Iraqi advances give hope to displaced Christians

Associated Press ^ | 10/21/2016 | FAY ABUELGASIM

[tekrat]

Raeda Paulos could hardly conceal her joy when the television inside her cramped trailer showed Iraqi forces raising the national flag over a church in her hometown, a day after it was freed from Islamic State rule.

"This is our church, this is where we used to pray!" she exclaimed as she watched the images at a camp for displaced Iraqis in Irbil, the Kurdish regional capital.

It was also where her husband, Adil Mateh, hid when the extremists swept into Bartella, a historically Christian town east of Mosul, in the summer of 2014. He had stayed to volunteer at the church, but by 2 a.m., when the power and water were cut, he decided it was too dangerous and fled into the night, eventually joining his wife and their four children.

[dadfly]

Praise God!

[Lorianne]

They cannot hold it.

Shias cannot hold Sunni territory and vise versa.
Christians who put their hopes into one or the other sects of Islam are bound to be disappointed ... if not killed outright.

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/in-the-regional-power-struggle-has-erbil-decided-to-join-the-sunni-bloc

[Capt. Tom]

Under the extremists' rule, Christians had to either convert to Islam or pay a special tax.

That is true to fundamental Muslims like ISIS and the Wahabbis, as long as Christians and Jews (people of the Book) don't resist Islam,they can keep their religion but must be subjugated and pay protection money.(Jizya)
The rest of us get killed if we do not convert to Islam, along with the Jews and Christians who resist Islam. -Tom