracy is on the march." Etc.

Iraqis have already declared, at the time of their Constitution, that while those who had left Iraq were to be permitted to return, an exception would be made for Jews from Iraq: they could not return. At the time the Iraqi leaders needed to retain the goodwill of the Americans, and were not about to extend that ban to Christians. But does anyone doubt that if a vote were taken in Iraq, that a majority of both the Sunni Arabs and the Shi'a Arabs (see the website of Sistani on the "unclean" nature of all non-Muslims) would be happy to expel the Christians who remain, after 1350 years of persecution, forced conversion, and mass murder, for Christianity predates the arrival of Islam by centuries.

If one were to list all the things that have happened -- the destruction of ancient Mandean libraries (and this did not start yesterday -- back in 1915 a famous collection of texts may, or may, not have been hidden in a well -- the library of Seert -- by a learned Christian cleric who foresaw that he was about to be killed, and he was killed, by the Muslim Turks. Similar acts of destruction of Christian churches, libraries, manuscripts and artifacts of every kind, have been the common lot of Christians wherever Islam conquered.

In Iraq, within the past few years, the last 4-6 Christian families in Ramadi had their men killed, their women seized by Muslims. In Basra Christian businessmen have been killed, sometimes for selling alcohol, and sometimes for no reason other than their being Christian. It has not been different in Baghdad, except that there Christians make up a very large percentage of the doctors and other professionals, far out of proportion to their numbers (are you surprised? you're not, are you?), have been subject to kidnappings, as well as attacks of every kind including bombs in churches, and the murder of individuals, and are fleeing the country.

The American soldiers have not had any of this explained to them. After all, if they were to learn that the people they are "helping," the "freedom-loving Iraqis," when given the chance will hold to ransom or persecute or murder Christians, or at least not raise a syllable of protest against such practices by other Muslims, it might give them pause. It might cause them to question the mission, that they are not permitted to question, that every conceivable mode of brainwashing, including mindless repetition of phrases -- "we're here to give them a chance at democracy" or "we've got to fight the bad guys (always "the bad guys" from children's games, what prompts their "badness" never discussed openly, or perhaps by even the generals not understood, a kind of mystery about which it is not theirs to reason why) "over here so we don't have to fight them at home." (As if it makes the slightest difference, as if attacks in London, Madrid, Moscow, Amsterdam, among other Western capitals, are somehow connected to American soldiers fighting the Sunnis on behalf of the Shi'a, or the Shi'a on behalf of the Sunnis.

Eventually the officers and men, or a large number of them, in the regular army, in the Reserves, and in the National Guard, will stop buying this nonsense. They will do so once they have returned home, and had the time to think about the unpleasant, violent people of Iraq, and the handful of those they worked with who impressed them, and once they realize that in the Green Zone all those Iraqis who served as drivers, cooks, laundresses, and so on were Christians, performing the same tasks that they had for Saddam Hussein (who knew they were no threat, as Muslims would be), and that many of the interpreters, as well, were Christians, and that among the "Iraqi" soldiers almost none of the Arabs could be trusted though the Kurds could, then they will begin to wonder, to ask questions, and try to figure out why it was, in their time in Iraq, that the only people they could exempt from their general mistrust were the Christian interpreters and staff, who are non-Muslim; the Kurdish militia-men, who are non-Arab and so have an identity other than Islam to appeal to; and finally, the smaller children, who had not yet been given enough lessons in hatred of the Infidel to be sufficiently hostile, or allow their desire for soccer balls and candy and everything else they can grab (the habit of begging for, demanding, grabbing whatever one can from the Infidels, from the tourists in Cairo beset upon by those pleading so plausibly for "baksheesh, baksheesh" to the men in the souk seeing every Infidel as ready for the plucking, to be assured of "I love you, effendi, I love you more than my father, I love you more than my mother" or words and facial expressions and hand gestures to that effect, comes early and naturally).

When the officers and men realize how stupidly they have been used, for the sake of an obstinate policy that will not see the belief-system of Islam as the enemy, and will continue to pretend, against all evidence, that this war over "democracy" is really simply a war between those who lost, and would lose, in any political system based on head-counting (the Sunnis), and those who won, and would win, in any such system (the Shi'a). This Bush and Rice either cannot see, or will not permit themselves to see. And so they are prepared to squander more men, more money, more materiel, all because of their inability, or perhaps wilful refusal, to at least inwardly come to comprehend that anything which helps to divide and demoralize and use up the resources of the Camp of Islam is to the advantage of Infidels, and that the notion of "democracy" in Iraq or elsewhere as ending up as something else, something that might dampen Islam -- the siren-song of Chalabi and "reformers" in Egypt and Syria and other countries who want the Americans to intervene, and replace the current regime with, as it happens, these "reformers" (who don't stand a chance against Islam or the power of Muslims - not in Iraq, not in Egypt, not in Lebanon where if there were real democracy the Christians would lose still more of whatever power they currently possess).

Posted by: Hugh at August 20, 2006 6:49 AM

I thought Bush was suppose to make Iraq a democracy what is democracy leting muslims force out christians? The war in iraq was a mistake also Bush has done nothing in Iraq to protect the christians from the kurds or shias or sunnis churches have been bombed and now a preist is kidnapped i think christians under saddams regime did not suffer as much as they do now

Posted by: Greek Gurl at August 20, 2006 7:14 AM

Wait until angry Vatican officals who are not dhimmis themselves start to speak out then Washington will start to feel some heat to push for protection of Christians in Iraq. Otherwise this will just force the remaining ones to leave.

Posted by: bigcatgirl13106 at August 20, 2006 7:23 AM

"Christians Disappearing From Iraq"

http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2033

"Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament; Let them Rape and Kill Christian Women."

http://www.christiansofiraq.com/letthemrape.html

One can go through this link.

http://www.christiansofiraq.com/

Posted by: arjun.sevak at August 20, 2006 7:37 AM

Might I add that, before this conflict started, approximately 33,000 Mandaeans, (an ancient sect who are pacifists and followers of John the Baptist) were in Iraq. The numbers are now believed to be less than 3,000. Like Christians and Jews, they lived in the area long before the Muslims arrived. Their religious centers have been burned, their businesses burned, their men shot for just walking down the streets and their women raped and kidnapped. For me, they are the ultimate proof, if anyone needed it, that Muslims want to eliminate all non-Muslims, not just Christians because of the Crusades, Jews because of Israel, Hindus because of India's policies, etc. etc. As pacificism is part of their religion, they have no history of armed conflict with their Muslim neighbors. They are also proof that Sunnis and Shiites are united on one thing; they will terrorize and kill their non-Muslim neighbors and need no reason to do so.

Posted by: Mary Rose at August 20, 2006 10:15 AM

Iraq Muslims kill, rape, and kidnap fellow Christians, in some part, due to a twisted logic of Islamic supremacy and the ‘divine origin’ of the Koran, i.e., Allah will side with Muslim over non-Muslim, and practitioners, followers of word and deed, are Allah’s purist people. If Syrian Christians penned the Koran, then Muslim ‘glory and honor’ is in some part, due to Syrian Christians. Syrian Christians are the ‘divine origin’ of their Koran. Belief in Allah, or in one God, was a way to steer illiterate multi-god worshiping non-Christian Arabs and others into a unified belief in one God, and Muhammad’s role was to serve as a witness, to validate the sincerity of Jewish & Christian prophets, established texts, and beliefs.

Posted by: SFOD at August 20, 2006 12:19 PM

An outrage like this would never have happened if Saddam were still in power. As soon as the priest were taken, the crackdown in Doura would have been rapid and violent. Those that committed this crime could expect to be slaughtered without escape. While Saddam ruled, Christians in Baghdad were safe and even treated as an educated elite. They were outranked only by members of Saddam's own Tikriti tribe, the military, and the elder members of the Ba'ath party.

Now all that is reversed. The Ba'ath party is destroyed, the military replaced, the Tikritis under the watchful eyes of the US military, and the Christians facing persecution and genocide. But all is well, because the Iraqis now have "democracy" thanks to George W. Bush.

Posted by: Provoslavni at August 21, 2006 8:52 AM