Fears over fate of Iraqi Christians

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Fears over fate of Iraqi Christians

Iraqi Christians in UK want co-religionists to leave their country in the wake of the Baghdad church massacre.

More than 50 Iraqi Christians were killed when an al-Qaeda-linked group attacked a Baghdad church last Sunday.

The assault has reverberated among Iraqi Christians in the West.

The leader of one such church in London believes it is time for Iraq's 300,000-strong Christian minority to leave the country.

Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull reports from West London.

Christians targeted in Iraq attacks

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Christians targeted in Iraq attacks

At least 14 roadside bombs exploded across the city on Wednesday

A string of roadside bombs in Baghdad kills at least three people and leaves another 24 injured.

A series of bomb and mortar attacks targeting Christians have killed three people and injured 24 others in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, according to police sources.

Attackers detonated at least 14 roadside bombs in predominantly Christians areas within a two-hour period on Wednesday morning and a mortar round struck in the southern Doura district.

"These operations, which targeted Christians, came as a continuation of the [October 31] attack that targeted the Salvation church," an Iraqi interior ministry source said.

The official referred to the October 31 attack that killed more than 50 people at a Catholic cathedral in the capital.

Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for that attack and has threatened more violence against the Christian community.

'Christians fleeing'

Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh, reporting from Baghdad, said Christians in Iraq have been a typical target of al-Qaeda fighters following the US-led invasion in March 2003.

"We have seen Christians fleeing Iraq between 2004 and 2006. Their numbers now are down to a third," she said.

"This is a stepped-up attack to revive the chaos that has affected the Christian community in the past."

Younadem Kana, a Christian parliamentarian, condemned the violence and blamed police and military for failing to protect Christians despite boosting security measures at churches around the capital.

"These attacks are not targeting only Christians, but also the government that has promised to protect the Christians," Kana said.

He said Wednesday's bombings exposed "grave flaws in the structure and the work of Iraq's security forces," and that attacks will continue as long as the country remains without a government that represents all Iraqis.

Tensions have been running high since the inconclusive parliamentary elections in March left Shia, Sunni and Kurdish political factions rallying support for a new government and raising fears of renewed violence.

Three killed, 26 hurt as Iraqi Christians attacked

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Three killed, 26 hurt as Iraqi Christians attacked

The attacks come 10 days after 44 Christian worshippers, two priests and seven security forces personnel died during the seizure of a Baghdad cathedral

BAGHDAD: A spate of early morning bomb and mortar attacks on homes of Christians in Baghdad Wednesday left at least three people dead and 26 wounded, an interior ministry official said.
“Two mortar shells and 10 homemade bombs targeted the homes of Christians in different neighbourhoods of Baghdad between 6:00 am and 8:00 am,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“The toll is three dead and 26 wounded.”

The attacks come 10 days after 44 Christian worshippers, two priests and seven security forces personnel died during the seizure of a Baghdad cathedral by extremist militants and the ensuing shootout when it was stormed by troops.

On Tuesday, three homes in the Mansur district of western Baghdad belonging to Christians were firebombed without causing any casualties, an interior ministry source said.

On November 3, al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Baghdad cathedral bloodbath and warned it would further step up attacks on Christians.

The extremists said they had carried out the church attack to force the release of converts to Islam allegedly being detained by the Coptic Church in Egypt. Days afterwards it declared Christians everywhere “legitimate targets.”

A senior Iraqi clergyman said at the weekend Iraq’s Christians should leave the country or face being killed at the hands of al Qaeda. “If they stay they will be finished, one by one,” Archbishop Athanasios Dawood told the BBC.

Iraq’s premier however on Tuesday cautioned other countries not to encourage Christians to abandon their homeland, after France took in dozens of people wounded in the October 31 cathedral attack.

On his first visit to the church targeted on October 31, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said that at a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in 2008 he had asked the pontiff “not to let the east be emptied of Christians, nor the West of Muslims.”

“The countries that have welcomed the victims … of this attack (on the church) have done a noble thing, but that should not encourage emigration,” he said on a visit to the Syriac Catholic cathedral where the massacre occurred.

Thirty-four Iraqi Christians and a Muslim guard wounded in the incident flew in to France on Monday for admission to hospitals for treatment.

French Immigration Minister Eric Besson has said this fitted France’s “tradition of asylum” to take them in, and that asylum would be “handed out generously” to those who seek it.

France plans a second evacuation flight in the coming weeks to bring out a further 93 Christians.

Besson said that 1,300 Iraqi Christians had been granted asylum in France since autumn 2007, an acceptance rate of 85 percent for asylum-seekers from among the community.

An estimated 800,000 Christians lived in Iraq before the US-led invasion of 2003 but that number has since shrunk to around 500,000 in the face of repeated attacks against their community and churches.

Christians in Baghdad have now dwindled to around 150,000, a third of their former population in the capital.

Rome rally against Church abuse

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Rome rally against Church abuse

Victims from across the world march seeking stronger action against abusive priests.

Victims of abuse by Catholic priests have staged a march in Rome, Italy's capital, to deliver a strong message to the Vatican. 

About one hundred victims and their relatives held a candle-lit vigil on the edge of St Peter's Square in the Vatican on Sunday, where they left messages for the pope.

The pope, among other leading Vatican officials, has issued apologies for the abuse, but the group wants more action against the perpetrators.

Survivor's Voice, the US group behind the protest, said that they were not given permission to enter the square collectively.

When Vatican a spokesman came to speak with organisers, a protester shouted "Shame'' in Italian.

"This isn't an attack on faith or religion, it's about behaviour and ethics," Marco Lodo Rizzini, a spokesman for child victims of abuse from Italy's Antonio Provolo Institute for the Deaf, said.

"The pope keeps saying child abuse is a crime, but he needs actually to take some concrete action."

Claims of abuse by members of the Roman Catholic Church have been heard across Europe and the US.

The church has been criticised for covering up such incidents and allowing the institution to become a haven for paedophilia.