Dear John & Doves, Please pray for the Christians in Iraq who face increasing threats, and intimidation including nitric acid being squirted into their faces according to the article below: Wednesday, November 3, 2004

IRAQI CHRISTIANS FACE INCREASING THREATS, INTIMIDATION AND ESCALATING VIOLENCE
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s04110011.htm
By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

IRAQ  (ANS) -- A Christian human rights watchdog group says the Christian community in northern Iraq is facing ever-mounting intimidation and violence.

Since the beginning of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan (October 15) the situation has escalated, with the apparent aim of forcing the Christians out of their homeland, the Barnabas Fund reports.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi Christian are fleeing the country.

International media reported the first incident, when explosions occurred at five churches in Baghdad just after 4.00 a.m. on Saturday, October 16 (2nd Ramadan).

But the other threats and attacks on Christians go largely unreported. Photographs of three senior bishops in Mosul are being circulated, with the message that they are agents of the USA, infidels, and action must be taken against them.

The church leaders serving the Christian community of Karakush, Mosul, have received two letters from the Islamic militants, Barnabas Fund said.

The first letter ordered them to allow Christian women to marry Muslim men (which in Muslim eyes means the women effectively convert to Islam). This, said the letter, would enable the women to be "blessed" and "purified" by their marriages.

The second letter to church leaders, received yesterday November 2, announced the militants' intention of killing one person in every Christian family, as a punishment for the women not covering their heads and not going to university.

This follows pressure and threats from Islamic extremists against all women in Mosul, requiring them to cover their head with the hijab (Islamic headscarf).

A Christian woman was killed around October 26 for having her head uncovered. Two other Christian women who were seen bareheaded in a market had nitric acid squirted in their faces.

Specific threats about the clothing of female students at Mosul University have so frightened the Christians that an estimated 1,500 Christian women have stopped attending their classes.

Islamic militants are knocking on the doors of Christian homes in Mosul, demanding money. They argue that since the Christians do not contribute weapons and do not fight, they must make a financial donation instead. This follows exactly the model of classical Islam, whereby Christians and Jews were excluded from fighting for the Islamic state but instead required to pay a special tax – called ‘jizya’ -- to cover the costs of their protection.

Leaflets are being distributed with the message: "Christians go; leave Iraq." Word is being passed around in the mosques, telling Muslims not to buy anything from the Christians. Not only are they infidels, it is said, but also they will soon be leaving, so the Muslims will be able to take their homes and property for free.

COORDINATED BOMBING CAMPAIGN TO FORCE CHRISTIANS TO FLEE

In earlier reports the Barnabas Fund said a wave of car-bombs was detonated at five Iraqi churches between 6.00 p.m. and 7.00 p.m. on Sunday, August 1.

Four churches were in Baghdad, and one in Mosul. Bombs planted at one, possibly two, other churches failed to explode. Estimates of the death toll range from 10 to 18, with over 50 injured.

As Sunday is a working day in Iraq, the main Christian worship services are held in the evening, so the timing of the bombs was clearly intended to cause the maximum Christian casualties. Furthermore, August 1 is a holy day for some denominations in Iraq, the start of a special month of fasting.

Christians believe the aim of the bombs was not only to kill and maim as many as possible but also to frighten them into leaving the country, and this was also reported on Al-Arabiya TV.

Many thousands of Christians have already fled to Syria and Jordan, and this wave of bombings is sure to cause even more to want to leave, though some are too poor to afford a passport.

The apparently coordinated attacks have been universally condemned by Muslim leaders in Iraq, both Sunni and Shia, as well as by many ordinary Muslims.

Contrary to some early news reports, this was not the first time that churches and Christian religious buildings in Iraq have been targeted since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

• September 2003 -- missile attack on convent, Mosul
• November 2003 -- bombs discovered at two Christian schools, Mosul and Baghdad, accompanied by messages ordering them to convert to Islam or be killed
• December 2003 -- Bomb explosion at a church in Baghdad on Christmas Eve
• December 2003 -- Bomb discovered at monastery in Mosul and defused

There have also been many attacks on Christian shops and businesses.

Christians have been threatened, victimized and several have been assassinated. Women in the south are being forced for the first time to cover their hair like Muslim women. On January 4, 2004 a group of more than 200 mainly Muslim intellectuals and political leaders from Iraq called for an end to the attacks on Christians.