Category Archives: Syria
Priest, Father Murad!
FATHER JACQUES MOURAD WITH THE SYRIAC CATHOLIC CHURCH RELEASED
(Agenzia Fides) – “We are grateful to the Lord and give praise to the merciful God for this gift. And we thank all the friends in the world who prayed for Jacques and for our monastic community, Christians, Muslims or others, even those who do not believe or believe otherwise, for their solidarity and sympathy”. This is what Fr. Jihad Youssef, Syrian monk of the monastic community of Deir Mar Musa tells Agenzia Fides who expresses his joy and gratitude and that of other monks and nuns of the community for the return to freedom of Syrian priest Jacques Murad [Mourad], who was also a member of the monastic community and the Prior of the Syrian Catholic monastery in Qaryatayn.
“We ask for the prayers and solidarity of every man and woman of good will for peace in Syria and around the world”, adds Fr. Jihad “and especially for all the people who have been abducted or have disappeared”.
Syrian priest Jacques Murad was released on Sunday 11 October, who since May 21, gunmen had kidnapped him from the Syrian Catholic monastery in Qaryatayn, 60 km south-east of Homs. According to news reported by local sources, the priest is physically well and yesterday celebrated Sunday mass in Zaydal, in the south-east of Homs.
Father Murad is part of the monastic community of Deir Mar Musa, founded by the Roman Jesuit Paolo Dall’Oglio, who disappeared in northern Syria on July 29, 2013 while he was in Raqqa, a stronghold of the .
The monastic settlement of Mar Elian, on the outskirts of Quaryatayn, had represented an oasis of peace and hospitality in the heart of a war zone. It was Father Jacques, along with a Sunni lawyer, who became mediators to ensure that the urban center of 35 thousand inhabitants were spared for long periods by fighting between the army and government anti-Assad militants. In the Monastery hundreds of refugees were welcomed, including more than a hundred children under ten years of age. Father Jacques and his friends had provided to find the necessary for their survival even by seeking the help of Muslim donors. Then, last August, the jihadists of the Islamic State took control of the area and devastated the monastery. During their offensive in the south-east of Homs, the jihadists also took hostage about 270 Christians and Muslims in the area of Qaryatayn. In recent days, a video was released on jihadist websites which shows a group of Christians in Qaryatayn while they participate in the meeting in which they had to sign a “payment contract” to continue living in their homes, in the territory controlled by the self-proclaimed Islamic State (Daesh) (See Fides 07/10/2015).
Photographic images of that meeting, which took place in a conference room in Qaryatayn, had been released already at the end of August. Both in the video and [photographic] images, Father Murad appears among the participants. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 12/10/2015)
Keep praying!
SYRIA – Jihadists release video of the execution of three Assyrian hostages
(Agenzia Fides) – Three of the Assyrian Christians in the valley of Khabur held hostage by jihadists of the Islamic State (Daesh) were subjected to capital punishment by their kidnappers. The video of the execution was released on the jihadi website. In the video, the three Assyrian Christians appear on their knees, dressed in the “usual” orange jumpsuits in a desert area, and are killed with gunshot wounds to the neck from three hooded executioners. Each of the three Assyrian, before being killed, identified themselves by repeating their names and village of origin: Audisho Enwiya and Assur Abraham – from the village of Tel Jazeera – and Basam Michael, from the village of Tel Shamiram.
After their execution, the video ends with three other Assyrians on their knees and in orange jumpsuits in front of the bodies of the three executed. They also reveal their names and village of origin, and one of them added in Arabic, pointing to the bodies of the three Assyrian already killed, “our fate will be the same as these, if you do not follow the correct procedures for our release”.
The execution – warn the creators of the macabre video – took place on the morning of 23 September, the day when Muslims commemorate the “Feast of Sacrifice” (Eid al-Adha).
The three murdered men were part of the group of about 230 Assyrian Christians that the jihadists of Daesh have held hostage since the end of February, when the jihad offensive reached the Christian villages in the valley of the river Khabur. The place of their detention in all probability is still in the al-Shaddadi area, stronghold of Daesh, 60 kilometers from Hassaké. The message conveyed in the video is clear and fierce: the ransom demanded for the release of Christian prisoners still has not been paid, and the executions will continue until the sum requested is paid.
In the following stages of the collective kidnapping, jihadists demanded 100 thousand dollars in exchange for the release of each hostage. Before the answers of those who declared the impossibility of collecting such exorbitant amount of money, negotiations were interrupted. The video with the execution of the three poor Assyrians increases the concern about the fate of Christians in Khabur – including women and children still in the hands of jihadists. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 08/10/2015)
VOP Note:
- Pray for those who remain hostage to be freed.
- Pray for their courage and that they will endure.
- Pray for their families who are losing hope.
- Pray all may be comforted.
- Pray for strengthening of faith
- Pray for the lost
SYRIA – Archbishop Hindo ” McCain’s disturbing words on anti-Assad rebels armed by the CIA”
(Agenzia Fides) – “US Senator John McCain protested saying that the Russians are not bombing the positions of the Islamic State, but rather the anti-Assad rebels trained by the CIA. I find these words are disturbing. They represent a blatant admission that behind the war against Assad there is also the CIA”. This is what Syrian Archbishop Jacques Behnan Hindo says to Agenzia Fides with regards to recent developments in the Syrian conflict, marked by the direct intervention of Russian military forces against the positions of the jihadi militias.
“Western propaganda”, said Archbishop Hindo “keeps talking about moderate rebels, who do not exist”. According to Syrian Catholic Archbishop, “there is something very disturbing about all this: there is a superpower that since September 11 protests because the Russians hit the militias of al-Qaeda in Syria. What does it mean? Al-Qaeda is now a US ally, just because in Syria it has a different name? But do they really despise our intelligence and our memory?”
In the interview with Fides, Archbishop Hindo repeats that “the Syrians will decide if and when Assad has to go away, and not the Daesh or the West. And it is certain that if Assad goes away now, Syria will become like Libya”. Syrian Archbishop launches a warning: “We have received terrible news from the city of Deir al Zor, which has been besieged by Daesh for a long time. There is no more food in town, and the population is literally starving. We need to do something immediately, before it is too late”. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 02/10/2015)
Christians in Syria Struggle to Survive amid Terrors
MANY SYRIAN REFUGEES HAVE OPTED FOR LIFE ON THE STREETS OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES, SUCH AS THIS FAMILY IN ISTANBUL, TURKEY, RATHER THAN THE HORRORS OF WAR. (MORNING STAR NEWS)
Pastor caught between obligations to ministry and to family.
(Morning Star News) – His 6-year-old daughter still wakes up screaming, more than three years after the sounds and sights of war first gave her night terrors.
At least a few times each week, she wakes up with her muscles clenched, her head thrown back and her mouth open, screaming. Her father, a pastor in western Syria, had already taken his family and fled to another city in Syria after her terrors began, only to find that the war followed them there. Now they live in the quiet – for now – city of Sweida, but the night terrors still come.
“Doctors told us this is just from the fear,” he said. “We rely on the Lord.”
The pastor, whose name is withheld for security reasons, and his family typify the many Christians scrambling to survive in Syria. With an estimated 700,000 of Syria’s pre-war population of 1.4 million Christians having already fled, he too harbors the question, “Should I flee my country, and if so, when and where should I go?”
In a country where the Islamic State (IS) is carving out a caliphate with atrocities committed against those who don’t swear allegiance to it, it is a high-stakes question. In an unnamed village outside Aleppo, according to Christian Aid Mission, which assists indigenous Christian workers in their native countries, Islamic State militants on Aug. 28 crucified four Christians, including a 12-year-old boy, and beheaded eight others in separate executions. The boy was the son of a Syrian ministry team leader who had planted nine churches.
“In front of the team leader and relatives in the crowd, the Islamic extremists cut off the fingertips of the boy and severely beat him, telling his father they would stop the torture only if he, the father, returned to Islam,” Christian Aid reported. “When the team leader refused, relatives said, the ISIS militants also tortured and beat him and the two other ministry workers. The three men and the boy then met their deaths in crucifixion.”
They were killed for refusing to return to Islam after embracing Christianity, as were the other eight aid workers, including two women, according to Christian Aid. The eight were taken to a separate site in the village and asked if they would return to Islam. After refusing to renounce Christ, the women, ages 29 and 33, were raped before the crowd summoned to watch, and then all eight were beheaded.
They prayed as they knelt before the Islamic State militants, according to the ministry leader Christian Aid assists, who spoke with relatives and villagers while visiting the site.
“Villagers said some were praying in the name of Jesus, others said some were praying the Lord’s Prayer, and others said some of them lifted their heads to commend their spirits to Jesus,” the ministry director told Christian Aid. “One of the women looked up and seemed to be almost smiling as she said, ‘Jesus!’”
Their bodies were hung on crosses for display after they were killed, he added.
All Syrians are suffering in the war, but Christians are exposed to greater risks because of their outsider status within Syria, according to human rights activists. Even before war broke in 2011, the country was divided into numerous ethno-religious factions. Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims, Christians, Druze, and Kurds all vied with each other and with the Alawites, a sect of Shia Islam of which President Bashar al-Assad is a member.
Almost all the sects have long-standing hostilities toward the Christians, but that aggression was held at bay in the name of public order for decades by the ruling Assad family. When myriad armed factions rose up against Assad, the Christians lost their protector and had to navigate old prejudices alone.
Ever-shifting alliances among groups intent on securing a beneficial position added to Christians’ problems. Militia groups, including the nascent Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, now known as the Islamic State, attacked church buildings and Christians along with their property.
This new reality became evident soon after the pastor in Sweida moved back to his hometown of Kharaba; an Islamic militia group attacked Christians, threw them out of their homes and replaced them with 500 Muslim families.
“My family in Kharaba faced some attacks, and my house in Kharaba was taken by Jabhat al-Nusra,” he said. “They took the keys from me. All of us, my uncles’ families, my family, my sister’s family and my brother’s family faced attacks in our home village, Kharaba, which was at one time 100 percent Christian.”
After the attacks, 85 percent of the Christians fled Kharaba. Only 70 Christian families remained, and they are dominated by the militia and the Muslims they brought into the village. Even now, the pastor said, no one is allowed to open the church building in the town, ring its bell or hold worship services there.
The pastor, who continued leading a church group in Daraa, was also leading another church group in Kharaba. After eight months in Kharaba, he was asked to temporarily lead an additional church in Sweida. The pastor of that church told him he would return in five months.
“I kept doing that for a month, but the situation in Kharaba got worse, and I had to take my family and move to Sweida,” the pastor said. “The five months are finished, and now two and half years later, the pastor still hasn’t returned. He is not coming back and told me that later.”
The pastor moved to Sweida with his wife and three children, the youngest a toddler and the oldest in ninth grade. His traumatized middle daughter improved after they moved, but then he was faced with the hardships of living in a city isolated by war. The city is over-crowded. There are shortages of basic supplies, especially medical supplies, food and water. When staple items are available, they are extremely expensive. Finding a place to live is a problem. There are rolling blackouts, little gas for cars and scarce heating oil for homes.
In Sweida, about 25 miles north of Syria’s border with Jordan, most residents are Druze, who believe in a gnostic blend of several philosophies and religions. There is a small minority of Christians, mostly Greek Orthodox and Muslim Bedouins.
The Druze initially thought the Assad regime would protect them, but among them are elements both for and against Assad, and most recently they have formed armed groups under government eye to protect their land. They are willing to defend against attack from any party, but they don’t have sufficient weaponry.
Most of the militia groups around Sweida are from Jabhat al-Nusra, the Free Syrian Army or individual gangs from Bedouin tribes. IS hasn’t come to Sweida yet, but there have been reports of IS troops fighting in the province of Sweida, further filling the city with refugees. The pastor said that Sweida will be a target of the Islamic State: The militants consider the Druze loyal to the government, so IS will target them, especially as they are non-Muslims. Also, Druze women wear modern fashions, and the Druze generally are well educated and open to ideas that are anathema to Muslim extremists.
“We have some displaced people who fled from ISIS,” he said. “There are a lot of examples, but I can’t give names. We have some that were kidnapped, and others whose homes were taken from them. We have a family from Damascus who have no idea what happened to their home and farm and are living in a difficult situation.”
The pastor said that he doesn’t think there will be an attack to overrun the city anytime soon, but there have been car bombings.
“The general situation in Sweida is safe and OK, though there have been some individual cases such as kidnapping or individual crimes, but they have to do with the overall situation of the country,” he said. “For example, the last incident was a month and half ago, when a Catholic priest and a friend of mine named Tony al-Botros, was kidnapped and released about 10 or 15 days ago. He was kidnapped for about a month, and then a ransom was paid and that’s why he was released.”
When the civil war originated in 2011 out of a series of protests, Syrians waited, assuming that the conflict would be over in months. But as it became evident that the parties were in a stalemate and the brutality of the fighting increased exponentially, people started fleeing. When IS took over wide swaths of territory, a wave of refugees fled the country. More than 4 million of Syria’s pre-war population of 22.5 million people are estimated to have left.
First the rich left, and then the middle class. Now the people fleeing Syria are the most desperate, the destitute and the chronically ill. Faced with all the hardships, the pastor also has considered leaving. Because he carries the burden of ministering to three church groups in three different cities, though, he feels the weight of responsibility and won’t leave them.
But if God opened a door to leave and arrangements were made to keep the ministries running, he would likely leave, he said.
“In the past two months, because of all the difficulties we were going through, we have been thinking if there is a chance to leave Syria, we will,” he said. “The situation now doesn’t show any hope but hints to getting worse in the future in Sweida.”
SYRIA – A video and a letter from Father Jacques Murad, the prior of St. Elian kidnapped last May, has been released [not confirmed]
FATHER JACQUES MOURAD WITH THE SYRIAC CATHOLIC CHURCH ABDUCTED
(Agenzia Fides) – The rumors spread regarding the release of Fr. Jacques Murad, Prior of the Monastery of Mar Elian and pastor of the Qaryatayn community, kidnapped last May 21 by unidentified kidnappers, have not yet been confirmed by local sources consulted by Agenzia Fides. The rumors began circulating after the Lebanese Christian television network Noursat TV broadcast a short video in which father Murad expressed reassuring words about his physical condition and his health. But the video does not contain any indication as to the date of its registration. Sources close to the Syrian Catholic archdiocese of Homs told Fides that in addition to the video, there is even a letter attributed to Father Jacques, where the Prior of St.Elian invites priests and members of his monastic community to leave the Monastery of Mar Musa because the situation has become dangerous for all Christians in the region. No one is able to confirm the authenticity of the letter and the fact that it was written by the priest under pressure. It is not excluded that the video was steered by those who hold father Jacques in order to condition any negotiations for his release.
Some armed kidnappers abducted and took father Jacques away from the Monastery of Mar Elian on May 21. Also deacon Boutros Hanna was kidnapped. Then, on August 21, a video was released documenting the destruction of the Monastery of Mar Elian by jihadists of the Islamic State.
The ancient Sanctuary of the V century, located on the outskirts of Quaryatayn and entrusted in recent centuries to the Syrian Catholic Church, was refounded by the Italian Jesuit Fr. Paolo Dall’Oglio, kidnapped on July 29, 2013 while he was in Raqqa, the Syrian capital for years under the control of the jihadist Islamic State.
During the various phases of the conflict, the city of Qaryatayn was repeatedly conquered by anti-Assad militias and bombed by the Syrian army. Before being kidnapped, Father Jacques Murad had hosted thousands of refugees in the monastery, who came mostly from the nearby city of Qaryatayn, and had ensured their survival with the help of Muslim donors. Fr. Jacques and a Sunni lawyer in the area had also exercised the function of mediators to ensure that the urban center of 35 thousand inhabitants were spared for long periods by armed clashes. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 03/09/2015)
Attacking Your Neighbor Not The Teaching of Christ
(Voice of the Persecuted) We are deeply disturbed by the recent news of vandalistic attacks on places of worship. In the latest news of the Islamic State’s quest to stomp out Christianity, the terrorist group posted images and video footage portraying militants razing the nearly 1,600-year-old Syriac Catholic Mar Elian Monastery. The location is believed to be where Saint Elian was killed by his father, a Roman officer, for refusing to renounce his faith in Jesus. During the destruction, it is claimed they dug up and desecrated the bones of the martyred Christian saint.
Earlier this month, the jihadist captured the town of al-Qaryatain in the Homs province kidnapping more than 230 Syriac Christians. Purported as ISIS’ biggest military advance since it took over the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra in May, it’s suspected that some of the kidnapped Christians were taken from the town’s ancient monastery. The site is also the location where a priest and church volunteer was abducted in May.
Christians are being slaughtered, cleansed of their lands across the world, as a genocide is taking place. We regularly condemn and demand that governments, particularly Islamic governments, put an end to discrimination and these horrific attacks against Christians. We’ve called on western nations and the international community to stop all ties with nations who continue to promote and condone violence by inaction. We have asked Muslims to stand up and raise their voices against the violence and those wishing to harm their Christian neighbors.
So how can we call this behavior evil and silently witness abusive acts taking place in the West against people of other faiths? It’s hypocrisy to not speak out. Jesus taught us to love our neighbor as ourselves. He taught us to turn the other cheek. He gave us the great commission to spread the Gospel in patience and love, but no where in scripture does it tell us to kill, commit acts of violence or desecrate another’s faith. We are warned to stay away from such religions and doctrines of demons, but no where did Jesus, nor the Apostles attack the Roman government or pagan religions in the manner in which was seen before and today.
In no comparison to what is happening to Christians in strict Islamic nations, evidence of discrimination is happening in the U.S. that should be concerning to Christians, true followers of Christ.
For example, twice in one week, an air conditioning unit was vandalized during prayers at a Virginia mosque, in July.
In a report shared in April, pieces of bacon were left in the parking lot and at the entrance of the Islamic Society of Edmond’s mosque. Police said bacon strips were wrapped around door handles at the mosque in Oklahoma. On April 12th, another mosque was targeted when several windows were shot out by vandals with a bb gun near the campus of Oklahoma State University.
Members of both mosques were concerned about drawing negative attention to their house of worship saying they didn’t want to draw more crazy people to their institutions.
Muslims believe pork is an unclean meat unfit for consumption, so Muslims are to refrain from eating pork. A Muslim commented that the vandals use of bacon was meant to be offensive, but pork is not like Kryptonite and would not stop them from going to worship.
Jesus said we are the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the shining light on a hill. In today’s world, as we approach the end of time, we should be about our Father’s business spreading love and the Gospel. Not wrapping bacon around the doorposts ofmosques or synagogues. This type of behavior covers the light in darkness. It’s exactly what the spirit of evil wants, and is mostly likely behind it. Satan wants to discredit God’s people. Jew and Christian alike. Understand this, the world is watching us right now. It doesn’t need an excuse to ban Jesus from the public square. Yet we enable it’s realization, when Western Nation’s that pride themselves in freedom of worship with the right to choose, exhibit the very behaviors we call evil.
So much death and destruction has wrought callousness in western society, including some in the Church. To the people experiencing the affects of the chaos, it’s brought much suffering, pain and sorrow you can’t even imagine. The world is failing miserably as a community to care for those facing persecution and fleeing death. If you have followed our reports, there’s no need for charts and graphs of statistics to be aware of this. So much blood, innocent blood has been shed. So much suffering and pain, a practical Christian genocide taking place…yet the world never misses a beat to condemn Christianity.
Take the Central African Republic for example. It’s been called ‘the forgotten crises’. Lately, much attention has been given to the Daesh and the Mid East and Nigeria’s Boko Haram, but few care to hear about the CAR and the atrocities there. We have covered this extensively in the past, but it’s back in the news with the worldly blasting Christian militia’s are beheading and slaughtering. Yet not a mention from the Western media that they are not followers of Christ. Not Christian doctrine or behavior, but behavior of an evil anti-christ spirit that has manifested in Militia’s like the Lord’s Resistance Army. They’re still very active in this region, even the UN admits their presence and has set up roadblocks and networks to trap them. But due to their cameleon abilities to morph into other groups like the Anti-Balaka to invade, capture and spread their evil doctrine much like the Daesh.
This spirit is not new to the world. But again, not the doctrine taught by Jesus. This spirit of evil manifested many times in Biblical history and now in modern times. Bible history tells us of this evil spirit manifested in ‘Antiochus lV’ that is easily without a stretch, fits today’s events.
He was violently bitter against the Jews, and was determined to exterminate them and their religion. He devastated Jerusalem in 168 BC, defiled the Temple, offered a pig on its altar, erected an altar to Jupiter, prohibited Temple worship, forbade circumcision on pain of death, sold thousands of Jewish families into slavery, destroyed all copies of Scripture that could be found, and slaughtered everyone discovered in possession of such copies, and resorted to every conceivable torture to force Jews to renounce their religion.
Again throughout history, evil has existed and present day barbarity is staggering. We, as a Body and the world have are failing. It’s time to show the light and love of Christ to the world instead of selfishness, hatred and revenge. Stand up, be counted and stand firm or the darkness will overtake you.
Instead of harboring negative feelings towards those of other faiths, open your eyes and see that God is bringing the nations to us! Opening the door for them to hear His Gospel! Share it in love, then let them choose. Let them see His love and light through you. It is God who draws those near to Him, not us.
If you don’t submit yourself to the Holy Spirit and do God’s will, even if it hurts or goes against the flesh or the carnal, you won’t come out of this crisis. Let our focus be on our Father’s business.
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‘No Excuse’ For Obama Failing to Protect Victims of ISIS’ Christian Genocide
Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley believes the U.S. government needs to be doing more to help protect the hundreds of thousands of victims of the Islamic State’s “genocide” of Christians in Iraq and Syria.
At a time when President Barack Obama’s State Department is doing very little to allow the scores of persecuted Iraqi and Syrian Christians to come and live legally and safely inside the United States, the 52-year-old former Maryland governor wrote in a Friday op-ed published by Detroit Free Press that there is “no excuse” for the United States’ “inaction” on the issue of protecting the endangered Middle Eastern Christian and religious minority communities.
“‘Genocide’ is not a word to be used lightly. But it is not hyperbole to say Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria face genocide at the hands of ISIS today,” O’Malley, a practicing Catholic, wrote. “In the face of unthinkable terrorism and bloodletting on the basis of religion and ethnicity alone, the U.S. must do more to protect the Middle East’s religious minorities from extremists committed to their annihilation.”
As over 500,000 Iraqi and Syrian Christians have fled from their homes to save themselves from being forced to convert to Islam or die at the hands of Islamic State, or “ISIS,” militants, O’Malley recently had the opportunity to discuss the concerns of the Chaldean Christian community with Chaldean-Americans.
O’Malley wrote that the the Chaldeans told him about the struggles that their loved ones are having trying to get asylum status so they find safety in the United States. Although the Chaldean community has lined up thousands of sponsors willing to take in their persecuted brethren, many of them are still waiting for the federal government to take action.
“We agreed that the extraordinary threat facing religious minorities in Iraq and Syria requires an extraordinary effort on our part to protect them. The complexity and difficulty of the situation is no excuse for inaction,” O’Malley asserted. “The Chaldean-American community has not only identified the locations of thousands of displaced Christians in Iraq, but has also organized thousands of sponsor families in the United States, ready to give them refuge if only they could get here.”
O’Malley cited how 20 Chaldean Christians have been detained for over five months in a San Diego prison after they were caught sneaking across the U.S. southern border in an attempt to find refuge. Although the 20 Iraqi Christians have sponsor families willing to take them in, the Christians remain detained for unspecified reasons.
O’Malley condemned U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for not obeying a resolution passed in Congress last year.
“Last year, the U.S. House took the positive step of passing a resolution on the status of religious minorities in Iraq and Syria. The resolution specifically called on the State Department to ‘help secure safe havens for those claiming amnesty,'” O’Malley wrote. “Unfortunately, we have fallen short of this goal here at home. Recently, I learned of the 20 Chaldean Christians who escaped ISIS in Iraq and have been detained in a San Diego immigration facility for five months. This is not the ‘safe haven’ that Congress intended. Barring a public safety threat, these refugees should be released to their families and given due process as the government considers their asylum cases.”
“Protecting religious minorities against ISIS and facilitating the safe passage of those in the most precarious circumstances is a moral imperative,” O’Malley continued. “We can and must do more.”
O’Malley continued by explaining that the Middle East was once rich with religious diversity having been the birthplace of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. But thanks to the senseless violence waged toward religious minorities by militants advancing ISIS’ distorted brand of Sunni Islam, Christianity in the region runs the risk of becoming extinct.
“ISIS’ plan to destroy Christianity in the Middle East is more ambitious than simply wiping out the Christian population; it also aspires to erase any semblance that Christianity ever existed in the Middle East,” O’Malley stated. “Last September, ISIS bombed the 7th-Century Green Church in Tikrit, one of the region’s oldest churches. And when ISIS took over Mosul last June, it destroyed or occupied all of the city’s 45 Christian institutions, converting one of its largest churches into a stated ‘mosque of the mujahedeen.'”
O’Malley is one of five candidates running for the Democratic Party’s primary nomination, including former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., former Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafe.
Syndicated News
‘No Excuse’ For Obama Failing to Protect Victims of ISIS’ Christian Genocide
By Samuel Smith
Christian Post via AINA
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