The international “human rights community” is too busy tracking down claims of “Islamophobia” to take any notice of this.
“‘There Are No Girls Left’: Syria’s Christian Villages Hollowed Out by ISIS,” by Ben Hubbard, New York Times, August 15, 2018:
…The number of Christians across the Middle East has been declining for decades as persecution and poverty have led to widespread migration. The Islamic State, also known as ISIS, considered Christians infidels and forced them to pay special taxes, accelerating the trend in Syria and Iraq.
In this area of Syria, the exodus has been swift.
Some 10,000 Assyrian Christians lived in more than 30 villages here before the war began in 2011, and there were more than two dozen churches. Now, about 900 people remain and only one church holds regular services, said Shlimon Barcham, a local official with the Assyrian Church of the East.
Some of the villages are entirely empty. One has five men left who protect the ruins of the Virgin Mary Church, whose foundations the jihadists dynamited. Another village has only two residents — a mother and her son.
Mr. Barcham doubted that many people would return. “They all say nice things about wanting to come back, but I don’t think they will,” he said.
Assyrians are an indigenous Middle Eastern minority who trace their roots to the ancient Assyrian empire. Their main modern communities are in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey and a few Western countries. They belong to a number of churches, including the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church, and they speak a dialect of Aramaic.
When the Islamic State began its rampage across Iraq and Syria, the jihadists killed or enslaved Shiite Muslims and Yazidis, but they sought to make money off the Assyrians, probably assuming that their relatives abroad would pay dearly to have them released.
That tactic worked. Even before ISIS emerged, Assyrians had been leaving the Middle East for decades, and many in the diaspora rallied to help their brethren held captive in Syria, holding fund-raisers and sending cash from abroad for ransom payments, which were handled by a local Assyrian bishop, Mr. Barcham said.
The extremists demanded as much as $50,000 for the release of individual captives, but often accepted lower sums. The church has never revealed exactly how much it paid the Islamic State, but most assume it was more than a million dollars.
Not everyone was saved. Three hostages dressed in orange jumpsuits were killed in a video the jihadists sent to goad payments for others. One kidnapped woman never returned. Villagers assumed she was forced to marry an ISIS fighter.
Those days of fear and violence in the villages are gone, but the scars they left are everywhere.
Sitting alone in front of his house in Tel Tal, Oshana Kasho Oshana, 81, said he had been kidnapped by ISIS fighters and held for 30 days while his relatives negotiated his release, eventually paying about $13,000….
Terry Gain says
Pope Francis was unavailable for comment.
mortimer says
Dhimmi Dope Frank is the real traitor … he abandons Christians who most need him to speak for them
Frank is the FIRST DHIMMI POPE. There has NEVER been a DHIMMI POPE yet.
christianblood says
Thanks to the US, Saudi Arabia, Nato and Israel’s support of islamic jihadists like ISIS, Al-Qaeda and dozens of other jihadist groups in Syria “..Only 900 Christians left in Syrian region where 10,000 lived before the Islamic State came in..”
Shame on America and its allies for doing this to Christians! May God Punish them for this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfXSYkFZPKM&feature=youtu.be
Frank Anderson says
Do you mean that ALL should be punished for the actions and inactions of a few? How does that square with Deut 24:16, in which some people find, “The father shall not be held for the sins of the son; nor shall the son be held for the sins of the father.” Each person should have to deal with his own sins, should he not?
To me this is the kind of collective and eternal guilt teaching that has led to 2,000 years of “Christian” teaching that an alleged Jewish mob had the authority to confess the murder of Jesus and hold every Jew every where guilty for all time. It’s in the Book, and in the Passion Play at Oberammergau that helped fan the flames of the Holocaust. I think some people have seen the error of that account and teaching.
gravenimage says
Frank, Christianblood wants *all* Westerners to suffer–but he is fine with Russians appeasing Islam.
Frank Anderson says
As we have discussed a number of times, I cannot claim a label for myself. This person claims a label that indicates at least some admiration for a Jewish teacher who brought light to a dark world and was then murdered by power-hungry collaborators with the Roman empire. The maneuvers made subsequently to blame the Jews for Jesus’ murder have been singularly successful, much as Hitler and Goebbel’s blaming the Jews for the “Final Solution”. They need to be stopped; the sooner the better; and rejected by all who claim to follow the teachings of life and liberty so that we can unite in resisting those who follow the teachings of slavery and death.
This kind of blanket condemnation is wrong and has no place in honest conversation. Whatever else he was, whoever else he was, whatever his relationship with God and the rest of us, Jesus was first a Jewish man. Jews have clear conflicts within the Torah and remaining books of their Tanakh. But they readily acknowledge them, generally, and try to resolve them with reason. Every time the phrase, “. .. nor shall his children to the tenth generation. . .” appears it is a direct contradiction of the D 24:16 rule regarding personal responsibility for sins/errors. For example D 23:2, mistranslated in the King James Bible to read, “A bastard shall not be a member of the congregation; nor shall his children to the tenth generation” has never once in all the history of Judaism caused a single child to be excluded from the congregation/community for the circumstances of his birth. The correct translation does not use the English word “bastard”, but uses the word “mamser” which is a child conceived by adultery or incest between 2 Jews, and nothing else. Even mamsers have been protected from exclusion by the wisdom of Judaism.
Remember the 6 stages of any project: 1) Enthusiasm 2) Disillusionment 3) Panic 4) The search for the guilty 5) The punishment of the innocent 6) Honor and praises for the non-participants. Wishing harm of any kind for innocents and non-participants is “unworthy”. Always with best wishes and hope for better days for all.
christianblood says
Frank Anderson
The few are elected by the majorities so they are the same!
None of the Western world, governments, churches and societies care about Christians! They hate Christians, they are all Anti-Christ and they should be punished for this without mercy! We are talking about millions of persecuted and mass-murdered Christians in the ME and in the Balkans and all Westerners, specially the USA and Nato have the blood of Christians on their hands! They must be punished for this! They should NOT get away with this!
Frank Anderson says
CB, that logic supports the concept of destroying Germany and Japan entirely because the minority allowed the “majority” to take control. I have never supporting any kind of invasion and takeover of civilized society by inhuman monsters, yet I should be held to account for their crimes? Should you be held to answer for the crimes of others? “Judge by the same rules by which you would be judged.”
christianblood says
Frank Anderson
Yet you voted in for those who do and you didn’t lift a finger as millions of Christians and other minorities are being uprooted, sex-slaved and mass-murdered by the US and NATO-backed jihadists terrorists. Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHSav7TbYBM
Frank Anderson says
CB I suggest serious and qualified psychological or psychiatric counseling. How do you know who I voted for or not? By what authority can you generalize in your diatribe? You really show enough to me that you need help.
Techno Dan says
CB, may God forgive the persecutors, torturers and murderers of millions of Christians in Soviet Russia and Eastern Europe under those Soviet and Soviet-trained barbarians. Just reading a sample of what it was like in those places at that time in the small book “Tortured for Christ”, by Richard Wurmbrand (founder of The Voice of the Martyrs) is enough to know how brutally Christians were dealt with back then.
I do appreciate what Russia is now doing to help persecuted Christians, and I can only condemn my own (US) government when they do nothing to help persecuted Christians worldwide, but we should not forget the past.
christianblood says
Techno Dan
Tables have been turned now, Dan! It is now the atheistic liberal imperialist West that is murdering millions of Christians using their Sunni jihadist proxies in all over the place and the saddest thing of this is that only very, very people like my self are aware of this!
I pray to God that He stops the West now and that He punishes them for what they have done to millions of Christians in the past 30 years!
Frank Anderson says
CB, this is some reflection that may help you and others from my experience.
I agree that Christians (and Jews) have been betrayed and “thrown to the wolves” by collaborators.
Many of the people who came into my office before I retired had both legal and mental problems. Because of my own experience, I was able to help many see their problems and get real, effective help to bring them under control. I was destroyed in every detail of my life except for life itself and my licenses to practice in 2 states by corrupt and powerful people. The fact that I have kept my licenses should indicate clearly that I did not violate my duties. The price I paid to prove that was the loss of everything else and having to create a completely new life. That was almost 40 years ago. I have never stopped, and will never stop seeking justice for those who rendered injustice, nor should any of us.
There were hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of war criminals in Germany and Japan, and countries they occupied after WWII. More millions were forced to sit helplessly and watch the criminal conduct, and in some cases assist it. Today, (with sincere apology to all Catholics) it seems for example the Roman Catholic Church Pope and hierarchy have abandoned Christians in favor of moslems. This is an example of my proposition: Should all Catholics be held responsible for the misdirection taking place “at the top”? Should all the people of the state where I was destroyed be held responsible for the corruption of those at the top? I’ve had a lot of time in nearly 40 years to think this over and have come to the conclusion that only those who do wrong should be made to pay. Every person in Germany or Japan after WWII was not a war criminal.
I suggest there is a difference between righteous anger, entirely justified by events and circumstances, and indiscriminate rage that seeks ruin for those who had no participation in the crimes. This is where I suggest that talking about this issue with a professional counselor, who is fully qualified to help, would really help direct your effort to productive results instead wasting time with endless rage.
gravenimage says
Christianblood has bizarrely said before that it is Westerners who are oppressing and murdering Christians–not the Soviets–and that God wants the West to fall to Islam.
Meanwhile, he himself is more and more in support of Jihad and Shari’ah–lauding the Jihad against Israel, and bizarrely claiming that it is not Muslims waging violent Jihad, but instead the Jews. He has cheered on Hizb’allah’s murder of Jews and aim of destroying Israel.
He has lauded brutal Shari’ah law in Chechnya and in Iran, and cheered Muslims intent on imposing more severe Shari’ah in Tunisia, Turkey, and Lebanon. All very disturbing.
Frank Anderson says
GI, you probably remember the story of the opponent who exhibited such unusual behavior that I asked for court permission to video record an extended examination, called a Rule 2004 hearing. When the court denied my motion I brought both a psychiatrist and psychologist to the hearing to advise me what was going on. CB really needs help.
christianblood says
Frank Anderson
Anyone who disagrees with your ignorance and detachment from reality needs help? That is Western liberal ideological supremacist hubris! Where did I hear that before!
Millions of Christians are being massacred, sex-slaved and evicted from their ancient lands by the US and Western-backed islamic jihadist proxies and anyone who points that fact is crazy???!!!
Frank Anderson says
CB, it is the way you appear to be handling the issue that suggests getting some real help is appropriate. When the slaughter of the conquest for 1400 years has averaged between 1 and 4 humans every 3 minutes, there is reason to be concerned (even alarmed). The process that seems to be followed by your writing, calling for the end of the west because of its ignorance, stupidity and inaction instead of doing what we can to change that, saving what we value, ought to be considered. The brilliant Catholic teaching that was on television every Sunday morning in the 1950’s is still true: “It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.” Lighting candles of awareness can help people. Cursing the darkness helps nobody, including yourself. Is this the way you wish to spend the rest of your life?
gravenimage says
Of course, it is the US that is principally responsible for driving ISIS out of its stolen territory.
Christianblood’s constant claims that it is the US and Israel with are waging violent Jihad against Christians is just bizarre.
J D S says
And one can’t blame the Islamic state…after all they have nothing to do with islam
J D S says
and 10,000 Christians in the mid eastern countries is a low number compared to what once was……before muhammad and his band of minions started their rampage. FORCE and FEAR the two things that have kept Islam alive all these centuries.
Frank Anderson says
I have many friends who are Catholic who would be really disappointed with the current approach from church leaders. They know better than I what to say, and hopefully, what to do. Christians and Jews should not be abandoned to evil.
CogitoErgoSum says
I say, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Those words are the first from Psalm 22. But then the remaining words (all the way to the end) comfort me.
Frank Anderson says
I believe, but cannot prove to you, from my personal experience, that God is always with me, and “us”, even when we don’t know it, and even when we had just as soon be alone. People can abandon us. But God is truly with us.
CogitoErgoSum says
I can’t prove it either, Frank, but somehow I know it to be so. I”ll take a quote attributed to Diogenes ( I do not know if there are gods, but there ought to be) and change it to “I can not prove that Christ is God, but He ought to be.” I live with hope …. may you too.
Frank Anderson says
I hope for all who call upon Our Father. I have seen enough to believe, and also enough to trust. I love the teaching “Pray as though everything depends upon God; but Act as though everything depends upon US.” In many different ways the teaching that “God opens doors (and closes others); but we have to walk through,” comes into play often.
ibrahim itace muhammed says
Terry Gain, it is the responsibility of evil United States ,fascist evil Zionist State of Israel and evil Saudi monarchs to help these idigenous Christians because are sponsors evil Zionist Isis, not the Pope. To whom Pope is going to talk to ? he has no control over evil IsIs evil Zionist death squads
CogitoErgoSum says
Ibrahim, did you see my request to you to provide chapter and verse in the Quran concerning the number of sucklings required for a man to become a mahram? Please let me know as I would very much like to read the verse for myself.
See my comments under topic posted yesterday:
UN report: “ISIS is back” and prepared for “war.”
gravenimage says
Ibrahim itace muhammed is again claiming the victims of Jihad are actually responsible for waging violent Jihad. Of course, this is absurd.
And he has no actual ideological differences with ISIS–they are just a rival Jihad group to his own.
He has affirmed that Muslims can kidnap, rape, and mass slaughter any Infidels who do not submit to Islam. And he has said how much he looks forward to personally taking part in the genocide of Infidels.
James Lincoln says
Ibrahim,
Two sentences and you use the word “evil” five times.
Report to the nearest ER and get some help. Perhaps a shot of Haldol 50mg IM to start would help.
pemba says
obamba was the one to blame
Andy says
That SOB George W. Bush is not far behind Obummer, He should have BANNED ISLAM after the 9/11/2001 attack, when your country is under attack you have a duty to protect the people of your Nation.
BAN ISLAM and encourage other Western Judeo-Christian Civilized Countries to follow.suit, Look at ALL the lives that would have been saved since 9/11/2001 if this would have been implemented.
gravenimage says
Even assuming Bush could have banned Islam in the US, he certainly would not have been able to have banned Islam in Syria.
Andy says
George W. Bush Administration Policy on Syria
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-ab&ei=Wu51W9fQEMH6sAWOiKeIDg&q=george+w.+bush+and+syria&oq=george+w.+bush+and+syria&gs_l=psy-ab.12..0i22i30k1.21300.30481.0.32204.56.23.1.0.0.0.156.2300.0j18.18.0….0…1c.1.64.psy-ab..42.3.376…33i10k1.0.334_jubDSQc
Andy says
History Must Hold Bush Accountable for Syria Mess
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/2013/09/06/history_must_hold_bush_accountable_for_syria_mess_315105.html
gravenimage says
Andy, Bush–whatever his missteps, and they were many–did not create Islam in Syria.
christianblood says
pemba
Obama was to blame! NO, It is beyond Obama! USA and the West love islamists and hate Christians! They are all the same! (..None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands; no one does good, not even one..) Romans 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H86B-7fbqD0
ibrahim itace muhammed says
Cogitoergosum, I did cited sura 2:233 and sura 4:23 on the issue of muharrama (a woman prohibited to be married by a man on account of having breastfed by the same woman) when the two verses were interpreted together by Muslim jurists and an analogy was drawn. The reference you have provided is on the issue of Abrogated text while the ruling is still there. I said report never suggested that the verse was missing or eaten by a goat. where have got the idea of verses eaten by a goat? From lies concocted by orientalists and mithraist christian evangelist liars!
Michael Copeland says
Goat?
Google Aisha.
gravenimage says
Of course, neither of these verses tell women they have to breastfeed grown men as Ibrahim itace pretends. Muslims are so twisted.
DHazard says
Are any of the groups vying for control of Syria even remotely interested in the persecution of Christians? No. Are there any leftist human rights groups doing anything at all to alleviate the plight of those Christians? No. Are the European leaders who act as if Muslims were children in need of saving, offering at least a voice to these stateless Christians? No.
Muslims don’t even care about Muslims. They just want Jews and Christians to convert or die and all Muslims to follow their branch and sect of Islam. Then there will be peace, for a few minutes until the Shariah police arrive; “your fingernails are too long so we’ll pull them out”.
Nobody expects the Shariah Police.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
“Former Yazidi slave girl flees Germany after being confronted by her ISIS captor-turned refugee”
https://www.rt.com/news/436093-yazidi-slave-germany-isis-refugee/
gravenimage says
Yes, Flavius–this is an appalling story.
gravenimage says
Only 900 Christians left in Syrian region where 10,000 lived before the Islamic State came in
………………………
Nothing short of genocide.
Z says
This proves that ISIS is a threat that needs to be destroyed
b.a. freeman says
not just IS, Z; *islam* the cult itself is the threat that needs to be destroyed, along with the hard-core left.
once the navel-gazing ulema decreed that each second belongs to allah and that testing ideas with experiments challenges that ownership of allah, and that it was therefore blasphemy to do experiments (see al ghazali and “the incoherence of the philosophers”), the ummah fell behind europeans in warcraft. by the beginning of the 19th century (well, in the years after 1683-09-11, anyway), the europeans began to force the ottomans (and other muslim-ruled areas under their nominal rule) to do what they wanted. thus, for about 2 or maybe 3 centuries, we kuffar have had peace from the pirates.
we have been most fortunate for those centuries that the poor people deluded by the pirate cult (muslims) lived in countries apart from us; they were therefore unable to inflict jihad upon us. very few of them wanted to do hijrah, so they all stayed where they were, and we stayed where we were. we were still somewhat safe from them during most of the 20th century, because most of them *still* didn’t do hijrah and emigrate to kuffar countries, but now, using global transport systems, the jihadis can reach us anywhere. and in the intervening centuries, few of us learned of islam, because we had no desire to become islamic, with the result that muslims can lie to our faces, and few of us will go check their scriptures. we will pay dearly for this ignorance if it is not corrected.
also, the hard-core left has matured over the past 200+ years; they began in earnest with the french revolution, and hit their stride in the 1920s through the mid-1940s, killing almost 100 million people (as opposed to the paltry 50 000 or so who died in the reign of terror), both in the guise of nazis and of communists (both arose from the socialists). the left took control of education in eurabia in the 19th century, and never relinquished that control; they took control of education in the late 20th century in the u.s. they have turned centers of learning into indoctrination centers; consequently, having taught the stupid stinking masses to look to the elites for what to think and do, they cover for the attacks of pious muslims, and when society collapses under the overload, they will be close at hand, running the State (when was the last time U could tell the difference between a democrat- or republican-controlled congress in the u.s.?), and will quickly declare martial law, then quietly instantiate a people’s republic.
the great advantage for the hard-core left in this strategy is that they can pretend to take the moral high ground, protecting the poor put-upon brown people (as if all brown people were muslim, or all muslims were brown) from the racist kluxers and nazis (as if either of those groups consisted of anything more than a handful of deluded idiots), which is what anybody who dares to question what is happening is called. nobody wonders why the hard left takes such breathtaking chances with islam (“how could they be so stupid and not see the danger?”), and everybody only sees the threat from pious muslims, not the hard left. in other words, pious muslims are the proxy army of the hard left, brought here to destroy society so that a socialist workers’s paradise can be built on its ruins.
time is getting perilously short in the u.s.; the lights are going out in canada, and the hard left has already stopped the silly practice of free speech in eurabia, where it may be too late to stop the advent of islam without civil wars. a piece of paper like the constitution is not enough to stop the leftists, who are brazenly declaring that guns should be collected from citizens, and damn the constitution! the most successful traitor in american history, mr. obama, spent 8 years mocking the law, inuring us all to its loss of respect, so that when it is time for the left to move, the rest of us will fail to see the danger and do nothing.
well, that’s what the hard left hopes, anyway; i was greatly encouraged when gov. mario cuomo announced that “america was never that great,” and the crowd of democrats he was addressing (democrats!!!) actually seemed to express shock (democrats!!!). regardless of what *they* do, however, i am putting aside shelf-stable food and water supplies, and rotating through them (first in, first out) so that when the civil war begins here, my family will be able to survive for at least a while. i am also setting aside arms and ammunition, am practicing 4 times a week with my weapons, and am beginning to hike around the surrounding mountains to get into shape (kinda, sorta; i’m an old fart). i have little doubt that either a dedicated leftist (perhaps in national employ) or a pious muslim will probably kill me before i can do anything, but i will not – *EVER* – give in to these barbaric, sin-twisted creatures, and if they don’t get me, i will get them.
in the meantime, rule of law is vital for the survival of the republic. i will obey *all* laws (save unconstitutional seizure of my armaments) to the best of my abilities until society breaks down and all are lawless. i will *NOT* participate in the killing of the republic by knowingly breaking the law; only hard-core leftists and other traitors, and those whom they have indoctrinated, will do that.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
“…The number of Christians across the Middle East has been declining for decades …”
We all know it’s been centuries not decades.
gravenimage says
Grimly true. Most of the region was majority-Christian before the Muslim invasion.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
Me, I’m all for the idea of an independent Christian state of Nineveh. Only with guarded border will the Christians of the Middle East be safe.
Techno Dan says
News flash: “The New York Times has just reported that The Islamic State considers Christians to be infidels.” Well, duh! When did you figure that out, NYT?
infidel says
And the F-ing IRONY OF ALL IRONIES is that these same animal Muslims come flocking to Christian lands .. What a psychotic clan!!!
terry says
Let us be honest, this desecration of Christians in the Balkans, the Middle East, Africa, and East Asia has been at the hands of islam, period. It seems, sad to say, that the only one who protected the Christians in any of these areas were the dictators and tyrants who were, or were attempted to be overthrown! Yes, as much as it grieves me to say this, none protected them, not the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, Russia, China, the Vatican, or any other governmental agency! The ONLY ones protecting Christians was GOD Almighty, Most High, and despots! How sad.