Tag Archives: Country: Iraq

Christian Post: The mass exodus of millions of Christians from one part of the Islamic world to another as the result of persecution by Muslims has reached epidemic proportions, says a Middle East and Islam expert. In fact, Christians may completely disappear from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt, warns the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Middle East Forum: It is a truism that the de-Baathification process in Iraq was turned into virtual “de-Sunnification” in many respects and thus helped to fuel the Sunni Arab insurgency in the period 2003-2005. However, one area that stands out as a notable exception is the judiciary.

The Himalayan: A new culture rift is emerging in Iraq, as young women replace shapeless cover-ups with ankle-baring skirts and tight blouses, while men strut around in revealing slacks and spiky haircuts. The relatively skimpy styles have prompted Islamic clerics in at least two Iraqi cities to mobilize local security guards as a “fashion police” in the name of protecting religious values.

YNet.com: Warning from Putin: Visiting Russian president cautions Israel against hasty military action in Iran, says ‘look at what happened to the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan’ . . . “Iraq has a pro-Iranian regime after everything that has happened there. These things should be thought out ahead of time before doing something one will regret later,” he said. “One should not act prematurely.”

NY Times: With her father sitting nearby, 16-year-old Jenan Merza struggled to explain why she was lying in bed recovering from a gunshot wound.

Phil Lawler at Catholic Culture: The US is committed to a foreign policy that defends human rights. Yet in the countries where our troops have been fighting during the past decade, one fundamental human right—the right to religious freedom—has been diminished rather than enhanced, particularly for Christians.

AFP: Thousands took to the streets of the Iraqi Kurdish capital Arbil on Tuesday as a rally to demand swift punishment for a magazine editor who ran a story decried as “against Islam” turned violent.

Pat Buchanan at

AsiaNews.it: The Christian community in Iraqis once more the target of Islamic extremism: Yesterday morning in Mosul in the north, security forces found the corpse of a man riddled with bullets.

Pat B uchanan at Townhall: Undeniably, the soldiers who burned the Qurans blundered. Yet there is no evidence that it was malicious. If vandals desecrate a Bible in America, burning and replacing the holy book would not be regarded a valid excuse for mayhem and murder. If Afghans cannot understand this mistake and have no other way to express their rage than rioting and ranting, “Death to America!” what kind of raw material are we working with in building a Western-style democracy in any foreseeable century?

News from The Associated Press: An aide to Iraq’s most prominent Shiite cleric is urging politicians on both sides of the country’s sectarian divide to end a government crisis, as fears of civil war rise a month after the U.S. military withdrawal.

News from The Associated Press: Iraq needs new leaders to prevent the country from disintegrating, the leader of the main Sunni-backed bloc said Wednesday, reflecting the severity of a sectarian political battle in the Shiite-led government, accompanied by violence, just a month after the exit of U.S. forces.

CNSnews.com: Despite long-term U.S. military occupations aimed at establishing representative governments in Iraq and Afghanistan, Christianity now faces the real threat of eradication in those countries because of severe and persistent persecution of Christians there, according to the chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Middle East Forum: A recent Fox News report tells of how “a rash of attacks on Christian-owned businesses in northern Iraq has raised troubling questions about the future safety of the country’s shrinking Christian community, particularly as U.S. forces withdraw completely from the nation they’ve refereed since 2003.”

The Guardian: Two leading members of Iraq’s largest and most powerful Sunni tribe have warned of imminent sectarian chaos in the wake of the US withdrawal, claiming that the government of prime minister Nouri al-Maliki is promoting an anti-Sunni agenda.

CSMonitor.com: The scars of Iraq’s painful bloodletting are deep, and a powerful disincentive against a return to open warfare. But Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is moving against Sunni Arabs, his political enemies.

Catholic Culture: The Latin Rite archbishop of Baghdad says that some Christians have been reduced to dhimmitude and are being forced to pay the jizya, a special tax that permits them to practice their faith.

Catholic Culture: The Dominican superior in Baghdad has told Aid to the Church in Need that the situation has worsened for Christians in recent weeks amid fears that extremists are infiltrating churches.

Paul.Hous.gov: While I applaud the spirit of this announcement – since all our troops should come home from overseas – I have strong reservations about any actual improvements in the situation in Iraq, since plans are already being made to increase the number of troops in surrounding regions. What we really need is a new foreign policy and there is no indication that that is what we have gotten.

Christian Today: We’ve had enough now. Leaving Iraq has become a must,” Jamal Habo Korges, a Christian mechanic and father of three, told the United Nation’s humanitarian news outlet IRIN. “We’ve been suffering since 2003 and we can’t take it anymore. The latest carnage is the final warning.”

TheHill.com: President Obama will announce Friday that all U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of the year.

Asia News: Yesterday in the district of Muthana, an armed group assassinated the 30 year old Catholic Bassam Isho. October 1, Emmanuel Polos Hanna, was found at the edge of the road to Baghdad shot to death. Christian sources in Kirkuk: “The attacks continue, in the total silence of the world.”

Catholic Culture: Iraq’s ambassador to the Vatican argues that Christians in the Middle East have good reason to be skeptical about the “Arab Spring” rebellions.

OneNewsNow.com: The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomes the Obama administration’s release of the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, and the Commission is urging the U.S. government to increase action to promote freedom of religion or belief. Burma, Eritrea, China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan are eight “countries of particular concern,” but USCIRF spokesperson Elizabeth Cassidy says her group thinks the list is incomplete . . .

Reuters: Menas Saad Youssef no longer fears being blown up while praying in a church. But she and many other traumatized Christians who fled Iraq’s capital for safer areas have a new crisis — no jobs.

Asia News: A bomb exploded at around 1.30 am. No one was killed or injured, but the church was heavily damaged. The incident follows others against Kirkuk Christians in early August.

U.S. Dept. of State: We deplore the attack today outside the Holy Family Church in Kirkuk and extend our condolences to the victims’ families and loved ones. Attacks like this, which target religious minorities, demonstrate the extent to which certain terrorist groups will go to disrupt the progress Iraq has made toward reducing violence

CNSnews.com: A car bomb outside a Christian church wounded 23 people on Tuesday morning, police said, as security forces found and disabled vehicles packed with explosives outside two other parishes in northern Iraq.

NationalJournal.com: June was the deadliest month in more than two years for U.S. troops, with 14 killed. In May, the U.S. death toll was two. In April, it was 11. Senior U.S. commanders say the three primary Iranian-backed militias, Kataib Hezbollah, the Promise Day Brigade, and Asaib al Haq, and their rockets were behind 12 of the deaths in June.

Catholic Culture: Anti-Christian violence in Iraq left 92 dead and 47 wounded in 2010, making the year the worst to date for the Christian minority, according to the human-rights group Hammurabi.

Catholic Culture: Iraq’s embattled Christian community has opened a new church, for the first time since war began in 2003.

CatholicHerald.co.uk: Ashur Yacob Issa, 29, was abducted late Friday night or early Saturday morning and his mutilated body was discovered Monday morning. His family had been asked for a ransom but was not able to pay the sum of more than £61,500 (€70,000) the kidnappers demanded.

The Irish Times : The President added: “All conflict is about refusal to accept difference. The misery of that reality was visited on generations in Ireland and, in particular, Northern Ireland where the demonisation of neighbour by neighbour along sectarian lines was underpinned by a culture of non-acceptance of each other’s right to believe and behave differently . . .”

Catholic Culture: Arkan Jihad Yacob, a 62-year-old businessman and father of 4 children, was gunned down in Mosul.

AsiaNews.it: Ashur Yacob Issa, 29, was the father of three children. He was abducted three days ago. Negotiations for his released failed. This morning police found his body, which bore “horrific marks of torture”. In voicing his outrage, the archbishop of Kirkuk slammed this “inhuman act,” urging everyone to work together to “protect defenceless citizens”.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today released its 2011 Annual Report and recommended that the Secretary of State name the following nations “countries of particular concern” or CPCs: Burma, China, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

Middle East Forum: The grand irony, of course, is that Christian persecution has increased exponentially under U.S. occupation. As one top Vatican official put it, Christians, “paradoxically, were more protected under the dictatorship” of Saddam Hussein.

Christian Newswire: “Petition to Secretary of State Clinton Asks Protection for Religious Minorities . . . If this exodus is not stopped, Iraq will not have any Christians left in three years.”

AP: Members of an ultraconservative Muslim sect clashed with villagers south of Cairo over demands that a liquor store and coffee shops be closed, officials said Tuesday, a sign of the increasing assertiveness of the fundamentalist Salafi movement

Zenit: It is said that one of the Islamic fundamentalists who assassinated Father Ragheed Ganni in 2007 screamed to his victim before killing him, “I told you to close the church. … Why are you still here?”

David French writes at National Review Phi Beta Cons: “Fick and Nagl are correct that we can’t just kill our way to victory, but many casual observers of the war don’t comprehend the psychology of warfare. Fick and Nagl do. They understand the profound impact of continual losses on the human psyche and the emotional devastation of death without victory. If there’s one thing that I learned while in Iraq, it’s that our enemy is every bit as human as we are, and even their religious fanaticism does not make them immune to exhaustion or despair.”

AP: “Austria says it is granting asylum to 30 Iraqi Christians fleeing persecution in their homeland.”

BBC: “Years of conflict in Iraq have left the country with more than one million war widows and a shortage of young unmarried men – pressures that may be bringing about the return of polygamy.”

New York Times: “The last Christian man in town goes to church each morning to clean the building and to remember the past. Romel Hawal, 48, was born in this town in Anbar Province back when most of the population was Christian. Now, he said, his 11-year-old son knows no other Christians and has no memory of attending a church service.”

Vatican Radio: “Members of the European Parliament today adopted a resolution condemning persecution and discrimination based on religion. In particular MEP’s condemned attacks against Christians in countries including Egypt, and Iraq.”

UN News Centre: “The United Nations refugee agency today voiced concern over reports that Sweden planned to send about 25 Iraqis back to Baghdad tomorrow, saying that a number of those scheduled to be deported belong to religious and ethnic groups that have been targeted in recent attacks.”

Asia News: “Another targeted attack against Christians in Iraq. On the afternoon of 15 January a group of unidentified criminals entered the Rabi’a hospital, a private clinic in the Sukar district in Mosul and shot a Christian doctor who worked there at point blank rabge. The gun had a silencer, and the doctor was fortunately only seriously wounded.”

Doug Bandow writing at The Center for Vision & Values: “There is more than enough bad news to fill the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s latest annual report. Worst of all were the conditions in 13 ‘countries of particular concern.’”

ChristianNewsWire: “Despite Communist North Korea topping the annual Open Doors World Watch List (WWL) for the ninth consecutive year, the most dangerous countries in which to practice Christianity are overwhelmingly Islamic ones.”

“MR. CROWLEY: I’d be very wary at this point about making any sweeping statements about whether what’s happened in Iraq has a bearing on what’s happening in other countries such as Egypt or Nigeria. These are all being investigated. Clearly, there are pressures on minority groups in these countries, and we would hope and expect that in – those respective governments will fully investigate these attacks and bring those responsible to justice. That’s what, for example, the people of Egypt are rightly demanding a credible, thorough investigation and those responsible brought to justice.”

Vatican Radio: “‘An offense against God and all humanity’, that is how Pope Benedict XVI has described the New Year’s eve bombing of a Coptic Orthodox Church in Alexandria, Egypt, and the ongoing campaign of violence against Christians in Iraq. Speaking to a densely packed St Peter’s Square after the Sunday Angelus prayer, the Pope spoke of his sorrow and pain on hearing news of the latest spate of killings targeting Christians communities.”

AGI: “The imam of Al-Azhar condemned the Alexandria attack but criticised the Pope’s ‘interference.’”

Associated Press: “Rafah Toma survived one of the most horrific attacks on Iraq’s tiny Christian community – the siege on a Baghdad church two months ago that left 68 people dead – only to be gunned down in her home Monday by thieves stealing her cash and jewelry.”

Yahoo (AFP): “‘I have … taken the initiative for Denmark to host next week a seminar with the participation of religious leaders from a number of Iraqi communities, including Christians and Muslims, to promote dialogue between religious groups in Iraq,’ Danish Foreign Minister Lene Espersen said in a statement.”

Boston.com (AP): “Militants attacked at least three Christian homes Thursday night with a combination of grenades and bombs, killing two people and sending fear into the already terrified tiny Christian community.”

Ekklesia: The European Parliament has officially welcomed a delegation of Christian leaders from Iraq and Lebanon at its last plenary session of the year.”

Associated Press: “Iraqi Christians celebrated a somber Christmas in a Baghdad cathedral stained with dried blood, while Pope Benedict XVI exhorted Chinese Catholics to stay loyal despite restrictions on them in a holiday address laced with worry for the world’s Christian minorities.”

CBS: “Iraqi Christians on Wednesday called off Christmas festivities across the country as al-Qaida insurgents threatened more attacks on a beleaguered community still terrified from a bloody siege at a Baghdad church two months earlier.”

Reuters: “Recent efforts by authorities, clergy and unknown bands of neighbourhood enforcers to police morals by shutting nightclubs, bars and other establishments has heightened concerns among academics and intellectuals that Iraq, now emerging from war, is displaying the tendencies of a hard-line Islamic state.”

Asia News: “On the evening of December 15 armed militants abducted a young Christian female student from her home in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul.”

Associated Press: “The U.N. criticized Sweden on Friday for deporting five Iraqi Christians back to their homeland as Iraq’s Christian community comes under severe threat of militant attacks.”

Christian Post: “The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom wants the government to use Wednesday’s United Nations Security Council meeting on Iraq as an ‘opportunity’ to address the ‘grave situation facing that country’s Christians and other imperiled religious minorities.’” | USCIRF press release is here.

UPI: “The European community is ‘very concerned’ about the plight of members of the Christian minority in Iraq, the president of the European Parliament said.”

European Parliament resolution of 25 November 2010 on Iraq: the death penalty (notably the case of Tariq Aziz) and attacks against Christian communities | Press Release

New York Times: “A new wave of Iraqi Christians has fled to northern Iraq or abroad amid a campaign of violence against them and growing fear that the country’s security forces are unable or, more ominously, unwilling to protect them.”

Christian Post: “Iraq’s Christian minority took another hit Sunday evening when gunmen shot and killed an elderly Christian couple in their home.”

Baptist Press: “Iraqi Christians may blend into the ebb and flow of life in the troubled country, but in their churches they have continued to be targets of extremists, most recently an al-Qaida-related group, the Islamic State of Iraq. The persecution has resulted in many Iraqi Christians facing the decision of whether to flee their homeland with their families or stay and likely face severe consequences. Church leaders in Iraq and worldwide are voicing concerns that this may nail the coffin shut on Christian presence in the nation.”

Christian Post: “On December 4, groups such as the Iraqi Christian Relief Council and the American Mesopotamian Organization will gather across the street from the White House to rally for Assyrian Christians in Iraq, suffering persecution because of their faith, and other indigenous minorities.”

AsiaNews: “Bishops and Christian representatives have withdrawn from a conference on ‘Social Coexistence and Tolerance’ organized in Erbil by the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights. The gesture was intended as a protest against yet another crime committed against Christians.”

National Catholic Register: “A British bishop has criticized his government’s policy of repatriating Iraqi Christians fleeing persecution, saying it was not true that Iraq was safe. In a special Mass at London’s Westminster Cathedral Nov. 26, Auxiliary Bishop William Kenney of Birmingham, England, denounced the policy.”

Azzaman.com: “The exodus of Iraqi Christians is continuing and 507 families have landed in the Kurdish north where security conditions are relatively stable.”

Wall Street Journal: “Iran’s parliament revealed it planned to impeach President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but refrained under orders from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, exposing a deepening division within the regime.”

Catholic News Agency: “The situation for Christians in Iraq is becoming bleaker. The violence directed against them is no longer limited to the capital city Baghdad, but has been spreading throughout the country.”

Associated Press: “A Christian lawmaker called on Iraq’s government Tuesday to better protect its dwindling Christian community, lambasting the nations that have offered asylum to the minority as meddling in Iraq’s problems.”

FindLaw (AP): “Iraqi police say gunmen have shot and killed two Christian brothers in a northern city in the latest in a spate of attacks targeting the religious minority.”

Washington Post: “Just a few weeks ago, before the Oct. 31 massacre, more than 350 people regularly attended Sunday Masses here. But now, many from this ancient Syriac Catholic community have fled. Others are too afraid to attend Mass in a place they think is being targeted by extremist groups and militias that have plagued the country during more than seven years of war.”

Christian Today: “A six-year-old girl and her Christian father were killed in Mosul in Iraq Tuesday, joining the dozens of believers that have been targeted by Muslim extremists in recent weeks.”