Remember the Michael Yon photo above? It shows Christians and Muslims working together to replace the cross atop St. John’s Church in Baghdad. Yon is a good man, and he has done heroic and courageous work of his own in documenting the heroic and courageous work of American troops in Iraq — work generally ignored by the traitors and jihad fellow-travelers of the mainstream media. And this photo received wide distribution — deservedly so.
But on some Norquistian conservative blogs, where they believe that Islam is solely and wholly a religion like any other, with no political or social system or mandate for the subjugation of unbelievers, such that the vast majority of Muslims in the West will have no trouble accepting democratic pluralism, this photo was trumpeted as a sign that The Surge was on the verge of ending the “terror threat” (which they believe to be largely confined to Iraq and Afghanistan) and that a new era of peace and harmony between Christians and Muslims was dawning in Iraq. These sites (including some that for awhile showed a glimmer of actually understanding the jihad threat) were — along with the general public — losing interest in the jihad, or seeing it as giving them low ratings, and appeared anxious to declare victory and get out.
Well, for Christians in Iraq, the picture is not quite as rosy as they made out. But just as the mainstream media seems fanatically committed to ignoring good news out of Iraq, so all too many “conservative” blogs seems just as fanatically committed to ignoring bad news out of that country. And the only ones who lose out are the Iraqi Christians, who have no one to stand up for them.
“Iraq: Christian businessman killed in Mosul,” by Kim Gamel for Associated Press, October 13 :
BAGHDAD – A Christian music store owner was shot to death in Mosul, Iraqi police said Monday “” the latest in a series of killings that has caused thousands of members of the religious minority to flee the northern city….
The attack came as government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the national security council had decided to form a committee to investigate the problem.
The government also would send additional Iraqi forces to the area to assure “the Christians of the government’s commitment to their security and protection,” he said….
Islamic extremists have frequently targeted Christians since the 2003 U.S. invasion, forcing tens of thousands to flee the country. Attacks had tapered off amid a drastic decline in overall violence nationwide, but concerns are rising about the deaths this month in Mosul….
The senior migration and displacement official in Mosul, Jawdat Ismaeel, said the latest figures show that 1,092 families have fled the city. The number could not be independently verified. Most have left for churches, monasteries and the homes of relatives in nearby Christian villages and towns.
But the U.N. envoy said just over 500 families were being assisted in the area, adding that many of the newly displaced Christians had previously fled to Mosul to escape violence in Baghdad….