Sunday, March 24, 2013
Interfaith outreach in Iraq: Only 57 churches left in the entire country
There were 300 in 2003. But then, with Saddam Hussein gone, the efforts to impose Sharia began in earnest. "Christians, churches dwindling in Iraq since start of war 10 years ago," jihadwatch
There are just 57 Christian churches in the entire country, down from more than 300 as recently as 2003, Patriarch Louis Sako told Egyptian-based news agency MidEast Christian News. The churches that remain are frequent targets of Islamic extremists, who have driven nearly a million Christians out of the land, say human rights advocates.
“The last 10 years have been the worst for Iraqi Christians because they bore witness to the biggest exodus and migration in the history of Iraq,” William Warda, the head of the Hammurabi Human Rights Organization told the news agency.
Many Christians live in the provinces of Baghdad, Nineveh, and Kirkuk, and Dohuk and Erbil, which are both in the autonomous region of Kurdistan. Warda said some 1.4 million Christians lived in Iraq prior to Hussein's ouster. Under the democratically-elected government that now oversees the war-torn, but oil-rich nation, Islamic extremists have been able to operate more freely.
“More than two-thirds [of Christians] have emigrated,” Warda noted.
One byproduct of regime change in the Middle East, whether at the hand of the U.S. military and its allies or demonstrators in the streets, has been a decline in tolerance for other religions, say experts. Only one Catholic church remains in Afghanistan, and it must be heavily protected. In Egypt and Libya, where demonstrators overthrew dictators in recent years, Christians have come under heavy persecution, say concerned advocates....
There were 300 in 2003. But then, with Saddam Hussein gone, the efforts to impose Sharia began in earnest. "Christians, churches dwindling in Iraq since start of war 10 years ago," jihadwatch
The "experts" did not note, and may not know, that this intolerance is rooted in Islamic law, which mandates the subjugation of non-Muslims (cf. Qur'an 9:29). Christians who had enjoyed more or less equal rights in Saddam's Iraq, which did not enforce Islamic law, had to be shown their place. And they were.
| Where is the Pope's outrage |
“The last 10 years have been the worst for Iraqi Christians because they bore witness to the biggest exodus and migration in the history of Iraq,” William Warda, the head of the Hammurabi Human Rights Organization told the news agency.
Many Christians live in the provinces of Baghdad, Nineveh, and Kirkuk, and Dohuk and Erbil, which are both in the autonomous region of Kurdistan. Warda said some 1.4 million Christians lived in Iraq prior to Hussein's ouster. Under the democratically-elected government that now oversees the war-torn, but oil-rich nation, Islamic extremists have been able to operate more freely.
“More than two-thirds [of Christians] have emigrated,” Warda noted.
One byproduct of regime change in the Middle East, whether at the hand of the U.S. military and its allies or demonstrators in the streets, has been a decline in tolerance for other religions, say experts. Only one Catholic church remains in Afghanistan, and it must be heavily protected. In Egypt and Libya, where demonstrators overthrew dictators in recent years, Christians have come under heavy persecution, say concerned advocates....
Check The Pulse
Popular Posts
-
Do the bastards think that we are not their equal in fighting? We are men who believe there is no shame in killing. We don't turn from ...
-
Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem o...
-
Religion is man-made. Even the men who made it cannot agree on what their prophets or redeemers or gurus actually said or did. Hitchens ...
-
Allah's Apostle said, 'If it is very hot, the severity of the heat is from the raging of the Hell Fire.' Bukhari: V1B10N510 ...
-
Take the risk of thinking for yourself, much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way. Christopher Hitchens ...
-
You will surely find the most intense of the people in animosity toward the believers [to be] the Jews... Koran: 5:82 Jordanian newsp...
-
Believers, take not for friends your fathers and your brothers if they love disbelief above belief. If you do, you do wrong. Say: If your f...
-
They have been deceived by the lies they have themselves fabricated; their religion has deceived them. Koran 3:24 Pamela Geller exposes ma...
-
The Prophet said, 'But for the Israelis, meat would not decay, and if it were not for Eve, wives would never betray their husbands. B...
-
"Prophet! Tell your wives and daughters and all Muslim women to draw cloaks and veils all over their bodies (screening themselves compl...
