ePetition: Christians in Mosul

PLEASE READ, RESPOND and PASS ON

Christians under serious threat in Mosul, Iraq

Responsible department: Foreign and Commonwealth Office

We the undersigned call upon the UK Foreign and Commonwealth office to take decisive and immediate action to support the thousands of innocent Christians and others in Mosul, Iraq who are currently facing the threat of murder, rape, forced conversion to Islam and FGM.

We ask you to work to ensure safe passage for these people, to work with relief and development agencies to ensure they receive food, water, shelter and medical attention, and to listen proactively and quickly to the informed voices of organisations working on the ground in the area, offering whatever help is most needed there.

Sign this petition

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/67979

Number of signatures

(at time I published this)

12,522

Created by:

Martin Saunders

Closing:

30/03/2015 23:59

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Iraq - 'A Christian holocaust'

In a CNN interview with Jonathan Mann, Mark Arabo, says:
"Christianity in Mosul is dead, and a Christian holocaust is in our midst . . . children are being beheaded, mothers are being raped and killed, and fathers are being hung. Right now, three thousand Christians are in Iraq fleeing to neighbouring cities,'

Mann responds with, 'You're startling me with the severity of what you're describing - You said they are --- beheading children?"

Arabo, calling on the international community to, like France, offer these people asylum continues with, 'They are systematically beheading children, and mothers and fathers. The world hasn't seen an evil like this for generations. There's actually a park in Mosul where they actually beheaded children and put their heads on a stick... this is crimes against humanity. They are doing the most horrendous, the most heart-breaking crimes that you can think of."

Mann asks the question over the ISIS letter telling Christians in Mosul to convert to Islam, pay a fine or be put to 'death by the sword', 'It's clear that they are killing people, but are Christians managing to escape by paying a fine?' To which Arabo responds: 'After Christians pay the fine, the fighters take the Christian wives and children and make them their wives - so it's really convert, or die.'

Those who have escaped the fighters by fleeing to the mountains, have died from lack of food and water there: "A quick scan of Youtube shows the truth of what Arabo is saying - there are gruesome videos of heads on spikes, and many of live beheadings (one poor Christian is forced to say the Shahada 'there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet' and then beheaded anyway.)",

Warning: don't google these things unless you have a strong stomach.

They are absolutely killing every Christian they see - This is genocide in every sense of the word. They want everyone to convert, and they want sharia law to be the law of the land.'

Please pray

Please support those in Iraq practically

Please talk about this with others (for generally all I keep hearing about is Gaza)

Please ask your politicians questions about Iraq and your nation's response (and be a pain)


You can see the whole interview below:

Mosul - An issue of ethic cleansing?

I've been asked whether the title to this blog should have the word 'ethnic' rather than 'ethic' and I have to respond that the use of the word 'ethic' is both right and fitting.

The noise generated by Israel and the Palestinian conflict and the downing of MH17 in Ukraine have conspired to assist the governments of the world, and us the punters, to put aside what should have been a measure of outrage at this obvious breach of human rights.

I would have expected people to engage in thinking ethically and defending what is right stand up and denounce that which is clearly wrong - and yet what do I see?

 Not a lot!

Ethic cleansing at its very best :-(

Take a look at this piece from the Assyrian International News Agency and tell me whether you're still sitting comfortably after it:

The last Christian reportedly left Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul at 12:00pm on Saturday, ending over 6,000 years of Assyrian history in the city.

Assyrians have lived in Mosul for over 6,000 years, converting to Christianity over 2,000 years ago. This all came to an end on Saturday, when the last Assyrian Christian left the city. On Thursday, July 17th, the Islamic State (IS) – formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) – released a statement demanding the Christians in Mosul either to convert to Islam, paying the jizya (tax on non-Muslims), leave the city, or be killed.

The threat was to be implemented on Saturday. It is being reported locally that by noon yesterday, every Christian had chosen to leave.

 Here in Erbil, about an hour an half [sic] away from Mosul by car, I have spoken with families who were forced to flee. They describe how ISIS invaded their homes, taking whatever they wanted, and threatening to kill them.

The estimates are that over 500,000 refugees have fled Mosul after Islamists took control on June 10th, and the few remaining Christians left yesterday.

Everyone I have spoken with has expressed their frustration with the international community’s lack of response to the crisis facing the people of Iraq (I'd call this a failure in ethics - wouldn't you?)

They blamed the United States for creating the current situation and for leaving the country so quickly and so creating the vacuum for IS to exploit. 

Many also think that it was a serious mistake for the U.S. to “give Iraq to Iran,” allowing Tehran to have a major influence in the Iraqi Parliament.

Another local told me he thought it was strange and nonsensical that the U.S. and European countries were opposed to IS in Iraq, but supporting IS groups in Syria and other violent groups against local governments. They warned of the danger such groups pose to the West. “These jihadists will eventually go home to their countries, to Canada, England and the U.S.” said one.

Please pass this information on and contact the press, the politicians and as many church members (and leaders) as you can. This needs to be noted, prayed about and acted upon politically too!

Emphasis in bold is mine

Pax

Prayers for the people of Mosul

To highlight the worsening situation in Iraq where where Christians and Muslims are being killed by ISIS forces and to draw especially attention to the plight of Christians in Mosul, Iraq's second biggest city, where families have been forced to flee and faced execution by Salaafi militants, the Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu has issued these three prayers:

Lord,
in this city where Christians and Muslims have lived together for over 1400 years,
we pray for healing, peace and restoration. 
Bring light out of this present darkness and hope from despair that guided by your Holy Spirit,
 all your children may find a new way forward together based on your love for us all. Amen.

Holy God,
your Holy family was driven into exile and many holy innocent boys were massacred, 
we hold before you today the suffering people of Mosul. Amen.

Hold in your loving arms, all those who have been caught up in this conflict.
We pray for those forced to flee their homes,
all who have lost friends, family and possessions and who now face an uncertain future. 
Bless our Christian brothers and sisters 
who have seen the destruction of their churches and communities 
and for our Muslim neighbours 
who have also experienced destruction and suffering. Amen.

ISIS militants are marking Christian homes with the letter N, in Arabic ن which means “Nazarean”, so they pay punitive taxes and, like the Nazi 'jude' label mark them out for attack and potential death. Please adopt this image and use it wherever you can to raise awareness of the plight of our Christian brothers and sisters in Iraq.

Jesus - the Prince of peace?

Met someone who spoke, perhaps a little glibly, of Jesus as the Prince of peace? as they did, behind them was a wall of newspapers with headlines proclaiming the news, those things of  importance that sell newspapers.

Palestinian death toll rises (now 500+)

Flight MH 17 crashes in Ukraine (305 lives lost)

van Gaal heralds new United era (there's always one paper that misses the point isn't there?)

Christians flee Mosul as they are order to pay to live there or 'face the sword'

Christians often speak of Jesus as the 'Prince of peace' and yet, some 2000 years since He was born round the back of a pub in Bethlehem , there doesn't seem to much of the stuff flying around does there? All that 'peace of earth - goodwill to all men' is most definitely lacking when Israeli tanks can purposely target a hospital - something which according to the Law of Armed Conflict and the Geneva (and other) conventions confers the title of 'war crime' upon them. It surely isn't seen when the militants of ISIS are sweeping across Iraq and engaging in ethnic cleansing of the Christians. It's nowhere to be found when some wicked geezers with a piece of hardware apparently take out a civilian airliner (with the tacit approval of a nation whose record on integrity was pretty much zero before this all began and is now in the negative numbers).

So how do we, as Christians, give an answer for the lack of that peace (shalom) that Jesus is supposed to have brought? Have stocks run low and so supply is limited perhaps? It could be, as one foolish person said, 'That the shalom Jesus brings is only for those who are His!' An explanation that denies the words of John 3.16 where we are led to believe that God loved ALL the world so much that He sent His Son Jesus, the Christ, to come to save and bless ALL within it.

Now I happen to think I might have an explanation. Of course it could be a comfortable and convenient way of making me feel good about all the stuff that's going on in the world around me, but I don't think so (because I'd hate that). It goes like this:

Jesus came into this world to reconcile the people on it with the God what made it (because the wrong stuff had caused a divorce between Him and us).

Jesus, realising that 'without the shedding of blood there could be no forgiveness' - Heb 9.22 - takes our place on the cross - his blood paying the debt that the wrong stuff has brought into being and restoring the relationship with God and man.

Jesus, job done, goes back to be with God (the father) and in His place we have the third member of the Trinity (Father, Son and) the Holy Spirit, who guides, comforts and counsels us in the things and thoughts we should have.

Now the shelves are stacked high with Shalom and yet there is a distinct lack of Shalominess to be found because although all that is required is for each of us to take this peace from the shelves for ourselves (and those around us) - and for us to become a source of that Shalom; the reality is that we'd rather do it in our own strength and intelligence.

Now wonder the world is pants then is it?

All we need to do to accept the gift of live Jesus has won for us by His death on the cross is to take it from His hands (a 'Thank You' would be nice) and live within the reality of that act.

The same is true of His Shalom - we need merely to take  it upon ourselves and, beacon like, shine it into every corner of our world and if we were only to do this then I believe we'd be in a very different place because truly the darkness cannot overcome the light (John 1).

So today whilst the wicked do their works of darkness - why not choose life in Jesus and taking His light and Shalom upon you oppose their deeds and step by step change the world where you are and, as others join the effort, across the world.

Not proselytising but setting free.

Not opposing those who choose not to follow Jesus, the Messiah, but blessing them because that's what being Christian should be about.

Not ignoring the written word because all we need is love but keeping it because loves is what it's all about.

All you need to realise is that God's peace is limitless!

He's the supplier and looks to us to be the distributors and find more who are willing to act as agents for the product!

Pax

Make a stand with our oppressed brothers and sisters in Mosul

ISIS is marking Christian homes with the letter N, in Arabic ن which means “Nazarean”, so they pay punitive taxes and, like the Nazi 'jude' label mark them out for attack and potential death.

Please change your profile images to show your solidarity with our oppressed brothers and sisters - and pray for them and the situation they find themselves in.

Thank you.