As I flick through every channel,
My tears trickle at the sight,
How many families will stay up waiting, For a loved one who wont come home tonight?
What crime must they have paid for?
What sin did they commit?
To be shot down in the house of god, To be served a fate such as this... What sort of people take the life,
Of a man in blissful prayer?
In a moment when every single thought, is a silent plea to god to end the horrific warefare...
For this is the sad story they've come to know,
For the Assyrian Christians this is life,
Forced to live like foreigners in their own home,
To stand their ground or runaway is a double ended knife...
Living in fear of being murdered,
Even an innocent child cannot play,
Without the risk of being abducted,
A final goodbye to the light of day...
My heart aches for my people, Our nations soldiers massacred one by one,
The most selfless and undeserving men,
Die staring down the barrell of a gun...
So these people say its in the name of "Allah",
To enter the gates of heaven you must kill!
Only then will you be considered, to have completely fullfilled gods will... To our beloved new crowned martyrs,
Today the skies opened up for you...
Heavens angels shed their tears, you were going home and they all knew...
You will never be forgotten,
Your names now etched in the walls of time,
For these criminals are promised a day,
When they will for this inhumane crime...
Assyria is going to rise again,
As you are watching down from the skies, and when that time does finally come,
THERE WILL BE NO MERCY NO MATTER HOW LOUD THEIR CRIES!
Alaha manyikhloon sahdan - we will NEVER forget... Written by Nahren Georges 1/11/2010 at 11:30pm

Recent attack on church sheds light on Assyrians' plight

Nov. 8, 2010

By Troy Anderson, Staff Writer

http://www.dailynews.com/

Following a brutal terrorist attack on a Christian church in Iraq, Assyrians in the San Fernando Valley are joining efforts to bring international attention to the plight of their brothers and sisters in the Middle East. The Assyrian Aid Society of America, whose Los Angeles chapter is based in Encino, is planning rallies and a fundraiser on Nov. 13 in San Francisco to help families of the victims.

On Oct. 31, al-Qaida-linked gunmen seized a Syrian Catholic Church in Baghdad and detonated suicide packs as government forces entered the church to free more than 100 hostages. Some five dozen people were killed. "They are targeting the Christians," said Encino resident Angie K. Toulakany, a board member of the Los Angeles chapter.

"People here are very upset and they want to bring international attention to the situation. There are going to be rallies in different cities." Assyrians trace their roots back to ancient Mesopotamia and were one of the first ethnic groups to adopt Christianity in the first century B.C. They are a Semitic people distinct from Arabs and Jews. In the Middle East today, they are a Christian minority located primarily in Iraq, Iran and Syria, the heart of the ancient Assyrian Empire, according to the society. The society was founded in 1991 in response to hardships suffered by Assyrians in Iraq during the first Gulf War, and has since raised more than $10 million to help Assyrians in the Middle Advertisement Quantcast East.

Protest La

"The Assyrians fled to Northern Iraq," said Encino resident Pierre Toulakany, Angie's husband and a former president of the society. "Saddam Hussein couldn't go into that area. They were really in the ghettos, living in the rocks and cemeteries in tents. We found a great humanitarian need for these people." The society has also obtained grants from the United States Agency for International Development and other organizations.

Working in collaboration with its sister organization, the Assyrian Aid Society - Iraq, the society helps fund reconstruction programs, irrigation and electrification projects, education programs from preschool through college, shipments of medicines and supplies, free medical clinics and the facilitation of life-saving surgeries in the United States for Assyrians in the Middle East. The society has also opened dormitories, Internet centers and dozens of schools for 7,000 students. The students have been provided with textbooks, computers, medical care and other humanitarian help. Using the computers and specialized publishing and editing software, AAS-Iraq has been translating textbooks into Assyrian for the students in Iraq.

The Assyrian Aid Society's national president is Bay Area restaurateur Narsai David, who was a pioneer in helping popularize California cuisine in the 1970s, and is now food and wine editor at KCBS radio in San Francisco. The attack in Baghdad, he said, has helped boost the new relief efforts. "It's the worst single incident against Christian Assyrians," David said. "There is an outpouring of anger, fury and love throughout the world."

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