The death of a high-ranking Chaldean Catholic archbishop in Iraq has provoked outcry from the Christian community over the increased violent acts directed at Iraq’s tiny and rapidly shrinking Christian community.
Christian leaders as well as political leaders worldwide have condemned the kidnapping and death of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, who was buried Friday outside of Mosul in northern Iraq. The 65 year-old priest was the second most senior Catholic cleric in Iraq.
It is still unknown if the archbishop was killed or if he died of illness while held hostage, according to The Associated Press. A Mosul morgue official, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said there were no bullet holes in Rahho’s body.
"This is a sad day for the Chaldean/Assyrian/Syriacs of Iraq and for the entire world of Christianity,” said Jackie Bejan, the executive director of Chaldean Assyrian Syriac Council of America (CASCA), according to Assyrian International News Agency. “May God help and protect the defenseless people of Iraq."
CASCA condemned the alleged “murder” of the Archbishop and urged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to appeal to the Iraqi government and increase U.S. efforts to protect the remaining Iraqi Christian population.
Likewise, other Christian groups and figures have expressed sadness and denounced Rahho’s kidnapping and death including the World Evangelical Religious Liberty Commission, Christian Solidarity International, Open Doors, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams of the Anglican Communion, the National Council of Churches USA (NCCUSA), and the Middle East Council of Churches.
"The MECC condemns this terrorist killing and calls on the Iraqi Government to open an immediate investigation into this sad event and find out the complete truth," read a statement signed by MECC general secretary Gurigis Ibrahim Saleh.
Violence directed at Iraqi Christians has steadily risen, especially in recent months, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee the country. It is estimated that Christians make up nearly half of all refugees leaving the country, although they make up less than three percent of the country’s population. In total, nearly 2.2 million Iraqis have left the country since the U.S.-led offensive in 2003.
Now, there are only about 600,000 Iraqi Christians remaining in the country, down from 1.2 million before 2003.
Many human rights experts have warned that if there is no intervention, the Iraqi Christian population could become extinct through emigration and persecution.
Over the past four years, many Iraqi Christian leaders have been murdered, including Fr. Paulos Iskander who was beheaded; Fr. Mundhir al-Dayr who was assassinated in his Protestant church; and Fr. Ragheed Ganni and three deacons who were gunned down and their cars, bombed, according to Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, in the National Review.
Sunni militants from a mosque in Baghdad’s Dora neighborhood issued a fatwa last summer that demanded 2,000 Christian families living in the area to convert or be killed.
Then earlier this year, 10 Iraqi churches were bombed within a span of two weeks. Although no one was killed in the attacks, they caused serious damage to many of the church buildings.
“The Chaldean Christians, some of the last remaining speakers of Aramaic, the language of Jesus, are suffering under the persecution of Jihadis that seek to drive them from their ancestral homes and create a pure Islamic caliphate erased of the memory of Iraqi Christians,” declared Faith McDonnell, director of Religious Liberty Programs at the Institute on Religion & Democracy. Continue >>
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john 14-6 posted:
Islam is evil, it's that simple.
But its the Christians leaders of America that have brought death and destruction to Iraq.
aritonang posted:
Strange thing is, American churches seem oblivious to what happens in the Middle East churches.
Actually Americans are oblivious to the death and destruction America has brought to Iraq. The US has caused wholesale destruction and chaos in the fractured country of Iraq. The leaders of America - Bush and Cheney that lead the invasion and military occupation of Iraq should be jailed as the war criminals that they are. The average Iraqi has nothing but anger towards what the US has done to Iraq and its people.
Islam is evil, it's that simple. Everywhere Islam holds sway this is the fate of the church. Egypt, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and now even places like Jordan, Turkey and Ethiopia...Somalia, Saudi Arabia doesn't even have any organized Christian presence or churches (which makes the irony of their bleating about the desperation of Muslim communities in the West all the more disgustingly hypocritical).
Strange thing is, American churches seem oblivious to what happens in the Middle East churches. Same Sunni persecution goes on in Gaza, Bethlehem, Nablus (Schechem), Ramallah, Cairo, Damascus, Tehran and the list goes on and on.
The more the Sunni jihadi persecute these churches, the stronger they become and then stand united to prosper and keep on growing from that 3%. Take a look at Indonesian churches, after the 2000 killings and bombings on churches, the Sunnis are appalled to see Indonesian churches keep on growing and prospering, with an added bonus -now we all stand united. The Spirit of Lord Jesus does work in mysterious ways.