Iraqi bishop urges world to act after Christians forced to flee

[hrmjustin]

Reuters

A senior Iraqi bishop has urged the world to act after Islamic hardliners drove Mosul’s Christians from the northern Iraqi city, effectively ending a presence there dating back to Christianity’s earliest years.

“The world must act, speak out, consider human rights,” Chaldean Catholic Bishop Shlemon Warduni said on Sunday, a day after a deadline expired for Christians in Mosul to submit to the rule of the radical Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis) or die.

Hundreds of Christian families left the city ahead of the ultimatum, many of them stripped of their possessions as they fled for safety, the remnants of a community which once numbered in the tens of thousands.

“Gunmen lurking like thieves took everything from them - even women’s rings, cars, cell phones... because they are fanatics,” Warduni told Reuters by telephone from the city of Arbil, 80 km away in the autonomous Kurdish region.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/iraqi-bishop-urges-world-to-act-after-christians-forced-to-flee-1.1872403

[eissa]

1. The indigenous people of that region

Assyrians/Chaldeans, who have inhabited Mesopotamia since time immemorial, are now emptying their native lands. This is tragic.

[hrmjustin]

2. Agreed! This is so sad.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

3. It's tragic, but sort of expected

After we radicalized an entire generation of Iraqis and left the government in the hands of a group of people with a history of violence, we shouldn't be surprised at what's happening. And there isn't anything we can do about it unless we send the military back in, and America doesn't have the stomach for that right now.

I wouldn't be opposed to a UN-led humanitarian mission to bring the displaced Christians to the US and Europe with refugee status, but short of that, what can we do?

[hrmjustin]

4. Nothing but take them in. Just a horrible shame.

[rug]

8. For one thing, the U.S. can stop subsidizing this war.

[okasha]

9. This war, and others.

[edhopper]

5. I was told by GWB

and his band of supporters there is no history of sectarian violence in Iraq.

It must be Obama's fault.

[hrmjustin]

6. They will likely blame him for this too.

[edhopper]

7. They already have

Listen to McCain and Graham.