AP News: First mass in two years held in Iraq’s main Christian town

Published October 31, 2016 8:06am
By THIBAULD MALTERRE AND SAFA MAJEED, Agence France-Presse via GMA Network

In spite of church being burnt out, Mosul Archbishop Putrus Moshe defiantly leads the Sunday Mass in the Grand Immaculate church in Baghdeda for the first time in two years after this church was liberated from ISIS last week. Photo Source: This is Christian Iraq

QARAQOSH, Iraq - A handful of faithful gathered in a burnt out church Sunday for the first mass to be celebrated in two years in Qaraqosh, which was once Iraq's main Christian town.

Iraqi forces retook Qaraqosh from the Islamic State group days earlier, as part of a massive offensive to wrest back the country's second city Mosul.

"After two years and three months in exile, I just celebrated the Eucharist in the cathedral of the Immaculate Conception the Islamic State wanted to destroy," Yohanna Petros Mouche, the Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, said.

"But in my heart it was always there," Mouche, who officiated with four priests, told AFP.

IS jihadists took over swathes of Iraq in June 2014, also taking Mosul where the prelate was based.

He moved to Qaraqosh, a town with a mostly Christian population of around 50,000 that was controlled by Kurdish forces and lies east of Mosul in the Nineveh plain.

But a second jihadist sweep towards Kurdish-controlled areas two months later forced around 120,000 Iraqi Christians and members of other minorities to leave their towns and villages.

"We had no other choice but to convert or become slaves. We fled to preserve our faith. Now we're going to need international protection," Father Majeed Hazem said.

Donning a resplendent chasuble and stole, Mouche led mass on an improvised altar in front of a modest congregation mostly made up of members of the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU), a local Christian militia.

‘Damaged but still standing’

"I can't describe what I'm feeling. This is my land, my church," said Samer Shabaoun, a militiaman who was involved in operations to retake Qaraqosh.

"They used everything against us: they shot at us, they sent car bombs, suicide attackers. Despite all this, we're here."

Shortly before Sunday's mass, the soldiers now guarding Qaraqosh were surprised to find two elderly women in a house, one of them bedridden.

"We stayed the whole of the occupation by the Islamic State, from the first day. Sometimes they would bring us food," one of them said.

The bell tower of the church was damaged, statues decapitated and missals strewn across the nave floor, which is still covered in soot from the fire the jihadists lit when they retreated.

But some of the crosses have already been replaced and a new icon was laid on the main altar, where the armed militiamen took turns to light candles.

"This church is such a powerful symbol that if we hadn't found it like this, damaged but still standing, I'm not sure residents would have wanted to come back," Mouche said.

Christmas in Mosul?

"But the fact that it's still here gives us hope," the blue-eyed prelate, who wears thin-rimmed glasses and sports a neatly trimmed white goatee, said as he surveyed the damage in Qaraqosh after mass.

It could be months before former residents return to a town that needs to be cleared of explosive devices left behind by IS and whose infrastructure suffered badly.

The seminary library was completely burnt down and the ashes were still warm.

"This is barely a few days old—the jihadists torched it when soldiers started entering the town," Mouche said.

In the course of his visit to Qaraqosh, the archbishop recited ritual phrases to "purify" various buildings, holding a cross in one hand and swinging a thurible of incense with the other.

Jihadists appear to have used the cloister-like back yard of the cathedral for target practice.

The ground was littered with casings, the pillars riddled with bullet impacts and IS instructors even left behind a board detailing the workings of a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

The Iraqi offensive on Mosul launched two weeks ago has yet to reach the city borders, and commanders have warned it could last months but Mouche was optimistic: "I hope to celebrate a Christmas mass in Mosul cathedral." —Agence France-Presse

We are always a joyful Church!

RECLAIMING NINEVEH FOR CHRIST!

First Communicant Iraqi Children singing The Lord's Prayer in Aramaic, the native language of Jesus Christ!

THEY ARE THE ORIGINAL CHRISTIANS!

Iraqi Christians Story on How they Escaped Muslim Terrorists

ZENIT.org: Pope Meets With Iraqi Parish Priest Who Receives Refugees in Kurdistan

At End of General Audience, Father Samir Yousif Showed Pope Album Documenting Atrocities of the War

Vatican City, August 27, 2015 (ZENIT.org)

Immediately after Wednesday's general audience in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis met an Iraqi priest committed to helping refugees.

After attending the audience in a front row space reserved for him, Father Samir Yousif, Iraqi Chaldean priest providing pastoral care in Kurdistan, approached the Pope to show him an album of photographs that document the “apocalyptic catastrophe” of his land, reported L'Osservatore Romano.

The priest serves the parish of Amadiyak, on the border with Turkey.

Refugees arrive in his community without clothes or documents, "fleeing from certain death," the priest explained. Given this, he stressed that, “in an instant, roots that date back to the first Christian century are wiped away because in those areas we Christians are neither guests nor foreigners,” Father Samir said.

The Iraqi parish priest then expressed his gratitude to all those who are supporting the refugees in his area: from Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Pope's personal envoy to Iraq, to the Italian Episcopal Conference and Caritas. In particular, Father Samir thanked the Pope “for his interventions addressed to the international community: his voice, he can be certain, is much listened throughout the Arab world.”

“When Pope Francis speaks of the tragedy of the refugees," the priest noted, "the media gives him ample space and this helps us to finally find solidarity, rather than fall into oblivion.”

Father Samir said he does not lose hope "for a future of peace, reconciliation and justice, despite everything.” Explaining that among those he receives, there are Muslims, the priest underscored, “The madness of ISIS is only blind violence and it cannot win.”

At this moment of terrible trial, “the Chaldean Church is alive, and even stronger and more united, today, because of the harsh trial it is going through,” he said.

Father Samir expressed his hope that in the near future, Pope Francis would meet with his archdiocese's people, "to confirm us in the faith and encourage us not to be afraid.”

Time to Roll-up our sleeves for the Crusades!

Just as how the first Crusades were initiated, we need another Crusades to drive out the soldiers of Satan from advancing in our lands killing all our men and raping our women.  Christ battled with Satan so must we battle with his minions-- the Muslim terrorists!

hristian militia that is now rising in Iraq to attack ISIS, all wearing wooden crosses.

Hundreds Of Christians Form A Huge Militia And Are Now About To Attack ISIS And They Will Continue To Attack ISIS Until They Retake Their Homes And Towns And Until They Retake The Whole City Of Mosul

By Ted on July 2, 2015 in Featured, General

By Theodore Shoebat

A large and valiant militia, consisting of hundreds of Christians, has been formed to fight against the Islamic persecution and invasion of Christian lands in Iraq. They number in the dozens, they adorn themselves with crosses hanging from their necks, they have denied the self, they are filled with contrition, they are ready to fight the enemies of God, their hearts are prepared to endure holy war, their minds are set on the precepts of Heaven, their very beings are taken by the Word of God, “piercing even to the division of soul and spirit” (Hebrews 4:12). They call themselves the “Ketaeb Babylon.”

According to another Ketaeb Babylon commander, there are “hundreds of Christian fighters located now in various areas of Salaheddin… in addition to others responsible for protecting churches in Baghdad province.” As hundreds have already been recruited, the numbers of volunteers to “fight the Daesh (ISIS) terrorist organization” is continuing, he said.

They hang around their necks wooden crosses, just as the Crusaders of old did when — in the old relic of Christendom — the Christians placed the Cross on their chests and on their shoulders, beautifully manifesting the words of Christ: “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Mark 8:34)

They are training to retake their homes that were captured by ISIS in areas in like Mosul which was captured last year. When the heretic Muslims overtook Christian neighborhood and areas, they were given the choice to convert, leave, pay the tax, or die. Most of them fled, but some wanted to fight back, and these are the men who are determined to take up the whip and the Cross, to strike the thieves of lives and those who prey upon souls, and drive them away from the holy Temple of God, that is, the Body of Christ, “the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you” (1 Corinthians 6:19). In fact, the majority of the “Ketaeb Babylon” unit are from Mosul.

The militia trains in a military base near the Baghdad airport, and some Muslims are actually training them on how to use the AK-47, and how to utilize basic combat maneuvers. But this does not mean that they forget Christianity, for as they present themselves in their military parades, they cry out to the mother of our Hope, chanting Ya Mariam (Oh, Mary!).

Now, why would they do this? The wife of Ahasuerus, Esther, commanded the death of Haman, Jael, the mother of Barak, “blessed be she in her tent” (Judges 5:24), struck the head of Sisera with a nail, and Deborah exhorted Barak to fight the enemies of God, and Mary, whose Seed — Jesus Christ — shall bruise the head of the old serpent (Genesis 3:15), and whose image was hoisted above the ship in the Battle of Lepanto, when the Christians crushed the Muslims, told our Lord, “They have no wine.” (John 2:3)

And as Christ transformed the water to wine, ocean of peoples who are His enemies “shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation” and they shall be thrown “into the great winepress of the wrath of God.” (Revelation 14:19-20)

So as Mary was the one who requested more wine, so shall she be with Christ in the day when He makes the oceans of His enemies into blood. For the Scripture says, “the Lord my God will come, And all the saints with You.” (Zechariah 14:5) And the Apostle speaks of “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.” (1 Thessalonians 3:13). Would not Mary be among the saints, and would she not — by her very actions and Faith — have a great position amongst the saints, having gathered so many treasures in Heaven? So then these Christian militants, as the Christian warriors of old, express their honor towards Mary, the mother of our Salvation.

One of the Christian soldiers, 17-year-old Chaldean Christian Frank Samir, made it every clear that this battle against the Muslim terrorists is a holy war:

"We heard that the Christians had an opportunity for jihad (holy war), and we all came and volunteered… Our children are dying; our Christian families were displaced. How do we ourselves accept that people say the Christians are not fighting? On the contrary, we want to fight everywhere"

Notice how they use the word “jihad.” Now, this does not mean that the Christians took a Muslim word, or that they adopted the Islamic concept of holy war. No. It is only another indication that the Muslims took the idea of holy war from Christianity, and applied it to themselves. The original jihad (or the idea of holy war or struggle against the enemies of God) was a Christian concept. Islam, being a Christian heresy, took this concept and gave it an Arabic word, and advanced their own heresy through the use of holy war. Christianity has holy war, but it is for righteousness. Islam has holy war, but it is for evil.

Fares Issa, aged 38, said:

"I did not hesitate to volunteer with my brothers to fight Daesh (ISIS) …I will continue fighting (them) until the liberation of Mosul and their expulsion from all the areas of Ira"

In their training center the Christians display a large Cross, and alongside the Cross are the words: “God is greatest” and “There is no god but God.”

There are nine training courses, and each course is two weeks. Rayan al-Kaldani, the secretary general of Ketaeb Babylon, said:

"The main aim of forming our forces is the liberation of Mosu… We took part in the operations to liberate the city of Tikrit and other operations, including Baiji, in Salaheddin provinc"

According to Kaldani, the Christian soldiers are under the command of Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, who is amongst the top commanders in the “Popular Mobilisation” forces, which consists mainly of Shiite fighters.

One commander who calls himself Hajji Ali, a leader of one of the Shiite units said that the training “focuses on close-quarters combat, unconventional warfare and war inside the cities. …Their eyes are on Mosul and the areas occupied by Daesh”.

The volunteers say Mosul is the main goal, but their fight is not limited to that city.

Mosul “is our first aim,” said 16-year-old Raymoun Salwan, who was displaced from the city.

But “I will continue to fight terrorism wherever it goes in Iraq and every place,” he said.

We have to prepare our minds and intellect for this spiritual war that we are in. This is why I made a 2-disk DVD series on teaching the warring spirit of the Christian Faith.

CLICK HERE TO GET OUR 2-DISK DVD SERIES ON CHRISTIAN MILITANCY AND CHRISTIAN WARFARE AND JOIN THE FIGHT TODAY!

PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS IN IRAQ CELEBRATE PALM SUNDAY! NOW, THAT IS THE GENUINE CHRISTIAN FAITH!

Here's how Christians in the terrorized region of Iraq celebrate Palm Sunday. Thanks to my dear brother Aamer for providing me these faith-filled photos!

And please take time reading their plea and pray for the persecuted Christians in Iraq and Syria!

"CHRISTIANITY MUST SURVIVE AND THRIVE IN IRAQ AND THE MIDDLE EAST, WHERE IT WAS BORN!"

This is what our cities and villages will look like when we are fully armed and are able to protect them with the appropriate weaponry to combat extreme terrorism. Some people ask me why should we need our own military units? It is evident, the minorities in Iraq and Syria have been persecuted to a point of near complete annihilation under other failed strategies. Therefore, arming them and giving them the ability and opportunity to survive against radicalism is the least we can do besides the internationally protected safe haven that we should immediately implement.

This is my grandmother's village of ***** [withheld for protection], Iraq on Palm Sunday. Now do you understand why it's so important to support our military units such as the NPU. We are unsure of when the sectarian violence will ever end, our population has dropped to such a dangerous amount that we can not risk it any further. We must be able to speak our Aramaic language, pray in our Aramaic prayers, attend church regularly, attend schools freely and walk on our own native lands we have inhabited for almost 7,000 years with absolutely no oppression by occupations and extremism especially as indigenous . Nineveh is the ancient capital of Assyria, we are not asking for a province that does not belong to us, we are the indigenous people of Iraq and that is not negotiable.

Humanity is saved by paying close attention to the original care takers of Iraq and Syria, the true homeowners who built the foundation of Iraq. The Assyrian Christians including our Chaldean and Syriac churches are the cradlers of civilization and we demand an internationally protected safe haven of the Nineveh Province with highly advanced weaponry to combat highly funded and large terrorist militias.

Muslims are Killing Christians in Middle East

Holy confessors and martyrs of Iraq, pray for us!

From: Hermeneutic of Continuity

Simon Caldwell recently published an inspiring account of elderly Iraqi Christians in the village of Karamless. (See: Elderly Iraqi Christians defy terrorists, flee to camp H/T Transalpine Redemptorists) When the IS terrorists overran Karamless, on the night of 6-7 August, everyone fled except the elderly who were too weak to run.

The masked terrorists demanded that they convert or be killed by the sword. All of the elderly people said "we prefer to be killed rather than convert." In the event they were ordered to leave the village with only the clothes they were wearing.

This moving and inspiring story of courageous witness to Christ is redolent of the days of ancient Rome. Those who refused to deny their faith yet were not actually martyred yet were called "confessors" because of their stout confession of the faith. Penitents could go to them and ask for a note to say that the confessors had prayed for them; this note or "libellus pacis" could then be taken to the Bishop who could choose to remit all or part of a canonical penance, in view of the power of the prayers of the holy confessors.

There are also many in recent times who have actually been martyred in Iraq because they chose death rather than agree to renounce Christ. They are martyrs because without doubt they were killed propter odium fidei, "on account of hatred of the faith." I hope that a list is kept of their names, along with at least some evidence from witnesses, so that the sacrifice they have made is given due recognition in the life of the Church by their eventual canonisation, and so that people down the ages can remember their heroism and invoke their prayers.

Holy Martyrs and Confessors of Iraq, pray for us.

Why the IGLESIA NI CRISTO does not support persecuted Christians in Iraq and Syria by Muslim Terrorists?

It's because they're CATHOLICS! The INC cannot accept that Catholics are banded as Christians by Muslims and media. And INC and Muslims have shared doctrine of denying the Divinity of Christ!

Elderly Iraqi Christians defy [Muslim] terrorist, flee camp

An elderly Iraqi woman fleeing violence gestures at the Al Waleed refugee camp in Iraq Aug. 19. One group of sick, elderly Iraqi Christians said they defied terrorist demands to convert to Islam or be killed.(CNS photo/Morris Bernard, UNHCR handout via EPA)

MANCHESTER, England (CNS/The Pilot) -- A group of 11 sick, disabled and elderly Iraqi Christians --including an 80-year-old woman with breast cancer -- defied terrorists who ordered them to convert to Islam or be beheaded, saying they preferred death to giving up their faith.

The united resistance prompted the Islamic State extremists to drop their demands and order the Christians to immediately leave their village of Karamless after first robbing them of their possessions, according to one of the survivors.

Sahar Mansour, a refugee from Mosul, told Catholic News Service in an Aug. 18 email that the group turned up at Ankawa refugee camp, where she is living, after they were released by the Islamist fighters. They had remained behind in Karamless because they were too weak to flee when the town was overrun by Islamic State militants the night of Aug. 6-7.

Mansour said she met the 80-year-old woman with cancer, who gave her name as Ghazala, in Ankawa Aug. 18 and heard her account of their escape.

"When the people of Karamless fled from the village they (the elderly) were alone," Mansour said. "She (Ghazala) told me when they woke up in (the) morning they were surprised when they saw nobody in the village."

Instead they were "afraid and terrified," she continued, when they met masked fighters from the Islamic State, who ordered them to go home and remain indoors.

Mansour said Ghazala told her that on Aug. 16, the terrorists assembled the group "and told them either to convert or to be killed by sword."

"Ghazala told me that all the people told the terrorists that 'we prefer to be killed rather than convert,"' Mansour said. She said Ghazala added that members of the group scolded the terrorists for ignoring Islamic sacred texts that forbade forced conversions of non-Muslims.

Mansour said the elderly told the militants that the Islamic State had nothing to gain from the conversion of a group of sick, disabled and elderly people.

"When ISIS heard that they told the people to leave Karamless immediately, without taking anything, to leave with only with the clothes they were wearing," she said.

"ISIS took all their money from all of them and their gold," Mansour said, adding that one person had the courage to ask the terrorists to return some of their money so they could buy food for their journey to the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.

The group of five men and six women later arrived at the Kalak checkpoint, the gateway to Kurdish-controlled territory, in two cars.

There, they were allowed to contact relatives already in refugee camps, who were taken to meet them, Mansour said.

Ghazala was reunited with her brother, and she is receiving medical treatment for her cancer.

Rome will be conquered next, says leader of 'Islamic State'

Telegraph.co.uk - Muslims have been called to flock to the 'Islamic State' to gather for a battle against non-believers throughout the world

Isis demands all Muslims pledge obedience to its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, left

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed leader of the 'Islamic State' stretching across Iraq and Syria, has vowed to lead the conquest of Rome as he called on Muslims to immigrate to his new land to fight under its banner around the globe.

Baghdadi, who holds a PhD in Islamic studies, said Muslims were being targetted and killed from China to Indonesia. Speaking as the first Caliph, or commander of the Islamic faithful since the dissolution of the Ottoman empire, he called on Muslims to rally to his pan-Islamic state.



"Those who can immigrate to the Islamic State should immigrate, as immigration to the house of Islam is a duty," he said in an audio recording released on a website used by the group formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.

"Rush O Muslims to your state. It is your state. Syria is not for Syrians and Iraq is not for Iraqis. The land is for the Muslims, all Muslims.

"This is my advice to you. If you hold to it you will conquer Rome and own the world, if Allah wills."

All 45 Christian Institutions in Mosul Destroyed or Occupied By ISIS

Cross removed and replaced with black flag of ISIS - Church in Mosul.
Photo: AsifJaan via Twitter

Since taking over Mosul on June 10, ISIS has destroyed, occupied, converted to mosques, converted to ISIS headquarters or shuttered all 45 Christian institutions in Mosul.

Pravmir — July 31, 2014

(AINA) -- The following is the complete list of the Christian institutions in Mosul, grouped by denomination.

Syriac Catholic Church:

1. Syrian Catholic Diocese – Maidan Neighborhood, Mosul
2. The Old Church of the Immaculate – Maidan Neighborhood, Mosul (The church goes back to the eighth century AD)
3. The New Church of the Immaculate – Maidan Neighborhood
4. Church of Mar (Saint) Toma – Khazraj Neighborhood
5. Museum of Mar (Saint) Toma – Khazraj Neighborhood
6. Church of Our Lady of the Annunciation – Muhandiseen Neighborhood
7. Church of the Virgin of Fatima – Faisaliah Neighborhood
8. Our Lady of Deliverance Chapel – Shifaa Neighborhood
9. The House of the Young Sisters of Jesus – Ras Al-Kour Neighborhood
10. Archbishop’s Palace Chapel – Dawasa Neighborhood

Syriac Orthodox Church:

1. Syrian Orthodox Archdiocese – Shurta Neighborhood
2. The Antiquarian Church of Saint Ahodeeni – Bab AlJadeed Neighborhood
3. Mar (Saint) Toma Church and cemetery, (the old Bishopric) – Khazraj Neighborhood
4. Church of The Immaculate (Castle) – Maidan Neighborhood
5. Church of The Immaculate – Shifaa Neighborhood
6. Mar (Saint) Aprim Church – Shurta Neighborhood
7. St. Joseph Church – The New Mosul Neighborhood

Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East:

1. Diocese of the Assyrian Church of the East – Noor Neighborhood
2. Assyrian Church of the East, Dawasa Neighborhood
3. Church of the Virgin Mary (old rite) – Wihda Neighborhood

Chaldean Church of Babylon:

1. Chaldean Diocese – Shurta Neighborhood
2. Miskinta Church – Mayassa Neighborhood
3. The Antiquarian Church of Shimon alSafa – Mayassa Neighborhood
4. Church of Mar (Saint) Buthyoon – Shahar AlSouq Neighborhood
5. Church of St. Ephrem, Wady AlAin Neighborhood
6. Church of St. Paul – Majmooaa AlThaqafiya District
7. The Old Church of the Immaculate (with the bombed archdiocese)- Shifaa Neighborhood
8. Church of the Holy Spirit – Bakir Neighborhood
9. Church of the Virgin Mary – Drakziliya Neighborhood
10. Ancient Church of Saint Isaiah and Cemetery – Ras AlKour Neighborhood
11. Mother of Aid Church – Dawasa Neighborhood
12. The Antiquarian Church of St. George- Khazraj Neighborhood
13. St. George Monastery with Cemetery – Arab Neighborhood
14. Monastery of AlNasir (Victory) – Arab Neighborhood
15. Convent of the Chaldean Nuns – Mayassa Neighborhood
16. Monastery of St. Michael – Hawi Church Neighborhood
17. The Antiquarian Monastery of St. Elijah – Ghazlany Neighborhood

Armenian Orthodox Church:

1. Armenian Church – Maidan Neighborhood
2. The New Armenian Church – Wihda Neighborhood

Evangelical Presbyterian Church:

1. Evangelical Presbyterian Church – Mayassa Neighborhood

Latin Church:

1. Latin Church and Monastery of the Dominican Fathers and Convent of Katrina Siena Nuns – Sa’a Neighborhood
2. Convent of the Dominican Sisters, – Mosul AlJadeed Neighborhood
3. Convent of the Dominican Sisters (AlKilma Monastery) – Majmooaa AlThaqafiya District
4. House of Qasada AlRasouliya (Apostolic Aim) (Institute of St. John the Beloved)

Cemeteries:

1. Christian Cemetery in the Ekab Valley which contains a small chapel.

#ن: How an Arabic letter was reclaimed to support Iraq’s persecuted Christians

PASUGO Nobyembre 1954, p. 2, 1, :

“Hindi kailangang patunayan pa kung hindi tunay na Iglesia, kung ito'y kay Cristo o hindi. Ang pag-uusig na nagaganap sa INK, na siyang katuparan ng pinagpauna ng Panginoon ay siyang malinaw na katunayan na ang INK ay tunay na Iglesia at kay Cristo. Anu-ano ang mga kinathang kasinungalingan na ipinaparatang kay Jesus an nakasisirang puri! Hindi lamang nila sinasabing siya'y may demonyo, kundi pinaparatangang siya'y nauulol (Juan 15:20). Kung siya'y inusig tao man ay uusigin din. Ang pag-uusig sa Ulo at tagos hanggang sa katawan. Siya ang ulo, tayo ang mga sangkap, na siyang Iglesia."

We are the PERSECUTED CHURCH! Not you, Iglesia ni Cristo of Manalo!!!

“N”, or ن​, is the first letter of the Arabic word
for Christian, “Nasrani” or Nazarene

EuroNews - Over the weekend, while the world’s gaze was on Gaza and Syria, the situation of Christians in northern Iraq took a sharp turn for the worse, with thousands force to flee their homes. The situation is so dire that a social media campaign has been launched to try to reclaim the very symbol of persecution against these Christians and to try and raise awareness about their fate.

With a weekend ultimatum to either convert to Islam, submit to their radical rule and pay a religious levy, or face death by the sword, hardline Sunni militants of the Islamic State [IS] have been consolidating their control, driving Christians out of the city of Mosul. Of those who fled, some were robbed at gunpoint by Islamists on the road leaving the city.

Christians in Mosul once formed a community numbered in the tens of thousands set up in the region since the earliest of Christianity.

The local clergy was attacked as well. On Monday, militants took over the fourth century Saint Behnam monastery 30 km southeast of Mosul, forcing a monk and his assistant to leave, according to reports.

In Mosul, IS militants marked with a spray-painted ن (the Arabic letter for “N”) all Christian property to be seized after the ultimatum. “N”, or ن​, is the first letter of the Arabic word for Christian, “Nasrani” or Nazarene.

The local UN mission told Reuters 400 uprooted families arrived on Sunday morning in two cities in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish enclave. Another 700 families were expected in Arbil, barely 50 miles (80 km) from Mosul. People of other faiths are leaving as well. A UNHCR spokesperson told euronews by email that, because ISIS’s actions are only a few weeks old, “there are probably many Iraqi refugees in neighbouring countries [fleeing IS activities] that are yet to approach UNHCR for registration or if they have they might still be waiting for an appointment(…) so it might be too early at this stage to have an accurate picture.”

Condemnations but no international response

Louis Raphael Sako, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch and head of Iraq’s largest church, said on Sunday that the Islamic State militants were worse than Mongol leader Genghis Khan and his grandson Hulagu who ransacked medieval Baghdad in 1258.

One of Zako’s deputies, Bishop Shlemon Wardooni, called for an international response. “The world must act, speak out, consider human rights,” he said, adding that the Iraqi state was weak and divided and Muslim leaders had remained silent.

“We haven’t heard from clerics from all sects or from the government,” he told Reuters on Sunday. “The Christians are sacrificed for Iraq.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemned the treatment of Mosul’s Christians, saying it showed “the extreme criminality and terrorist nature of [IS]” and UN Secretary General Ban said IS’ actions were akin to “a crime against humanity.” Pope Francis, in his weekly public prayers on Sunday, said: “I learned with great concern the news that came from the Christian communities in Mosul (…) Today they are persecuted. Our brothers are persecuted. They’ve been driven away. They must leave their homes without being able to take anything with them.”

A symbol of persecution becomes a cry for help

However, despite these strong-worded statements, the international community has so far been immobile .

Online, frustration over the world’s inaction have led to a social media campaign to raise awareness about the fate of Mosul’s Christians. Users, for the most part Christians or Catholics, are changing their profile pictures on Facebook and Twitter to a pictures of the letter ن​, the very letter infamously branding their Iraqi co-religionists, and turning it into a symbol of support.

1,800 year Church burned down by Muslim Terrorists in Mosul Iraq

Militants from the radical jihadist group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria have set fire to a 1,800-year-old church in Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul, a photo released Saturday shows.

The burning of the church is the latest in a series of destruction of Christian property in Mosul, which was taken by the Islamist rebels last month, along with other swathes of Iraqi territory. -Al-Arabia.net

Baghdad, July 22, 2014 (Zenit.org)-Jihadist militants have taken over one of the Iraq’s best-known Christian landmarks and expelled its resident monks, a cleric and residents said Monday.

Fighters from the Islamic State (ISIS) stormed Mar (Saint) Behnam, a fourth-century monastery run by the Syriac Catholic church near the predominantly Christian town of Qaraqosh in northern Iraq, on Sunday.

AFP reports the monks reportedly pleaded to be allowed to save some of the monastery's relics but the fighters refused and ordered them to leave on foot with nothing but their clothes. After fleeing, the residents who included some families were eventually picked up on a deserted road by Kurdish peshmerga fighters who drove them to safety.

The incident was the latest move by ISIS, which in June declared a "caliphate" straddling large swathes of northern Iraq and Syria and threatening the Christian presence in both countries.

Over the weekend, hundreds of families fled Mosul, leaving Iraq’s second largest and once-cosmopolitan city empty of Christians for the first time in almost two millennia.

The jihadist fighters want to create a state based on an extreme interpretation of Sharia Law and have targeted all minorities in the Mosul area. AFP reports that other religious minorities such as Shiite Turkmen, Shabak and Yazidis have suffered even more than the Christians, who have largely escaped summary executions since ISIS swept the region in early June.

Mar Behnam is a major Christian landmark in Iraq and a site where the local community and pilgrims traditionally pray for healings and fertility.

On Sunday, Pope Francis said he was viewing the situation “with concern” and called on the faithful to remember the people of Iraq and the Middle East in prayer.

***

A group on Facebook has called for a day of prayer and fasting for persecuted Christians this coming Friday, July 25th, especially those suffering in Iraq. The page can be found here.

This is the face our our enemy.  I don't think their 'god' is the same God we worship. It's PURELY EVIL! (Photo Source: Shariah Unveiled)

Dwindling Iraqi Christians is a disaster!

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq — A car bomb outside Holy Family Syrian Catholic Church wounded 23 people Tuesday, August 2, 2011, as security forces found and disabled other vehicles packed with explosives outside two other churches in northern Iraq.  Photo: Emad Matti / AP

Iraq’s vanishing Christians
One church leader is pointing the finger at the West to explain the disappearance of Iraq’s Christians, writes Salah Nasrawi

Ahram.org - As the mass exodus of Iraq’s Christians continues, so does the call for ending the plight of those who have remained. Like Iraq’s ancient Jewish community before them, one of the world’s oldest Christian communities may soon cease to exist.

The disappearance of Iraq’s religious minorities has been a troubling trend since the US-led invasion in 2003, and it has threatened to end the cultural diversity of Iraq. As the violence in the country spikes and religious intolerance grows, many Christians, Yazidis, Mandaeans and other minority community members are leaving the country.

Last week, the head of the Iraqi Catholic Church sent a chilling warning that Iraq’s 2,000-year-old Christian community is on the brink of extinction as new waves of Christians take the journey of exodus.

The exodus is largely blamed on the worsening security since the US-led invasion that toppled former president Saddam Hussein’s regime. Christians have suffered abuses by Muslim extremists and militias, including brutal attacks, death threats and forcible seizure of property.

But Chaldean patriarch Louis Sako now believes that intervention by the West in the region has exacerbated the problem by producing more chaos and conflict in the war-ravaged country, and it is this that has been driving Christians to flee.

Catholic Conversion Story of an Iraqi Muslim

"According to Islamic law, a Muslim who leaves Islam and becomes Christian should be killed along with those who led to his conversion."

[Story Source: American Society for the Defense of the Traditional, Family Property]

The fascinating autobiography of Muhammad Moussaoui, who narrates his conversion from Islam to Catholicism, shows miracles of grace and of human correspondence, on the one hand, and on the other hand the terrible harshness of Islamic mentality and persecution of Christians. The book’s title, The Price to Pay, summarizes well what this privileged soul had to go through in order to be faithful to the call of grace. After his conversion, he took the name Joseph Fadelle.[1]

A Muslim from an Important Family

Fadelle belonged to one of Iraq’s most important Shiite Muslim families, the Moussaoui clan. As head of the clan, his father was a kind of judge and solved disputes between clan members. He also had great wealth and prestige.

In 1987 Fadelle was drafted into the Iraqi army, then under the rule of Saddam Hussein, right in the middle of the war with neighboring Iran. By this time he was 23 years old and single.

Sent to a garrison on the border with Iran, he was housed in a room with a Christian. He became indignant on learning he was going to be lodging with a Christian, an insult to a born Muslim whose family also descended from the Islam’s founder Muhammad.

The Challenge: Do You Understand the Koran?

However, the Christian, called Massoud, was older than him and welcomed him with kindness, so that little by little his prejudices began to fade. Fadelle conceived a plan to convert him to Islam. One day, when Massoud was absent, seeing among his books one titled The Miracles of Jesus, he became curious and began reading it. He had no idea who it was, because in the Koran Jesus is called Isa; but he was delighted to read about miracles such as the one during the Wedding at Cana, and was attracted by the figure of Jesus.

Still intending to convert Massoud to Islam, he asked him if Christians also had a sacred book like the Koran. After being told that Christians had the Bible, he asked to see it, thinking it would be easy to refute.

To his surprise, Massoud refused to show him the Christian book and asked an even more surprising question: if he had read the Koran. This question was offensive to one who had been brought up in Islam, but he simply replied he had. Then came a new and rather embarrassing question: “Did you understand the meaning of each word, each verse?”

The future Christian recounts that this question pierced his mind like a fiery dart, since according to Islam what matters is not to understand the Koran, but just to read it. Seeing his embarrassment, his room mate proposed that he read the Koran again, but this time trying to understand each sentence; and then Massoud would lend him the book of Christians.

Disenchantment with the Koran And a Mystical Dream

Muhammad accepted the proposal that completely changed his life. Indeed, as he tried to understand the meaning of what was written in the Koran, he realized that much of it was absurd and meaningless. A consultation with an iman failed to solve his doubts and he became increasingly disenchanted with the book of Islam.

It was as if scales fell from his eyes and he began to see for the first time what the Koran really said. Having finished this keen, meditative reading, he came to the conclusion that this book could not be of divine origin.

It was then a mystical episode took place, which prepared his conversion. He dreamed he was in a meadow on the edge of a creek and saw on the other side a very imposing, extremely attractive man. He tried to jump to the other side, but remained still in the air until the mysterious person took him by the hand and said to him: “In order to cross the creek, you need to eat the bread of life.” Then he woke up.

Conversion Shock: Jesus is the Bread of Life

No longer thinking about the dream, he got Massoud to loan him the Holy Gospels. He happened to open the book on the Gospel of Saint John. He was totally absorbed reading it and felt a great well-being. At one point, he was deeply moved to find the mysterious words of his dream: “the bread of life.” The words of Jesus in the Gospel were clear: “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger” (John 6:35).

Fadelle recounts: “Then something extraordinary happened in me, like a violent explosion that blows everything in its path, accompanied by a feeling of well being and warmth ... As if a bright light suddenly illuminated my life in a whole new way and gave it all its meaning. I had the impression of being drunk, even as I felt in my heart an indescribable feeling of strength, an almost violent, passionate love for this Jesus Christ of whom the Gospels speak!”

The Price of Conversion: Death

His conversion was complete, total and lasting. He wanted Massoud to help him become a Christian, but met with resistance. According to Islamic law, a Muslim who leaves Islam and becomes Christian should be killed along with those who led to his conversion.

Ongoing killing of Christians in Iraq

The recent murder of a Christian in the north-Iraqi town of Kirkuk has again instilled terror in the small community.

Bp. Bashar Warda

Source: Air to the Church in Need - Ashur lssa Yaqub, a 29 year old working class citizen, was found dead by the police on Monday morning after being kidnapped Friday night. His body was badly mutilated and his hear severed after his poor family failed to pay the close to $100,000 ransom demanded by the kidnappers.

Violence against Christians is part of everyday life in Iraq. According to the Catholic Church, since 2004 a series of churches have been bombed, 7 priests killed and several bishops kidnapped.

Talking to the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the Chaldean-Catholic Archbishop of Kirkuk, Louis Sako, said that he admires the endurance and strong faith of the Christians in his parish despite the continued violence.

“In all these years I never heard of one single Christian who converted to Islam,” Sako stressed.

In contrast, Muslims often came to his church and asked to be baptized. “But I´m not allowed to baptize Muslims,” Sako said. “That´s no freedom of religion!”

US Commission Names 14 Worst Violators Of Religious Freedom

EWTN - For the first time, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has listed Egypt among the world’s worst violators of religious freedom.

In its 2011 annual report, the commission recommended that the State Department designate 14 nations--Burma, China, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam--as “countries of particular concern” (CPCs).

Iraqi Christians celebrate Easter in Jordan - Easter in Islam Zone - Bomb at Baghdad Church - Photos from Islamization Watch

Thanks to Islamization Watch for these photos.

Iraqi Christians attend an Easter mass at Chaldean Catholic church in Amman April 24, 2011. Thousands of Iraqi Christians fled to neighbouring Jordan following a spate of bombings that targeted churches in Iraqi cities in the past few years.

Chaldean Catholic

A priest gives communion to an Iraqi Christian woman during an Easter mass at Chaldean Catholic church in Amman April 24, 2011.

An Iraqi Christian children break the painted eggs they received during celebrations after an

Iraqi Christian children pick painted eggs during celebrations after an

Iraqi Christian children show the painted eggs they received during celebrations after an Easter service at Chaldean Catholic church in Amman April 24, 2011.

Thousands of Iraqi Christians fled to neighbouring Jordan following a spate of bombings that targeted churches in Iraqi cities in the past few years.

Iraqi Christians attend an Easter mass at Chaldean Catholic church in Amman April 24, 2011.

A Pakistani policeman stands guard outside a Church during an Easter Sunday Mass in Lahore on April 24, 2011. Christian believers around the world mark the Holy Week of Easter in celebration of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Pakistani Christians pray during an Easter Sunday Mass at a church in Lahore on April 24, 2011

Pakistani Christians pray during an Easter Sunday Mass at a church in Lahore on April 24, 2011. 

Worshipers attend an Easter Sunday service at the St. Mary Cathedral in Lahore April 24, 2011

Worshippers pray during an Easter Sunday service at the St. Joseph Cathedral in Rawalpindi April 24, 2011.

Pakistani Christians attends an Easter Sunday Mass at a church in Lahore on April 24, 2011. Christian believers around the world mark the Holy Week

Pakistani Christians pray during an Easter Sunday Mass at a church in Lahore on April 24, 2011

Iraqi police officer stands guard outside the Virgin Mary church in Baghdad during Easter Sunday mass on April 24, 2011.

Iraqi Christians attend Easter services at St. Joseph's Chaldean church in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, April 24, 2011.

Iraqi Christians congratulate each other after attending Easter services at St. Joseph's Chaldean church in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, April 24, 2011. 

Iraqi Christians congratulate each other after attending Easter services at St. Joseph's Chaldean church in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, April 24, 2011

A wounded man lying on a stretcher is taken to a hospital ward in Baghdad April 24, 2011 in this still image taken from video. A roadside bomb exploded near the rear entrance of a Catholic church in Baghdad after Easter services on Sunday, wounding at least two police officers and two civilians. The bomb blew up outside Sacred Heart church in Baghdad's central Karrada district, shattering windows in nearby buildings and severely damaging a police pick-up truck at the church gate.

A Christian holds a cross as she prays during Easter celebrations at the Sacred Heart Catholic church in Baghdad April 24, 2011. A roadside bomb exploded near an entrance of the Sacred Heart Catholic church in Baghdad on Sunday, wounding two police officers and two civilians, an Interior Ministry source said.

Residents watch a play during Easter at the Sacred Heart Catholic church in Baghdad April 24, 2011

Residents watch a play during Easter at the Sacred Heart Catholic church in Baghdad April 24, 2011.

Women pray near a statue of the Virgin Mary during Easter at the Sacred Heart Catholic church in Baghdad April 24, 2011