Posted on 02/24/2015 10:21:27 AM PST by NYer
.- With reports circulating saying that ISIS forces have kidnapped at least 90 Christians from villages in northeast Syria, Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan said prayer is the only possible response.
“Let’s pray for those innocent people,” Patriarch Younan told CNA over the phone from Beirut Feb. 24.
“It’s a very, let’s say, very ordinary thing to have those people with such hatred toward non-Muslims that they don’t respect any human life,” he said, noting that the only reaction to Tuesday’s kidnappings is “to pray.”
Patriarch Younan, Syriac Patriarch of Antioch, made his comments after the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday that at least 90 Assyrian Christians were kidnapped by ISIS militants after they seized two villages near Tal-Tamr, located in the Al-Hasakah region of Syria.
The two villages attacked are inhabited primarily by the country’s ancient Christian minority.
Also known as “Hassake,” the Al-Hasakah region is located along the country’s border with Iraq, and is not far from Mount Sinjar, where many Yazidis were trapped and faced starvation after fleeing Mosul and surrounding villages when ISIS began its assault last June.
Although he said exact numbers of those kidnapped and killed are still not confirmed, the patriarch revealed that he maintains close contact with the area’s bishop, who says that the situation there has been “very, very tense.”
Patriarch Younan said that he has tried to get in touch with Al-Hasakah’s archbishop, Jacques Behnan Hindo, regarding the situation, but has not yet been able to reach him.
The Syrian civil war has forced 3 million Syrians, of all religions, to become refugees, with an additional 6.5 million internally displaced. And in Iraq, since the rise of the Islamic State, there are more than 1.8 million internally displaced persons.
Fighting between ISIS and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria has intensified in recent weeks. The YPG has taken 24 villages as part of an initiative to recapture the town of Tal Hamis, which lies to the east of the two villages captured by ISIS on Tuesday, Aljazeera agency reports.
Since last month’s recapture of the town of Kobane, which borders Turkey, YPG forces have continued to advance, and have been active in Raqa, which neighbors Al-Hasakah. So far they have regained 19 villages in the area.
The observatory reports that the U.S.-led international coalition, which has backed Kurdish forces against ISIS, carried out a series of attacks on Tuesday near Tal Hamis, killing 14 ISIS fighters.
Patriarch Younan said that although it’s “so easy” for the ISIS terrorists “to kill and to cut the throat” of non-Muslims, he hopes that will not be the fate of those who were taken on Tuesday.
One possibility, he noted, is that the Christians who were taken will be exchanged by ISIS militants for prisoners being held by the Kurdish army.
“Hopefully they will do it,” the patriarch said. But, he described the ISIS militants as being “full of hatred and venomous feelings toward the Christians over there.”
The ISIS fighters, which he referred to as “military terrorists,” are “ready to do all the horrible acts without any human feelings…But as I said, we keep praying and hoping.”
Catholic prayer ping!
ISIS’s god sure doesn’t resemble the Christian God in any manner yet Jesus performed many miracles such as raising the dead, healing the blind, deaf and dumb and lepers, and walking on water. What miracles did Mohammed do?
“Younan said prayer is the only possible response.”
How’s that working so far?
Putin—you say your a Christian—send your special forces to save these innocents before they face a terrible death by beheading or fire. Patriarch of all the Russias bless this attack and pray for these Christians! Pope in Rome urge the west to stop these barbarians who are acting like pagans of old. Bless any who would stand against this act of barbarism. Rev. Franklin Graham Lead the protestants to condeme this act and urge Americans to stand up to barbarism.
May the Lord guide and protect these people.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.