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Independent Catholic News
Aug 9 2014
Iraq: As ISIS massacres Christians, Lord Alton asks: Does anybody care?
This morning I received a plaintiff gut wrenching message from a
family who have fled from Nineveh. Describing how they were
overwhelmed by ISIS militias they fled "to protect our children and
sisters and wives." They asked "where is the UN? Where is NATO? Where
is EU and US? Where is Putin?"
"Nobody cares about us. We are fleeing from one place to another, we
are exhausted. We are betrayed. We are being massacred and nobody
cares. We speak the language of Jesus, we are the first Christians but
the Christian world has forgotten us. We are the indigenous people of
Nineveh and everybody wants to see us killed."
They simply plead that the international community must "do what you
can to stop this Genocide."
It is welcome that belatedly the UK Cobra committee has at last met to
discuss this unfoldng catastrophe and that the US military aircraft
have begun air-dropping supplies to members of Iraq's Yazidi
community. Trapped on a mountain without food and water after they
fled the advance of Islamic State fighters, they have been left with
the cruel choice of starving to death or being murdered by Jihadists.
It is to the credit of Kurdish and Shiite towns that they have opened
their doors to fleeing Christians, forced to leave Mosul and other
areas that fell under the control of the Islamic State.
Many have listened, as we should do, to the voice of Muslim religious
leaders such as Sayyed Hussein al-Sadr who issued a statement on the
displacement of Christians from Mosul, affirming their "national
belonging to Iraq.". He rightly said "They are our brothers in the
country and in humanity, and have equal rights with all Iraqis." But
now those who have opened their homes are the target of the Islamic
State.
If Iraq's minorities are to be spared "slaughter-in-waiting", and if
genocide is to be headed off, then Iraq's authorities and the Kurdish
Peshmerga must urgently be given every assistance in resisting ISIS.
Fail to do this, fail now to protect minorities like the Yezidis and
Christians, and the Islamic State, will be further emboldened. As
their genocidal campaign engulfs all who refuse to accept their
dictats they will doubtless be echoing Hitler's famous question "who
now remembers the Armenians?" No one needs to be reminded of the
consequences of the failure to protect the Armenians and all the other
minorities slaughtered in every genocide which has followed.
The indifference of many western governments to the plight of Iraq's
minorities is truly shocking. The Islamic State is waging a genocidal
war against Christians, Yezidis and other minorities and the
international community looks away. It has now seized territory that
is almost two-thirds the size of Great Britain.
Houses have been looted and robbed. Graves and shrines have been
demolished. Crosses smashed and removed from churches. And beyond this
destruction is the visceral hatred directed at an ancient people who
had lived here in peace alongside their neighbours for centuries.
Iraqi Christians are the original residents of Mesopotamia -
descendants of the ancient Babylonians, Chaldeans, Assyrians and a
large number of Arab tribes, present in Iraq since the First Century
AD.
2,000 years later, the descendants of these original Christians have
seen their homes daubed with the identifying symbol of Nazarenes and,
if they refuse to convert, are forced to leave or be executed.
Welcome attempts to provide armed protection, by the Kurdish
Peshmerga, are reported, in some cases, to have been overwhelmed by
ISIS. UNICEF have reported the deaths of around 40 Yezidi children.
Christian families forced to leave in only the clothes which they were
wearing have been given temporary refuge and are hanging on to life by
their finger tips.
In the face of this religious cleansing and unfolding human rights
catastrophe the silence of President Obama, Secretary Kerry along with
the leaders of most Western governments has created the impression of
indifference.
Britain has been criticised by the Church of England for failing to at
least follow the French lead in providing asylum. The bishops are
right to be critical and, in the short term, asylum and the provision
of humanitarian relief are essential. But, in the long term, it is
unconscionable that the international community should collectively
shrug its shoulders with barely a murmur of protest and accept these
crimes against humanity.
In Bosnia and Rwanda the international community failed persecuted
minorities. We always say "never again" but in Mosul and Nineveh it's
never again all over again. It's yet another example of the abject
failure to uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the
UN's doctrine of "a responsibility to protect."
http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=25348
Aug 9 2014
Iraq: As ISIS massacres Christians, Lord Alton asks: Does anybody care?
This morning I received a plaintiff gut wrenching message from a
family who have fled from Nineveh. Describing how they were
overwhelmed by ISIS militias they fled "to protect our children and
sisters and wives." They asked "where is the UN? Where is NATO? Where
is EU and US? Where is Putin?"
"Nobody cares about us. We are fleeing from one place to another, we
are exhausted. We are betrayed. We are being massacred and nobody
cares. We speak the language of Jesus, we are the first Christians but
the Christian world has forgotten us. We are the indigenous people of
Nineveh and everybody wants to see us killed."
They simply plead that the international community must "do what you
can to stop this Genocide."
It is welcome that belatedly the UK Cobra committee has at last met to
discuss this unfoldng catastrophe and that the US military aircraft
have begun air-dropping supplies to members of Iraq's Yazidi
community. Trapped on a mountain without food and water after they
fled the advance of Islamic State fighters, they have been left with
the cruel choice of starving to death or being murdered by Jihadists.
It is to the credit of Kurdish and Shiite towns that they have opened
their doors to fleeing Christians, forced to leave Mosul and other
areas that fell under the control of the Islamic State.
Many have listened, as we should do, to the voice of Muslim religious
leaders such as Sayyed Hussein al-Sadr who issued a statement on the
displacement of Christians from Mosul, affirming their "national
belonging to Iraq.". He rightly said "They are our brothers in the
country and in humanity, and have equal rights with all Iraqis." But
now those who have opened their homes are the target of the Islamic
State.
If Iraq's minorities are to be spared "slaughter-in-waiting", and if
genocide is to be headed off, then Iraq's authorities and the Kurdish
Peshmerga must urgently be given every assistance in resisting ISIS.
Fail to do this, fail now to protect minorities like the Yezidis and
Christians, and the Islamic State, will be further emboldened. As
their genocidal campaign engulfs all who refuse to accept their
dictats they will doubtless be echoing Hitler's famous question "who
now remembers the Armenians?" No one needs to be reminded of the
consequences of the failure to protect the Armenians and all the other
minorities slaughtered in every genocide which has followed.
The indifference of many western governments to the plight of Iraq's
minorities is truly shocking. The Islamic State is waging a genocidal
war against Christians, Yezidis and other minorities and the
international community looks away. It has now seized territory that
is almost two-thirds the size of Great Britain.
Houses have been looted and robbed. Graves and shrines have been
demolished. Crosses smashed and removed from churches. And beyond this
destruction is the visceral hatred directed at an ancient people who
had lived here in peace alongside their neighbours for centuries.
Iraqi Christians are the original residents of Mesopotamia -
descendants of the ancient Babylonians, Chaldeans, Assyrians and a
large number of Arab tribes, present in Iraq since the First Century
AD.
2,000 years later, the descendants of these original Christians have
seen their homes daubed with the identifying symbol of Nazarenes and,
if they refuse to convert, are forced to leave or be executed.
Welcome attempts to provide armed protection, by the Kurdish
Peshmerga, are reported, in some cases, to have been overwhelmed by
ISIS. UNICEF have reported the deaths of around 40 Yezidi children.
Christian families forced to leave in only the clothes which they were
wearing have been given temporary refuge and are hanging on to life by
their finger tips.
In the face of this religious cleansing and unfolding human rights
catastrophe the silence of President Obama, Secretary Kerry along with
the leaders of most Western governments has created the impression of
indifference.
Britain has been criticised by the Church of England for failing to at
least follow the French lead in providing asylum. The bishops are
right to be critical and, in the short term, asylum and the provision
of humanitarian relief are essential. But, in the long term, it is
unconscionable that the international community should collectively
shrug its shoulders with barely a murmur of protest and accept these
crimes against humanity.
In Bosnia and Rwanda the international community failed persecuted
minorities. We always say "never again" but in Mosul and Nineveh it's
never again all over again. It's yet another example of the abject
failure to uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the
UN's doctrine of "a responsibility to protect."
http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=25348