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“They asked me to convert to Islam, but I told them I will die a Christian and they can kill me if they want”

Dec 25, 2016 4:28 am By Robert Spencer

“The Sunni militants frequently attacked Christians and churches, terrorizing the community and forcing many to flee, some to the West, some to the Kurdish region where tolerance for religious minorities is much greater than in the rest of Iraq. Of the estimated 1.5 million Christians who lived in Iraq on the eve of the US-led invasion, about 500,000 are left.”

Yet Christians in the West remained silent and indifferent as this happened. Why? The Catholic Church’s supine and pollyannish stance in the face of the advancing jihad, and active campaign to mislead Catholics about the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat, is a moral failure the likes of which have seldom been seen in history, and poses a severe challenge to any claim it makes to moral authority.

“We have to understand that totalitarianism based on Islamic creed is the worst among all systems of government. Yes, my friends, the very survival of Christians in the cradle of Christianity is quite in danger.” So said the patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church of Antioch, Ignatius Joseph III Younan.

Yet the Church as a whole has said almost nothing at all. Why? Why are Church leaders in the West so uniformly silent about the Muslim persecution of Christians? Jean-Clément Jeanbart, the Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop of Aleppo, gave an interview to a French reporter in which he was highly critical of the mainstream media and even of his fellow bishops for ignoring the Muslim persecution of Middle Eastern Christians. “The European media,” he charged, “have not ceased to suppress the daily news of those who are suffering in Syria and they have even justified what is happening in our country by using information without taking the trouble to verify it.” And as for his brother bishops in France, “the conference of French bishops should have trusted us, it would have been better informed. Why are your bishops silent on a threat that is yours today as well? Because the bishops are like you, raised in political correctness. But Jesus was never politically correct, he was politically just!”

Archbishop Jeanbart was not the first to say this. “Why, we ask the western world, why not raise one’s voice over so much ferocity and injustice?” asked Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the head of the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI). Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem Joseph III Younan himself has in the past appealed to the West “not to forget the Christians in the Middle East.” The Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregory III has also said: “I do not understand why the world does not raise its voice against such acts of brutality.”

But the Patriarch should have understood, since he is a major part of the problem. After all, he recently said: “No one defends Islam like Arab Christians.” It is to defend Islam that Western clerics do not raise their voice against such acts of brutality. It is to pursue a fruitless and chimerical “dialogue” that bishops in the U.S. and Europe keep silent about Muslim persecution of Christians, and enforce that silence upon others. Robert McManus, Roman Catholic Bishop of Worcester, Massachusetts, said it on February 8, 2013 as he was suppressing a planned talk at a Catholic conference on that persecution: “Talk about extreme, militant Islamists and the atrocities that they have perpetrated globally might undercut the positive achievements that we Catholics have attained in our inter-religious dialogue with devout Muslims.”

Remember that Mohamed Atta, about the plane he had hijacked on September 11, 2001, told passengers over the intercom: “Stay quiet and you’ll be OK.” The Catholic Church appears to have adopted that statement as its policy regarding Muslim persecution of Christians. When will Pope Francis canonize Atta?

“Leave them; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)

“‘They asked me to convert to Islam, but I told them I will die a Christian,’” Associated Press, December 23, 2016:

The Nativity scene and Christmas tree are in place on the corner of the street. Some of the children proudly wear red Santa Claus hats or show off new toys, mostly plastic guns for small boys. Windows and balconies are festooned with colorful balloons.

It is unmistakably Christmas on Friday at the Ankawa camp, home to thousands of Iraqi Christians who have been displaced since the Islamic State group seized their towns and villages in the Nineveh plains of northern Iraq in 2014.

But the holiday spirit is tinged with a mix of homesickness and despair. They still can’t go home even though their towns and villages have been wrested back from the militants by Iraqi forces. The towns are too devastated, with no water or electricity. The Christians are also haunted by memories of their flight under cover of darkness to escape the IS onslaught.

“I just want to go home,” said a tearful 80-year-old Victoria Behman Akouma. She was among a handful who briefly stayed behind after IS seized her town of Karamlis in August 2014. “They asked me to convert to Islam, but I told them I will die a Christian and that they can kill me if they want to,” she said

After 11 days under IS rule, the militants escorted her to the border of the self-ruled Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

The Christians of Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital, were once members of an ancient but still vibrant Christian community in Iraq. They enjoyed protection and nearly equal rights with Iraq’s Muslim majority under Saddam Hussein, but their numbers rapidly dwindled after the US-led invasion of Iraq toppled the regime of the late dictator in 2003, ushering in the rise of religious militancy with the al Qaeda terror network taking the lead.

The Sunni militants frequently attacked Christians and churches, terrorizing the community and forcing many to flee, some to the West, some to the Kurdish region where tolerance for religious minorities is much greater than in the rest of Iraq. Of the estimated 1.5 million Christians who lived in Iraq on the eve of the US-led invasion, about 500,000 are left.

The Islamic State group’s onslaught across northern Iraq in 2014 devastated the unique communities in Christian-majority town like Karamlis, Bartella and Qaraqosh — all in the Nineveh plains.

The Iraqi offensive launched in October to retake Mosul has recaptured most Christian areas. But so far, the Christians have only gone back for visits, to see homes or attend services in churches that were not as badly damaged and deemed safe. Returning home for good appears a distant prospect….

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Filed Under: Featured, Iraq, Muslim persecution of Christians Tagged With: Victoria Behman Akouna


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Comments

  1. Christianblood says

    Dec 25, 2016 at 7:54 am

    Merry Christmas!!!

    • ermom says

      Dec 25, 2016 at 8:08 am

      Thanks Christianblood! I needed that song. Merry Christmas everyone!

    • gravenimage says

      Dec 27, 2016 at 12:00 am

      Thank you, Christianblood. A Merry Christmas to you.

  2. Greyhound Fancier says

    Dec 25, 2016 at 9:49 am

    The Archbishop of Canterbury has a special assistant, Rev. Canon Andrew White, who is working in the Middle East to at least offer relief to the displaced Christians. The Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East accepts donations. For Americans, the American Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East is a 501(c)(3) charity.

    The Foundation assists displaced Iraqi Christians who now reside in Jordan, around the capitol of Amman. They can’t work due to Jordanian work permit laws, and the US won’t allow them, TRUE refugees, in the country (though I am confident that if they were allowed home in reasonable safety that is their preference). Assistance is in the forms of housing, food, medical care, and a school for the children (they can’t attend Jordanian school because they are Iraqi citizens).

    I think that since we in the US made the situation for Iraqi Christians worse, we are responsible to help. As individuals, our family has been sending $$$ to AFFRME for about 18 months. The need continues.

    The Samaritan’s Purse charity is doing good work in the ME for the Christians. I had a chance to speak with Rev. Canon White about Samaritan’s Purse (I’d given them some $$$ during Lent 2015). Canon White recommends them, and says they are not a “photo op” charity, but they are in to help for the long term.

    Please help! The persecution and horror, the poverty after being forced to leave their homes with only the clothes on their back, must be addressed with mercy and generosity. Some of the Christian women have been sold into sex slavery (even a 62-year-old grandma).

    The USA through lack of follow through and attempting to appease the Iraqi Muslims after removing Saddam, has been complicit in this humanitarian disaster. We helped create this mess, at the least we should provide subsistence for the Christian victims of our policy.

    Let’s change the tone: Merry Christmas to all! May hundreds of millions of Muslims hear and understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ, receive it in their hearts, come to know that God loves them and all fellow human beings, and receive the true God and Savior’s peace. God of all glory, bring us to the day when there is no Islam, when former Muslims love and serve You, the only wise God!

    • A Harris USA says

      Dec 26, 2016 at 4:45 pm

      Let us pray and contact our representatives in congress and Pres. Trump, to bring the Christians into our land.. The bravery of this old lady is amazing…. An example for us all.. Fact is, the ISIS state is going to keep on keeping on, until WE destroy this filth!!! The stupid Roman Church is just enabling the ISIS pigs to kill, and destroy Christian strongholds in the ME, is only letting them spread their filth into our back yard. Where is the out rage??? It has plagued me since the begining of this mess!!

  3. overman says

    Dec 25, 2016 at 10:10 am

    A noble and Brave women. l hope she’s ok.

    “fruitless and chimerical”

    Just like their ‘cult of death’ is.

    • gravenimage says

      Dec 27, 2016 at 12:03 am

      Yes–this is a brave and principled woman.

  4. John Magne Trane says

    Dec 25, 2016 at 10:11 am

    Always worth a listen:

    • marina says

      Dec 25, 2016 at 10:40 am

      Very sick religion

      • Dave says

        Dec 26, 2016 at 11:33 am

        Religion?
        I think Cult is more accurate

  5. Isabella says

    Dec 25, 2016 at 10:30 am

    MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU CHRISTIAN LADY FROM CANADA

    • gravenimage says

      Dec 27, 2016 at 12:16 am

      Yes–I hope she makes it out.

  6. marina says

    Dec 25, 2016 at 10:36 am

    Brave woman!!

  7. Angemon says

    Dec 25, 2016 at 11:01 am

    “I just want to go home,” said a tearful 80-year-old Victoria Behman Akouma.

    The difference between a Christian refugee and a muslim “refugee”.

  8. Baucent says

    Dec 26, 2016 at 2:39 am

    “They enjoyed protection and nearly equal rights with Iraq’s Muslim majority under Saddam Hussein, but their numbers rapidly dwindled after the US-led invasion of Iraq toppled the regime of the late dictator in 2003”

    This fact is often forgot in the argument over who enabled ISIS to emerge. The life of Christians in Iraq during Saddam’s rule was easier. The attempt to paint Saddam as a supporter of Jihadists like al Queda was bogus, and always about a justification for the ill considered Iraq War of Bush Junior. One of Bush’s legacies could well be that he started a chain of events that resulted in the destruction of Christianity in the Middle East.

    • Dave says

      Dec 26, 2016 at 11:36 am

      Democrats -Republicans all corrupted with oil money. One snake two heads.
      Our future HOPE is Trump/Pence??

  9. ibrahim itace muhammed says

    Dec 26, 2016 at 9:50 am

    then who caused problems for these christian minorities?it is the mother of greediness ,thievary and brigandage,the united states ,who caused it.before iraqi invasion these christian communities were fully intergrated in iraqi society.they speak the same language with muslims, which is arabic.no body cares about the religion they practice.of a sudden christian west invaded their country to steal their resources.those uniformed and misguided iraqi muslims shift the blame on their fellow christian brothers,which is unjust and unislamic.why not confront the real thieves and killers,the united states and co? thus,forcing this man to convert from christianity to islam(if the story is true)is invalid under sharia as it constitutes clear infraction of quranic verse”la ikrah fiddeen(no compulsion in religion)”.we dont know where evil isis get authority to rely upon to force non muslims to convert to islam.the objective in jihad fighting is to subdue the confronting enemy.even if the enemy is captured, he shall not be compelled to convert to islam.that has been the practice from the time of prophet and rightly guided caliphs.

    • Ron says

      Dec 26, 2016 at 5:54 pm

      Yes. it is the U.S. which is to blame for the disaster that has become the Middle East. If we had leaders with any wisdom and decision-making ability we would have never sent troops there. Let Bush and Obama accept that they are war criminals responsible for 1.4 million Iraqi deaths.

      It is also true that Mohammed said there is no compulsion in religion, but then tried to kill everyone who refused to believe as he did. He was also guilty of murdering 700 Jewish captives who refused to convert, owned slaves and traded them, believed in the inferiority of women, married a six yer-old girl and ordered the deaths of several people who dared ridicule him.

      Islam is a mental illness.

  10. ibrahim itace muhammed says

    Dec 27, 2016 at 2:13 am

    ron,dig the truth ,those jews killed were tried and convicted for treachery by a tribunal presided over by a non muslim according to the terms of a treaty of togetherness duly signed by jews.see hamidullah:islamic law of war and peace.in islam,we dont have mass killings and genocide, unlike your mithraist evil bible in samuel15:3.the objective in jihad war is to subdue the confronting enemy.if the confronting enemy surrenders or captured he will not be killed.

    • Jenny H says

      Dec 27, 2016 at 7:22 am

      If the Jews who were tried were killed or enslaved for treachery, what part did the women and children and probably most of the men,in the treacherous decisions? Therefore, why would the innocent deserve to be enslaved and raped? Why is it just that a young boy, who unfortunately for him had a few pubic hairs and therefore was beheaded, when others made what the Judge decided were treacherous decisions?

    • Ron says

      Dec 27, 2016 at 12:40 pm

      How about those individuals who were killed on Mohammed’s order because they criticized him? Or the choice of paying jizyah or death given to some opponents, or the rape of a nine year-old girl, the condoned use of torture and slavery, the statement that women were inferior to men, attacking those who had not attacked him, espousing violence and world domination, total intolerance for those who id not believe as he did, great antisemitism, dhimmitude, dismemberment for perceived crimes, stoning to death, prohibitions agast critical thiking?
      I’ve read your ‘holy’ books, and they are nothing short of institutionalized evil. One wonders how such a cult of hatred, extreme cruelty and incredible ignorance ever managed to attract millions of followers. Perhaps, Islam grew because leaving Islam is punishible by death

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