Iraq’s Christians unimportant in global politics

From a Swedish newspaper:

Christians are of little geopolitical or strategic importance in Iraq. … Moreover the Christians in Iraq are politically weak and the church leadership is divided. If the Christian minority that has remained in Iraq is to continue living there a long-term solution is required; autonomy for the people living in the Ninawa valley south of Mosul. But for this to happen the international community must assume responsibility. And the US – under the UN flag – should bear the greatest share of that responsibility.

There is a very interesting article on CatholicPreaching.com about Iraqi Christians’ persecution:

Canadian columnist, Fr. Raymond de Souza, wrote in an article last week for Toronto’s “The Catholic Register” that it was time to stop ducking the question of genocidal violence by those acting subjectively in the name of Islam. “May we now speak of the Muslims who want to kill us?,” he candidly asked. After mentioning the necessary disclaimers — “Christians and Muslims have often lived together in peace,” “only a minority of Muslims are homicidal fanatics,” and “terrorism is a corruption of Islam” — he stressed that we have to “speak frankly of those Islamic jihadists who wish to kill Christians because they are not Muslims.” If the blood of Abel, the first innocent to be killed, cried out to heaven, he continued, “the blood of these latest Iraqi martyrs screams out to heaven and earth. Does the world want to listen?”

That the world has been turning a deaf ear to the cries of Iraqi Christians was emphasized by Syrian Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan of Antioch in Lebanon. “Christians are slaughtered in Iraq, in their homes and churches, and the so-called ‘free’ world is watching in complete indifference, interested only in responding in a way that is politically correct and economically opportune, but in reality is hypocritical,” said the Patriarch, who from 1995-2009 was the Bishop of Our Lady of Deliverance of Newark, NJ. “There are a few churches and Christian institutions left in Baghdad, not so great a number that it is not unreasonable for them to be protected, security-wise,” he continued, saying that the protection provided by the Iraqi government is “far less than what we have hoped for and requested.”

…

For the United States to get involved in protecting Iraqi Christians from being slaughtered, there may need to be a culture shift among political leaders, citizens and the media. The present administration seems incapable even of suggesting that some terrorism is done subjectively in the name of Islam, whether it concerns the recent bloodbath of Baghdad Christians or the horrendous slaughter of nearly three thousand innocents on September 11, 2011. The media also needs to examine itself. Media outlets have recently been obsessed with the threat of an obscure Florida pastor to burn the Muslim holy book or the possibility of anti-Muslim discrimination concerning a Muslim community center in lower Manhattan, but they have basically ignored not just routine anti-Christian discrimination in our country but also things far more serious than Koran-burning, such as when terrorists, purportedly following the Koran, brutally decimate an entire Catholic parish in Baghdad. It’s time for American citizens in general, and Christians in particular, to rise up and — while reaffirming that anti-religious bigotry and the desecration of holy books must always be opposed — reaffirm that the mass murder of innocent human beings is incalculably worse, and to demand that the government do what it can to assist the Iraqi government in eliminating it.

We also must squarely face the unpleasant reality that terrorism done in the name of Islam is not going to disappear on its own or be resolved by dipomacy. As Fr. de Souza wrote in a National Post column earlier this week, “The blood on the altar makes it clear. No amount of goodwill, no amount of dialogue, no amount of circumlocutory evasions, no amount of supine prostrations — nothing will dissuade the jihadists. … The jihadists respect neither man nor God, not even their own. They have killed their fellow Muslims and bombed mosques. The Christians killed on Sunday were Iraqis, their fellow Arabs, their fellow citizens, their neighbors. They kill because they are seized with a murderous hatred. The least we can do is to summon a righteous anger in return.”

And so, the number of very Angry Infidels grow. It’s disgusting what’s happening. It’s disgusting that no one is doing anything, because it’s not convenient, and others are not interested, because it has “nothing to do with them“. And it’s disgusting that when Israel has been defending Israeli citizens against this same hatred, some people (even inside the Catholic Church) have been condemning them while supporting every damned jihadist or so-called anti-Zionist that existed.

Related: Injured from Baghdad cathedral brought to Rome for treatment: Rome’s Gemelli Hospital admitted 17 women, seven men and three children on the evening of Nov. 12 just after their arrival by military aircraft. The 26 were met by a “multidisciplinary task force” at their disposal, according to a note from the hospital.

Malaysia: Dad in pork issue claims he is not Muslim

Beginda Minda, father of the 10-year-old pupil who was recently caned for bringing pork to school, has denied that he is a Muslim.

“I admit I was a Muslim before. But in 1999, I changed my religion. Now I am a non-Muslim,” Beginda said yesterday.

The status of his religion had been brought to the forefront since the caning incident.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz said the Government had asked Jakim to investigate the religious status of Beginda.

“Only after this can conclusions be drawn on why his son was caned,” said the minister.

Debates and arguments in Parliament over the last two days had centred on whether or not his son Basil — raised by a Christian mother — was also Muslim.

Beginda stressed that his son was not a Muslim.

via Dad in pork issue claims he is not Muslim.

Imagine that: Malaysian Parliament has been debating over the religion of a child because he brought pork to school!

The problems are two of course: first, the father has left Islam, so he is an apostate. Secondly, the boy has been educated by his Christian mother. For the rest of us, the answer is simple: educated as a Christian, he is a Christian, so he can eat whatever he wants. But these guys spend Parliament’s sessions debating about it, because is legal to be an apostate? Or some other very boring question, that in the end, is just something private, related to his conscience.

Sri Lanka: maid alleges nail torture while working in Kuwait

Sri Lankan housemaid V. R. Lechchami, 38, lies on her hospital bed in the northwestern town of Kurunegala. Lechchami, underwent surgery to remove nine out of the 14 nails inside her body. The doctor said the woman had told surgeons that her Kuwaiti employers drove the nails into her hands and left leg – some as long as 3.5 centimetres (1.5 inches) – when she asked for her salary after working for six months. (AFP)

A Sri Lankan housemaid has accused her Kuwaiti employer of hammering 14 nails into her body, in the second such incident in the past few months, a local doctor said Saturday.

The woman, identified only as Lechchami, 38, underwent surgery to have the nails removed after returning home to Sri Lanka, the director of the hospital in the northwestern town of Kurunegala said.

“We have removed nine out of the 14 wire nails that showed up in X-rays,” hospital director Soma Rajamanthri told AFP.

The doctor said the woman had told surgeons that her Kuwaiti employers drove the nails into her hands and left leg – some as long as 3.5 centimetres (1.5 inches) – when she asked for her salary after working for six months.

“We can’t verify her story, but she said the husband-and-wife couple who employed her did this to her,” Rajamanthri said.

A police spokesman said the case was under investigation.

via Sri Lankan maid alleges nail torture in Kuwait – Emirates24|7.

The situation of maids in the Gulf countries is absolutely shocking, without nearly no international repercussions.

Related links:

Yemen: tribal leaders will not hand over al-Qaeda operatives

This is hardly a surprise. They are the leaders of a tribe, so if you belong to it, you’ll be protected, whatever you have done, against people from other tribes…

In a severe blow to international demands for Yemen to do more to curb terrorism, sheikhs from the al-Qaeda heartlands in the country’s central provinces have told The Daily Telegraph that they would not turn in members of their tribes. The government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, they said, had not done enough to bring development to their impoverished regions, making them fertile breeding grounds for disaffected radicals.

“There’s no discussion with the government, nothing,” said Sheikh Ahmed Shuraif, leader of the Bani Dhabyan, one of Yemen’s most important tribes. He holds sway in parts of Marib, to the east of the capital Sana’a, a hotbed of al-Qaeda-led unrest. “What al-Qaeda are doing is very bad and against Islam. If we had someone from al-Qaeda we would not accept him but we would not give him to the government either.”

via Yemen tribal leaders will not hand over al-Qaeda operatives – Telegraph.

So, his “tribe” is located in one of the “hotbeds of AQ-led unrest”. And he dares to say that “if he had some AQ operative he wouldn’t accept him”! Yeah, sure.