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Isis in Iraq: The trauma of the last six months has overwhelmed the remaining Christians
World View: After 2,000 years, a community will try anything including pretending to convert to Islam to avoid losing everythingExcerpt:
Two years ago Jalal Yako, a Syriac Catholic priest, returned to his home town of Qaraqosh to persuade members of his community to stay in Iraq and not to emigrate because of the violence directed against them.
"I was in Italy for 18 years, and when I came back here my mission was to get Christians to stay here," he says. "The Pope in Lebanon two years ago had established a mission to get Christians in the East to stay here."
Father Yako laboured among the Syriac Catholics, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, who had seen the number of Christians in Iraq decline from over one million at the time of the American invasion in 2003 to about 250,000 today. He sought to convince people in Qaraqosh, an overwhelmingly Syriac Catholic town, that they had a future in Iraq and should not emigrate to the US, Australia or anywhere else that would accept them. His task was not easy, because Iraqi Christians have been frequent victims of murder, kidnapping and robbery.
But in the past six months Father Yako has changed his mind, and he now believes that, after 2,000 years of history, Christians must leave Iraq. Speaking at the entrance of a half-built mall in the Kurdish capital Irbil where 1,650 people from Qaraqosh have taken refuge, he said that "everything has changed since the coming of Daesh (the Arabic acronym for Islamic State). We should flee. There is nothing for us here." When Islamic State (Isis) fighters captured Qaraqosh on 7 August, all the town's 50,000 or so Syriac Catholics had to run for their lives and lost all their possessions.
"I was in Italy for 18 years, and when I came back here my mission was to get Christians to stay here," he says. "The Pope in Lebanon two years ago had established a mission to get Christians in the East to stay here."
Father Yako laboured among the Syriac Catholics, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, who had seen the number of Christians in Iraq decline from over one million at the time of the American invasion in 2003 to about 250,000 today. He sought to convince people in Qaraqosh, an overwhelmingly Syriac Catholic town, that they had a future in Iraq and should not emigrate to the US, Australia or anywhere else that would accept them. His task was not easy, because Iraqi Christians have been frequent victims of murder, kidnapping and robbery.
But in the past six months Father Yako has changed his mind, and he now believes that, after 2,000 years of history, Christians must leave Iraq. Speaking at the entrance of a half-built mall in the Kurdish capital Irbil where 1,650 people from Qaraqosh have taken refuge, he said that "everything has changed since the coming of Daesh (the Arabic acronym for Islamic State). We should flee. There is nothing for us here." When Islamic State (Isis) fighters captured Qaraqosh on 7 August, all the town's 50,000 or so Syriac Catholics had to run for their lives and lost all their possessions.
LINK to full article in the Independent UK
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Isis in Iraq: The trauma of the last six months has overwhelmed the remaining Christians (Original Post)
CJCRANE
Nov 2014
OP
This is the result of the Neonazicon war crimes, invading Iraq based on lies, disarming its army,
The Stranger
Nov 2014
#2
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)1. Sorry, I did not notice you posted this OP..I'll delete mine. n/t
The Stranger
(11,297 posts)2. This is the result of the Neonazicon war crimes, invading Iraq based on lies, disarming its army,
banning political parties (the Ba'athists) and furthering a religion- and resource-based world war.