Muslim
Murderers Threaten Iraqi Assyrians
2005/02/14
J.
Grant Swank, Jr.
They’ve been
left "out in the cold." They’ve resided in that locale for
5,000 years but are still treated as strangers. They are not liked by the
Sunnis, Shiites, nor Kurds. They have appealed for US-led Coalition help
but have not received any. So the Assyrian Christians are tortured, left
to fend for their own safety, indeed their survival.
According to
the Assyrian International News Agency, Sait Yildiz found a package at his
front door. He is chairman of the Assyrian Democratic Association. Inside
the package was a CD without a label. When he played the CD, he realized
it was a video depicting Islamics chanting slogans: "Traitors!
Betrayers! The unfaithful degenerates who have allied themselves with the
evil representatives of the
USA
! They shall be slaughtered!"
Then there is
a face — Raymond Shamoun. The 23-year-old is asked by a voice off-screen
to defend himself against the accusations. He’s been accused of
betraying
Iraq
, his country, where he, "the Christian swine," has cooperated
with the US-led Coalition.
Raymond
counters that what is said is false. He has not betrayed anyone. He’s
only employed at the
US
military base. However, the voice off-screen continues, saying Raymond has
committed treason. Chants continue. Raymond’s face turns to terror. He
hears that Allah is the only true God. A knife flashes forth, cutting
Raymond’s throat. His head is cut off, but slowly for the knife is dull.
His body is hung upside down, blood running to the floor, similar to
Muslims slaughtering animals.
Raymond,
Assyrian, is in the video presented to Yildiz, Assyrian. The video has
been sent to Assyrians worldwide. Muslims who made the video want to scare
Assyrians to flee
Iraq
. The Assyrians there are Christians, accused of being friends with the
Americans, especially American Christians.
Every day
there is some report of Assyrian Christians being kidnapped, Christian
churches desecrated, and the raping of Christian women. Christian students
are prohibited from attending university classes. The females are forced
to wear the Islamic veil. Assyrians are forced to protect their holy sites
and themselves from Islamic murderers.
"Four
days after Raymond was beheaded, his father, 66 year-old Farouk walked
through the doors of one of
Mosul
's hospitals. He knew to head to the hospital yard where unidentified
bodies are usually dumped.
"He
searches through the corpses and finds a body without a head. He opens the
sheet in which the body is been wrapped and recognizes, by the clothes,
that is his only son. He embraces the headless corpse screams in despair.
Something rolls out from under the sheet. It is the head. He picks it up,
kisses the forehead and closes the eyelids.
"Tearing
off a piece of the sheet he carefully binds the head to the breast of the
corpse and carries it to a waiting car. Many look on. No one helps. It is
known that those who help someone murdered by the Islamists may themselves
be considered as collaborators.
"Assyrians
are amongst the earliest converts to Christianity and Aramaic, the native
language of Jesus Christ, can still be heard in Assyrian villages and
cities. Descendents of the great Mesopotamian civilization, they still
celebrate through art and memory their roots in what is commonly referred
to as the cradle of civilization. Today there are little under 1 million
Assyrians left in
Iraq
. Fifteen years ago there were over one and half million. Hundreds of
thousands have fled to neighboring countries like
Syria
and
Jordan
to escape the persecution and seek a better life, any life,
elsewhere."
Pray for the
Assyrian Christians.
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