{"id":3020,"date":"2014-08-08T14:04:35","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T21:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/?p=3020"},"modified":"2014-08-08T14:04:35","modified_gmt":"2014-08-08T21:04:35","slug":"yazidis-and-christians-genocide-in-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/2014\/yazidis-and-christians-genocide-in-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"Yazidis and Christians — Genocide in Progress?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"yazidis-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Joel C. Rosenberg reports:<\/p>\n

“Evil, unchecked, is the prelude to genocide.”<\/p>\n

That is the first line of my most recent novel, The Auschwitz Escape<\/a>. But while the book was fiction, I’m afraid that line is proving as relevant as today\u2019s headlines.<\/p>\n

We are watching genocidal conditions emerging in the epicenter.<\/p>\n

This is as dark as any time I have ever seen in the modern Middle East.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"yazidis-2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Even the media and the politicians are finally using the term genocide<\/em> to describe what is going on in Iraq. <\/p>\n

But the media and politicians aside, here is what Christian Aid Ministries is reporting…and doing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The militant group known as the Islamic State […] invaded multiple villages throughout the Nineveh Plain. Many of these villages were home to Christians and Yazidis, adherents of a small and ancient religion.<\/p>\n

As the militants took over, more than 500 Yazidis were killed, and more than 130,000 fled from their homes. While many made it to the nearby region of Kurdistan, almost 40,000 are stranded on a craggy mountain range. Fighters from the Islamic State have surrounded the mountain, threatening to kill anyone who comes off the mountain and refuses to convert to Islam. Meanwhile, suffering Yazidis are starving to death on the mountain.<\/p>\n

Christians too fled in large numbers as fighters from the Islamic State advanced to their villages. […] Many of the Christians who fled made their way to Erbil, the capital of Iraq\u2019s semi-autonomous Kurdish region. There they are sleeping in churches, in church yards, and on the streets. Many of them are ill from the extreme heat and lack needed medicine and other supplies.<\/p>\n

We are currently reaching out to some of those who fled by providing them with mattresses, medicines, and milk and diapers for children.<\/p>\n

Islamic State Advances in Iraq<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"yazidis-3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

May God who is sovereign and omnipotent keep His own. And may He use His own to help the needy and love the enemy. I do not pretend to know the specifics of how He wants Iraqi Christians to respond to ISIS. But I do know in a general sense that He wants His people to love even those who are despised by others as inhuman subhumans. That can only be done by the power of the Spirit of Christ within.<\/strong><\/p>\n