After a series of horrific attacks Iraq’s Christians are endangered in their last stronghold
As I am personally guilty of becoming wrapped up in my own pathetic little problems, I’m popping this one on from the Catholic Herald so that we don’t forget our Christian brothers and sisters in Iraq.
With all of the horror our Christian brethren are suffering in Iraq, we must remember that there are tiny slivers of light and encouragement coming from the Iraqi Muslim community themselves:
Catholic Herald by John Pontifex is head of press and information for Aid to the Church in Need (UK)
It was a day that started like any other. But what happened that spring morning will never be forgotten by those who experienced it.
On Sunday, May 2, 18 buses packed with 1,300 mostly Christian students made their way from Qaraqosh, in Iraq’s Nineveh plain, to their university in the major city of Mosul.
As the buses passed through the various security checkpoints on their way into Mosul, there were two explosions. Improvised car bombs charged with deadly explosives were detonated causing serious damage to several of the buses. Inside, many of the students lay injured.
Initial reports stated that one person had died and 80 were injured but in the coming days the total number of wounded rose to nearly 200. Of those, at least 25 students were very seriously injured and had to be airlifted to hospital in Turkey.
Iraqi Christians are sadly no strangers to bomb blasts and other atrocities. Indeed, killings, kidnappings, threatening letters and other hostile actions have become a near permanent feature of everyday life for a section of society now increasingly set apart because of their religious beliefs.
But the bus blast took the intimidation to an altogether more serious level. That such a large-scale attack should take take place in a confined area between checkpoints was cause for alarm in itself. But add to it the number of indisputably innocent people involved and the incident suggests that the region is now just too dangerous for Christians. The attack bore the hallmarks of a well-organised operation, clear in its objectives to target Christians and certain of the resources necessary to do maximum damage.
The demonstrations in Christians towns outside Mosul made clear that the general population was only too aware of the gravity of the crisis it faces.
For Iraqi Christian leaders, meanwhile, the immediate aftermath of the tragedy was taken up with measures to ensure the injured received care and that relatives and friends received the support they needed.
In an emotional encounter just a few days after the attack a delegation of seven bishops from across the different Christian denominations and rites met 300 of the students, many of them with faces and limbs bandaged.
In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need a day later one of the bishops present, Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk, told me: “When we met the students, we were very moved. There was crying and a lot of sadness. One student told us it is a miracle that only one person is dead.”
But beyond bringing the present crisis under control, the bishops clearly need several miracles to solve the deeper problems that threaten the long-term survival of the Church in this ancient land of Christianity.
May 28th, 2010 at 11:34 pm
The UK has a duty of responsibility to these christians in its act and role as one of the deposing and occuping military forces.
July 26th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Nobody cares about them. i am one of those people who lived in Iraq. the Assyrians are not being helped, majority are fleeing to other countries and now the home land is completely ruined. The UK and the Coalition forces should of protected them, but then again the British are the ones who started this hell for them by using the Assyrians in ww1 to destroy the Turkish forces in promise to get their homeland, they did but the credit and homeland were givin to the Arabs and the Muslims in that area knew that the Assyrians were the ones who attacked the Turks. Then after the war, millions of Assyrians have been killed (armenian/assyrian genocide) and since then they have been living a bad life there and has been worse since operation Iraqi freedom. Please do some research on Assyrian history and learn what they are about, they have been here since the beginning of Christianity and still remain in their homeland occupied by Muslims.