AEIOU - Iraq
IRAQ: CHURCHES TARGETED AS TENSIONS RISE
from: World Evangelical Alliance
http://www.worldevangelicalalliance.o
Religious Liberty Prayer List - February 1, 2006
By Elizabeth Kendal
On Sunday, January 29, five car bombs exploded in Kirkuk and
Baghdad between 4:10pm and 4:30pm. Three people were killed by
the Kirkuk bombs which went off outside the Church of the Virgin
and an Orthodox church. In Baghdad, car bombs exploded outside
the Vatican embassy, The Disciples of St. Peter and Paul Orthodox
Church, and an Anglican church. At least 14 people altogether
were injured. An Assyrian Christian source reported that Assyrian
Christian university students in Mosul were beaten by mobs of
Muslim students angry about the cartoons of Mohammed published
in Denmark last September. It appears the church bombings were
also linked to local anger over the Danish cartoons.
Iraqi Christians are extremely vulnerable. Sunnis and Shi'ites are reported to be polarizing along sectarian lines, with social groups and even whole suburbs becoming less mixed and identifying more by religious affiliation. It is also reportedly the same with student groups in universities. As people, groups, and whole communities start to identify by religious affiliation rather than their common Iraqi nationality, the Christian minority find themselves increasingly despised, marginalized, and exposed. They are endangered, without equality before the (Islamic) law, having no retaliation ideology, and lacking security in a lawless Islamic society.
Full story: http://www.evangelicalalliance.org.au/r
from: World Evangelical Alliance
http://www.worldevangelicalalliance.o
Religious Liberty Prayer List - February 1, 2006
By Elizabeth Kendal
On Sunday, January 29, five car bombs exploded in Kirkuk and
Baghdad between 4:10pm and 4:30pm. Three people were killed by
the Kirkuk bombs which went off outside the Church of the Virgin
and an Orthodox church. In Baghdad, car bombs exploded outside
the Vatican embassy, The Disciples of St. Peter and Paul Orthodox
Church, and an Anglican church. At least 14 people altogether
were injured. An Assyrian Christian source reported that Assyrian
Christian university students in Mosul were beaten by mobs of
Muslim students angry about the cartoons of Mohammed published
in Denmark last September. It appears the church bombings were
also linked to local anger over the Danish cartoons.
Iraqi Christians are extremely vulnerable. Sunnis and Shi'ites are reported to be polarizing along sectarian lines, with social groups and even whole suburbs becoming less mixed and identifying more by religious affiliation. It is also reportedly the same with student groups in universities. As people, groups, and whole communities start to identify by religious affiliation rather than their common Iraqi nationality, the Christian minority find themselves increasingly despised, marginalized, and exposed. They are endangered, without equality before the (Islamic) law, having no retaliation ideology, and lacking security in a lawless Islamic society.
Full story: http://www.evangelicalalliance.org.au/r
