Ancient 3

Follow-up to this post

An Islamic State man detonated bombs on his own body, killing at least 25 others in the congregation at a Christian church last Sunday and wounding another 63 (video from New York Post). It's a Syrian church in the city of Damascus.

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 The bishop of the Syriac Othodox Church says: “There is a lot of fear. The fear is not from this incident. It is from what is coming next."

from Washington Post 

Ancient 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Natural disaster or economic collapse may motivate large groups to emigrate out of their homeland. But what drove hundreds of thousands of Syrian Christians to leave was something else. 

Civil war broke out in 2011 and everything changed. The previous tolerant Muslim regime fell last December and militant factions (including ISIS) are in power.

"In village after village . . Christians were kidnapped, tortured, sometimes ransomed, and often executed. Monasteries were turned into battle stations. Churches were bombed. In Maaloula, jihadists entered homes and demanded that families convert to Islam or die. Some were killed in their doorways for refusing. 

"ISIS went further, targeting Assyrian villages in the northeast, executing men, enslaving women, and erasing churches that had stood since the fifth century."

While millions of refugees (photo) fled the country, it also became "a targeted campaign of cultural and religious cleansing," and the rest of the world let it happen according to this Middle Eastern writer.

from "The Vanishing Light"

Ancient 1

"The Christian golden age of Syria has ended . . . And it will not return."

Did you know that the nation of Syria had a Christian golden age? Me neither. Christian culture in this place has 2,000 years of history, but today we Westerners know almost nothing about it. 

Paul the Apostle was confronted by Jesus on the way to Damascus (the country's capital today). That means it goes way, way back. As one of the "original heartlands of Christianity," there were bishops, theologians, martyrs, and three actual popes.

About 300,000 Christian Syrians (photo) are still there, compared to over 1.5 million at one time. Their presence "was not a minor thread in the nation’s tapestry, but was woven into every aspect of culture, language, and national identity" along with other threads including Islam.

But most are gone now. "The Christian families that once ran shops in Aleppo, taught in schools in Homs, and prayed in the ancient basilicas of Damascus are now rebuilding their lives in Berlin, Detroit, and Melbourne."

from "The Vanishing Light"

(cont'd tomorrow) 

Minorities plea

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

So the Federation of Northern Syria, made up of free and diverse minorities who have fought with the U.S. against ISIS, is being bombed by NATO member Turkey, another U.S. ally.

Christian church leaders distributed a letter last Saturday:

"20 January, 2018

To Whom It May Concern,

CHRISTIAN CHURCHES UNDER TURKISH ATTACKS IN AFRIN, NORTH SYRIA

As  the  Leaders  of  the  Christian  churches  in  North  Syria,  in  the  town  of  Efrin  we  hereby  confirm that we are under attack by Turkey.

The lives of our women and children are in danger. The  city  of  Afrin  is  being  bombarded  by  Turkish  airstrikes.    We  are  asking  for  intervention,  and protection against the violent attacks which are being levied against us at this moment.

Many lives are in mortal danger. We are requesting aid and assistance. We are unable to protect ourselves or our families against these attacks, neither are we able to offer assistance or shelter to the innocents.

Please help us.

In Christ’s service,

Pastor Hakim Ali Ismael

Senior Pastor/Network Leader

Turks attack

An island of human rights has risen in the Middle East.

"There are countless regimes that crush their people. Which oppress religious minorities. Which flout the rights of women. But an island of human rights has risen above the waves. . Muslims are fully respected, but sharia is not imposed. . Christians and Yazidis are safe from the rape gangs of ISIS, and murder gangs of al Qaeda. Women have full civil rights. They serve in the legislature and form their own self-defense units.

"I mean the Federation of Northern Syria. That’s the part of Syria where Kurdish Muslims and Syriac Christians, Sunni Arabs and Yezidis, fought for their freedom and won. They allied with the U.S. Then they defeated ISIS. They established precisely the kind of free, fair institutions which the U.S. tried and failed to set up in Iraq. The Federation became a magnet for refugees seeking freedom and safety for their families. . It’s a beacon to hundreds of millions in the region who seek a better life."

The Federation of Northern Syria is in the northeast corner of the map below, the light greenish part. But this island is in trouble. Turkey is bombing it. They have asked urgently for help.

photo: Thomas van Linge

(cont'd tomorrow)

Return good

Minority Christians living in Syria, that hotbed of civil war and danger, are still trying to live as Jesus would want them to live:

"A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart . ."

"[W]hile ISIS is inspiring mass murderer, the Syrian Orthodox archdiocese of Aleppo is feeding poor Muslim families during the month of Ramadan. "

This is the archdiocese whose Archbishop was kidnapped by radical Islamists in 2013 and is presumed dead.

Syrian relatives

Syrian-American Marlo and her parents are U.S. citizens in Pittsburgh. They keep trying to bring their extended family to the U.S. from Syria, but they're frustrated in this effort. She explains how dangerous it is to be Christian in Syria now:

“What people don’t understand is, to ISIS, Christians are the scum of the Earth,” Marlo explains. "ISIS believes Christians “need to be exterminated, they are the infidels. They are a targeted group that is easy to access in Syria: They live in small communities [with] fellow Christians, they worship at the same churches. If we don’t help them, we are assisting in ISIS’s agenda, and we will have blood on our hands.”

But Marlo and her parents do feel safe here in the U.S., correct?

She writes for the Pitt News, a student newspaper, but her parents "[warn] me about writing about ISIS, Islam or sexism in the Middle East. The most “extreme” topic I’ve written about is actually sexism in the Middle East, but I made sure not to mention Islam directly at any point so that my family doesn’t fear for me."

There are, after all, radical Islamic extremists right here in America - as well as over there.

EU calls it

The European Union has done it - they passed a resolution last Thursday calling the atrocities of Islamic State genocide.

Their resolution is based on the 1948 UN definition of genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group." 

Atrocities which the European Union says qualify under this definition include the killing of thousands, the enslavement and trafficking of women and children, the raping, the forcing of children into armies, the kidnappings:

"[P]ersecution, atrocities and international crimes amount to warcrimes and crimes against humanity;  . . the so-called „ISIS/Daesh‟ is committing genocide against Christians and Yazidis, and other religious and ethnic minorities . . "

The resolution goes further to say that these people have a right to live in their "traditional and historic homeland . . "

For individual stories of IS crimes, click on the labels "Iraq," "Syria," "IS."

Backstory

“I know that death can come for me or other Christians at any moment," says this young man still living in northern Syria. "A life of war and terror is not what [he] envisioned for himself as a young man in his twenties."

You know that Syria has been engulfed in war about four years. You may not know how it started but you can learn about the incident (involving children) here. When Islamic State (IS) entered the conflict, Christians organized their own defense against Kurdish Marxists, IS, and other radical Muslims. "They are, quite literally, surrounded by enemies."

According to this young man (unnamed), "Immigration is not the answer because immigration is not the problem; it is a symptom of a problem, namely, that the international community allows ISIS savages to roam freely."

Arch gone

Destruction continues under Islamic State (IS). It's confirmed "that the Arch of Triumph, a jewel in the exquisite collection of ruins in the oasis city [of Palmyra, Syria], ha[s] been blown up."

photo: cnn.com

According to the chief of antiquities in Palmyra, "It's as though there is a curse that has befallen this city and I expect only news that will shock us. If the city remains in their hands the city is doomed . . 

"It is now wanton destruction ... their acts of vengeance are no longer ideologically driven because they are now blowing up buildings with no religious meaning."

"Palmyra was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world, according to cultural agency UNESCO, which has described it as the crossroads of several civilizations."

You may remember that after IS took the city in May, "the Islamic extremists . . beheaded the antiquities expert who looked after the ruins."

IS taking more

When Islamic State conquered the ancient city of Mosul, Iraq, their videos trumpeted destruction of important works of art. Now they have conquered the city of Palmyra, Syria, and again they destroy. This time it's an ancient temple that's blown up.

They control over half of Syria's territory, and now have also taken the city of Ramadi, Iraq, which has surprised American advisors.

They have so much money that they're planning to buy a nuclear bomb. Pres. Obama promises to send ground troops if that happens.

Taken

IS (Islamic State) is still in the business of kidnapping, assault, etc. This time it's in Syria. They took about 250 Christians from 11 families when IS conquered the city of Palmyra, opposed by Syrian Pres. al-Assad's forces.

www.britannica.com

Hundreds of both Christians and Muslims are missing. Some of the Christians taken were names on a "most wanted" list.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Taken back

About three months ago, Islamic State (IS) conquered villages in northern Syria and took hundreds of Syrian Christians. Now Kurds and Assyrian Christians have successfully taken back a string of those villages.

But IS destroyed the life they had there, as evidenced by this photo of the ruin of the Church of the Virgin Mary in Tal Nasri, Syria:

It was blown up on Easter Sunday.

Too bad the displaced families can't go home even now that IS has been driven out - because the villages have been mined.

"That leaves about 1,400 Assyrian families—nearly 7,000 persons—unable to go back to their homes and villages . . . “Their grandfathers survived the Christian genocide of 1915, and now, the grandsons are trying to survive the new massacre.” 

Saving art

Ancient monuments and art of various Middle East cultures has been destroyed and more is in danger. Since governments and the U.N. move slowly, local people have been doing what they can to preserve them.

A large collection of ancient mosaics in the middle of a battle between the Syrian government and rebels is still intact only because locals piled sandbags  around the museum that houses it.

Last summer in Iraq, two Christian monks in "Erbil digitized ancient manuscripts in case Islamists destroyed the originals." One of them, Father Najeeb Michaeel,  told NPR, “. . these books [are] my children.”

Some antiquities are destroyed, some are looted and sold on the black market - yet another source of money for the Islamic State. "Revenue from antiquities looting is becoming a more significant funding stream for ISIS, many Middle East experts believe . . "

"[L]ooting is a major form of employment for those living under ISIS," according to a Boston University archaeologist.

Escaped

Not everyone in those Christian villages of northern Syria was captured. We now have one family's story of escape.

Nuri lived with his wife and three children in Tel Tamer. He woke up before dawn last week and realized that "Daesh" had come (Arabic for IS). They were setting explosives on the bridge and shooting at the Iraqi army.

When he saw men, women, and kids being hauled onto trucks, he left off watching to wake up his family and hide them. As daylight came, they started walking east, getting an occasional ride in a truck. They eventually made it across the Iraq border to be with relatives. 

But 1400 families were not that lucky - after being run out of their villages, they're now homeless and sleeping on the floors of churches, schools and hospitals. They can't go home.  This is how "the Islamic State militants are using swift terrorist raids to empty this area of northern Syria of Christians."

I think a new "Label" category is called for but I'm not sure what it should be. IS War, maybe?

It's good to know about one family who escaped.

Ransom?

There's more information on that Islamic State kidnapping story from a few days ago.

It seems that between 262 and 350 people were captured - not 150 - from as many as twelve Christian villages in northern Syria. Homes and churches were burned or vandalized, and all Christians have fled their homes.

Nineteen have been released, and there's speculation that ransom money may have been paid.

Ransom money - a horrible dilemma. If you don't pay it, bad things will be done to the victim. If you do pay it, you fund the kidnappers to capture more victims and do more bad things to them.

Kidnap $

(cont'd from yesterday)

You know that last summer ISIS took the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, where much of the Christian minority lived. Thousands left everything and fled, some going west into northern Syria where other minority Christians live ~100 miles across the Iraq border.

In that region of Syria, at least 150 Christians were captured and kidnapped by ISIS in raids on villages at dawn just a few days ago. A journalist claims in this video that the victims may be held for ransom (see yesterday's post).

They're in the hands of ISIS now and they need our prayers.