St. Matthew's Monastery in Kurdish Iraq, one of the oldest Christian Institutions in the world, was built by Christians fleeing persecution in 363 AD. Today, 16 centuries later, Christians are once again seeking shelter there. In the last decade it has been estimated that half the Christians have left Iraq. Since the Baghdad Church bombing in October, some Christians are afraid to be seen wearing a cross; Others have fled with little more than the clothes on their back. Pray for them.
St. Matthew's is part of the Syriac Orthodox Church
reprinted from December 2010. Things have only gotten worse for the Christians in Iraq, many more have fled.
reprinted from May 2013. The situation in Iraq has become even more perilous. Those Christians unable to leave Iraq have mostly taken shelter in north section of the country, under control of the Kurds.
UPDATE: I started posting about the plight of Christians in Iraq and the greater Middle East in 2010. The next reprint was in May of 2013, and conditions had only gotten worse. Now, in 2014, they are outright victims of genocide. The Monastery is still be used for protection.
Another sad consequence of the ill advised Bush/Cheney invasion.
ReplyDeleteWhile Saddam Hussein was obviously a brutal dictator, the reality of such tribal nations is that the strongman ruler basically only eliminates his real & perceived enemies, while leaving virtually everyone else alone. This is why Christian and other minorities in Iraq/Syria/Egypt/Jordan/Palestine/Iran, etc., etc. preferred the more secular autocratic leaders to the Arab Spring type more supposedly grass roots democratic ones, because the latter let loose and represent the more sectarian & more fundamentalist religious populations. Under Assad/Mubarak/Saddam et.al., individuals were persecuted, but, not classes of groups per se.
Like the Italian Mafia in America of the past, in their power struggles, they basically killed their own and tried to avoid harming non involved civilians & police, thus not antagonizing the general population.
Today, Shia & Sunni are splintered in these countries, massacring one another, and, like the Jews 70 years ago, Christians have no future in Gaza/Palestine/Syria/Saudi Arabia/Lebanon/Iraq/Egypt & Iran.