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Mosul (AsiaNews) – Fr Paulos Eskandar was laid to rest in Mosul today. The decapitated body of the Syrian-Orthodox priest was found in an eastern district of this Iraqi city yesterday. He was abducted last Monday by an unknown Islamic group which posted a hefty ransom of US$250-350,000, the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) reported. The group also demanded that signs be posted on his church apologising for the Pope's Regensburg remarks as a pre-condition for negotiations.AINA also published a letter from an Iraqi priest who fled to Sweden, describing what amounts to a full blown campaign of terror against Christians in Iraq.
Based on accounts from Christians still living in the country, Fr Adris Hanna warns that “Christians are living a terrified life in Mosul and Baghdad. Several priests have been kidnapped, girls are being raped and murdered, and a couple of days ago a fourteen-year-old boy was crucified in the Christian neighbourhood of Albasra.”
Father P. Hanna also reported that he spoke “to a group of nuns who were robbed and treated brutally on their way between Baghdad to Amman in Jordan.”
He ended his letter with a plea: “We must do what we can to stop [the massacre] . . . . We must do something.”
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I found this on Dhimmi Watch at www.jihadwatch.org - bear in mind the postings on that site are unmoderated and strong language is frequently to be found there:
"The [priest's] family managed to raise and pay the ransom, and the St. Ephram parish of the Syrian Orthodox Church placed 30 large signboards on walls around the city, distancing itself from the pontiff’s comments. But then the telephone calls stopped. Fr. Iskander’s dismembered body was discovered last night (October 11) at about 7 p.m. in the remote Tahrir City district, two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the center of Mosul. His arms and legs had been severed and arranged around his head, which rested on his chest."
It is said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church, but it seems that whereever Islam rules the soil is barren.
This story is utterly horrifying and I am amazed that only one person has commented yet 21 have bothered to express their views on whether we use Latin or English for the Mass. I think it tells us something about prioities.
You would expect such a horrifying event to provoke more comment. I am amazed at the apparent lack of reaction and wonder what it means. I hope that prayers are being said for his soul.
We are acting like rabbits caught in the beam of a car headlight - we have frozen. So no comment.
They are only doing what the Koran approves of so why the surprise?
"You would expect such a horrifying event to provoke more comment."
"Anyone can and does have an opinion on liturgy, on the killing of man, our horror makes us keep silent.
"You would expect such a horrifying event to provoke more comment."
In my case it does, but it's not the horror that keeps me silent. It is the likelihood that my comments as to what the civil authorities should do to Father Eskandar's killers and those who harbour them would be too savage to get past the Moderator. I suppose it runs in the blood - my father's ancestors lived within easy raiding distance of the Turks at the time of the siege of Vienna, and no doubt had to reach for their pitchforks with monotonous regularity. This is probably why Slovenes - my father and grandfather among them - make such excellent soldiers.
My maternal grandfather was a Polish nobleman, whose ancestors, being warriors, more than probably marched to Vienna with King John Sobieski.
A while ago I posted a comment on this blog suggesting that Islam is a punishment from God for the historic Christian "teaching of contempt" against the Jews, which denied that He continues to keep covenant with them as a people. Supersessionism, or replacement theology, is the very root of Islam, which could not survive its refutation. For Islam professes that the Jews and the Christians have corrupted God's message - therefore He has cast them aside and begun afresh with Mohammed and his companions, none of whom were ever Jewish or Christian. Wherever Islam has conquered, Christians and Jews have been subjected to laws of dhimmitude which are strikingly similar to those which the Chrustian Roman Empire once imposed on Jews.
Has anyone noticed that 9/11, and the Muslim restiveness that followed it, happened after Pope John Paul II placed his letter repudiating anti-Semitism in the Western Wall in Jerusalem on 26 March 2000?
Now that the Pope has asked for God's forgiveness for this sin, we can be confident that He will relieve the Church of the odious scourge of Islam, but also that in the meantime it will scream, agitate and do damage like a demon under exorcism before it finally dies.
Father Hanna ends by saying that we must do something and it is the lack of response to this that is so distressing. Henry is right that we are frozen with horror but surely we shouldn't be? I know, I know = what can we do? I dont know, but I do know that we should at least be discussing what we might do.
I think all we can do is what the HF has done which is to draw attention to unacceptable irrational violence. It might shock the irrational and produce a burst of violence but Muslims are men and therefore rationality will out. He has opened the discussion, even if now reacting with pain and anger.
Yes, anonymous, something must be done, but who are we to do anything except:
(1) Pray the Rosary as often as we can, for Our Lady has saved Europe from Islam numerous times by means of this prayer.
(2) Stand with the Jews our elder brethren, for Islam is a punishment from God for our mistreatment of them in the past.
(3) Invite the custodian of the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe to bring the Image to this country for a visitation - she is the Victress of Lepanto and stands with the soles of her feet on the crescent-moon symbol of Islam.
There is something in this for Her Majesty to do, and it involves resorting to one of these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
British_Crown_Jewels#Swords
I'm afraid I can't elaborate, as the Moderator might consider my suggestion to be immoderate. I suppose that's why they call them Moderators!
Anonymous, you ask "what can we do?" There is no orderly way known to man of stopping persecution in this age otherwise than the use by the civil authorities of their God-given coercive powers under law.
Jesus said that we should expect persecution, and so we should, given that there's never a copper around when you need one, and in many countries the persecutors are often the coppers themselves.
Persecution is a public crime, and when committed on a mass or systematic scale it is a crime against humanity in British and international law. In that case it is also a threat to the peace and a casus belli, which is why the International Criminal Tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda have jurisdiction to punish it according to the mandate given them by the UN Security Council.
Even so, it is far from unchristian to appeal to the civil authorities to do their duty in regard to the common good to protect the innocent and repress gross evildoers.
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