A hadith depicts Muhammad saying: “Verily Allah, the Exalted, has forbidden wine. So who hears this verse and he has anything of it with him, he should neither drink it nor sell it.” (Sahih Muslim 3835)
“Iraq: Christian home fire-bombed,” by John Newton, ACN, December 1, 2021
A bomb attack on the home of a Catholic shopkeeper in southern Iraq has been condemned by the head of the country’s largest Church, who has said that such attacks have driven an exodus of Christians.
According to police, a motorcyclist threw a homemade explosive at the Chaldean Catholic shopkeeper’s house in Amarah, capital of Maysan Governorate, on Sunday (28th November).
In his statement on the fire-bombing, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, the Baghdad-based Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, said: “Fortunately, no one was killed or wounded, but the act ‘sparked terror in the family and the Christian community’ because it brought back memories of past violence.”
Highlighting the rise in violence against the country’s Christians since the US-led invasion in 2003, Patriarch Sako said “the country has become like a jungle” and put the incident in the context of the ongoing haemorrhaging of Christians which has been prompted partly by attacks like this one and other extremist activity.
Stating that Iraq’s Christians have fallen by more than one million, he said: “We wonder, who cared about us and our suffering, as we are citizens among the people of this country.”
The number of Christian families in the area where the attack took place has now fallen to just eight – as over the last two decades members of the faithful emigrated abroad or went to other parts of the country searching for more security.
It is believed the attack was prompted by the shopkeeper’s refusal to stop selling alcohol.
Patriarch Sako said: “The owner of this house has owned a liquor store for years, and it seems that he received many threats. It is clear that it is ostensibly related to the sale of liquor, despite the person having an official license.”
The head of the Chaldean Church went on to list a number of ways in which Christians experience discrimination in Iraq.
He said: “There is the seizure of the property of Christians despite the efforts of some good people, as well as harassment of Christians in their jobs, and the exclusion of their employment despite the existence of a law to compensate them with jobs for Christians who have retired or emigrated.”…
Namer says
After being in the middle east and also going to college and military schools with Muslims from all over the world I have to day Muslims drink like fish. His shop was probably burned because he didnt stock whiskeys and Vodkas.
James Lincoln says
Namer,
I spent some time in Bahrain attached to NAVCENT when I was deployed to the Middle East as a US Naval flight surgeon.
The Saudi muslims would cross the King Faud Causeway into Bahrain on Friday night, drink lots of alcohol, and return to Saudi Arabia Sunday evening – where they became teetotalers.
Oh the hypocrisy…
gravenimage says
Islam is full of hypocrisy, as are most totalitarian creeds. But few will come to this victim’s aid–even those who may have quietly patronized him.
born saturday says
islam is equivalent to genocide war deceit forced conversion polygamy paedophilia and everything perverted there is. wherever islam goes we will see the same as we see in europe now and since islam was imported…. it is the true satanic religion….
Rafael says
It is the curse on humanity, born saturday. Islam feeds on the hatred against the Infidels and horrors of it’s adherents. It has been more than three years since I left Islam. My world has changed since then. The outer World has also changed. Islamic side have gained power and went more mad. As a Christian I have only to trust God. I believe that no one can exactly understand what I feel and think. Thus I have to trust God against the cruel human beings who persecute us in the name of their man-made, brutal, Satanic religion.
Keith O says
Of course if it had been a mudslime shop firebombed by a catholic, then we would have heard about it all over the news.
gravenimage says
Iraq: Muslims fire-bomb Catholic shopkeeper’s house because he sold liquor
…………….
Selling liquor–Haram. Bombing the home of someone who sells liquor–praiseworthy.
God, I hate Islam.