Finally getting world attention
The kidnapping of the Archbishop of Mosul didn’t get much coverage, but (as noted below) ramifications of his death are causing concern. Or at least generating attention. The Beeb reports on Christian persecutions, finally.
In many cases the motivation behind attacks on Christians is religious – to drive the minority out of Iraq. But very often criminal groups or bandits pretend to belong to a jihadist group in order to mask their true motive – which is money.
Christians are regarded as having money and they are known to sacrifice everything to pay ransom demands – partly because, unlike Shia or Sunni, they do not have powerful tribal or militia links to protect them, so they are a soft target.
Christians are regarded as a soft target. The world ‘community’ should be the ‘powerful tribal link’ to protect them, for crying out loud.
The charity Barnabas says one of its partners in Iraq conducted research into 250 Iraqi Christians displaced to the north of the country a year ago and found nearly half had witnessed attacks on churches or Christians, or been personally targeted by violence…
Syrian churches have been helping the refugees and say they speak of being forced to convert to Islam or flee, women being told to wear Islamic dress and those who sell alcohol for communion being beaten.
The killing of the archbishop of Mosul and the spate of bomb blasts against churches in January may well put off those Christian refugees in Syria who were contemplating returning to their country, even if it does not trigger a new exodus from Iraq.
In the post below is a link to the only link those Christians may have to a voice of hope from the West. Here it is again.
