www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News purge of Assyrian Christians from Iraq

A new report [aina.org] has been released asserting that Assyrian Christians are being purged from the new Iraq. The persecutors are of course the newly emboldened Islamic terrorists. The stories of murder and torture are horrific. It is scary to think of how vulnerable Christ left his flock, with no earthly power to defend them against these satanic forces.

Should be required reading for all our politicians and religious leaders. Blowing up Shia holy sites is big news, blowwing up Christian churches hardly gets mentioned. I am forwarding this report to my legislators who probably are not even aware of the existence of these Christians.

Don't make the mistake of thinking this is only the terrorists. It is not just the terrorists. This new government is friendly toward Iran. Muslims and Kurds in general are hostile to the Christians in Iraq. The Shiites want Islamic law.

The U.S. provided money for northern Iraq for water and power generation. The Kurds in the region cut of these utilities to Christian neighborhoods.

We need to pray for our brothers and sisters there and also, contact our elected officials and demand that the US does more to protect them.

I can't help but wonder if part of the reason it does not get coverage is because Apostolic Christians are not recognized by the American Protestant civil religion.

Bingo!

Ryan

Well, I think this group and also the Coptic Christians who also suffer do not have a wealthy, large vocal diaspora in North America to speak for them to the press.

Someone someplace need to keep the memory of these martyrs and produce an ikon!

It is true that these poor souls do not have an organized, well-financed diaspora.

However, that does not prevent the Catholic Bishops of the United States from speaking out - loud, clear and often - about the situation of the Assyrian Christians. The Chaldean Catholic Church is, of course, in communion with the Holy See. We heard from the Bishops about immigration and we need to hear from them about the poor Assyrian Christians.

May the precious blood of the New Martyrs of Iraq usher in a new wave of conversions among the Muslims.
Eternal Memory to the New Martyrs!
Stephanos I
And yes please lets have an Icon and start venerating these new martyrs.

You're right on target there.

Jason

WELL Pope Bendict made a point of the diaspora of Christians in Iraq with his metting with P George Bush but alas the point might have been made to late. Seriously their was little in planning to protect Christians in the area they were an afterthought. The Bush admin has major troubles that trump the concerns of the Vatican aka all out Civil War so we can make all the noise we want it won't change the situation any. Perhaps the best we can do is provide them a means to relocate safely in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon which many have done but those countires seem to have reached a limit on how many refugees they can take in. THe church has to work within those countires to help the Assyrian Christian Refugees as I don't theink the American GOvernment has Assyrian Catholics on their help radar. In case you don't know the government presently is not accepting any applications of Christians from Iraq no matter thier level of persecution, that is something perhaps the US Bishops can pressure the government on as providing more Visas for these people under religious persecution. It is far easier than providing thousands of troops to patrol the few Christian suburbs left in Iraq.

This is an outrage, that the U.S. Government will not accept these applications. I am calling my elected officials today about this.

How can they NOT accept the applications? They are accepting Muslim Iraqis applications aren't they?!

Why should the United States be concerned with the persecution of Chaldean Rite Christians in Iraq ? They show no concern for the persecution of Christians in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or Turkey, and only spoke up about persecution in Indonesia when it became mass murder. The president supports independence for Kosovo where Moslems drive out Christians, but opposes it for Nagorno-Karabakh where Christians soundly defeated Moslem attackers.

Half way through this clip, the Catholic (Canadian) TV Station, Salt and Light, has some video interviews of Iraqi expatriots who appear to have staged a protest of sorts in Toronto/Vancouver:
http://www.saltandlighttv.org/zoom_en/zoomplayer.htm