Zionists Bomb Christian Copts in Egypt to Damage the Good Name of Islam
by sheikyermami on January 1, 2011
You don’t believe me? Well, don’t take my word for it:
Islamic scholar: Jihadis are “tools in the hands of the Zionists, Israelis, Europeans, and Orientals, with the goal of damaging Islam”
**(Referenced article, from Jihad Watch):
Islamic scholar: Jihadis are "tools in the hands of the Zionists, Israelis, Europeans, and Orientals, with the goal of damaging Islam"
Maybe Sheikh al-Awda was the source for Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregory III. In any case, it is disturbing to see this fantastical claim gaining increasing currency, although it isn't really surprising given three well-established tendencies: the inability of Islamic supremacists to acknowledge any responsibility for any wrongdoing, their fanatical Jew-hatred, and their ongoing attempts to portray themselves as victims. "Sheikh al-Awda: 'The Terrorists Work in the Service of Israel and the Zionist Movement,'" from Translating Jihad, December 30:
This is from Saudi Sheikh Salman al-Awda, a prominent member of the International Union for Muslim Scholars run by Yusuf al-Qaradawi (see the original Arabic here):
Sheikh al-Awda: The Terrorists Work in the Service of Israel and the Zionist Movement
Riyadh - Sheikh Salman al-Awda warned against severe terrorist acts, bombings, and bloodshed, as well as against the groups that carry out these actions and hide behind Islam, carrying the banner of jihad. He said: "These are tools in the hands of the Zionists, Israelis, Europeans, and Orientals, with the goal of damaging Islam." [...]
Posted by Robert on December 31, 2010 7:13 AM
Or maybe it was just a car? Lets ban cars then:
**(Referenced article, from Reuters):
Suspected suicide bomber kills 21 at Egypt church
Sat Jan 1, 2011 3:27pm EST
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1 of 1Full SizeBy Yasmine Saleh
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (Reuters) - A bomb killed at least 21 people outside a church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria early on New Year's Day and the Interior Ministry said a foreign-backed suicide bomber may have been responsible.
Dozens of people were wounded by the blast, which scattered body parts, destroyed cars and smashed windows. The attack prompted Christians to protest on the streets, and some Christians and Muslims hurled stones at each other.
Egypt has stepped up security around churches, banning cars from parking outside them, since an al Qaeda-linked group in Iraq issued a threat against the Church in Egypt in November.
Egypt's leaders were quick to call for unity, wary of any upsurge in sectarian strife or other tension as the country approaches a presidential election due in September amid some uncertainty about whether President Hosni Mubarak, 82, will run.
Mubarak promised in a televised address that terrorists would not destabilize Egypt or divide Christians and Muslims. He said the attack "carries evidence of the involvement of foreign fingers" and vowed to pursue the perpetrators.
A statement on an Islamist website posted about two weeks before the blast called for attacks on Egypt's churches, listing among them the one hit. No group was named in the statement.
President Barack Obama described the bombing as a "barbaric and heinous act" and said the United States, a major ally, was ready to help Cairo in responding to it.
The Muslim Brotherhood, seen as Egypt's biggest opposition group and which decades ago renounced violence as means to power in Egypt, condemned the attack.
"There are people who want this country to be unstable, and all fingers point to outside hands being behind this incident," senior group member Mohamed el-Katatni said.
The circumstances of the attack, compared with other incidents abroad, "clearly indicates that foreign elements undertook planning and execution," the Interior Ministry said.
"It is likely that the device which exploded was carried by a suicide bomber who died among others," it said in a statement. State media had earlier blamed a car bomb.
The embassy of the United States, a close ally of Egypt, expressed condolences to victims of the "terrible event." Other Western and regional states also condemned the bombing.
An Iraqi deputy interior minister, Hussein Kamal, urged Arab states to cooperate in the fight against terrorism and to help stop Arab militants training in Iraq and then returning home.
COMMUNAL FRUSTRATIONS
Health Ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shahin said 21 people had been confirmed killed so far and 97 were wounded, the official Middle East News Agency reported.
The church said 20 people were confirmed killed and remains had been found indicating 4-5 others died in the blast, which struck as worshippers marking the New Year left the church.
"We condemn this unfortunate incident that threatens our nation, its security and safety of its citizens. What happened is a dangerous escalation of sectarian events that target the Copts," said a statement from the Alexandria Council of Priests.
Christians make up about 10 percent of Muslim-majority Egypt's 79 million people. Tensions often flare between the two communities over issues such as building churches or close relationships between members of the two faiths.
Analysts said this attack was on a much bigger scale and appeared far more organized than the kind of violence that usually erupts when communal frustrations boil over.
After protests overnight, more than 100 Christians protested again on Saturday near the Coptic Orthodox church that was hit. "We sacrifice our souls and blood for the cross," they chanted. Police used teargas to disperse protesters.
ISLAMIST THREAT
Egypt's Christians have been threatened by the al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq, which attacked a church in Baghdad two months ago in what it called a response to the mistreatment of Muslim converts by Egyptian Copts.
A statement posted on an Islamist website called on Muslims to "bomb churches during the Christmas holiday when churches are crowded." It was not clear who was behind the statement that listed churches in Egypt and elsewhere, including Alexandria's Church of the Two Saints that was targeted.
The Orthodox Coptic Christmas is on January 7.
Pope Benedict, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, denounced violence against Christians in his New Year address.
Analysts said they did not expect a return to the kind of Islamic militant insurgency crushed by Egypt's government in the 1990s. Nevertheless, the attack could add to sectarian tension and points to influence of foreign Islamist groups.
"The first and most likely possibility is that a sleeper cell of al Qaeda group carried out this operation and this would mean that al Qaeda has penetrated the Islamic political movement in Egypt," said analyst Nabil Abdel-Fattah.
Alexandria governor Adel Labib "accused al Qaeda of planning the bombing," state television reported.
Officials are swift to play down sectarian differences and have been keen to emphasize national harmony before the September presidential poll.
Mubarak, 82 and in power since 1981, is expected to run if he is able to. Gallbladder surgery in March revived questions about his health, but he has returned to a full schedule.
Sectarian tension is fueled in part by Christian grievances such as laws making it easier to build mosques than churches.
In November, hundreds of Christians clashed with police, and with some Muslims who joined in, in Cairo in a protest against a decision to halt construction of a church. Officials said the Christians had no license to build. Two Christians died, dozens were hurt and more than 150 detained.
Last January, a drive-by shooting of six Christians and a Muslim policeman at a church in southern Egypt sparked protests.
(Additional reporting by Ahmed El-Shemi in Alexandria, Marwa Awad, Sherine El Madany and Mohamed Abdellah in Cairo, Firouz Sedarat in Dubai and Serena Chaudhry in Baghdad; writing by Edmund Blair; editing by Janet Lawrence)
“A car was the reason behind the explosion” - sez Marwa Awad for Reuters,
Christian dhimmies agree with the Islamic scholar:
Senior Greek priest blames Jews for Greece’s financial problems
**(Referenced article, from Haaretz.com):
Published 13:44 22.12.10
Latest update 13:44 22.12.10
Senior Greek priest blames Jews for Greece's financial problems
Metropolite of Piraeus Seraphim says Hitler was just a Zionist instrument to convince the Jews to leave Europe to Israel and 'establish the new Empire', JTA reports.
By Haaretz Service
Tags: Israel news Greece
A leading priest in Greece said that the world Jewry was to blame for the country's financial problems, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on Wednesday.
While being interviewed on a morning show of Greece's largest television station, Mega TV, the Metropolite of Piraeus Seraphim said that international Zionism tries to destroy family values by promoting one-parent families and same-sex marriages, and said there is a Zionist conspiracy to enslave Greece and Christian Orthodoxy.
The Metropolite also said that Hitler was just a tool used by Zionists in order to ensure the establishment of Israel.
When the Greek host asked him, "Why do you disagree with Hitler's politics? If they are doing all this, wasn't he right in burning them?," the Metropolite answered, "Adolf Hitler was an instrument of world Zionism and was financed from the renowned Rothschild family with the sole purpose of convincing the Jews to leave the shores of Europe and go to Israel to establish the new Empire."
He went on to say that Jews such as "Rockefeller, Rotchschild and Soros control the international banking system that controls globalization."
The JTA quoted the president of the Athens Jewish community, Benjamin Albala, as saying: "Watching and listening to the program, I felt disgust hearing the Metropolite of Piraeus expressing himself like that against world Zionism, and shamelessly saying that Hitler with the help of Jewish bankers did what he did."
Melkite Archbishop Cyril Bustros: “Al-Quds, which should be a …
**(Referenced article, from Jihad Watch):
Melkite Archbishop Cyril Bustros: "Al-Quds, which should be a house of prayer for all nations, has become in the hands of the Zionists a den of thieves where innocents and whoever claims a right and justice is killed."
Comments by David G. Littman, NGO Representative to the United Nations -- Geneva: Association for World Education (AWE) / World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ)
* * * * *
Robert Spencer's revealing piece provides useful data on the dhimmitude mindset of many Eastern Christian clerics, fearful of Jihadist attacks against their vulnerable communities.
In our January 16, 2009 piece: "Jihad ISESCO (OIC) propagates Dialogue & Judeophobia in two books while celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the UN-Geneva, we provided, inter alia, a glaring example of the 'thinking' of the then-Archbishop of Baalbek, now Eparch of Newton, Cyril Salim Bustros -- maybe soon to become the new Archbishop of Beirut.
I feel sure that Jihad Watch readers will appreciate rereading the Archbishop's words on Jerusalem (Al-Quds), Ibrahim/Abraham, Jews, Judaism, Israel, delivered in Rabat, Morocco at an International Conference (June 7-8, 2002) on: "Protection of Islamic and Christian Holy Sites in Palestine". It was published in 2004 with the texts of participants, including that of King Muhammad VI of Morocco, by ISESCO - the cultural arm of the OIC, which has cultural links to UNESCO since 1984, including a detailed joint programme of cooperation for 2008-2009 that was signed just before these 'Proceedings' and a similar book (2007) were displayed outside the Alliance of Civilizations Room at the Palais des Nation in Geneva during a full day's OIC event. "The OIC Inter-Institutional Forum on Universal Shared Values: Challenges & New Paradigms" was sponsored by the "Permanent Observer Mission of the OIC in Geneva and Vienna" on Dec. 19, 2008, with the participation of OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, HCHR Neva Pillay and then Human Rights Council President, Nigerian Ambassador Martin I. Uhomoibhi.
A 'Public Complaint' was sent on January 12, 2009 by AWE and WUPJ to UNESCO's Director and the HCHR with a detailed Human Rights Council written statement [A/HRC/10/NGO/29]. We have still not received an acknowledgment, let alone a satisfactory response after nearly two years, even though we raised the matter several times - and in a joint oral statement with the WUPJ on 24 April 2009 at the Durban [II] Review Conference concluding with a simple request:
We await firm action by UNESCO - and by all UN bodies - denouncing all such UN-related publications that can increase xenophobia, racial and religious hatred and tensions. Here is the time to begin.
That same day we were frogmarched out of the main UN Assembly Hall for simply handing our oral and written statements to three Western delegates and to the OIC delegate who asked for a copy. Quoting from our written statement six weeks earlier had led to another UN scandal when our condemnation of ISESCO/OIC's defamation of Judaism and Jews was wrongly ruled "off the subject" at the Council by the Canadian Vice-President, advised by the Secretary on the podium.
UNESCO inaction over such a grave public complaint, with full documentation, should be compared to the recent Orwellian decision by UNESCO to organise a World Philosophy Day on November 21, 2010 in Teheran. It was in Teheran, nearly 21 years ago, that the OIC's 'Declaration of Human Rights in Islam' (adopted on 5 August 1990 in Cairo) originated; this human rights document is totally dependent on Islamic Sharia (art. 24-25) in total contradiction with the Universal Declaration.
* * * * *
Here is the extract from Eastern Catholic Archbishop Cyril Salim Bustros's presentation on 7 June 2002 at the OIC-ISESCO International Conference in Rabat.
We have added his opening words which are meaningful in such a context and worth meditating.
First Axis: History of Islamic and Christian Holy Sites in Palestine
Presentation by Archbishop Cyrille Salim Bustros, the "Archbishop of Baalbek and its sub-ordinates of the Catholic Church - Chairman of the Middle Council of Churches"
Al-Quds in Christian Thought
In the name of God the Everlasting, the God of peace and Justice, ladies and gentlemen, Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatu Allah wa barakatuh
Today, Al-Quds is one of the international grave issues at both the civil and religious levels. This situation has become even weightier when the Israeli government decided to establish Al-Quds as the capital of the State of Israel, a decision that has deeply affected us, Arab Christians and Muslims. (*)
[...] Al-Quds, the city of holiness, in the hands of the Zionists, has become today a trading centre where Arab Christians and Muslims are expelled and substituted with Jews. Al-Quds, which should be a house of prayer for all nations, has become in the hands of the Zionists a den of thieves where innocents and whoever claims a right and justice is killed.
Today, the Jews allege that Al-Quds belongs to them only. They have made it the capital of their Zionist state, arguing that it is the land of their ancestors since Ibrahim. If only they followed the example of this ancestor, who accepted to sacrifice his own son for the love of God. Instead, they have no qualms about killing the children of the others for the sake of their racist ambitions. John the Baptist, the great prophet who prepared for the advent of Jesus and called people to repent their sins to God, told the Jews: "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repent-ance, and think not to say within yourselves. We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham"[Matthew 3: 7-8]. (p. 37)
The sons of Ibrahim are those who believe in the God of Ibrahim, namely in the One God, Creator of all humans, and acknowledge all people as their brothers with no discrimination and no distinction, for all people are creatures of Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds, as Muslims say, and sons of the One God, the Father and Commander, as Christians say. The sons of Ibrahim are those who accept to sacrifice what is most precious to them in faith and in obedience to His commands. God does not order us to murder the fellow humans he created in His shape and model. He does not order us either to exterminate and enslave people who hail from a different race and religion. He rather enjoins us to be merciful, humane, just and peace loving. (page 37)
----------------
* As Bat Ye'or has written, art. 21 of the 2008 OIC Charter designates Al-Quds as its future permanent seat, replacing Djeddah. It also calls on UNESCO to halt all Israeli excavations.]
Posted by Robert on October 28, 2010 3:31 PM
Melkite Patriarch Absolves Islam, Blames ‘Zionist Conspiracy’ –
**(Referenced article, from National Review Online):
Melkite Patriarch Absolves Islam, Blames ‘Zionist Conspiracy’
December 13, 2010 5:57 P.M. By Jack Fowler
A friend who worries deeply about the Eastern Catholic Church e-mailed along this “latest Judeophobic calumny propagated by our clueless prelates in the Middle East”: According to the Daily Star, an English-language paper for Lebanese expats, the patriarch of the Antioch Church (Melkite Greek), Gregory III Laham, announced that there was a “Zionist conspiracy against Islam” behind al-Qaeda’s attack last month at a Catholic church in Baghdad. (Remember? The one where 58 innocent parishioners were slaughtered.)
Say what, Patriarch?! Concerning the “violence and disturbances against Christians here and there and on an increasing level,” well, don’t blame Osama bin Laden or the Taliban. “All this behavior has nothing to do with Islam,” says the Damascus-based Gregory. Instead, it is “a conspiracy planned by Zionism and some Christians with Zionist orientations and it aims at undermining and giving a bad image of Islam.”
Here’s a chunk from the Star article:
Sidon’s (Melkite) Greek Catholic Archdiocese was inaugurated over the weekend along with a center for Islamic and Christian studies, with speakers at the ceremony calling for dialogue of religions and emphasizing coexistence.
A number of religious figures, politicians and businessmen took part in opening the archdiocese which saw a number of refurbishments.
Gregory III Lahham, the patriarch of the Church of Antioch and the entire Levant for Melkite Greek Catholics, participated in the ceremony that took place under his patronage.
Attendees gathered at Saint Nicholas Cathedral inside the archdiocesan headquarters.
Lahham said that attacks against Levantine Christians reflected a “Zionist conspiracy against Islam.”
“I believe it is necessary to deeply examine fundamentalism … and terrorism that are masked by religion, along with violence and disturbances against Christians here and there and on an increasing level. All this behavior has nothing to do with Islam,” Lahham said.
“But it is actually a conspiracy planned by Zionism and some Christians with Zionist orientations and it aims at undermining and giving a bad image of Islam,” he added.
Gunmen from the Islamic State of Iraq — an Al-Qaeda affiliated organization — stormed Baghdad’s Our Lady of Salvation Church during Sunday Mass on November 1. More than 50 people were killed during an attempted hostage-rescue operation and doubts escalated over the future of the country’s Christians.
“And it is also a conspiracy against Arabs and the pre-dominantly Muslim Arab world that aims at depicting Arabs and Muslims in Arab countries as terrorist and fundamentalist murderers in order to deny them their rights and especially those of the Palestinians,” Lahham said.
The prelate said dialogue between Muslims and Christians was the best means to confront such a conspiracy.
“Dialogue, Islamic-Christian dialogue centers along with coexistence and solidarity here in Lebanon and in Arab countries represent the actual response to this conspiracy which targets us as Muslims and Christians and threatens our countries and generations,” Lahham said.
Happy New Year, Infidel: Church bombing in Egypt kills 21
**(Referenced article, from Jihad Watch):
Happy New Year, Infidel: Church bombing in Egypt kills 21
Meet the new year, same as the old year. "Car bomb hits church in Egypt, 21 killed," by Yasmin Saleh and Marwa Awad for Reuters, January 1 (thanks to Zulu):
CAIRO (Reuters) - A car bombing outside a church killed 21 people in Egypt's northern city of Alexandria as worshippers gathered to mark the New Year, security and medical sources said on Saturday.
The Interior Ministry earlier said 24 people were also wounded in the bombing, which prompted hundreds of Christians to take to the streets in protest. Some Christians and Muslims pelted each other with rocks, a witness said. Cars were torched.
Christians in Muslim-majority Egypt make up about 10 percent of the nation's 79 million people.
Egypt, due to hold a presidential election in September, has stepped up security around churches, restricting cars from parking directly outside them, after an al Qaeda-linked group in Iraq issued a threat against the church in Egypt in November.
The al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq, which claimed an attack on a church in Baghdad in November, threatened the Egyptian church over its treatment of women the group said the church was holding after they had converted to Islam.
An obvious case of projection.
"This is a scene from Baghdad," a witness told Reuters by telephone.
Police used teargas to disperse the crowd on the streets. Ambulances were also at the scene where medical personnel gathered body parts that were scattered over the area.
"We sacrifice our souls and blood for the cross," shouted protesting Christians near the Coptic Orthodox church where the blast struck, a witness said.
A statement from the Interior Ministry said the blast occurred just after midnight in front of the church after a service to mark the New Year. It said the blast damaged a mosque near the church and eight Muslims were among the 24 wounded.
Security sources said nine people were killed.
The ministry said an investigation had begun.
"The preliminary investigation indicates that a car was the reason behind the explosion. It was parked in front of the church and had been assumed to belong to one of the people who often come to the church," said the ministry statement, which was read to Reuters by a ministry official.
Kameel Sadeeq, from the Coptic council in Alexandria, told Reuters: "People went in to church to pray to God but ended up as scattered limbs. This massacre has al Qaeda written all over, the same pattern Qaeda has adopted in other countries." [...]
Officials are swift to play down sectarian differences and are particularly sensitive to emphasize national harmony after a parliamentary election in November that opposition groups said was rigged and before the presidential poll.Posted by Marisol on January 1, 2011 12:01 AM
Related:
Is Egypt preparing the genocide on the Coptic Christians? — Winds …
**(Referenced article, from Winds of Jihad):
Is Egypt preparing the genocide on the Coptic Christians?
by sheikyermami on October 28, 2010
All the signs are pointing in the same direction: for years, the soldiers of Allah have been sharpening the knives to cut the throats of the Christian minority, Egypts original inhabitants. The constant attacks are all but ignored by the Western lame stream media, who carry water for Mohammedanism just like Al Jizz:
Al-Jazeera carries water for Islamic supremacists, repeating accusations that Egyptian Christians are stockpiling weapons, kidnapping Muslim women
What better subterfuge than to accuse your enemy of what you yourself have engaged in for years? As far back as 1976, Coptic Pope Shenouda III noted that “there is a practice to convert Coptic girls to embrace Islam and marry them under terror to Muslim husbands.” Our own archives are full of seven years’ worth of stories of kidnappings of Coptic girls and women. Here’s one. And another. And another. And still another, where Muslims tried to claim the conversion of a priest’s wife.
Muslims dousing a Christian Copt with petrol and burning him alive. The Western media snoozes…..
But the accusations of Christian abductions of Muslims — intentional projections that they are of Egyptian Muslims’ behavior — are part of a new campaign of libel to incite and justify violence against this non-Muslim population whose presence predates the Islamic conquest of Egypt, and so rudely insists on continuing to exist. And we know which side Al-Jazeera is on.
“Egyptian Muslims accuse Christians of complicity with Israel,” from Spero News, October 26 via Jihad Watch:
Fears for the safety of Egyptian Christians are growing after a series of false allegations, violent threats and mass demonstrations against Christians in Egypt, according to the Barnabas Fund – an advocacy and charitable organization based in the United Kingdom.
According to a news release, Muslim anger was ignited in September 2010 last month when entirely unfounded accusations were made on Al-Jazeera TV that Egyptian Christians were aligned with Israel and stockpiling weapons in preparation for waging war against Muslims. Tensions were also fuelled by baseless rumours circulated by Islamist leaders that Christians were kidnapping and torturing women who had converted to Islam.
Why bring Israel into it, beyond the standard conspiracy paranoia? The Qur’an says Jews and Christians are “friends and protectors” to each other, and Muslims should not befriend them (5:51).
In a separate controversy, a senior church leader [Coptic Pope Shenouda III] wascompelled to apologise publicly “if our Muslim brothers’ feelings were hurt” after another church leader questioned at an internal meeting a verse in the Qur’an that accuses Christians of being “infidels”. Egyptian Christians’ rights were subsequently threatened by the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, a government body, which confirmed Egypt to be an Islamic state where “the citizenship rights of non-Muslims were conditional to their abiding by the Islamic identity of the State”.
At least ten mass demonstrations involving thousands of Muslims have since taken place against Christians, with the previously unknown group “Front of Islamic Egypt” promising them a “bloodbath”.
Barnabas notes that Egyptian authorities have been accused of complicity for political reasons in the escalating sectarian crisis ahead of next month’s national election for the lower house of Parliament and the 2011 Presidential election. Christian human rights activists said that the Egyptian authorities may be trying to use Islamic radicalism as a means to channel against the Christians the escalating social discontent in the country.
Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund, said “I am greatly concerned about events in Egypt over the last few weeks. We must pray that the hostility towards the Church does not descend into outright violence against Christians – as we have seen before.”
Barnabas Fund supports a range of projects that help Christians in Egypt. The country has the largest Christian population of any Muslim nation in the Arab world, estimated at six to ten million. They regularly face discrimination, human rights violations and sectarian hostility.
*******************
It’s cookin’. The Religion of Peace™, Harmony©, Tolerance© etc etc is gunning for Christians, and also in countries such as Turkey where it apparently now is becoming a crime to insult the Turkish state and people by spreading Christianity.
Here you find translations of some of the recent al-Jazeera interviews attacking the Copts, as well as a summary of what Copts have experienced thus far this year. For interested readers, the links are:
http://staringattheview.blogspot.com/2010/10/2010-and-copts.html
http://staringattheview.blogspot.com/2010/09/part-1-islams-threat-against-egypts.html
http://staringattheview.blogspot.com/2010/09/part-2-islams-threats-against-egypts.html
Baghdad bomb attacks on Christians: “I think there is complicity by security forces helping insurgents to implement their attacks”
**(Referenced article, from Jihad Watch):
Baghdad bomb attacks on Christians: "I think there is complicity by security forces helping insurgents to implement their attacks"
Jihadist sentiments among the Iraqi governing authorities? Naaah, couldn't be!
More on this story. "Christians Are Casualties of 10 Baghdad Attacks," by John Leland and Omar Al-Jawoshy for the New York Times, December 30 (thanks to Sr. Soph
BAGHDAD -- One week after an Islamic extremist group vowed to kill Christians in Iraq, a cluster of 10 bomb attacks rattled Baghdad on Thursday night and sent additional tremors of fear through the country's already shaken Christian minority.
Victims of the October siege of Our Lady of Salvation, a Syrian Catholic church in Baghdad, were remembered there Dec. 24.
Two people were killed and 20 wounded, all of them Christians, according to the Ministry of the Interior. The bombs were placed near the homes of at least 14 Christian families around the city, and four bombs were defused before they could explode....
"We will love Iraq forever, but we have to leave it immediately to survive," said Noor Isam, 30. "I would ask the government, 'Where is the promised security for Christians?' "...
In response to the coordinated bombings in Baghdad, Younadim Yousif, a Christian member of Iraq's Parliament, blamed the security forces for failing to prevent the attacks, especially after the extremist group had announced its intentions. "The government bears full responsibility for these attacks, because they already promised to secure the Christians," Mr. Yousif said.
"I think there is complicity by security forces helping insurgents to implement their attacks, because it is unbelievable that they could plant more than 10 I.E.D.'s in different areas targeting Christians," he said, referring to improvised explosive devices....
Posted by Robert on December 31, 2010 6:35 AM
Jihadist sentiments among the Iraqi governing authorities? Naaah, couldn’t be!
More on this story. “Christians Are Casualties of 10 Baghdad Attacks,” by John Leland and Omar Al-Jawoshy for the New York Times, December 30 (thanks to JW)
**(Referenced article, from Jihad Watch):
Iraq: Islamic jihadists murder two Christians, wound twelve with bombs at Christian homes in Baghdad
Feel the love. "Iraqi Christians killed in series of Baghdad attacks," from the Telegraph, December 30:
At least two Christians were killed and 12 people wounded in a series of attacks on Christian homes in Baghdad, according to Iraq's interior ministry.
The worst attack was in the central Baghdad district of Al-Ghadir, where a homemade bomb exploded around 8pm (1700 GMT), killing the two Christians and wounding three others, including one Christian, an official from the ministry said.
Al-Ghadir is an area with a significant Christian population, though many have fled following the massacre and in light of threats by al-Qaeda to target them. The number of Christians left in Iraq is estimated at between 450,000 and 500,000, including around 300,000 Roman Catholics (down from 387,000 in 1980)....
Iraq is still recovering from a massacre at a Baghdad cathedral in October. A group of Islamist extremists burst into the church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad, murdering two priests, holding the congregation hostage and eventually killing more than 50 people....
Posted by Robert on December 30, 2010 12:42 PM
***(Second Referenced article, from The New York Times):
Christians Are Casualties of 10 Baghdad AttacksBy JOHN LELAND and OMAR AL-JAWOSHY
Published: December 30, 2010
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LinkedinDiggMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalink. BAGHDAD — One week after an Islamic extremist group vowed to kill Christians in Iraq, a cluster of 10 bomb attacks rattled Baghdad on Thursday night and sent additional tremors of fear through the country’s already shaken Christian minority.
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Mohammed Ameen/Reuters
Victims of the October siege of Our Lady of Salvation, a Syrian Catholic church in Baghdad, were remembered there Dec. 24.
Two people were killed and 20 wounded, all of them Christians, according to the Ministry of the Interior. The bombs were placed near the homes of at least 14 Christian families around the city, and four bombs were defused before they could explode.
Christians have been flooding out of the country since the siege of Our Lady of Salvation, a Syrian Catholic church, in October that left nearly 60 people dead, including two priests. Many Muslim clerics and worshipers offered support to Christians after the siege. The Islamic State of Iraq, an extremist group affiliated with Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack, and on Dec. 22 it promised more on its Web site.
For some Christians here, the latest attacks represented the last straw.
“We will love Iraq forever, but we have to leave it immediately to survive,” said Noor Isam, 30. “I would ask the government, ‘Where is the promised security for Christians?’ ”
Even before the coordinated assault, Baghdad had come to resemble a battle zone for Christians, who have come increasingly under attack since the American-led invasion in 2003. Before Christmas, several churches fortified their buildings with blast walls and razor wire, and many canceled or curtailed Christmas observances. The day passed without an attack.
At the Sacred Church of Jesus, a Chaldean Catholic church, the Rev. Meyassr al-Qaspotros said Thursday night that he would urge followers not to flee after the latest attacks.
“I just wonder, when does this ignorance end?” he said in an interview. “When does this bigotry end? When is there an end to weak-minded people not treating or thinking of other people as a human?”
He added, “I want to tell the Christians in Iraq not to leave their country despite the dangers. Let’s die here — better than living oppressed in another country. It’s our responsibility to sacrifice for this country in order to take it out of the deep hole and to live peacefully again among the people of Iraq as we used to live before, and even better.”
Since October, at least 1,000 Christian families have left Iraq for the relative safety of semiautonomous Kurdistan in the north, and others have sought refuge in Syria, Turkey and Jordan, according to the United Nations. By most estimates, more than half of Iraq’s Christians have left the country since 2003. Though the exact size of the Christian population is unclear, by some estimates it has fallen to about 500,000 from a high of as many as 1.4 million before the American-led invasion.
The bombings occurred within a span of a half-hour between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Thursday, according to the Ministry of Information. The first bomb exploded near a house in the Jadeeda neighborhood, killing two people and wounding three. The other explosions were less lethal, but all resulted in injuries.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.
During the siege in October, the Islamic State of Iraq said on its Web site that the assault was in response to actions by the Coptic Church in Cairo, where the wives of two priests had tried to convert to Islam to escape their marriages; the militant group asserted that the church was holding the women against their will and forcing them to convert back to Christianity. It called for their release and threatened more violence if its demand was not met.
In Cairo on Wednesday, the Coptic pope said in a sermon that the threats against the church were both a blessing and a curse, because they had brought Egyptian Christians and Muslims together, according to the Arabic news agency Al Arabiya.
In response to the coordinated bombings in Baghdad, Younadim Yousif, a Christian member of Iraq’s Parliament, blamed the security forces for failing to prevent the attacks, especially after the extremist group had announced its intentions. “The government bears full responsibility for these attacks, because they already promised to secure the Christians,” Mr. Yousif said.
“I think there is complicity by security forces helping insurgents to implement their attacks, because it is unbelievable that they could plant more than 10 I.E.D.’s in different areas targeting Christians,” he said, referring to improvised explosive devices.
Maj. Hashim Ahmed, a police investigator, said the broad scale of the attacks surprised security forces. “The failure of our commanders and the government was clear, because they didn’t take serious measures,” he said.
An Iraqi employee of The New York Times contributed reporting.
A version of this article appeared in print on December 31, 2010, on page A8 of the New York edition..
“The grave human tragedy of the Christians in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq, has worsened dramatically”
Indeed, they are being massacred on a daily basis.
Iraq: Islamic jihadists murder two Christians, wound twelve with bombs at Christian homes in Baghdad
**(Referenced article, from Jihad Watch):
"The grave human tragedy of the Christians in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq, has worsened dramatically"
A letter from David G. Littman, representative to the UN-Geneva for the World Union for Progressive Judaism, to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay:
WORLD UNION FOR PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM
* * * * *
THE MARTYRED CHRISTIANS OF IRAQ
RENEWED APPEAL (2008, 2009, 2010)... for the New Year 2011
To the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay
31 December 2010
Your Excellency,
Having suffered a serious brain haemorrhage on 27 November - and now being treated for acute leukaemia - it seems highly unlikely that I shall be allowed by my doctors to return to the Palais des Nations - without a mask, if at all - to defend universal human rights as I have endeavoured to do for the past 25 years. Hopefully, I shall remain in shape to prepare an 'Appeal' now and again - and perhaps more, if providence should allow.
Our 1st intervention on 3 February 1986 was a written Appeal - on behalf of the WUPJ - to the Chairman of the CHR's 42nd session, condemning the nomination of ex-Nazi Byelorussian, Dr. Hermann Klenner, as one of three vice-chairmen. Our 1st oral statement (12 February) condemned the ongoing Orwellian UN General Assembly Resolution 3377, voted on 10 November 1975 (37 years after the evil 1938 Kristallnacht), equating Zionism with Racism. Our 2rd oral statement (3 March) dealt with the question of "fanatical fundamentalists preaching jihad actions of international terrorism against their sworn enemies: either Muslims, referred to as 'heretics'; or non-Muslims, referred to as 'infidels'." Our 3rd oral statement (7 March), inter alia, dealt with the situation of dhimmis (Jews and Christians in Arab-Muslim lands), providing full details on this historical phenomenon, which slowly emptied 'Arab lands' of their ancient Jewish populations - from time immemorial - numbering over 900,000 in 1948 - under 20,000 by 1986; today they are less than 5,000 (barely ½ of 1%).
Madam High Commissioner, we are providing these 'details' (*), in order to stress that for 25 years we have reminded the CHR (and since 2006 the HRC), to no avail, of that commonplace saying: "after Saturday comes Sunday": i.e. after the dhimmi Jews will have been expelled from Arab lands, it will be the time of the dhimmi Christians. Alas, the 'international community' has shown no interest in "Jewish refugees" from Arab-Muslim lands (representing about ½ of Israel's Jewish population of 5.5 million) - only in "Arab-Palestinian refugees" from UN mandated Palestine, whose tragic plight resulted from the Arab League's 1947 "no!" to international legality and its military attack to destroy Israel. This refusal then to recognise a Jewish State continues today.
The grave human tragedy of the Christians in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq, has worsened dramatically since our joint 2008 and 2009 Christmas Day Appeals to you, UNSRs, and at UN bodies. We are enclosing again our last year's joint Appeal and a recent article by a Qatari liberal, Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari: "The Perpetrators of the Massacre at the Baghdad Church are 'the Children of the Culture of Hate." [Al-Jarida-Kuwait, 15 Nov. 2010, tr. by MEMRI, Special Dispatch 3473, 27 Dec. 2010].
This 'writing on the wall' has been evident for decades to all with eyes to see and ears to hear. On the eve of the New Year, we call on you as HCHR, on concerned SRs, and UN bodies to strongly condemn this atrocious martyrdom of a religious-ethnic community, dating from the birth of Christianity in the Middle East. There are less than 10 Jews in Iraq from over 140,000 in 1948. If the UN does not act decisively, the 1¼ million or so Iraqi Christians a decade ago (now under ¼ million) will be reduced to mere thousands or hundreds and all their possessions confiscated, as happened to the dhimmi Jews. The plight of Egypt's Copts for decades is another neglected tragedy, totally ignored by the OIC, itself. The HRC is following the CHR - and the UN is suffering irreparable damage to its reputation in all fields: "for yielding pacifies great offences." NOW is the "time to speak" - and not "a time to keep silence."
Respectfully,
David G. Littman - Representative to the UNO-Geneva (Case Postale 205, 1196 Gland - Suisse)
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* WUPJ, Human Rights and Human Wrongs, No 1 (1986), pp.1-17 (UN Public Library, NY/Geneva). For historical documentation, see Paul B. Fenton & David G. Littman, L'Exile au Maghreb: La condition juive sous l'Islam : 1148 - 1912 (800 p.), Paris-Sorbonne, Nov. 2010
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cc. Ms. Asma Jahangir, SR : Freedom of Religion & belief ; Mr. Githu Muigai, SR: Racism...; Mr James Anava, SR: HR and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples; Ms. Gay J. Mc Dougall, Independent Expert on minority issues; Pr. Walter Kälin, Rep. of S-G- HR of IDP.
Posted by Robert on December 31, 2010 12:20 PM
Feel the love. “Iraqi Christians killed in series of Baghdad attacks,” from the Telegraph, December 30:
**(Referenced article, from The Telegraph):
Iraqi Christians killed in series of Baghdad attacks
At least two Christians were killed and 12 people wounded in a series of attacks on Christian homes in Baghdad, according to Iraq's interior ministry.
Iraqi Christians attending a Christmas service at Saint Joseph's Chaldean Catholic Church in central Baghdad Photo: APBy Our Foreign Staff 8:01PM GMT 30 Dec 2010
The worst attack was in the central Baghdad district of Al-Ghadir, where a homemade bomb exploded around 8pm (1700 GMT), killing the two Christians and wounding three others, including one Christian, an official from the ministry said.
Al-Ghadir is an area with a significant Christian population, though many have fled following the massacre and in light of threats by al-Qaeda to target them. The number of Christians left in Iraq is estimated at between 450,000 and 500,000, including around 300,000 Roman Catholics (down from 387,000 in 1980).
Between 800,000 and 1.2 million Christians lived in Iraq in 2003.
Iraq is still recovering from a massacre at a Baghdad cathedral in October. A group of Islamist extremists burst into the church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad, murdering two priests, holding the congregation hostage and eventually killing more than 50 people.
The pope, in his annual Christmas message, urged political leaders to express solidarity with Christians in Iraq.
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Despite the latest deaths, the number of civilians killed this year from violence in Iraq is due to be the lowest since the 2003 US-led invasion, according to a preliminary report released by Iraq Body County, an independent British-based group. They put the number of civilian deaths in Iraq as of December 25 at 3,976, down from 4,680 in 2009.
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