Iraq’s Christians are being martyred
The blood of the martyrs is being poured out in Iraq, an ancient land of Christian witness. The Archbishop of Mosul is dead, and the Church in Iraq is dying. It may well be that Islamist elements will entirely drive from Iraq a Christian community that has been present since the early first millennium.
Most Iraqi Catholics are of the Chaldean Church, and the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul, Paulus Faraj Rahho was discovered dead yesterday. He had been kidnapped on Feb. 29 in an ambush in which his driver and two other men were killed. At 67 and not in robust health, Archbishop Rahho needed daily medicine for his heart condition. His abductors revealed his death yesterday and the place where they had buried his body. A preliminary investigation concluded that he had been dead at least five days, but the cause of death was not clear.
In any case, the abductors are guilty of another round of Christian killings. The Iraqi government, and several Iraqi Muslim leaders, had called for the Archbishop’s release, but to no avail. I made phone contact yesterday with Catholic officials in Baghdad, and they were shaken by the audacity of the killing. After this, can there be a single Christian in Iraq who is safe?
The most recent wave of anti-Christian violence in Iraq took place in January. Three Chaldean churches were bombed in Mosul, two in Kirkuk and four in Baghdad. Explosions also hit the orphanage run by the Chaldean nuns in al-Nour, as well as a convent of Dominican sisters in Mosul Jadida. Several priests have been abducted. In October, 2006, an Orthodox priest was kidnapped, beheaded and dismembered.
Last June, Father Ragheed Ganni, along with three deacons, was killed in a hail of gunfire upon getting into a car after celebrating Mass in the Church of the Holy Spirit. The assassins then placed explosives around the car so that the bodies could not be soon recovered — remaining as a warning to the Christians of Mosul. Father Ganni was Archbishop Rahho’s secretary. When he buried his priest last June, did Archbishop Rahho know that his time would soon come?
“Strike the shepherd that the sheep might be scattered” (Zechariah 13:7). The flock was already dispersing, and no doubt the exodus of Christians will increase now that it is clear that those who harbour murderous hate for them will respect neither the archbishop’s office nor appeals made even by the Pope — as he did three times publicly in the last fortnight. Before the war began in 2003, there were estimates that Iraq’s Christian population was 500,000 — 800,000 strong. It is almost impossible to get accurate numbers, but some estimate that more than half have already fled. Archbishop Rahho said last fall that only one-third of the Christians in Mosul remained. Though less than 5% of the population, Christians constitute as much as one-third of the refugees leaving Iraq.
Protected neither by Sunni nor Shia militias, Christians are vulnerable to jihadi violence, motivated by both religious and mercenary reasons. More…
Where Does the Truth Lie?
Effective campaigns or insensitive crap?
Worldwide anti-smoking ads:
The cigarette kills a hundred times more than terrorism.
Published 2005 in the O Dia, a Rio de Janeiro, Brazil newspaper.
Published 2007 in the Khaleej Times, a Dubai, UAE, newspaper.
Terrorism-related deaths since 2001: 11,377. Tobacco-related deaths since 2001: 30,000,000.
Published 2008 by New Zealand’s ASH (Action on Smoking and Health).
Wealth and Religion
Somehow, I’ve always suspected this.
Dubai, one of the richest Muslim countries, is less interested in propagating radical Islam than in attracting gamblers to Las Vegas’s MGM Mirage, in which it is a significant shareholder. More…
A Little Oil Money
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), just might be the place to go. In fact, foreigners known as expats now out number the locals known as Emiratis.
Take a look at what it offers:
Palm Islands, the world’s largest artificial islands shaped like a giant palm tree. They add 520 km of beaches to Dubai City.
Burj Al Arab, the world’s only 7 star hotel.
Dubailand will consist of 3 billion sq. ft. of theme parks, eco-tourism projects, shopping malls, restaurants and residential units that are being developed by UAE, Gulf Cooperation Council and international investors. It will include: Universal City Dubai, a 22,000,000 sq. ft. development, featuring Universal Studios Dubai as its centerpiece; Paramount Studios Theme Park; Tiger Woods Dubai, an exclusive golf community that will include the first ever Tiger Woods designed golf course; Dubai Snowdome will be 85 metres tall and 220 metres in diameter and will feature a ski dome, residential towers, hotels, a shopping mall, restaurants, coffee shops and retail outlets; and Mall of Arabia, the world’s largest shopping mall.
The Sixth Crossing, the world’s longest and tallest bridge, will be 1 mile long at 673 feet high.
And who can forget Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building with 160 floors as of March 1, 2008.
Oil, Islam and Women
A professor at UCLA has really outdone himself. Political science professor Michael Ross has released a study concluding that women in the Middle East are not oppressed because of their Islamic religion. Nope. They are oppressed because of oil. According to Ross, the oil boom puts more men than women in the workplace and decrease women’s political representation. Because of this, oil-producing states have stronger patriarchal norms, laws and governments.
In other words, “gender inequality” has nothing to do with the peaceful, serene religion of Islam. The religion that blocks young school girls from leaving burning buildings because they aren’t wearing their headscarves is not to blame. The religion that justifies the beating of your wife is innocent. The religion that forces young girls into marriages isn’t the problem. Nope. Islam has absolutely nothing to do with it. It must be the evil wealth that is gained by being an oil producing country. In fact, this guy goes as far to say that “changes in global energy markets could ultimately influence the status of women in dozens of oil producing countries.” Reading between the lines: stop producing oil, otherwise women will continue to be marginalized.
Do you know why these fools spend their lives teaching in universities? Because they couldn’t survive in the private sector .. that’s why.
source: Boortz.com
