Please help the Christians in the Middle-East!

[Kelba]

Ok, I'm not sure where this is supposed to go but the largest and maybe only Christian group in the Middle-East, the Assyrians, are in danger of being massacred again. They are located in Northern Iraq, and being pressured by Kurds and a group of Turks. At July 1, the US will hand over power to a new leader for Iraq, and if it's a bad leader it may as well be the end of the Christians in Iraq. So I ask next time you pray please pray for the Assyrians in Iraq, they have already been oppressed since the coming of Christ (They were the first Christians) and it should end soon. So please please please pray for them.

 

[alliedone]

Can't they apply for assylum in the US? I will pray for them very much!!!

 

[Kelly]

I highly recommend subscribing to this site, it sends out periodic reports of worldwide persecution. Anyone in the first world who thinks they are really being persecuted needs to read these,

http://www.persecution.com/

 

[ashibaka]

Yea, even atheists should support Christians in a struggle for survival... "jihad" is Arabic for "struggle"

But I think for now they are safe, the U.S. won't hand ove the power in Iraq to some dictator as bad as Saddam

 

[Kelba]

The problem is there is now a power struggle between Shiites and Kurds, and both hate Assyrians

 

[Polycarp1]

The Assyrians (having only location in common with the Assyrian Empire that conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel) are an ancient church founded by Nestorius, with separate existence deriving from the Council of Chalcedon. And they do deserve our prayers and such help as we can offer them.

But they are far from the only Christians in the Middle East. Check in The Ancient Way for the Antiochan Orthodox Church, which has sizeable minorities in Israel/Palestine and Syria, and together with the Eastern Rite Catholics constitutes the majority in Lebanon. Remember the Copts, the native Christians of Egypt, only about 5% of the population but in existence since St. Mark founded the church there. The Armenians and Georgians are almost totally Eastern Orthodox. And they all deserve our prayers -- and some are hard-pressed by Islamic fundamentalists (though they have lived in peace up to now with the majority Muslims in their nations).

 

[antigoat]

I recommend the book "Blood Brothers" -its a somewhat different take on the Palestinian/Jewish situation in the Middle east than you normally hear, written by a Palestinian Christian, Elias Chacour (if i remember correctly...). $0.02