Posted on 05/23/2006 2:52:59 PM PDT by kellynla
Retired Iraqi Gen. Georges Sada, a former fighter pilot-turned-Christian evangelist, says Kurds are converting to Christianity "by the hundreds" in northern Iraq.
Gen. Sada earlier reported that he had been told that Iraqi pilots, flying private planes, took weapons of mass destruction to undisclosed locations in Syria in 2002.
The "good news" from Iraq's turbulent religious scene, consisting mainly of Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim militias battling each other, is from the Kurds, he said. Kurds are creating a constitution that does away with Shariah, or Islamic law, a move counter to trends in other Muslim countries such as Afghanistan and Iran, where leaving Islam is a capital offense and Christian converts are often killed.
"No Christians in the Kurdish territory are persecuted," he said yesterday in an interview.
Gen. Sada, 66, who lives in Baghdad, cited growing numbers of evangelical Christians in the Kurdish city of Irbil and a recent church conference of 854 Christians at the city's Salahaddin University as demonstrations of the Kurds' willingness to protect religious freedom.
He added that Nechervan Idris Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdish regional government in Irbil and nephew of former Iraqi Governing Council President Massoud Barzani, was extremely positive about evangelical Christians' efforts among Iraq's 4 million Kurds.
"He told me he'd rather see a Muslim become a Christian rather than a radical Muslim," the general said.
He spoke last night at McLean Bible Church, Northern Virginia's largest congregation, about his new vocation as director of the Iraqi Institute for Peace and president of the National Presbyterian Church in Baghdad.
"My foundation for peace is Christianity," said Gen. Sada, who was born an Assyrian Christian. "We must learn to love..."
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
ping
Glad to hear this.
Hearts and minds?
Praise God.
WHAT GOD IS DOING IN IRAQ: Born-again Iraqi General [Sada, Virginia book-signing]
This won't sit well with Christopher Hitchens.
Now wouldn't that be a nice turn of events, seeing that it was their forebearers who almost completely obliterated the Assyrian church (even before their conversion to Islam) and provide the Saracens with their greatest military leader--Saladin--after they became Mohammedans.
Has any one ever asked Gen. Sada what ever became of the schmuck who shot the Exocet into the "lifer locker" of the USS Stark?
Gee, we never hear about this in the media.
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