Armenian, Assyrian, Greek Genocide: 100 Years of Remembrance

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

In his Sunday sermon on April 12, "Pope Francis referred to the 1915 Turkish mass killings of Armenians as the 'first genocide of the 20th century.'"

This papal declaration instantly flared into a diplomatic uproar. It absolutely infuriated Turkey's Islamist President Tayyip Erdogan, who "warned" the Pope against repeating his "mistaken" statement.

There was actually no mistake about it: The fact is, the Armenian Genocide cost 1.5 million Armenian Christians their lives, along with another million Assyrian and Greek believers.

And, thanks to the Pope's pronouncement and Erdogan's outrage, the rest of the world was effectively reminded of the approaching centennial of that genocide, which will take place on April 24.

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Armenian, Assyrian, Greek Genocide: 100 Years of Remembrance

No Room in America for Christian Refugees

The following excerpts are from AINA.org. All emphases are mine:

At the end of World War II, the Jewish survivors of Europe's Holocaust found that nearly every door was closed to them. "Tell Me Where Can I Go?" was a popular Yiddish song at the time. Decades later, the Christians of the Middle East face the same problem, and the Obama administration is keeping the door shut.

America is about to accept 9000 Syrian Muslims, refugees of the brutal war between the Assad regime and its Sunni opposition, which includes ISIS, Al Qaeda, and various other militias. That number is predicted to increase each year. There are no Christian refugees that will be admitted.

Why? Because the Department of State is adhering with all the rigidity of a Soviet era bureaucracy to the rule that only people at risk from massacres launched by the regime qualify for refugee status. The rapes of Christian women and the butchery of Christian children do not count. No matter how moved Americans were this Christmas season by the plight of their fellow Christ followers in Syria and Iraq, no matter how horrific the visuals of beheadings, enslavement, and mass murder, the Christians fleeing death do not engender the compassion of this president. The Christians are being raped, tortured, and murdered by militias, not by the Syrian government. This technicality condemns them to continue to be victims without hope. And this technicality is being adhered to with all the tenacity with which President Franklin D. Roosevelt's State Department manipulated quotas and created subterfuges to keep out the Jews fleeing the oppression of Nazi Germany. Obama no more wants the Middle East's Christian refugees than Roosevelt wanted Europe's Jewish refugees.

We have seen in the last several weeks that President Obama has no difficulty using his "phone and his pen," as he dramatically boasts, to circumvent the law. When it comes to immigration, he had no difficulty enacting an amnesty that a federal judge subsequently ruled unconstitutional. He has had no problem circumventing Congress to change the relationship with Cuba. This president has shown that he will push back on the constraints of law when he wants to get something done.

But there are not even such constraints when it comes to the Middle East's Christians fleeing the brutality of ISIS and Al Qaeda. The Department of State chooses to adhere to a definition of refugees as people persecuted by their own government. What difference does it make which army imperils the lives of innocent Christians? Christians are still be slaughtered for being Christian, and their government is incapable of protecting them. Does some group have to come along--as Jewish groups did during the Holocaust--and sardonically guarantee that these are real human beings?

The Christians would barely have to be vetted for ties to terror organizations, which by their very nature do not take Christians. Meanwhile, there is the uncomfortable issue that among the Sunni refugees there are some in league with the Sunni terror militias. And beyond that there is the equally uncomfortable question of the acculturation of segments of the Muslim community.

...it is time for all people of good will to say to the Obama administration that telling Christians awaiting death that there is no room for them in the inn is not only unacceptable, it is also, to use President Obama's own words, "not who we are." This season, Christians need to make their voice heard. They should not act as the Jews did, waiting for a president who had no intention of doing anything, to do something.

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No Room in America for Christian Refugees

Priests Race to Save Manuscripts From Jihadists in Iraq

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

As fighters from the Islamic State group rampage across northern Syria and Iraq, a group of priests are racing against time to save what's left of the region's Christian heritage. Dominican Order priests have already managed to get many precious artifacts and manuscripts safely to Erbil in Kurdistan.

Reports of massacres and beheadings of Christians and other minority groups have scared thousands into fleeing the jihadists' advance. In a region regarded as the cradle of civilization, it's no surprise that the rapid advance of the militant fighters has alarmed those looking to preserve the region's heritage.

The Dominican Order [also known as the Order of Preachers] - a Roman Catholic religious order founded 800 years ago - has deep roots among Christian communities in northern Iraq. For decades, Najeeb Michaeel - an Iraqi priest belonging to the Order - has worked to collect and preserve precious manuscripts. Now with the rise of the Islamic State group, his work has become all the more important.

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Priests Race to Save Manuscripts From Jihadists in Iraq

Some Assyrians Who Fled Their Town Say They Wish to Leave Iraq

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

(AINA) -- Some Assyrians who were forced by ISIS to flee from Telsqof, an Assyrian town north of Mosul, say they do not wish to return but leave Iraq. In an interview conducted by the World Council of Churches and posted on youtube, residents of Telsqof say they have no future and would like to leave Iraq. A resident shows cell phone pictures of their homes which have been destroyed and asks how can we return to our homes.

In the interview the residents say ISIS looted, destroyed or booby trapped their homes with explosives. All of the residents fled the town.

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Some Assyrians Who Fled Their Town Say They Wish to Leave Iraq

Tens of Thousands of Assyrian and Yazidi Children At Risk in North Iraq

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

(AINA) -- 200,00 Assyrians and 150,000 Yazidis who were driven from their villages by ISIS are now facing the dangers of cold weather as winter approaches. Already temperatures in north Iraq are very low at night, requiring extra blankets and space heaters for warmth.

...In an interview on the MidPoint program on Newsmax TV, the president of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, Julianna Taimoorazy, is warning that up to 200,000 children are at risk from exposure to cold weather.

Note: Assyrians are also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs.

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Tens of Thousands of Assyrian and Yazidi Children At Risk in North Iraq

Mother of 3 Year-old Assyrian Girl Kidnapped By ISIS: 'She Will Die If She Does Not See Me'

Christina Khader Ebada, a 3 year-old Assyrian girl,
was abducted from her family by ISIS as they were leaving Baghdede.

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

(AINA) -- The mother of Christina Khader Ebada, a 3 year-old Assyrian girl who was abducted from her family by ISIS as they were leaving Baghdede (AINA 2014-08-25), was interviewed by Ishtar TV, an Assyrian network based in Arbel. The interview was conducted after Christina's family reached Ankawa, just north of Arbel, where 70,000 Assyrians refugees have come in flight from ISIS.

According to a relative of the family, Christina's mother is physically handicapped and her father is blind.

Here is the text of the interview.

..."We went and sat in the big bus, and then one man came aboard, I was carrying my child in my arms, I sat in the bus and he came and took her from me, snatched her from me, and left the bus. I followed him inside [the building], and my little girl was crying inside the center. An old man, one of those ISIS people, who was apparently their leader then carried her.

He said [she is speaking in Arabic now] "is this your daughter?" I said yes. He said "she is crying for you." I told him give her back to me, poor girl, what is she guilty of? She is breast feeding from me. For the sake of Allah, for the sake of Muhammad, what do you worship? Give me this little one, she is breast feeding from me. She will die if she does not see me. I am her mother.

He said "shut up. if you speak another word I will let them slaughter you. I will call them now to slaughter you." He drew his machine gun and said "go quickly to the car. If you come close to this little girl you will be slaughtered, we shall slaughter you. Come now, go!"...

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Mother of 3 Year-old Assyrian Girl Kidnapped By ISIS: 'She Will Die If She Does Not See Me'

Pope backs use of force against Islamic militants attacking religious minorities in Iraq | Fox News

The following excerpts are from FoxNews.com:

Pope Francis on Monday endorsed the use of force to stop Islamic militants from attacking religious minorities in Iraq but said the international community -- and not just one country -- should decide how to intervene.

Francis also said he and his advisers were considering whether he might go to northern Iraq himself to show solidarity with persecuted Christians. But he said he was holding off for now on a decision.

In other comments to journalists returning from South Korea, Francis confirmed he hoped to travel to the United States in September 2015 for a possible three-city tour: to attend a family rally in Philadelphia and to address Congress in Washington and the United Nations in New York. He said a Mexico stop on that trip was possible but not decided yet. He also said he might make one-day visit to Spain next year.

On Iraq, Francis was asked if he approved of the unilateral U.S. airstrikes on militants of the Islamic State who have captured swaths of northern and western Iraq and northeastern Syria and have forced minority Christians and others to either convert to Islam or flee their homes.

"In these cases, where there is an unjust aggression, I can only say that it is licit to stop the unjust aggressor," Francis said. "I underscore the verb `stop.' I'm not saying `bomb' or `make war,' just `stop.' And the means that can be used to stop them must be evaluated."

But, he said, in history, such "excuses" to stop an unjust aggression have been used by world powers to justify a "war of conquest" in which an entire people have been taken over.

"One nation alone cannot judge how you stop this, how you stop an unjust aggressor," he said, apparently referring to the United States. "After World War II, the idea of the United Nations came about: It's there that you must discuss `Is there an unjust aggression? It seems so. How should we stop it?' Just this. Nothing more."

His comments were significant because the Vatican has vehemently opposed any military intervention in recent years, with St. John Paul II actively trying to head off the Iraq war and Francis himself staging a global prayer and fast for peace when the U.S. was threatening airstrikes on Syria last year.

But the Vatican has been increasingly showing support for military intervention in Iraq, given that Christians are being directly targeted because of their faith and that Christian communities which have existed for 2,000 years have been emptied as a result of the extremists' onslaught.

The U.S. began launching airstrikes against Islamic State fighters on Aug. 8, allowing Kurdish forces to fend off an advance on their regional capital of Irbil and to help tens of thousands of religious minorities escape.

Church teaching allows for "just wars," when military force can be justified under certain circumstances. And in recent days, a few Vatican officials have edged increasingly toward acknowledging the Iraq situation fits the bill.

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Pope backs use of force against Islamic militants attacking religious minorities in Iraq | Fox News

From The Dignitatis Humanae Institute : "The Islamic State Tightens Grip - Christians Flee"

Note:The following is a press release from The Dignitatis Humanae Institute

Rome, 26 July 2014

The world has watched with increasing dismay and horror as the remaining Iraqi Christian minorities have been forced out of their homes, most recently in Mosul and the surrounding area, in the latest wave of persecution and destruction rained down by the Islamic State formerly known as "ISIS". Houses have been looted and robbed. Graves and shrines have been demolished. Crosses smashed and removed from churches.

Elie Essa Kas Hanna, DHI analyst on Human Dignity and Religious Freedom, said: "Iraqi Christians are the original residents of Mesopotamia - descendants of the ancient Babylonians, Chaldeans, Assyrians and a large number of Arabs tribes: Mudar, Rabia and Tay etc. Christianity has been present in Iraq since the First Century AD, when most of the population of Mesopotamia converted to Christianity, though leaving others to continue in their traditional beliefs in Judaism, Manichaeism and Parsee. Today, 2,000 years later, the descendants of these original Christians are being driven out as though guests in a home whose welcome they have overstayed - ironically by a religion that didn't even appear on the scene for another five centuries."

DHI Chairman Luca Volontè added: "The whole situation is clearly out of all control. There is tension between the government and the opposition forces, as well as the tension that still exists between the central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government. It is in this space of uncertainty and mistrust that the Islamic State has moved deftly to occupy a large part of Iraqi territory that is now almost two-thirds the size of the Great Britain."

Lord Alton of Liverpool, who launched the DHI-affiliated Cross-Party Working Group on Human Dignity in the Palace of Westminster, and one of the British Parliament's most respected authorities on religious persecution around the world, said: "In 2003, the Christian presence in Iraq was 1.5 million. After the end of the Second Gulf War, the Christian presence was reduced to 400,000 people - and most of these lived in the north. Now a staggering 90% of those Christians who remained have now fled from Mosul to surrounding areas, especially onto the plains of the Biblical city of Nineveh, on the border of the Kurdistan region."

Lord Alton illustrated the current situation with a recent example: "The DHI notes with alarm the destruction of the Biblical Tomb of Jonah - which dates from the 8th Century BC - smashed by sledgehammer blows which have echoed around the world. We can only hope that last week's rumour of the similar destruction of the tomb of the Prophet Daniel turns out to be false."

Indicating the difficulty regarding the authentication of reports that are emerging from the Islamic State, Lord Alton added: "Also unverified, the UN and the BBC have reported that ISIS forces in Mosul have ordered all girls and women to undergo female genital mutilation. This is an outrage. More than 130 million girls and women have already been subjected to this barbaric practice worldwide - and it has to stop. In the Islamic State today we see a historically recurring meme sadly replaying itself: an orgy of destruction of culture and heritage sooner or later leads to attacks on human beings, their freedom and dignity."

Volontè concluded: "The DHI believes that Iraqi Christians are a vital part of Iraqi society, and that they have an irreplaceable role to play in rebuilding together - with other citizens of goodwill - a future for their country. The DHI appeals to the international community to do everything possible to come to the aid of the few Christians left in Iraq. We add our prayers to those of His Holiness Pope Francis, who follows the suffering of Christians in Iraq with great closeness."

ENDS

population before 2003 32.200.000

population after 2013 29.000.000

Shia 26.000.000

Sunni 2.000.000

Others 1.000.000

Christians before 2003 1,500,000

Christians after 2003 400,000

Christians after Isis 2014 100,000 – 200,000

Source: Central Statistical Organisation, Ministry of Planning, Republic of Iraq

The Dignitatis Humanae Instituteaims to uphold human dignity based on the anthropological truth that man is born in the image and likeness of God and therefore has an innate human dignity of infinite worth to be upheld. The Institute promotes this understanding by supporting Christians in public life, assisting them to present effective and coherent responses to increasing efforts to silence the Christian voice in the public square.

A Desperate Cry From Iraq's Christians

The following excerpts are from Aina.org:

Iraq's Christian leaders have just made a desperate cry for help. Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako, head of Iraq's Catholic church, has issued an appeal "to all who have a living conscience in Iraq and all the world."

The situation for Iraq's Christians has been steadily deteriorating ever since the 2003 invasion, in part because the U.S. never acknowledged that Christians were being targeted by Islamists and did not prioritize protection of Christians or other minorities.

But with the recent sweep through Mosul and other Iraqi cities by the jihadi group ISIS, Iraq's Christians look to be on the verge of genocide.

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A Desperate Cry From Iraq's Christians

The Continued Plight of Egypt's Copts

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

For Egypt's Copts, the military's removal of President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood from power was nothing short of a miracle. After two and a half years in which Islamists dominated every electoral contest they faced, there was little if any hope on the horizon. Since the 25th of January revolution, Coptic despair manifested itself in an unprecedented wave of emigration from Egypt, which intensified during the Brotherhood's year in power. Following the massive demonstrations against the Brotherhood's rule and the military coup of July 3rd 2013, Copts were in a frenzied mood celebrating their deliverance; a deliverance that would prove short lived, however.

The Copts represent the Middle East's largest Christian population, and were once one of the pillars of early Christianity, with some of its early saints framing what it meant to be Christian. However, centuries of persecution and struggles for survival have left Copts a small minority in their homeland. Modernity brought new challenges to the community, though it removed the legal second-class status in which Copts lived in the Middle Ages. In recent years Copts have come under increasing pressure due to the discriminatory policies of successive governments, as well as violent attacks by their fellow citizens.

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The Continued Plight of Egypt's Copts

Iraqi Christians Flee Violence, Fear End of Long History

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

The violence in Iraq is hastening the end of nearly 2,000 years of Christianity there as the few remaining faithful flee Islamic State militants, archbishops from Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk said on Wednesday.

War and sectarian conflict have shrunk Iraq's Christian population to about 400,000 from 1.5 million before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, and now even those who stayed are leaving for Turkey, Lebanon and western Europe, the prelates said on a visit to Brussels seeking European Union help to protect their flocks.

The three - Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako, Syrian Catholic Archbishop of Mosul Yohanna Petros Mouche and Kirkuk's Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Youssif Mirkis - are all Eastern Catholics whose churches have their own traditional liturgy but are loyal to the pope in Rome.

"The next days will be very bad. If the situation does not change, Christians will be left with just a symbolic presence in Iraq," said Sako, who is based in Baghdad. "If they leave, their history is finished."

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Iraqi Christians Flee Violence, Fear End of Long History

Christian Exodus From Iraq Accelerating

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

• The Church in Iraq is on the brink of disappearing into obscurity, according to the country's leading bishop, who says the migration of Christians has shot up.
• Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako of Baghdad described how the rate of Christians leaving Iraq was growing and went on to raise the spectre of Christianity in Iraq coming "to an end".
• In an interview with Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need given at the close of a Synod of Chaldean bishops held in Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan, the Patriarch said: "When I was in Turkey recently, 10 Christian families from Mosul arrived.
• "And in the space of only one week, 20 families left Alqosh, a completely Christian town not far from Mosul.
• "This is very serious. We are losing our community. If Christian life in Iraq comes to an end, this will be a hiatus in our history."
• The head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, which is in full communion with Rome, said the future of Iraq's Christians is under threat: "In 10 years there will perhaps be 50,000 Christians left."

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Christian Exodus From Iraq Accelerating

International outrage grows for Sudanese woman sentenced to death for apostasy | Fox News

The following excerpts are from FoxNews.com:

• International outrage is mounting over the death sentence a Sudanese judge ordered for the pregnant wife of an American citizen — all because she refuses to renounce her Christian faith.
• Meriam Ibrahim, 26, was sentenced Thursday after being convicted of apostasy. The court in Khartoum ruled that Ibrahim must give birth and nurse her baby before being executed, but must receive 100 lashes immediately after having her baby for adultery — for having relations with her Christian husband. Ibrahim, a physician and the daughter of a Christian mother and a Muslim father who abandoned the family as a child, could have spared herself death by hanging simply by renouncing her faith.
• "We gave you three days to recant but you insist on not returning to Islam," Judge Abbas Khalifa told Ibrahim, according to AFP. "I sentence you to be hanged to death."
• But Ibrahim held firm to her beliefs.
• “I was never a Muslim,” she answered. “I was raised a Christian from the start.”
• Ibrahim was raised in the Christian faith by her mother, an Orthodox Christian from Ethiopia. She is married to Daniel Wani, a Christian from southern Sudan who has U.S. citizenship, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

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International outrage grows for Sudanese woman sentenced to death for apostasy | Fox News

Sudan: woman at risk of death sentence for converting to Christianity : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from CWN:

• A Sudanese court has found a 27-year-old woman guilty of apostasy and has been given until May 15 to renounce her Christian faith.
• Ahmed Bilal Osman, Sudan’s minister of culture and information, told Agence France-Presse that “it's not only Sudan. In Saudi Arabia, in all the Muslim countries, it is not allowed at all for a Muslim to change his religion.”
• Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, the daughter of a Muslim father and Christian mother, maintains that she was raised a Christian.

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Sudan: woman at risk of death sentence for converting to Christianity : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Video shows Islamic extremist threatening to sell abducted Nigerian schoolgirls | Fox News

The following excerpts are from Fox News:

• An Islamic extremist leader has threatened to sell the 276 teenage girls his terror group abducted from a school in northeast Nigeria three weeks ago.
• In a videotape screened by the Associated Press Monday, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau claimed responsibility for the April 15 kidnappings for the first time. He also threatened to attack more schools and take additional girls.
• "I abducted your girls," said the leader of Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sinful."
• He described the girls as "slaves" and said "By Allah, I will sell them in the marketplace." The hour-long video starts with fighters lofting automatic rifles and shooting in the air as they chant "Allahu akbar!" or "God is great."

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Video shows Islamic extremist threatening to sell abducted Nigerian schoolgirls | Fox News