Iraq | Ain't Complicated

Yazidis and Christians — Genocide in Progress?

What Christian Aid Ministries is doing to help a "little" bit.

Joel C. Rosenberg reports:

“Evil, unchecked, is the prelude to genocide.”

That is the first line of my most recent novel, The Auschwitz Escape. But while the book was fiction, I’m afraid that line is proving as relevant as today’s headlines.

We are watching genocidal conditions emerging in the epicenter.

This is as dark as any time I have ever seen in the modern Middle East.

Even the media and the politicians are finally using the term genocide to describe what is going on in Iraq. Read it all

Wishing You Could Help Fleeing Iraqis?

Christian Aid Ministries is looking to assist. Do you want to help?

I’m not here to report on the news. You don’t need that.

I’m here to let you know how you can help, if seeing and hearing about the unfolding collapse in Iraq makes you wish you could help the suffering ones somehow.

You know about Christian Aid Ministries, right?

Here are some excerpts of what they have to say about ISIS in Iraq and the crisis going on right now: Read it all

Muslim Democracy and Christianity?

More Christians have been fleeing Iraq in recent months than ever before.

Carl Moeller with Open Doors USA says extremists are calling for the complete extermination of believers in the country.

“We’ve been calling this a ‘religicide’–which is the systematic destruction and elimination of a religious group simply for being that religious group. And we see this now unfolding in a very shocking way,” says Moeller.

The number of Christians in Iraq has dropped dramatically in the last few decades, dropping from 850,000 believers in 1991, to 550,000 believers in 2003, to 345,000 believers in early 2010. Now perhaps less than 250,000 Christians call Iraq home, a number which includes those who have been permanently displaced from their homes.

[…]

At the current rate of the exodus, Iraq will not have any Christians left in three years, according to an Open Doors’ field worker. Read it all

To Christians In Iraq: ‘Move Along Now’

If something happens and it isn’t reported in the main media, did it happen?

“Get up! Grab your things. We need to go!” Imagine these words said in panic, as you and your family are given less than 24 hours to gather your belongings and leave your home in Iraq.

Open Doors USA says for thousands of Iraqi Christians, this scenario has become a real life nightmare, as extremist Muslims force them to either leave their homes or pay with their lives.

Often, believers only have time to grab a few essentials and leave with the clothes on their back. Among these items is usually a Bible, as they cling to it and its message of hope.

To help these refugees, Open Doors is aiding in the set up medical projects, as well as distributing emergency packs, which include basic necessities.

Source: Believers forced to flee from their homes

As the Americans continue their stand-down, draw-down, get-out-of-here exodus from Iraq, will matters get much worse for Christians in Iraq?

A Gift

For first time, Christmas official holiday in Iraq

Iraq’s Christians, a scant minority in this overwhelmingly Muslim country, quietly celebrated Christmas on Thursday with a present from the government, which declared it an official holiday for the first time.

But security worries overshadowed the day for many, particularly in the north where thousands of Christians have fled to escape religious attacks.

Overall security in Iraq has improved markedly in the past year, but a fatal car bombing in Baghdad on Christmas morning was a gruesome reminder that serious problems remain.

[…]

A senior Shiite cleric, Ammar al-Hakim, attended the Mass flanked by bodyguards in a gesture of cooperation with Christians.

[…]

Iraq’s Christians, estimated to number only a few hundred thousand of the country’s 26 million people, have often been the target of attacks by Islamic extremists in Iraq. Tens of thousands have fled; many of those who stayed were isolated in neighborhoods protected by barricades and checkpoints.

And joyous Christmas to you as well!

November 10

1871 — Henry Morton Stanley locates missing explorer and missionary Dr. David Livingstone near Lake Tanganyika (somewhere in Africa), saying “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”

1951 — Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the USA.

1969 — “Sesame Street” debuts on US television.

1970 — The Great Wall of China opens for tourism.

1975 — The United Nations General Assembly approves Resolution 3379 equating Zionism with racism. The resolution was repealed with Resolution 4686 — 66 years later in December 1991!

1983 — Microsoft unleashes Windows upon the world.

1997 — WorldCom and MCI Communications announce a $37 billion merger (the biggest at that point in history).

1998 — The Pentagon steps up the movement of warships to the Persian Gulf as the Clinton administration sweeps aside the idea of negotiations with Iraq over UN weapons inspections rejected by the Iraqis.

2003 — Federal regulators allow customers to switch home phone numbers to their cell phones.

2007 — Skipping (or perhaps fed up with) the diplomatic niceties, Spanish King Juan Carlos famously asks Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, ¿Por qué no te callas? 😯

2008 — President-Elect Obama takes his wife to visit their new residence (but they have to wait a few more weeks to take possession).

Persecution Headlines

Before the headlines, a story I meant to post a couple of days ago: 3,000 Christians flee Iraq’s Mosul

Hundreds of terrified Christian families have fled Mosul to escape extremist attacks that have increased despite months of U.S. and Iraqi military operations to secure the northern Iraqi city, political and religious officials said Saturday.

Some 3,000 Christians have fled the city over the past week alone in a “major displacement,” said Duraid Mohammed Kashmoula, the governor of northern Iraq’s Ninevah province. He said most have left for churches, monasteries and the homes of relatives in nearby Christian villages and towns.

“The Christians were subjected to abduction attempts and paid ransom, but now they are subjected to a killing campaign,” Kashmoula said, adding he believed “al-Qaida” elements were to blame and called for a renewed drive to root them out.

Political and religious leaders interviewed said the change in tactics may reflect a desire on the part of extremists to forcibly evict all Christians from Iraq’s third largest city.

Now the headlines:

Now go do the right thing.