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Moriel Ministries Be Alert! has added this Blog as a resource for further information, links and research to help keep you above the global deception blinding the world and most of the church in these last days. Jesus our Messiah is indeed coming soon and this should only be cause for joy unless you have not surrendered to Him. Today is the day for salvation! For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you would hear His voice, - Psalms 95:7

Monday, October 08, 2012

Iraq's Assyrian Christians find temporary home in Kurdistan

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS - By Adam Ashton - August 5, 2009
AINKAWA, Iraq - For 35-year-old Rajo Qardaq Palander, a church security guard, the breaking point came last year, when insurgents demanded that he pay $20,000 or abandon his home in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood.
The choice was easy. He slipped out of Dora in the dead of night, joining the exodus of Assyrian Christians from Baghdad and Mosul to this haven in Iraq's Kurdish-controlled north.

"I held on as long as I could," Palander, 35 said. "I have no future in Iraq."
One of Iraq's most ancient national groups, the Assyrian Christians, who're Eastern Orthodox Christians, have largely quit their ancestral home in Arab Iraq and fled to the Kurdish region, where tens of thousands now live, or abroad.

The pressure on the Assyrians continues: Five churches were bombed in Baghdad in early July and killings continue in Mosul. In Ainkawa, a city of 40,000 on the outskirts of the main city of Irbil, there's sanctuary, castle-like churches, which dominate entire city blocks, and liquor, a trade that Christians dominated in Baghdad, is for sale openly.
Still, refugees and others who're choosing to stay in Iraq fear the days ahead. They're hoping to make political gains in Iraq's Kurdish provinces and to reclaim lost land.

"For the time being, it's a better place. But it's a dark future," said Father Isha Najiba, an Eastern Assyrian priest in Ainkawa who served in Dora until 2002.
He stresses that everyone in Iraq has suffered because of the war. The numbers of Assyrians make the pain especially acute for a minority proud of its history as the descendants of an empire that covered much of northern Iraq, Syria, Turkey and parts of Iran in pre-Biblical times.

"If 100 Muslims die, it will have the same impact as the killing of one Christian because there are so few of us," Najiba said.
The number of Assyrians and Chaldean Catholics remaining in Iraq - including Kurdistan - is hard to pin down, with estimates ranging from 150,000 to 800,000. It's accepted that the war has driven as much as half the former population to seek refuge outside Iraq.

Najiba said that only 150 of the 1,100 Assyrians who lived in his Dora neighborhood before the war are still in Baghdad. The others are in Syria, Jordan, or cities such as Ainkawa, in Iraq's Kurdish provinces.
They leave a visible mark in Ainkawa. Residents say a third to half the people living here fled Baghdad or Mosul since the war started more than six years ago.

A huge poster showing Pope Benedict XVI greeting Kurdish President Massoud Barzani looms over the main intersection leading into the city, reflecting Barzani's overtures to the growing community.
Green banners for Heineken beer hang from restaurants and bars, advertising a hidden vice in the Muslim cities that surround Ainkawa.

The Kurds "don't do anything to harm us, and that's enough," said Samir Francis, 35, whose home in Dora was blown up two weeks after he abandoned it in 2006, a message telling him not to return. ...

Assyrians have been scattered across the globe since the Ottoman Empire flushed many of them out of Turkey in the early 20th century. They've lost territory in Iraq to Kurds and Arabs alike. Many Assyrians who could afford to leave fled the country under Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, settling in Europe, the U.S. and Australia.
Many now live in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley, two primary destinations for Assyrians seeking refugee status in the U.S.

Under Saddam, politically active Assyrians faced targeted threats. Others were pushed off their land, particularly in the countryside. Yonadam Kanna, the only Assyrian member of Iraq's current parliament, had been sentenced to death by the late dictator.

Assyrian Christians and Chaldean Catholics describe Saddam's tenure as a time of persecution, but it was the sectarian violence that ripped apart Iraq between 2005 and 2008 that drove them from Baghdad and Mosul.

Refugees in Ainkawa said they were targeted either for their religious identity or to seize their money and property. They blame mostly Sunni Muslim insurgent groups for the intimidation that evicted them from Baghdad's Dora neighborhood.

Their main concern in Ainkawa today centers on the power of the two leading Kurdish political parties, Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Assyrians say their job prospects are limited if they don't join the KDP or the PUK, a concern shared by some Muslims in Irbil. ...

"Christians have been separated into many parts," he said. "There's no hope for the people who have emigrated. They won't come back."

ABOUT THE ASSYRIANS
Assyrians are said to be the oldest ethnic group to live in the region known today as Iraq. Three millennia ago, they controlled an empire that extended from modern-day Syria to Turkey, included northern Iraq and parts of Iran.
Their native language is Aramaic, which is thought to be the language Jesus spoke. Assyrians are Christians and belong to the Assyrian Church, a Catholic rite, the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Chaldean Church, both eastern Orthodox rites.
Prior to the U.S. military invasion in 2003, Assyrians in Iraq numbered 1.5 million, or some 8 percent of Iraq's population. At least half of them have since fled the country, however, after Assyrian churches, shops and businesses were attacked.






Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/08/05/73147/iraqs-assyrian-christians-find.html


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Fifty Christians Burned Alive in Pastor's Home in Nigeria

"Nigeria is truly becoming the new killing field for Christians ..."
THE CHRISTIAN POST - By Stoyan Zaimov - July 16, 2012
As the attacks on Nigeria's Christians continued in full force this past week, a particularly grisly attack saw fifty believers burned to death at their pastor's home, where they had fled for refuge from a terrorist attack.
Reports disclosed that over 100 people were killed by armed terrorists this past week, who went on a 12-village killing spree in Nigeria's Plateau state. Islamic extremist group Boko Haram has once again taken responsibility for the assaults.

Different sources have shared various reports of the number of lost lives from last week's assault on Christians, which have been occurring on a weekly basis for many months in Nigeria. But a story last week by the Baptist Press confirmed that about 50 members of the Church of Christ in Nigeria in the village of Maseh were burned alive after they took refuge in their pastor's house following a terrorist raid.
"Fifty of our church members were killed in the church building where they had fled to take refuge. They were killed alongside the wife of the pastor and children," said the Rev. Dachollom Datiri, vice president of the Church of Christ in Nigeria, in a July 11 interview.

Officials from the church confirmed that over 100 members were killed through various villages in Nigeria, which included Maseh, Ninchah, Kakkuruk, Kuzen, Negon, Pwabiduk, Kai, Ngyo, Kura Falls, Dogo, Kufang, and Ruk.
"Nigeria is truly becoming the new killing field for Christians. Hundreds of Christians have already been brutally murdered – including women and children – by the Boko Haram," said Open Doors, USA spokesman Jerry Dykst. "The Boko Haram earlier this week said that all Christians need to turn to Islam or 'they would never know peace again.' Their goal is make all of Nigeria a country run and dominated by Shariah law." ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.christianpost.com/news/fifty-christians-burned-alive-in-pastors-home-in-nigeria-78303/

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Muslims trying for revolution in Nigeria

Analyst warns ultimate goal is 'Islamic government that rules by Shariah law'
WND [WorldNetDaily] - By Michael Carl - June 21, 2012

Reports are documenting how more than 100 people have been killed as a result of gun battles between Muslim Boko Haram guerrillas and Nigerian soldiers in the northern state of Kaduna in recent days, following  another series of bomb attacks against Christians.
Those included  three bomb attacks in Kaduna and Zaria this week killed at least 50 people.

What’s going on, according to Heritage Foundation Africa analyst  Morgan Roach,  likely is an attempt at a revolution that would turn Nigeria into a Shariah-practicing Muslim nation.
“The first reason is ideological. [Boko Haram] wants to overthrow the Christian state and replace it with an Islamic government that rules by Shariah law,” Roach said.

But she said the Muslims also have a political motive.
“Attacks against Christians undermine the authority of President Goodluck Jonathan (a Christian) and exploit the government’s lack of will or ability to protect Nigerian citizens,” Roach said.

Yet another reason is simply to create intertribal and inter-religious strife.
“The attacks are a useful tool to create sectarian instability. It must be said that in many parts of Nigeria, Muslims and Christians get along quite well. However, this dynamic is marred by Boko Haram’s ability to instigate violence,” Roach said.

“As the Nigerian government has proven ineffective at defending its Christian population, Christians are losing patience and either taking up arms to defend themselves or retaliating outright through violence,” Roach said. ...
“Nigerian security forces are already a major part of the picture. They’re often a source of grievances [for] both Muslims and Christians as they are unprofessional and tend to maintain a ‘shoot first ask questions later’ mindset,” Roach said.

Christian human rights group  International Christian Concern Africa analyst Jonathan Racho says government security is lacking.
“The Nigerian security forces have failed to protect Christians from the attacks. We are afraid this trend will continue unless the international community, particularly the U.S., put pressure on Nigeria to protect the Christians,” Racho said. ...

Racho says that there is one other factor that would stop Boko Haram’s operations.
“Boko Haram has said that the only way in which they will stop the attacks against Christians is if the Christians convert to Islam. This is an unacceptable condition,” Racho said.

“We are observing a very dangerous trend in Nigeria where members of the radical Islamic group, Boko Haram, has been bombing churches during Sunday worship services,” Racho said.
“We urge Nigerian security forces to come up with strategy to stop this dangerous group from wiping out Christians from northern Nigeria,” Racho said. ...

”During my recent visit to Nigeria, I met several Christians who left their homes in the north due to attacks by Boko Haram. In some areas, members of Boko Haram go door-to-door hunting Christians,” Racho said.
Racho compares Boko Haram’s operations to genocide.
“In my opinion, what we are seeing in Nigeria amounts to religious cleansing and warrants serious consideration from the part of the international community,” Racho said.

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.wnd.com/2012/06/muslims-trying-for-revolution-in-nigeria/


FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.



Yale University May Revoke Fraternity's Charter Due to Its Christians-Only Bylaw

THE CHRISTIAN POST - By Katherine Weber - October 3, 2012
Reports from Yale University indicate that the largest Christian fraternity in the nation is struggling to attain official recognition at the prestigious school because its religion-based bylaws conflict with the school's non-discrimination policy.
Beta Upsilon Chi (BYX), the largest Christian fraternity in the nation, opened its new chapter at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., in mid-September. Just days after its opening, however, the school newspaper reported that the fraternity "will have to change its membership rules if it intends to comply with Yale's anti-discrimination policies."
The fraternity only allows men who are Christian to join, although it welcomes all students to its events. ...
Yale's non-discrimination policy does not allow student groups to carry the Yale name if they in any way discriminate against "sex, race, color, religion, age, disability, or national or ethnic origin," although, as Christian student news source World on Campus points out, there are exceptions, such as the student group Yale Law Women barring men from membership. ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.christianpost.com/news/yale-university-may-revoke-fraternitys-charter-due-to-its-christians-only-bylaw-82598/


FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.