Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Come to the Aid of Iraqi Christians




A new petition today on the 10 Downing Street Petitions website in support of the beleaguered Christians in Iraq. The Petition reads:
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Acknowledge the plight of the indigenous Christian communities of Iraq and to bring to bear on the American and Iraqi governments the need for adequate and just protection for these ancient Iraqi communities.

Further information:
While Iraq is constantly in world news reports the plight of Iraqi Christians goes mostly unnoticed. According to the Society for Threatened People in Goettingen, Germany, Iraq currently experiences the biggest persecution of Christians of our time. In fear of murders, bomb-attacks, kidnappings, and torture Christians have been fleeing the country by the thousands.

Approximately 75 percent of the 650,000 Christians in Iraq have been driven from their homes. They have fled mainly to neighbouring Syria or Lebanon. A Christian community with a history of 2,000 years is in danger of becoming extinct, according to the human rights organization.

Hundreds of Christians have been kidnapped in the past years. The Society claims that Christians are being driven out of Iraq systematically by Muslim extremists. Security forces and Arab militia do little to protect Christians. Even the US & UK forces do not provide ample protection according to the society.

Sign the Petition(You have to be a British citizen or resident to sign.)
There is almost a year to collect signatures, if you are a blogger please think about posting this, if you are a priest think about putting a link in your newsletter, if you are a bishop why not put in your Ad Clerum.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Father;

I had seen this link on Father John's blog and I have singed the petition and will ensure to pass it to as many people as I know. I must say thank you very much for your support but make sure you pray for us too please.

To whoever reads this I just want to say that Iraqi Christians are targeted because of their Faith. For example in the town of Samarra (west of Iraq) an Iraqi Christian family who lived peacefully minding their own business amongst their Muslim neighbours for over 15 years without any problems had their life turned upside down about 2 months ago, the family started to get threats that took the form of an envelope left by the front door which contained a bullet, then moved to the family getting letters telling them that the women (Wife and 2 young daughters under 12) had to wear the Hijab then it escalated to occasionally their house being stoned. The reason that they did not move apart from the obvious such as the fact that they are from Iraq and why should they move especially when they had done nothing wrong, they were also very poor people who did not have the means to move.

One day while the husband was in the market doing some shopping four masked gunmen broke the front door of the house walked calmly in asked the mother to go out with them but she refused and shouted at them and asked them to leave but they simply said that they were hoping to spare her children seeing her being killed “God’s Judgement” they called it being carried out on her. They began to remind her that she and her husband were warned and that they (Mujahdeen) will leave the father to live in order to look after the children because after all “they (Mujahdeen)were not bad people” and would let a parent live. This was happening before her 7 kids and they ranged in age from 4 months to 16 years of age. Her son who is the eldest explained that his mum began to cry hysterically and hug and kiss her kids and asked them to look after each other and after initially begging the men to spare her life (they refused to listen to her pleading for mercy) then she began to recite the Hail Mary knowing her end was very close and at that point and in the living room of her own house the killers opened fire hitting her several times including in her eye, hand mouth and stomach. The family now lives in the hall of a Church in the North of Iraq and the father is left to fend for his young family. The family is of the Chaldean Rite speaking a language that is a derivative from Aramaic spoken at the Time of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
As far as I am aware the family had no ties to the multinational forces or any Iraqi political party. They did not take sides we Iraqi Christians have always stayed on the sidelines of Iraqi politics but this family's only crime as far as I can see is their Faith and the fact that they did not run when warned by the terrorists. Imagine living in London or Brighton and having to leave your OWN HOME because of your Faith or for whatever reason some thugs come up with? When you next pray before the Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Church put your self for 5 minutes in the shoes of an Iraqi Christians dad who is given 24 hours to leave his OWN HOME or else. Put your shoes in the place of the poor Iraqi Christian mother who started to kiss her kids knowing that she was about to die and leave her young family behind for the great crime of being a Christian.

The world watches us being butchered and does nothing. I appreciate that people of good will, some clergy and the Pope are trying their best however if we do not get political will to help Christians in Iraq by either giving them a safe haven in the country itself (like that that was given to the Kurdish people in the era of Saddam) or for a number of countries including the USA and the UK (main players in Iraq) to take as many Christians as refugees who incidentally have always assimilated very well and proven to be very bright and successful people wherever they have moved to in the world, then I am afraid that we will always come back to these kind of tragic stories time and again.

I must stress that I have nothing whatsoever against Muslim people or the Islamic faith but in IRAQ CHRISTIANS ARE BEING PERSECUTED FOR THEIR FAITH BY ISLAMIC EXTREMIST this is a fact though it is painful for some to accept or read. By the way in the UK my best friends are Muslims and they tell me that they are embarrassed by the action of their fellow Muslims in Iraq towards Christians but I always remind them that those people have nothing to do with the human race. The Muslim people that I know are decent fun loving and caring people and indeed very good and loyal friends who contribute greatly to the British Society.

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