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In Jordan, Christians fleeing persecution in Iraq live in fear

Mar 15, 2007 2:15 pm By Marisol Seibold

And the two sisters in this story were denied admission to Australia — precisely the sort of thing Fred Nile recently called attention to. Islamic Tolerance Alert. “In Jordan, Christians from Iraq harassed,” by Dale Gavlak for Associated Press:

AMMAN, Jordan – Iraqi sisters Nasrin and Rihab enjoyed a relatively peaceful life in Baghdad until the night almost a year ago when militiamen tortured and beheaded their only brother.

Then came threatening phone calls, said the sisters, both members of Iraq’s small Christian community. And not long afterward, armed men broke into their home and beat them.

They “started hitting us, pulling our hair and pounding on my sister’s stomach with their boots,” wailed Nasrin, now 51, in an interview in their tiny apartment in Amman.

Rihab’s gallbladder burst, and blood came out of her mouth, the sisters recalled. She was rushed to a hospital and when she recovered, with a large scar still across her middle, the two fled to Jordan.

“We escaped after that. They vowed to kill us,” said Rihab, 56, who like her sister would not allow her family name to be used for fear of more attacks.

Their story is a chilling reminder of troubles faced by minority Christians in Iraq amid sectarian fighting between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. Churches have been bombed, and businesses “” particularly hair salons and liquor shops _destroyed.

As a result, many Christians have joined the flood of Iraqis fleeing their country. There are an estimated 750,000 Iraqi refugees in Jordan, including about 2,000 Christians. An additional 1 million Iraqis have fled to Syria.

Jordan has been especially worried about the influence of Shiite refugees, who are seen as a menace to the country’s security and predominantly Sunni character. But Christians “” most are Chaldean Catholics “” have also faced a tough time here.

Rihab and Nasrin, who have put several locks and deadbolts on the door of their two-room apartment, say they are haunted by memories of Baghdad.

Militants kidnapped their brother, Muhanna, tied him up in a deserted house and tortured him, then killed him.

“He tried to call us from his phone, but the line went dead,” Rihab said. “They took his cell phone and made threatening calls to us. .. We realized that something terrible had happened.”

Police later discovered his body.

“Now we have no one at all to care for us and protect us,” wept Rihab, clutching pictures of the bloody body.

The sisters, neither married, can barely afford their $200 monthly rent here. They have no family left in Iraq. A niece lives in Australia; the sisters were recently denied permission to settle there.

“I help an old woman. … I’m tired. … but we trust in God,” said Nasrin.

Rihab believes Christians no longer have a future in Iraq, and thinks militants targeted her family because of their faith.

“‘We will kill you, like we killed your brother,'” she said the militants threatened, over the phone, after the brother’s death. “They shouted obscenities at us, telling us, ‘You are Christians.'”

Afterward, the family home was attacked and they fled.

Leila Salman, a Christian whose two daughters were killed by Shiite militiamen last year, is also now living in Jordan and is grim about the future.

Her daughters, Linda and Rita, both in their 20s, were killed when men fired on a minibus taking workers home from a U.S. military facility in Baghdad. The two had washed clothes and worked at a dispensary for the U.S. military.

“We’re being persecuted because the allied forces are Christian, and they think we are collaborators,” their mother said.

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