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Jihadists claim Baghdad blasts as Iraq rallies behind Christians

July 20, 2014 By administrator

BAGHDAD – Agence France Presse

isil-christiansIn this Saturday, July 19, 2014 photo, displaced Christians who fled the violence in Mosul, pray at Mar Aframa church in the town of Qaraqoush on the outskirts of Mosul, Iraq. AP Photo

The Islamic State on Sunday claimed responsibility for deadly Baghdad bombings, as the Christians they drove out of Mosul grieved for their lost homes and uncertain future in Iraq.

The flight of the centuries-old Christian community from Iraq’s jihadist-held second city drew messages of solidarity and pledges of aid, both from former Sunni neighbours and Shiite leaders.

In a statement posted on jihadist websites, the Islamic State (IS) praised two of its fighters — a German and a Syrian — for two of a spate of blasts that killed 24 people in Baghdad on Saturday.

“Two knights of the knights of Islam and heroes of the caliphate were launched, Abu Qaqa al-Almani and Abu Abdulrahman al-Shami, to destroy checkpoints” manned by soldiers, police and allied Shiite militiamen, it said.

The near-simultaneous blasts were among the deadliest attacks in Baghdad since IS conquered large swathes of territory last month, exacerbating sectarian tension and pushing Iraq to the brink of breakup.

The Christian’s eviction from Mosul was just the latest mass displacement in years of violence that have redrawn Iraq’s ethno-sectarian map.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do or what will happen to us. Will we ever to return to our homes? Will the government rid the city of terrorists?” asked Umm Ziyad, 35.

She fled Mosul on Friday with her four children and now shares a house still under construction with several other displaced families in the Christian town of Qaraqosh, 32 kilometres (20 miles) east of Mosul.

According to clergy leaders, several thousand Christians fled Mosul on Friday and Saturday following an ultimatum by the city’s new rulers to convert, pay a special tax, leave or face execution.

Chaldean patriarch Louis Sako said there were still around 35,000 Christians in the city before the IS launched a sweeping offensive on June 9, proclaimed a caliphate and made Mosul their main Iraqi hub.

He said all had left the city by the time the noon ultimatum expired on Saturday. A rare Christian who decided to stay was fatalistic: “I already feel dead,” he told AFP.

Many residents of Mosul are afraid to speak and press access is almost impossible, but Sunnis in the city have voiced sympathy for their former Christian neighbours.

“We consider it unfair and against the principles of Islam,” a Mosul resident told AFP by phone.

“Christians have lived in Mosul for more than 1,000 years and most of them were top people: doctors, engineers and artists. Their departure is a huge loss for Mosul.”

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in a statement condemned the eviction of Mosul’s Christians and urged the world to stand united against the Sunni jihadists that his army and allied militias are struggling to contain.

IS threats against religious minorities in the area “reveal without any possible doubt the criminal, terrorist nature of this group, and the danger it represents to humanity and centuries-old heritage,” he said.

Political leaders in the Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, both already crumbling under the burden of Shiite refugees forced from their homes over the past six weeks of fighting, said their doors were also open to displaced Christians.

Ahmed Chalabi, another prominent Shiite politician seen as one of Maliki’s main challengers for the job of prime minister, argued that the government was to blame for the country’s worst crisis in years.

“Iraqi Christians are an integral part of the Iraqi people and have been present in this land for more than 1,600 years,” he said in a statement.

“The current government of Iraq has failed in its duty to protect Iraqi citizens,” he said, urging parliament to swiftly elect a new president and form a government capable of saving Iraq’s integrity.

A day after President Jalal Talabani returned from 18 months of medical treatment in Germany to serve out the last few days of his tenure, the names of those who will compete to replace him were due to be announced.

An unofficial power-sharing deal means the job is usually reserved for a Kurd.

While no consensus has emerged, veteran former Kurdish premier Fuad Masum increasingly appeared the most likely to be acceptable to all sides.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Baghdad, Christians, ISIL

Christians flee Iraq’s Mosul after Islamists issue ultimatum

July 18, 2014 By administrator

 AFP

1:21AM BST 19 Jul 2014

mosul_2980176bIraqi Christians leave city en masse after Islamist militants threatened to kill them unless they converted to Islam or paid a ‘protection tax’

 Christians were fleeing Iraq’s jihadist-held city of Mosul en masse on Friday after mosques relayed an ultimatum giving them a few hours to leave, the country’s Chaldean patriarch and witnesses said.

Iraq is home to one of the world’s most ancient Christian communities, but their numbers have plummeted as attacks against them mounted after the US-led invasion in 2003, which unleashed a wave of sectarian violence.

“Christian families are on their way to Dohuk and Arbil,” in the neighbouring autonomous region of Kurdistan, Patriarch Louis Sako told AFP. “For the first time in the history of Iraq, Mosul is now empty of Christians.”

Before 2003 the city’s Christians numbered some 60,000 people, but that dropped to some 35,000 by June this year, Sako said.

Another 10,000 fled Mosul after Sunni Islamist militants took control in a sweeping offensive led by Islamic State (IS) insurgents that began on June 9, and has since spread to other parts of northern and western Iraq.

 

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Christians, Iraq, ISIL

Great Day of Mobilisation and Action against the disappearance of Christians in Iraq

July 3, 2014 By administrator

“France, turn your gaze to Iraq: people are dying before your eyes”

# ChutOnTue SaveIraq # ChretiensDIrak

arton101325-480x480At a time when the world has its eyes riveted on Brazil, Assyrian-Chaldean Christians in Iraq, the indigenous people of this country suffer martyrdom and risk permanent loss in general indifference. Two actions are organized in Paris on July 8 and Sarcelles. These actions will be followed by many more!

For the first time since 1600 years, no Mass is no longer celebrated on Sunday in Mosul where there are no more Christian. The country’s second city, near Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, fell to jihadists of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (EIIL).

The terrorists threaten to besiege EIIL other cities and villages predominantly Christian. The Assyro-Chaldeans in France and around the world fear extermination of Christians in Iraq. It is simply an ethnic cleansing.

“The eradication of religious minorities is unfortunately not collateral damage mad murderers strategy: it is their stated goal. (…) “, Alerted the Chaldean Patriarch Raphael Luis Sako.

Indeed, the Assyro-Chaldeans in Iraq, who aspire only to live freely and in perfect harmony with their brothers Kurds, Sunni and Shiite, have continued to be victims of atrocities and abuses since U.S. invasion of 2003. Today, there is not more than 400,000 Christians in Iraq against more than a million and a half before the first Gulf War in 1991. regions and cities, including Baghdad, have been widely emptied of their Christian inhabitants.

The international community and particularly France, historical protector of Eastern Christians can not remain insensitive and indifferent to the plight of Christians face in this country. The Christianization and the end of multiculturalism in the Middle East would have serious consequences on the global equilibrium and endanger social peace in the Middle East.

Therefore, the community and the Assyrian-Chaldean church France launched a Great Day of Mobilisation and Action for Christians in Iraq Tuesday, July 8, 2014.

DSC03650-2-480x299-480x299The Assyro-Chaldeans of France will gather to 14h before the National Assembly for a symbolic action to educate the French public and government about the plight of Christians in Iraq.

he rally will be followed to 19h, a silent march in Sarcelles. The procession will leave the sub-prefecture of Sarcelles and leads to the Place des Martyrs Assyrian-Chaldeans and then to St. Thomas Church where a funeral ceremony will be held in honor of all civilians killed in Iraq since 2003.

With the support of his church and its associations, the Assyrian-Chaldean community calls all enamored of secularism, democracy and freedom to join as part of this day of action unprecedented. This day, which is part of a global movement launched in early July 2014 by the Assyro-Chaldeans worldwide.

Press Contact: Antoni Yalap-06 13 74 12 11

Saima Altunkaya: info@saima-altunkaya.com

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: Christians, Iraq, Mosul

Mosul Christians Out of the City for Good

June 20, 2014 By administrator

By Judit Neurink 19/6/2014

Patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox Church, Ignatius Aphrem II, visiting the displaced Christians at the Mar Mattai monastery. Photo: Judit Neurink

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERABARDARASH, Kurdistan Region – There is no place for them in an Islamic state, say Christians who fled Iraq’s second city of Mosul for safer areas controlled by the autonomous Kurdistan Region.

Eman and Sabah, two nurses who left the city for the Syrian Orthodox monastery of Mar Mattai, some 40 kilometers from Mosul, said they did so because they could no longer live there. “Their rules are different from ours and anyone who disobeys them will be killed,” one of them said.

Fear of the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which captured Mosul last week together with bands of other rebels, has seen about a half-million people flee the city.

Amongst them were thousands of Christians, who sought refuge in areas under control of the Kurds. Many of them have fled violence in the city multiple times before.

“This time is decisive,” stresses Zaid, whose family shares a room in the monastery with another.  “Any time there were elections, we left to return a couple of weeks later. This time is different. Now we really have to forget the option of returning back to our homes.”

Many of the Christians occupying the monastery’s 35 guest rooms think this way: More than 50 families have found refuge in the safety of the monastery.

Of the estimated 5,000 Christians who were remaining in Mosul, only hundreds have stayed behind. Most left for the villages of the Nineveh Valley, which is under Kurdish control, or to the Christian neighborhoods of the Kurdistan capital, Erbil.

Last week their patriarch came from Syria to wish them strength, visiting the Mar Mattai monastery as well, signaling the safety of the area where his flock has sought refuge.

The way the radical Muslims were welcomed by some in Mosul — while thousands of other Muslims fled because of their presence – raised Christian fears of what might happen.

The nurses, Eman and Sabah, were ordered to report back to work, because the present authorities want to normalize the situation and get the hospitals up and running. But the pair is too afraid to obey the order.

Although they left with only the clothes they were wearing, leaving their homes unguarded, the fear of the radical Muslims in their city keeps them from returning. This fear is clear when they echo the words of other women in the monastery: “How can we keep our daughters safe there?”

In the room where the two families are gathered, the noisy air conditioning adds to the clamor; mattresses for the night are piled high; a little boy begs his father for change to buy ice cream.

Stories about the changes in Mosul volley across the room, about the Sharia laws that have been imposed and the new rules that have been published, including a punishment of 20 lashes for any man not at mosques at prayer times, and an order for women to cover up.

One of the families that returned was told that Christians have to adapt: They have to get rid of all Christian symbols, and women must wear the face cover, or niqaab. The family left the city again.

Zaid recounts finding a flyer in the street before he left that was delivered to some homes of Christians, too, calling on residents to adapt, or leave.

Christians in Iraq normally proudly display their faith, wearing crosses as jewelry and adorning their homes with Christian portraits. The women generally dress in a more Western manner than other Iraqi women, not wearing a headscarf and never a niqaab. To change this would mean to change their way of life.

The Christians wonder what will happen to their city. Most expect fighting between the different groups, with Saddam Hussein’s former military and different Islamic groups struggling for power.

“Those armed groups know no mercy,” someone says. “I am afraid of my own neighbors. Will they not sell me to some kidnapper?”

And they are worried about the future: What will happen to their properties? Will they be confiscated, in a repeat of what happened in parts of Baghdad some years ago after many Christians fled their homes?

One worry is about how they will live.  Iraqi Kurdistan is expensive, and their jobs from Mosul cannot be transferred elsewhere. Some have families abroad that pressure them to emigrate.

“We are so few now, we have become very vulnerable,” someone says. The number of Christians in Iraq went from 1.5 million in 2003 to around 35,000 at present, mainly because of massive emigration after Saddam’s fall.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Christians, ISIL, Mosul

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