Posted on 02/28/2009 8:08:43 AM PST by Ravnagora
Beirut, Lebanon -- Christians continue to flee Iraq because of religious persecution, even as some Iraqi church leaders are calling on their compatriots to return home.
The church leaders fear that Iraq will become emptied of Christians if the mass exodus continues, leading some of them to issue calls to return that have angered refugees.
"The Muslims of Daura are calling on Christians to come back," the Chaldean bishop of Baghdad, Monsignor Andraos Abouna, told Newsmax in an exclusive interview in Beirut this week.
The Daura neighborhood of Baghdad has been the scene of mass persecution of Christians since the U.S.-led liberation of Iraq in 2003. Churches have been fire-bombed, homes torched, and Christians ordered by Muslim groups to leave their property and flee for their lives or convert to Islam.
Despite the pattern of Muslim violence, Bishop Abouna claimed that the security situation has changed dramatically, thanks to the surge in U.S. troop presence and the recent appearance in his neighborhood of Iraqi troops.
"At the beginning, it was utter chaos," he told Newsmax. "After the Americans came, there was no government, no army, no police. The borders were open. So whoever is strong can kill anyone."
Recently, however, the Iraqi government has allowed his diocese to hire private guards to protect the Baghdad churches. "They are all Christians, and they control access. The government pays for them. They are like ordinary police, but they are not in the police force."
Abouna says he hopes that as the recent refugees saw the security improvements, they would decide to come back. "We hope they will choose to do so."
While Abouna was visiting Lebanon, a priest from the Chaldean patriarchy in Lebanon delivered a tougher version of the same message to the faithful at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the Boushriqeh neighborhood of Beirut, a slum where Iraqi Christians live crammed into tiny apartments they rent for $200 per month.
"You must return to Iraq," he said on the Sunday before Lent. "You never should have come here. Priests died for Iraq. You should have stayed in Iraq," he said.
Rana Ramzi al-Sayigh, 30, is the mother of three small children. She is also the widow of a bodyguard who was murdered when Muslim terrorists attacked the convoy of a bishop, Farraj Rahho of Mosul, last February.
"I was angry when I heard [the message to return]. Everybody was angry," she tells Newsmax during a visit to her tiny apartment, not far from the church. "I have lost my husband. Does that priest want us all to become widows?"
She says that the Iraqi government gave her a widow's pension of $85 per month, just enough to pay rent in a refugee housing complex, not enough for food. With three children to take care for, she could not work outside the home. "Is this priest saying that the church will support us?" she asks.
Rana counts herself among the lucky ones -- she had just learned that the U.S. authorities had approved her family's immigration visas. They were preparing to leave for the United States where she has an uncle in Detroit.
Majid Slaiwa Karomeh, 36, was less lucky. He fled to Beirut recently with his wife and their six small children, after being shot in the shoulder in September.
He and a brother worked as sewage truck drivers for Kellogg Brown Root, an American engineering company, in Baghdad. They were ambushed just as they were leaving a protected area.
Majid's brother was killed instantly.
A few days before he spoke to Newsmax in Beirut, thieves entered the small apartment where the family of eight was living and found the suitcase where he had hidden their life's savings -- around $1,400.
He asked the local priests what he should do. They advised him not to report the theft to the authorities, because he was an illegal alien.
"If he reported the theft, we were afraid he could be arrested because he had overstayed his visa," said Michel Kasdano, an aid to Bishop Michel Kassarji, the Chaldean Bishop of Beirut.
To help Majid and his family get over their immediate crisis, the Bishop personally gave him some money, and told him to return in two days when the weekly meeting of the diocesan charity committee.
"I have 1,200 families to care for," Bishop Kassarji told Newsmax. "Some 6,000 souls. We have so few resources, but it is our job to do what we can."
By Kenneth R. Timmerman www.newsmax.com
_______________________
“The Muslims of Daura are calling on Christians to come back,” the Chaldean bishop of Baghdad, Monsignor Andraos Abouna, told Newsmax in an exclusive interview in Beirut this week.
Yea OK, and as soon as the coalition troops leave things will get even worse for them. Nation building with Muslims is not worth the cost.
Ironically, Ann Coulter supported the very policies in Iraq which have led to the massive depopulation of Christians since the Shi’ites took power there.
The alternative is worse.
If we don't civilize these beasts the terror will come to our shores. They follow a religion of the devil and it is their religious duty to convert, or kill all non-believers. If representative govts can be established, the rule of law and freedom of speech we have a chance to bring them out of the darkness of islam. If we don't succeed expect to see more mosques built here.
You know what I’m thinking, R, so instead of posting my usual rant about Bush’s legacy, I’ll just ask:
Do you suppose he’s called “Abouna Abouna” in his diocese? :)
I know what Islam is and I agree with you on that. But the rest is never going to happen. Islam is not reforming and they are voting terrorist groups like Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood into office. The Iraqi govt has offically shut the Christians out of the govt and Islam is in their constitution. Afghanistan and Iraq are just Islamic countries that have cost us lives and drained us completely financially. We cannnot afford this fantasy of some kind of “moderate” Islam coming to the rescue it is not happening. On top of it our govt is clueless when it comes to the even bigger threat, and that is political Islam. The terror is here and more and more Mosques are being built. There is little point in fighting them over there and then letting them set up shop over here. We are heading in the same direction as the UK in regards to Islam. We need to end their immigration.
http://islaminaction08.blogspot.com/2009/02/christian-action-network35-islamic.html
http://islaminaction08.blogspot.com/2009/01/american-muslims-no-different-from-rest.html
Islam is not compatible with a civilized world.
No it is not and nothing we do will change that. If Muslims want to change it is up to them.
I don't expect the devils religion to moderate. I do believe in the power of God to use Christians to convert these beasts.
We are heading in the same direction as the UK in regards to Islam. We need to end their immigration.
I agree, but we don't have the political strength to do it.
Just one example, I was talking to a friend this week about islam and what they believe (he's jewish) and his response was well I know some Arabs and they all seem to be nice family men.
We certainly need to fight on the home front, but that doesn't mean we can't establish a beach head in the enemy's home territory.
Are you better off fighting the enemy of civility in their territory, or in your backyard?
Yea, nice family men. lol!! Who are wishing for Jews to die.
I understand your point, but I do not think that the war was worth the cost. Also our govt is not even close to realizing how big a threat political Islam is to us here at home. Obama is our Labour Party.
I believe that, and this goes for the entire West. That if we do not end Muslim immigration that eventually we will lose. As they never stop pushing.
We have bottled up these beasts in their native territories. We have disrupted their financial networks. We have killed a great many of them. We have not had another attack on our territory since 9-11-2001!
We have established a beach head in their native land. Representative govt is messy, especially when it is being tried for the first time.
Also our govt is not even close to realizing how big a threat political Islam is to us here at home.
You're right. I suspect that muslims were behind the 550 Billion that was withdrawn from money mkts triggering the financial crisis. McCain was in the lead at that point. Now they've gotten who they want in the presidency.
Now Jews are wondering why there is more support for Hamas than Israel.
...if we do not end Muslim immigration that eventually we will lose.
You might be too young to remember Jimmy Carter. He created a lot of this mess. The American people woke up and one of our greatest Presidents was elected. Ronald Reagan crushed the USSR. He set us on a path of economic growth that lasted for about 27 years with only 2 minor recessions. Have faith, if we trust the LORD it's going to work out. We are only in the first act of this mess.
Americans need to return to the masculine belief in American Exceptionalism and live it.
I suspect it was computer trading software that is programmed to sell when certain market signals occur.
I know and that is great. But we both know that they do not have to attack us to take over. They use our freedoms against us and if political Islam is not eventually addressed we are done. The future will tell.
wmfights
Americans need to return to the masculine belief in American Exceptionalism and live it.
I agree, enough with this catering and worrying about everyone else over ourselves. AMERICA FIRST!!
I have read that and it does seem plausible. It would be nice to know one way or another.
Absolutely!
There will be a real need for leadership after 0 screws everything up. We need to be ready to clean up the mess and get this country back on track.
I always thought that Tancredo would be an America first president.
But this can't be. Didn't Dear Leader once pronounce his edict that "Islam is a Religion of Peace"??
The fools of the New World Order "liberated" NOTHING from this world.
You ought to write copy for MSNBC.
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