Another Bloody Day for Christians in Mosul

"Iraq could be one of the great achievements of this administration."

~Joe Biden


Five Family Members Gunned Down; Hundreds Fleeing Violence in City

"It was a bloody day yesterday in Mosul," an Iraqi worker of Open Doors reported today.

"In one house all the family members were killed -- five people. First the attackers drove by and shot from their car. Then they forced themselves into the house and gunned down the entire family. They even threw two bodies outside the house as a cruel warning for others."

The Open Doors worker, who needs to stay anonymous for security reasons, added: "Two brothers and the father of an Assyrian Catholic priest were murdered in their house yesterday."

The priest, Mazin Ishoo, lived with his parents. The family had chosen to stay in Mosul. "They did this practically because they had nowhere else to go, but they also were determined to stay and serve the community," the worker said.

The Open Doors team also received word that more Christians were murdered.

"For years Christians have been targeted in Mosul and the surrounding area," said Open Doors USA President/CEO Carl Moeller. "It is one of the most violent areas in Iraq. The massacre of an entire family and the other murders is horrible. It is getting more violent there every day. Please pray today for our fellow believers there. Pray for comfort for those who have lost loved ones. And safety for those who can't leave Mosul and for those who are fleeing."

In the past week, 40 to 50 families, consisting of an average of five members per family, have left Mosul. Another team member of Open Doors said: "This morning two taxis arrived with families from Mosul. I think that since this weekend one or two families leave Mosul every day. However, we receive about 10 phone calls every day of people who say that they want to leave the city."

Although the Open Doors team has direct contact with Christians in Mosul, it is difficult to get reliable figures on how many Christians are living in Mosul today. It is estimated that less than 10 years ago well over 100,000 Christians lived in Mosul. Today estimations vary from 150-300 families living in the city.

The authorities do not have the power to put a stop to the deteriorating situation. An Iraqi team member said: "I had contact with a sister in Mosul and she said that last Sunday the governor of Mosul and the top leader of the police came to her family. Both of them told her that she should leave Mosul because they could not guarantee their safety and could not protect them from the killers."

The team member added: "Just 10 minutes ago I had phone contact with a Christian woman who I know from a youth group in Mosul some years ago. She told me that she is trying to find a way to leave Mosul and expects that all Christians will try to leave. And that Mosul will be empty of Christians soon."

Iraqi Christians do not know specific reasons why the violence against believers is so extreme in the last 10 days, except for political and religious motives. Elections are scheduled March 7 and the attackers hope to derive benefit from causing political instability.

An estimated 100 million Christians worldwide suffer interrogation, arrest and even death for their faith in Christ, with millions more facing discrimination and alienation. Open Doors supports and strengthens believers in the world's most difficult areas through Bible and Christian literature distribution, leadership training and assistance, Christian community development, prayer and presence ministry and advocacy on behalf of suffering believers. To partner with Open Doors USA, call toll free at 888-5-BIBLE-5 (888-524-2535) or go to our website at www.OpenDoorsUSA.org.

From Our Mail -- Saving Iraqi Christians

Dear Daniel ,

Thank you for e-mailing President Bush to urge them to do more to Save Iraqi Christians.

Already hundreds are dead, and more than 400,000 men, women and children have been driven from their homes. But if we can convince our leaders to make religious persecution in Iraq a priority, we can save many lives.

Please help us spread the word about this crisis before it is too late. Simply share this information (www.SaveIraqiChristians.com) with your friends and family and urge them to join you in standing up for the religious minorities of Iraq.

Thank you again for your help.

Dr. John Eibner
csi@csi-usa.org

A Difficult Place for Christians

From Break Point
By Chuck Colson

In early June, the German television network ARD aired a film called “God and the World: The Persecuted Children of God.” The “children” referred to are Iraq’s largest Christian community: the Assyrians. While any attention to the plight of Iraqi Christians is welcome, I only wish that the film could have aired in the country that is in the best position to help them: the United States.

The film tells the story of the suffering and persecution endured by Assyrian Christians through interviews with Christian refugees—or “internally displaced persons,” as bureaucrats call them—who escaped the most dangerous areas.

One Assyrian Christian who did not escape was Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul. On February 29, his car was attacked by gunmen who killed his two bodyguards and stuffed the archbishop in the trunk of their car.

While in the trunk, Archbishop Rahho called his church and told them not to pay any ransom, because the money “would be used for killing and more evil actions.” His body was found in northeast Mosul. An Al-Qaeda member was sentenced to death for his murder.

The archbishop’s death was only the most publicized attack on Christian clergy in and around Mosul. As the New York Times put it, “In the last few years, Mosul has been a difficult place for Christians.”

That is an understatement: As Lawrence Kaplan wrote in the New Republic, “Sunni, Shia, and Kurd may agree on little else, but all have made sport of brutalizing their Christian neighbors . . . .”

Making matters even worse is that American forces did not hesitate to call on Iraqi Christians to serve as interpreters, precisely because they were Christians. Their religion made them easier to relate to. Now, Iraq’s Christians are seen by extremists as “collaborators” and “crusaders.”

Conditions have gotten so bad in parts of Iraq that some Iraqi Christians now celebrate mass “in homes and sometimes, like their ancient Christian ancestors, in crypts instead.”

Anyone who knew anything about the history of the region—and its Christian minority—should have seen this coming. That is why Nina Shea of Freedom House, and others, called for special protection for Iraq’s Christians. Their advice was, is, and probably will continue to be, ignored by our government and the “international community.”

The only way this will not happen is if western Christians make their voices heard. To that end, Christian Solidarity International, and others, have launched “Save Iraqi Christians.”

Their goal is to get our government to “defend religious liberty in Iraq and create conditions that allow displaced Christians and other non-Muslim minorities to return to their homeland and live and worship in peace.” We ought to be using our “powerful leverage with government leaders in Baghdad and Kurdish authorities” to develop a “secure homeland province for religious minorities.”

Because without this, a Christian community that survived invasions by the Persians, Muslims, Mongols and Ottomans, might not survive the American liberation of Iraq. They certainly will not survive our indifference.

Iraqi Bishop Begs Help for Christian Minority

From Catholic World News

"Do not leave us isolated and abandoned," an Iraqi bishop pleaded as he accepted an award for defending the faith.

Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk received the Defensor Fidei prize in Milan for his activities on behalf of Iraq's embattled Christian minority. In his acceptance speech he urged international pressure on Iraq to protect Christians in the face of Islamic pressure, the AsiaNews service reported. The Chaldean Catholic prelate said that the Church is Iraq is threatened by a "terminal exodus" of Christians, as the result of "ethnic-religious cleansing" by Muslim zealots. He begged Christians in the Western world to "take stock of the seriousness" of the situation, and "apply diplomatic and political pressure to the United States, the Iraqi government, and also to the countries that support the Islamization of Iraq."

Archbishop Sako spoke at length about the Christians who have fled from Iraq and now live, often under desperate conditions, in neighboring countries. After centuries of faithful witness in Iraq, he said, the Christian presence must be preserved.

[For a more detailed account see the AsiaNews web site.]