Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to Edl The Forum. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Iraq's Christians plan a simple Christmas in the shadow of violence; Islamic terror
Topic Started: Dec 23 2010, 02:25 AM (68 Views)
Gorgie
Member Avatar
Kafir
Five Islamist extremists burst into the church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad in October, murdering two priests, holding the congregation hostage and eventually killing more than 50 people. Now Amnesty International has warned of a spike in violence in the run-up to Christmas and has urged the Iraqi government to do more to protect Christians, who are now believed to number less than 500,000, about half its level of seven years ago.

Only 40 people turned up for mass at Our Lady last Sunday. They sang and chanted, a forlorn gathering of survivors, the walls around them spattered with blood and cratered by bullet-holes. The bloodied hand prints of those who failed to escape marked the door in an ante-room.

In front of the altar stood photographs of the dead, including a light-haired smiling four year old boy, Adam Eashoue, and his 33 year old father, Uday. Adam's grandparents, Zuher and Amal, cannot bear to return to the church.

"I've lost my world," said Amal at her home, who watched as her son and grandson were murdered. "I don't want to leave Baghdad - I was born and married here. But I have to think of my children."

Her 16 year old daughter, Mirna, dressed in black, described how she played dead to avoid being killed. The house is full of painful reminders: Uday and his wife's empty room, Adam's toys, the baby cot for their 11-month-old granddaughter who is now in Italy with her mother and being treated for gunshot wounds.

"After the war, we thought we would stay here and have a future," said Zuher. "But after what happened at the church I don't think so. It's the government's job to protect us, but they failed."

Their cousins, Thaer and Nadia, and their two young sons, have already left Baghdad for the Kurdish area in northern Iraq.

"We love Christmas but this year it feels bitter," said Thaer. "You sit somewhere and you're afraid; you go shopping and you're afraid; you go for a walk and you're afraid. Iraq has become a hell."

The Islamist extremists who attacked the church see Christians as infidels although Christianity existed in the region several centuries before Islam. The Chaldeans and Syriac Christians of today speak Aramaic, the language Jesus would have spoken.

At St Catherine's Monastery in Al Qosh in Kurdistan, monks are sheltering 21 families who fled Mosul in November after a spate of attacks.

"We were happy before the war," said Hanna Khoder, who fled after her neighbour's house was bombed and her sons threatened. "But now the terrorists say, 'the Americans are your people, they are Christians. You brought them here'. And they kill us for it."

Back in Baghdad, Canon Andrew White, an English vicar, is trying to stem the tide, attracting several hundred to his Christmas carol service last Sunday in St George's, the Anglican church.

The children of all shapes and sizes, a few wearing knitted hats in seasonal scarlet, stood in front of the altar singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in English and Arabic with minimal attention to melody. The sound system screeched, and Father Christmas was trundled down the aisle in a box on wheels covered in red cloth and gold tinsel. A Sunni sheikh, who was there to show Muslim support of Christians, looked on. Outside, members of the Mothers' Union Baghdad Branch (twinned with Portsmouth) sorted frozen chickens and other groceries to be given to each family.

The congregation frequently ask Canon White whether they should stay or leave.

"It's very hard," he said. "I can't tell people what to do. But it's important that we maintain a Christian presence here, because Christianity is the root of Iraq. If you cut the root, it's finished."



So when you're eating your Christmas dinner, spare a thought for those celebrating Christmas in fear, and who are missing a relative. They were executed because of their religion. This is the result of Islamic extremism.
LINK: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/8216416/Iraqs-Christians-plan-a-simple-Christmas-in-the-shadow-of-violence.html
Edited by Gorgie, Dec 23 2010, 02:26 AM.
"One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!"

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."


Winston Churchill
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Deleted User
Deleted User

It's a very sad story. I was talking to a prominent christian yesterday, and he said that outside western europe and north america, christianity is now the most persecuted religion.
Quote Post Goto Top
 
Deleted User
Deleted User

Must be horrible to be a Christian in Iraq. Christians have had to flee the Middle East due to the oppression they face.
Quote Post Goto Top
 
Billposter
Member Avatar
Member

HERE'S WHERE THIS WILL LEAD TO
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/al-qaida-threat-cancels-christmas-15037206.html

Al Qaida threat 'cancels Christmas'

Wednesday, 22 December 2010

Iraqi women pass a closed church in Baghdad (AP)

Iraqi Christians have cancelled Christmas festivities across the country as al Qaida insurgents threaten more attacks on their beleaguered community.

A council representing Christian denominations across Iraq advised its followers to cancel public celebrations out of concern over new terror attacks and as a show of mourning for the victims of the church siege that killed 68 people two months ago.

Church officials in the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul, the southern city of Basra and in the capital Baghdad confirmed they will not put up decorations or hold evening Mass and have urged worshippers to refrain from decorating their homes. Even an appearance by Santa Claus was called off.

"Nobody can ignore the threats of al Qaida against Iraqi Christians," said Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako in Kirkuk. "We cannot find a single source of joy that makes us celebrate. The situation of the Christians is bleak."

Christians across Iraq have been living in fear since the Baghdad church attack in October. Days later, insurgents targeted Christian homes and neighbourhoods across the capital with a series of bombs.

An al Qaida front group that claimed responsibility for the church siege vowed at the time to carry out a reign of terror against Christians.

The Islamic State of Iraq renewed its threats in a message posted on Tuesday on a website frequented by Islamic extremists. The group said it wants the release of two women it claims are being held captive by Egypt's Coptic Church.

Sunni Muslim extremists that make up groups like al Qaida believe Christians to be non-believers aligned with Western countries such as the US

Few reliable statistics exist on the number of Christians in this nation of 29 million. A recent report says Christian leaders estimate 400,000 to 600,000 remain, down from a pre-war level as high as 1.4 million by some estimates.

Since the deadly church siege, the UN estimates some 1,000 Christian families have fled to the Kurdish region in northern Iraq which is generally much safer.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
tobias malachi
No Avatar
Infidel
Are the Iraqi Christians planning to hold any demo's in the new year?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · EDL Chat · Next Topic »
Add Reply

Feliz Navidad (Gold) created by Sarah & Delirium of the ZNR