One Saint
  • Home
  • Jesus Said
    • Matthew
    • Mark
    • Luke
    • John
    • Acts
    • I Corinthians
    • II Corinthians
    • Revelation
  • One Saint Blogs
    • Eschatology
    • Annie
    • All Saints
    • One Saint
    • David
    • Askakido
  • The Persecuted Church
    • Prayer
    • Crown of Life
  • Library
  • MP3s
    • Mystery Babylon
    • Pastors, Ministers and Priests
    • Run from the Devil
    • Miscellaneous Teachings
  • Music
    • Music of Heaven
    • Handel's Messiah
    • Miscellaneous Music >
      • Musical Library XXIII
      • Musical Library XXII
      • Musical Library XXI
      • Musical Library XX
      • Musical Library XIX
      • Musical Library XVIII
      • Musical Library XVII
      • Musical Library XVI
      • Musical Library XV
      • Musical Library XIV
      • Musical Library XIII
      • Musical Library XII
      • Musical Library XI
      • Musical Library X
      • Musical Library IX
      • Musical Library VIII
      • Musical Library VII
      • Musical Library VI
      • Musical Library V
      • Musical Library IV
      • Musical Library III
      • Musical Library II
      • Musical Library I
  • Video
    • DR S M Lockridge, Full Sermon
    • Enoch
    • Genesis
    • Gospel Of Luke
    • Greatest Biblical Archaeological Discoveries Of All Time
    • King Solomon
    • Leonard Ravenhill
    • One Saint
    • Paul, The Apostle
    • Rabbi Jonathan Cahn
    • Revelation, The Book
    • Roger Morneau
    • Ruth
    • Sermon On The Mount
    • That's My King!
    • The Bride, The Beast & Babylon
    • The Jesus Movie
  • Links

Losing Faith in Iraq

9/5/2015

0 Comments

 
International Christian Concern
2020 Pennsylvania Ave. NW #241
Washington, D.C. 20006

www.persecution.org  |  E-mail: icc@persecution.org
Picture
Losing Faith in Iraq 
By Todd Daniels

09/01/2015 
Washington, D.C. 
International Christian Concern

"How can we stay in a country that doesn't respect humanity?"

This was just one of the questions posed to me by Mr. Louay* as we sat on a mattress in the corner of the large room that his family had apportioned as their new home.

He, his wife, and their two sons - one who should start his final year of high school two weeks from now and the other university aged - used to live just an hour south in Qaraqosh, Iraq. The area known for centuries as Iraq's Christian capital had been home to approximately 40,000 Christians.

In the summer of 2014, ISIS (also known as the Islamic State, or ISIL) jihadists took first the city of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, and then continued their assault across the Nineveh Plains, taking Qaraqosh and many of the surrounding Christian villages and moving towards Sinjar Mountain, home of the majority of Iraq's Yazidi community.

These religious minorities were massacred, abducted, and driven out with brutality that seems almost unthinkable in the modern world. Yet, the targeting of religious minorities continued because they believed the wrong thing.

As a Christian, a Yazidi, or a Shi'ite Muslim, ISIS jihadists would, at their most generous, give the offer to convert to their fanatical interpretation of Islam, pay an unspecified but exorbitant tax and live as a subjugated minority, or face execution. 

For more than 150,000 Christians from Mosul and the villages of the Nineveh Plains, they fled in the morning hours before ISIS came to their homes. Homes that are now marked "property of the Islamic State" and either used to house foreign fighters and their families, looted, or simply destroyed.

This is the story repeated by family after family of those who have found temporary refuge in Iraq's Kurdistan region.

Now the number of those repeating this story is dwindling quickly.

The religious center where Louay and his family live now is home for 44 families, far too many people for any sort of privacy. Yet, in the months immediately after the crisis this center was housing more than 100 families. Just three months ago there were 62 families, and last week it was down to 44 families.

Where have all of these families gone? A few have found housing in Iraq, but the vast majority have left the country and expect never to return to live. Some have moved to Beirut or Amman or California and are attempting to restart life with family who have gone there before.

Still others are likely part of the record breaking surge of refugees and migrants attempting to enter Europe, whether by land through Eastern Europe or making the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean from the North African coast.

This is the latest wave of Iraq's Christian community fleeing the country as violence has not only rocked the country, but specifically targeted them as religious minorities.
The political solutions seem far removed from addressing the realities facing families like Louay's.

"We don't have much faith in protest movements as a means to change," he said. "The constitution is based on Sharia and cannot contradict Islamic principles. Yet, it claims there is freedom of religion. These are two contrary ideas. We have to have a country that respects the 'other.' That allows for religions to live together," Louay continued.

While he can see things that need to change, for his life and the future of his sons he believes that they too will soon be leaving the country.

"I don't have much faith in the future as a Christian in Iraq," Louay said.
 
Then he asked a surprising question, one that a few others have voiced as well.

"What do Christians in America think about the future of Iraq? Do they think things will change? Will Christians be able to live here in Iraq?"

For Christians in Iraq, they truly believe that their brothers and sisters in America and around the world do make a difference in the future of Christianity in Iraq.

They have witnessed it firsthand over and over again the past year as aid poured in to provide food, water, and shelter to sustain them through this crisis.

Now as they look for the future - as they need jobs and education for their children - they are wondering if Christians around the world will continue to stand with them or if they too are losing faith in Iraq.

The answer remains to be seen whether leaders can find the ways to provide for security and a future for Christians to remain or if Iraq is going to be losing entire faith communities, one family at a time.

*Name Changed for Security 
For interviews, contact Olivia Miller: press@persecution.org
 
# # #

You are free to disseminate this news story. We request that you reference ICC (International Christian Concern) and include our web address, www.persecution.org. ICC is a Washington, D.C.-based human rights organization that exists to help persecuted Christians worldwide. ICC provides Awareness, Advocacy, and Assistance to the worldwide persecuted Church.  For additional information or for an interview, contact ICC at 800-422-5441.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    Crown of Life Blog

    Picture
    The Martyrdom of ST Stephen, Pietro da Cortona, 1660

    News and Information about
    Persecuted Christians from all around the
    World

    Persecuted saints benefit most from your heartfelt and earnest prayer.

    Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial;
    for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him
    .
    James 1:12

    'Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the
    devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so
    that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
    Revelation 2:10

    New American Standard Bible 
    (NASB)

    Copyright © 
    1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971,
    1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995
    by
    The Lockman Foundation


    Picture

    HOW TO READ A PERSECUTION NEWS STORY

    Trials make the promise sweet;
    Trials give new life to prayer;
    Trials bring me to His feet,
    Lay me low, and keep me there.


    "God often takes away our comforts and our privileges in order to make us better Christians. He trains His soldiers not in tents of ease and luxury, but by turning them out and subjecting them to forced marches and hard service. He makes them ford through streams, and swim through rivers, and climb mountains, and walk many long miles with heavy backpacks of sorrow. Well, Christian, may this not account for the troubles through which you are passing? Is the Lord bringing out your graces and making them grow? Is it for this reason He contends with you?"

    Read Why Do I Face Trials?,
    by Alistair Begg, Truth for Life Daily, at One Place

    Christian persecution is just a phenomenon in the
    Middle East.

    Christians aren’t greatly
    impacted by persecution.

    Whatever persecution there is, the damage is superficial - more a loss of multicultural diversity than anything else.

    Christians supposedly bring persecution upon themselves by proselytizing.

    Persecution couldn’t
    happen here.

    Please read 5 Myths about Persecution of Christians, by
    Kristin Wright, at Religion Today.


    Share



    email the webmaster

    RSS Feed


    Archives

    January 2018
    November 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012