Christians of Iraq

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Updated list of Opression and Murders of the Assyrians in Iraq Not reported by the International Press

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---- FAITH UNDER FIRE Bishops, commission plead for help for Iraqi Christians Say half a million have fled their homes because of Muslim attacks November 11, 2006 © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent federal agency, has asked government officials to address the "dire situation" facing members of Iraqi religious minorities who have fled their country, especially the Chaldo Assyrians and the Sabean Mandaeans. Officials said the letter went to Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky, and followed by just a few days an earlier expression of concern over the same issue by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on International Policy, whose members wrote Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. The Iraqi Christians are facing, officials said, beheadings, rapes, crucifixions, and other torture. "The Commission urges Under Secretary Dobriansky to create new or expand existing options for allowing members of Iraq's Chaldo Assyrian and Sabean Mandaean religious minority communities to access the U.S. refugee programme, and to urge (the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) to resume full refugee status determinations for all Iraqi asylum seekers and assess all claims without delay," said Felice D. Gaer, the chairwoman of the USCIRF. "The United States has not made direct access to the U.S. Refugee Programme available to Iraqi religious minorities, taking the position that ChaldoAssyrians and Sabean Mandaeans are subject to generalized violence in Iraq. This position is not supported by the facts," she wrote. Iraqi ChaldoAssyrians and Sabean Mandaeans represent approximately 40 percent of the refugees who have fled Iraq over the past three years, according to the UNHCR, even though they make up less than three percent of the Iraqi population. Half a million have gone into Jordan, Turkey, Syria and Lebanan. USCIRF said in its 2006 annual report that "minority communities, including Christian Iraqis, are forced to fend for themselves in an atmosphere of impunity, and lack any tribal or militia structure to provide for their security." The result is that members of these communities continue to flee the country in the face of violence, in an exodus that may mean the end of the presence in Iraq of ancient Christian and other religious minority communities that have lived on those same lands for 2,000 years. A car bombing with a dozen fatalities, a priest beheaded and a teen-ager crucified – all recent attacks against the historically Christian Assyrians in Iraq – also recently prompted the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on International Policy to seek help from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. "We deplore the sectarian violence engulfing the Shia and Sunni communities in Iraq," that letter said. "We are especially and acutely aware of the deliberate violence perpetrated against Christians and other vulnerable minorities." The attacks have left the Christian population there, estimated at about 1.2 million before the war, in the range of about 600,000 now, officials said. "The growing and deliberate targeting of Christians is an ominous sign of the breakdown in Iraqi society of civil order and inter-religious respect and represents a grave violation of human rights and religious liberty." The bishops committee noted a recent beheading of a Syriac Orthodox priest in Mosel, the crucifixion of a Christian teenager in Albasra, the frequent kidnappings for ransom of Christians including four priests – one of whom was the secretary of Patriarch Delly, the rape of Christian women and teenage girls, and the bombings of churches. All those attacks are "indicators" that the situation has reached a crisis point, the committee said, which said it would like to see a new "administrative region" in the Nineveh Plain Area that would "provide Christians and other minorities with greater safety and offer more opportunity to control their own affairs with assistance from the Central government." A review of the economic reconstruction aid as well as the refugee policies also could ease some of the problems, the bishops said in a letter signed by Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, Fla. The Assyrian International News Agency said the attacks "escalated explosively" during the recent Muslim Ramadan events, with the contending parties Shia-Muslims, Sunni-Muslims and Kurds. "In the middle of the chaos … there is another war, or to be correct a hunt, going on. The ones that are being hunted are the defenseless Christians," the report said. Such instances: • On Oct. 4, 2006, a car bomb detonated in a Christian area and killed nine people. Among the killed was Georges Zara, member of the Assyrian Chaldean Syriac National Council. • Father Paulos Eskandar, of Mor Afrem Syriac Orthodox Church, was kidnapped on Oct. 9, 2006, by fanatic Muslims. Two days later the Muslims had decapitated the priest. They did this although the Christians fulfilled their demands by posting a text on the church doors that condemned the pope's statement about Islam. • A 14-year-old boy was murdered in a barbaric manner in Albasra. He was crucified and after that the barbarians stabbed the boy in the stomach, just as it was done to Jesus. • On Oct. 21, 2006, in Baquba a group of veiled Muslims attacked a workplace where a 14-year-old boy named Ayad Tariq worked. The men asked the boy for his identity card. After seeing in his identity card that he was Christian the men asked Ayad whether he was a "dirty Christian sinner." Ayad answered: "Yes, I am Christian, but I am not a sinner." The rebels yelled that he was a dirty Christian sinner and continued to grab him and to scream "Allahu, Akbar! Allahu, Akbar!" After this Muslim ritual they decapitated him in the most brutal and disgusting way, the report said. The news agency said the Christians in the region speaking Aramaic, profess Christ and are the only indigenous people of Iraq, having lived in their ancestral lands in North Iraq since 5000 B.C. The report said they've lived for centuries under severe persecution by Muslims, and since 630 A.D. there have been about 30 recorded episodes of genocide against Assyrians by Muslims. Today, it continues, the report said: • Sept. 25, 2006: Two Assyrian churches attacked in North Iraq in response to Pope's speech • Sept. 24, 2006: St. Mary's Cathedral in Baghdad, home of the Patriarch, is bombed • Jan. 29, 2006: Four Assyrian churches bombed in Baghdad • Nov. 29, 2005: Joseph Nabil Ishmael and George Brikha Youkhana are shot and killed in North Iraq • Sept. 23, 2005: 4 Assyrians Killed in Assassination Attempt on Former Iraq Assyrian Minister • Sept. 13, 2005: Anita Tyadors is brutally murdered by Muslim extremists in North Iraq • Aug. 27, 2005: Nabil Akram Amona murdered By Kurdish militia in North Iraq • March 24, 2005: Zahra Ashour (female student) is beaten to death by Mehdi army personnel in Basra • Dec. 21, 2004: Three Assyrian churches bombed in North Iraq • Dec. 7, 2004: Two Assyrian churches bombed in Baghdad • Nov. 8, 2004: Two Assyrian churches attacked in Baghdad • Oct. 16, 2004: Five Assyrian churches bombed in Baghdad • Aug. 26, 2004: Nabil Akram Ammona is gunned down by Kurds • Oct. 16, 2004: Five Assyrian churches are bombed • June 7, 2004: Four Assyrians murdered in a drive by shooting in Baghdad An organization called AssyrianChristians.com is working to help the Assyrians. "The Assyrian Christians are one of the last remaining Christian communities in the Middle East," said Rev. Ken Joseph Jr., of the Assyrian Christians organization.

Who are the Christians of Iraq? Tishrin II = November Bishops, commission plead for help for Iraqi Christians Nov.15, 06 Turkey Tries to Escape Its History Nov.14, 06 Terrorists Blast Iraqi Church Nov.12, 06 The Non-reaction to the Murder of an Assyrian Priest Nov.12, 06 Turkey Gives Non-Muslims the Right to Own Property Nov.12, 06 Hermit Assyrian nun is anything but reclusive Nov.10, 06 Fresh Concern Expressed About Iraq's Assyrians Nov.10, 06 Silencing Ancient Echoes: Iraq's Christians Nov. 9, 06 The Non-reaction to the Murder of an Assyrian Priest Nov. 9, 06 Iraqi bishop calls for Christian gathering: unite to be counted and more secure Nov. 8, 06 Proud Assyrian Survivor Can Move on Nov. 7, 06 Assyrian Genocide Victims Discovered In Turkey: Report Nov. 6, 06 Lecture by DR. DONNY GEORGE former Chairman, Board of Antiquities, Iraq Nov. 6, 06 Assyrian areas in northern Iraq as shown in a map by Newsweek Nov. 3, 06 Church calls for action over gruesome violence toward Christians in Iraq Nov. 2, 06 Evidence of Turkey's World War One Massacres Covered up by the Military” Nov. 2, 06 This Was Genocide, But Armenians Were Not Its Only Victims Nov. 1, 06 Assyrian UN Delegation Calls for Autonomous Region for Iraq's Assyrians Nov. 1, 06 Tishrin 1 = October The West Turns a Blind Eye to the Ethnic Cleansing of Christians in Iraq Oct. 31, 06 U.S. Bishops Call for Protection of Iraq's Christians Oct. 30, 06 Hood celebrates 150th anniversary of Assyrian reliefs Oct. 30, 06 Assyrian History On Display Oct. 29, 06 Freedom of Religion Key for All in Iraq Oct. 29, 06 14 years young Assyrian boy decapitated in Iraq Oct. 29, 06 Assyrian civic club marks 60 years Oct. 27, 06 From Discovery to Dartmouth: The Assyrian Reliefs Oct. 27, 06 Sargis Aghajan: A Saint or a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing? Oct. 26, 06 Priest Sends SOS for Christians in Iraq; Faithful Flee, Churches Close in Baghdad Oct. 25, 06 The World Must Speak About the ongoing Assyrian Genocide Oct. 25, 06 Iraqi Militias Conducting Ethnic Cleansing Campaign Against Baghdad's Christians Oct. 23, 06 Pope Urges World Leaders to Help Iraqis Rebuild Troubled Nation Oct. 23, 06 Iraq's Christian Assyrians: Living in Fear Oct. 23, 06 Assyrians built aqueducts to bring water to Nineveh predating Romans by 400 years. Oct. 23, 06 Hope for Assyrian Christians 'Rapidly Dying,' Says Former Iraqi Minister Oct. 20, 06 Christians Live in Fear of Death Squads in Iraq Oct. 20, 06 Congresswoman Esho's Letter to Rice about the endengered Christians of Iraq Oct. 20, 06 IRAQ: CHRISTIANS LIVE IN FEAR Oct. 20, 06 Iraq: Christian Minority Seeks Haven From Violence Oct. 19, 06 GEORGIA: Will mob halt Assyrian Catholic centre? Oct. 19, 06 Ancient ruins inspire hope in U.S. forces in Pre-Christian Iraq . Oct. 18, 06 Christian Migration From Mid-East At Heart of Patriarchs' Meeting Oct. 19, 06 Assyrian language Lecture and Seminar in London Oct. 19, 06 Save Us from the Time of Trial Oct. 18, 06 Persecution of non-Muslims increases in Iraq. Oct. 18, 06 In Iraq, a New Level of Threat to Christians Oct. 17, 06 World Has Forgotten Iraqi Christians: Chaldean Patriarch Oct. 16, 06 Some 500 people attend funeral of beheaded priest Oct. 16, 06 Christians are vacating land of Christ Oct. 15, 06 Threats force Iraqi Christians to flee to Syria Oct. 15, 06 Turkey starts to admit it has an ‘Armenian Question’ Oct. 15, 06 Some Turks change religion as way to West Oct. 14, 06 Beleaguered Yazidi find peace high in Iraq's northern mountains Oct. 14, 06 Beheading of Iraqi priest latest attack on minorities Oct. 14, 06 Kurdish Militia Attacks Assyrian TV Station in North Iraq Oct. 13, 06 Iraq priest 'killed over pope's speech' Oct. 13, 06 More than 35,000 Christians have fled violence in Iraq Oct. 13, 06 Prominent Assyrian Priest Beheaded Oct. 12, 06 Father Paulos Iskandar Killed by Terrorist Abductors Oct. 12, 06 Who Will Remember the Assyrian Genocide? Oct. 11, 06 Abducted and raped, young Christian women and girls are driven to suicide in Iraq Oct. 11, 06 Was the genocide of the Ottoman Empire in1915 only against the Armenians, or included Assyrians also? Oct. 10, 06 Traditional Assyrian Costumes Oct. 9, 06 Organisation and Substitutionism Oct. 8, 06 A Nation Without a Country Oct. 8, 06 Swedish authorities honor Malfono Gabriel Afram Oct. 7, 06 Christian husband and wife converts from Islam released Oct. 7, 06 Terror campaign targets Christians of Iraq Oct. 6, 06 In 20 years, there will be no more Christians in Iraq' Oct. 5, 06 \FIRST-PERSON: Assyrian haircut Oct. 5, 06 The Assyrians: Ignored Among Fears of an Iraqi Civil War Oct. 4, 06 Two Iranian Christians arrested in Mashad. Oct. 4, 06 Car Bombs at the Christian Assyrian shopping district in Baghdad killed 16, injured 87 Oct. 4, 06 30 Christian families receive threats to leave Mosul - Iraq Oct. 2, 06 Mr. Sarkis Aghajan, the Finance Minister of the Kurdistan regional Government Asks for more rights for the Assyrians Oct. 2, 06     Archives August, September 06 June, July 06 March April May 06 February 06 December05 Januray 06