Iraq’s Christians “Close To Extinction”
BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 6 months ago
BBC:
In an impassioned address in London, the Rt Rev Bashar Warda said Iraq’s Christians now faced extinction after 1,400 years of persecution.
Since the US-led invasion toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003, he said, the Christian community had dwindled by 83%, from around 1.5 million to just 250,000.
“Christianity in Iraq,” he said, “one of the oldest Churches, if not the oldest Church in the world, is perilously close to extinction. Those of us who remain must be ready to face martyrdom.”
[ … ]
Taking a historical perspective, the Archbishop of Irbil lamented the fact that in centuries past there was a happy period of fruitful cooperation between Christians and Muslims in Iraq, a time that historians have referred to as the Islamic Golden Age.
“Our Christian ancestors shared with Muslim Arabs a deep tradition of thought and philosophy,” says Archbishop Warda. “They engaged with them in respectful dialogue from the 8th Century.
The last two paragraphs are an outright lie and he knows it. I feel pretty bad about all of this for them, but it would help a great deal if [a] he would quit whining to the Brits about it (they aren’t going to do anything), and [b] his statement had read this way: “Those of us who remain must be ready to pick up weapons and go to war to kill our oppressors.”
So much for GWB’s naïve notion of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Yea, freedom only for certain religions, oppression for others.
On May 23, 2019 at 10:07 pm, Heywood said:
Muslims have never lived peacefully in the existence of the religion. If there weren’t Christian’s or Jews to fight with, they fought with other Muslims. Actually, it isn’t a religion…it is a disease.
On May 24, 2019 at 6:58 am, John said:
This is where the Pope is supposed to be raising Cain; not on BS AGW and supporting border invasions by illegals and Muslims from Africa.
On May 24, 2019 at 7:55 am, Fred said:
The only reason that the muz and Christians got along in Iraq is because Saddam wielded effective power as a strongman to keep the desperate parties, not just generic muz and Christians, together. This is the history or Iraq; leaders keeping would be warring parties at bay for the purposes of consolidation of power. Warda is liar. The reason he is whining to Britain about it is because Brittan used to be Iraq’s chief western political influence before baby Bush wrecked the place after his daddy prepped the battlefield in Desert Storm. The American government is allied with the House of Saud. Those martyred Christians in Iraq, and Egypt, and Libya, and Syria and others at the hands of the Bush/CIA NWO and their good friends (not sarc) the Clinton Crime Syndicate are all dead because of this alliance. It’s a small price to pay (sarc) to kill Christ’s children to maintain the cash flows from the Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund to the coffers of these anti-Christs. And don’t forget, we must protect the country of Israel at all costs even if it means being friends with the wahhbi death cult and killing every last follower of Christ on earth that isn’t a Zionist. Yes, it’s right there in your bible (sarc), a Talmudic physical country in the Middle East that blasphemes Christ Jesus, and is run by Neo-cons must be worshiped to satisfy Darby’s prophetic futurism and Scofield’s dispensationist eschatology.
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Except Talmudic Israel and money and Church registration with the holy IRS.
“So they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them? He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid. And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And the chief priests and the scribes the same hour sought to lay hands on him; and they feared the people: for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them.”
On May 24, 2019 at 8:03 pm, Gryphon said:
Fred is Correct in pointing out that in Iraq (when it was a Sovereign Nation) with Saddam Hussein as ‘President’, the Country was relatively ‘together’ in the sense that as long as the differing Groups went along with the government and 1-Party “system”, you didn’t get Thrown Off the Garage Roof of the President’s Office…
I Suspect that christians had a better situation then, in terms of being safe from Oppression from muslims than Now. The Invasion and Occupation by the USSA did Not improve the Political or Religious situation for Any average Iraqi, and it was Morally Wrong to have Invaded that Country.
And, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Except Talmudic Israel and money and Church registration with the holy IRS.
I’m gong to Steal that one, Thanks.
On May 24, 2019 at 11:38 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
Re: “Since the US-led invasion toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003, he said, the Christian community had dwindled by 83%, from around 1.5 million to just 250,000.
“Christianity in Iraq,” he said, “one of the oldest Churches, if not the oldest Church in the world, is perilously close to extinction. Those of us who remain must be ready to face martyrdom.”
The western mainstream media push relentlessly the worldview that Syria, to name one example of the monster of the day, is the enemy of everything for which western civilization stands. Gee, how funny and ironic that it is when you discover that the Assad government is one of the last even-remotely tolerant governments remaining in the Middle East and North Africa. A place where until recently, sectarian violence was rare. Where Christians could worship without looking over their shoulders all of the time, wondering when the hammer was going to fall.
One of the ugliest secrets of the so-called “Arab Spring” movement of some years ago is that it served as cover for the genocidal activities of ISIS, the Sunni Muslim jihad-terror group formed in part to do the dirty work their paymasters in Qatar and Saudi Arabia were not willing to do themselves – such as the liquidation of indigenous Christians and other kaffirs (infidels) in places like Syria and Iraq.
On the one-hundredth anniversary of the Fall of the Ottoman Empire, the last Sunni Muslim caliphate then in existence, the modern-day Sunni nations in the region – the Arab nations, Pakistan, Turkey, et al. – and their leaders, very much wanted to reestablish the empire.
And if a new and glorious caliphate was to be formed, someone – the jihadists and mujahedeen of ISIS – would have to conduct what westerners call an ethnic cleansing of all of the unbelievers, infidels and other non-Muslims in the region. ISIS was created in part for just this purpose – to put to the sword those who refused the Path of Allah.
Such as those ill-fated one-hundred Coptic Christian priests beheaded on a beach, in front of ISIS’ video cameras, or the countless nuns raped and churches destroyed or desecrated in recent years.
Violent persecution of Christians is not at all new to Africa, either. The Islamic government of the Sudan, under dictator Omar al-Bashir, has ordered for years that the Sudanese military conduct operations aimed at Christians, such as Hind helicopter gunships which routinely strafed and bombed churches in that nation.
Traditionally, the Muslims – whether Sunnis or Shi’ites – have considered Africa, the Middle East and much of SW and southern Asia as well – to be Islamic territory. Thus, when Christianity began making serious inroads into Africa and that continent saw a dramatic upswing in the number of professed Christians, the soldiers of Allah went back into action.
Other Muslim terrorist and jihad groups are active as well, in places such as Nigeria. Boko Haram has been active in that nation for years, conducting hit-and-run raids against targets of opportunity, kidnappings, suicide attacks, bombings, and assassinations. The group, which also operates in neighboring Chad, Niger and part of Cameroon, is known for its raids in which women and young girls are taken (kidnapped) and then sold into sexual slavery or addicted to drugs and made into prostitutes. Sometimes, the captives are ransomed for profit.
Since Islam forbids the taking of Muslim women in such a manner, the female captives are almost always non-Muslims – including Christians.
The Islamic insurgency by Boko Haram and similar jihadist groups has caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people and a state of emergency to be declared in parts of Nigeria, as Nigerian military forces have sought to quell the conflict.
In the South Sudan, Nigeria and elsewhere, Christians have started arming themselves in recognition of the fact that the government and/or local security forces either cannot be counted upon to protect them, or are unable to do so reliably. These Christians have seen how fruitless negotiation can be with the soldiers of Allah.
On May 25, 2019 at 8:43 pm, MTHead said:
Let’s not forget Saddam Hussein was our ally against Iran after the Iranian revolution. we paid him good to fight a proxy war with them. And you don’t kill members of daddy war bucks pet religion. No WMD’s? bullshit. we give him the gas to use on the Iranians. which he did. And after we attacked the first time. he used it on the Kurds. no one wanted to really find WMD’s because the canisters had “Made in USA” stamped all over them.
That’s why he had to be ready for a gas attack. but never found the gas.
On May 25, 2019 at 10:27 pm, MTHead said:
That should read, that’s why we had to be ready for a gas attack.
To me the best way to think of Islame. is just that. LAME, or as satan’s political system. politics that allow you to kill anyone of opposing view. that’s why they get along with the communist so well. their both so fatheaded, they get along.
Christians are being pretty slow on the uptake. Jesus be praised. (because we can be monsters when were on a roll). As Saddam Hussein found out.
On May 26, 2019 at 2:22 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
Saddam Hussein’s sin was not to be a brutal dictator who slew and tortured millions; it was to challenge the petro-dollar system. That’s why he was finally brought down. He wouldn’t color inside the lines set by his masters in the international banking system and the MIC. He was “our guy” until all of a sudden, he wasn’t anymore. Just figures….
On May 26, 2019 at 4:26 pm, Papa said:
Amazing.
All that GWOT and democracy, and this is one of the results?
Sad. Disgusting.
On May 26, 2019 at 6:25 pm, Grandpa said:
The time is long passed, that we beat our plowshares into swords; and prepare to begin the new Crusade… “The Lord is a warrior, the Lord is His Name”. Don’t think it won’t happen just because it ain’t happened yet