July 26, 2014

Religious & political leaders offer hope amid despair to persecuted Iraqi Christians

Source: East County Magazine

July 26, 2014 (El Cajon)--Local political and religious leaders offered messages of hope for Iraqi Christians fleeing persecution and genocide in Iraq, many of them seeking to find refuge in America. They offered a safe haven here in East County, as well as political actions now underway in Washington D.C. and Sacramento to aid Christians in their homeland.

“When they come here, I want you to tell them they will be safe here,” Mayor Bill Wells told the crowd during a prayer vigil in El Cajon’s Centennial Plaza last night that was attended by an estimated 2,000 people. The Mayor denounced the “unconscionable” slaughter of Iraqi Christians by ISIS terrorists who have declared a caliphate, or Muslim state, in the Mosul area, where churches dating back to Biblical times are being destroyed and Christians ordered to convert to Islam or die by the sword.

[snip]

Deacon Keith Esshaki with St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Cathedral in El Cajon offered chilling details on the situation in Iraq, which has worsened even since an ultimatum was issued days ago that offered Christians an option to pay a hefty tax to avoid being slaughtered.
Now, he revealed, “They took the tax option out.” Christians who refuse to convert to Islam now have only two choices. “Leave with only the clothes on their backs, or die by the sword.”





Read more: http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/religious-and-political-leaders-offer-hope-amid-despair-iraqi-christians-prayer-vigil-el-cajon

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There are three ways you can help these people. Two announcements were made at last night's rally of legislation soon to be introduced:

HR 663 will be introduced in Congress will call for a safe haven for Iraqi Christians. I haven't found it yet online but it should be available soon.

SCR 17 by Senator Anderson in California's legislature will be amended to ask the federal government to provide resources to create a safe haven for Iraqi Christians here in the U.S.

There is also a fund online to provide humanitarian aid to flee the slaughter in Iraq: www.GoFundMe.com/SaveIraqiChristians.

The transformation of the politics in this small town, El Cajon, has been nothing short of astonishing. Just a few months ago the former mayor stepped down amid complaints over remarks perceived as anti-Chaldean. The new mayor, also a Republican, has put the "compassionate" back into the phrase "compassionate conservative" in offering safe haven and welcome to Iraq's Christian refugees. The efforts locally to help them is bipartisan; both Democratic Congressional member Juan Vargas and Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter have joined in this cause to save lives.

Please share and help get the word out. What is happening there is a horror beyond imagining. Children are being beheaded, women raped and murdered. One had a crucifix driven through her throat by the terrorists. We have 40,000 Iraqi Chaldeans in El Cajon who ask where is the world outrage and why has nothing been done to help them? Churches dating back to Biblical times are being burned and history is also being destroyed in Mesopotamia. Religious leaders are being murdered, tortured and kidnapped.

The people there face a horrific choice: convert to Islam or die, if they cannot or will not flee with nothing but the clothes on their backs. And they are showing astounding courage. According to one speaker last night, he has heard that not a single Christian in Iraq has converted, choosing death or loss of everything they own to stand up for their beliefs instead.

Please spread the word so more people will know what is happening since ISIS, the Al Qaeda splinter group, took over the Mosul region and other towns. They are also shutting off water and power, forcing people out, and at the border checkpoints, seizing their cars and their food and their water, making them walk across the desert with nothing since the caliphate or Islamic state was declared.

What these innocent victims want the most is for the world to know, and to care.