Posted on 07/31/2014 1:59:18 PM PDT by Gamecock
Kurdistan has declared a safe-haven for Christian refugees, as Islamist militants extinguish the Christian presence in Iraq’s second city, Mosul. According to news reports, every Christian has finally been driven out of the city.
Displaced Christians have expressed anger towards the international community for failing to protect them or offer asylum. One priest, who cannot be named, told religious liberty organisation, Release International, that he was furious that Britain ‘offered visas to terrorists’ but refused to grant them to Iraqi Christians. The priest was also dismayed that British jihadis were among the IS fighters.
‘There is no hope, no future. All we have is war and killing and fighting,’ says Thiar, a Christian refugee. He says he desperately wants to leave the country and join the rest of his family in Germany.
Militants from Islamic State (formerly ISIS) ordered Christians in Mosul to convert or pay protection tax and submit to Islamic rule. Those who refused would face execution by midday Saturday.
'For the first time in the history of Iraq, Mosul is now empty of Christians,’ Patriarch Louis Sako told the AFP news agency. According to reports, IS militants confiscated their homes and stripped them of their remaining belongings as they tried to leave.
Many Muslims have also fled the city and surrounding areas as IS impose their brutal version of Sharia law.
‘The terror is palpable,’ says Release Chief Executive Paul Robinson, ‘and that fear is drivingChristians and Muslims from their homes. Many Christians have been displaced by religious extremism more than once, and they have reached the end of the line. They just want to leave.’
Many Christians have fled to Kurdistan, which claims to be the only region in the Middle East with a growing Christian population.
The Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil, Bashar M Warda, told Release: ‘Christians have lost their trust in the land and in the future. Since 2003 [the allied invasion of Iraq], two-thirds of the Christians have left the country. The attack on Christians has been immense. In the future I imagine Iraq becoming a country where you have many Christian sites, just for tourism – due to the families that are leaving.’
The coming of Islamic State is just the latest tightening of the screw on Christians. Persecution has beenrelentless since the downfall of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Christians have been killed, car-bombed and gunned down in their churches.
Christians say low-level persecution and harassment has continued under the rule of the Iraqi Prime Minister Nour al-Malaki, and his Shia-dominated Iraqi army. Many Christians see persecution under the Sunni IS militants as a continuation of the process.
Thiar [second name withheld] fled from Baghdad when extremists killed 52 members of his church – including his nephew and his three-year old son. Over five hours, two terrorists gunned down members of the congregation of the Syriac Catholic Cathedral and detonated suicide vests filled with ball-bearings.
That was in 2010. Most of the family left Iraq, but Thiar, his wife and three children headed north to Qaraqosh, a Christian enclave close to the border with Kurdistan.
Then in June this year, artillery fire and the imminent threat of an IS invasion drove them out. A priest in the town implored the Kurds to come to their rescue and Peshmerga troops moved in, effectively annexing Qaraqosh. IS forces, they say, are now just 5km away.
Safe haven
A ray of hope is the affirmation by Kurdish leaders that Christian refugees are being offered a safe haven in Kurdistan and will be welcomed, protected and free to practise their religion.
Ainkawa is a mainly Christian district of Erbil, the Kurdish capital. Government Religious Affairs spokesman Mariwan Naqshbandi told Release: ‘In 2003 we had around 2,000 families living in Ainkawa, now we have 6,000 families.’ Most of these are from Christian areas of Iraq.
‘Kurdistan is the only country in the Middle East where you can see the numbers of Christians rising,’ he added. ‘We have no persecution of Christians and we don’t have the terrorist groups here.’
The region’s newly-appointed Religious Affairs Minister, Kamal Muslim, gave this assurance: ‘Kurdistan will always be a safe haven for those leaving their places of terror.’ He also affirmed that Christians would be free to practise their beliefs in Kurdistan.
Kurdish government spokesmen offered two reasons for their open-handed policy towards Christians: They know what it is like to be persecuted, having been targeted by Saddam with chemical weapons. And although most are Sunni Muslim, they say they value their nationality – for which they have fought for many years – above their religious identity.
However, Christians in Kurdistan do face restrictions, and Muslim-background believers especially remain at risk. Christians make up just two per cent of the population of Kurdistan.
Through its international network of missions Release International serves persecuted Christians in more than 30countries around the world, by: supporting pastors and Christian prisoners, and their families; supplying Christian literature and Bibles; and working for justice.
The Kurds are good people. I like to remind posters that with the Kurds was the only place our soldiers in that country could walk around without body armor or weapons and dine safely in restaurants. The Kurds are tremendously pro-American and worthy of great praise.
The more I learn about the Kurds the more respect I have for them. They don’t back down from a threat and when someone needs help they step up.
Oppressed people are often that way.
May they hear the Gospel from those they are sheltering.
Isa. 19 says that Egypt and Assyria(currently Kurdistan) will rule the world as a triumvirate when Christ returns.
My attempt to impress the Kurds had been stupid. And thoughtlessly cruel. It must have cost that sergeant real pain to make that brief forced-march. But he had smiled all the way.
When we said goodbye later on, the sergeant touched his heart and told me, “You are an American. You are my brother. I would die for you.”
He meant it.
http://nypost.com/2004/04/15/pride-at-the-border-kurds-watching-iraqs-north/
I am very thankful for the Kurds.
We should be funneling weapons to them. Let them fight back.
I still believe once Israel is done with Hamas they are gng to lay waste to ISIS the first chance they get. I picture highway of death part deaux.
Well, I guess that does it. Defending Christians? Now the Kurds have really made Obama mad!
Obama is not going to like that.
As many of you know, I don’t post much anymore but this thread deserves comment. I have represented a number of Kurds over the past 30+ years in the retail gasoline business. They all knew that I am an Orthodox Christian (the icons in the office sort of give that away). Every one was a hard working man of his word, the best sort of clients. The Kurds are OK!
It pains me to think how this administration will likely betray them the first chance he gets.
May God bless the Kurds.
May their hospitality be rewarded by The One True God.
May he shine his Face upon them, and give them Peace.
May their eyes and hearts be touched by Saving Grace, and may Their names be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
In Jesus Name, Amen.
About the Kurds: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/backroom/3185842/posts?page=13#13
That was a nicely done post. Thank you for pinging me to it and to that thread in general.
Displaced Christians have expressed anger towards the international community for failing to protect them or offer asylum. One priest, who cannot be named, told religious liberty organisation, Release International, that he was furious that Britain ‘offered visas to terrorists’ but refused to grant them to Iraqi Christians. The priest was also dismayed that British jihadis were among the IS fighters.
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