Sources: Various
By Baghdadhope
A ceremony has been held on last Sunday in the church of Virgin Mary in Palestine Street, in the eastern part of Baghdad. About 200 faithfuls partecipated to the Mass anxious to listen to the words of the new Cardinal Mar Emmanuel III Delly.
By Baghdadhope
A ceremony has been held on last Sunday in the church of Virgin Mary in Palestine Street, in the eastern part of Baghdad. About 200 faithfuls partecipated to the Mass anxious to listen to the words of the new Cardinal Mar Emmanuel III Delly.
In spite of the impressive security measures - searching at the entrance, armed guards around the church and on its roof, police vehicles blocking the street - people did not loose such an occasion because, as the 26 years old Hibba Nasser explained to AP "We came to the church to make terrorits know that we are not afraid of them."
Present in the church for the Holy Mass, celebrated by Cardinal Delly, Mgr. Shleimun Warduni and Fr. Yousef Khalid, were also Mgr. Jacques Isaac, Rector of College and Mgr. Francis A. Chullikat, Apostolic Nuncio in Iraq and Jordan. After the ceremony Cardinal Delly was greeted also by Jassim al-Jazairi, the Imam of the near Shia mosque who declared he wanted to show, by his presence, "the unity of Iraqi people" and to be happy for Mar Delly's cardinal appoitment because "proud of any person, whether Christian or Muslim, who raises the name of Iraq in the international arena.”
In Kirkuk, after 4 years the Armenian Orthodox church of the Virgin Mary has been reopened and a Holy Mass has been celebrated by the Armenian Orthodox parish priest of the city: Fr. Padre Avaidak Dirusian.
While in Basra the Chaldean parish priest, Fr. Emad Aziz Banna, celebrated today the funeral ceremony of Usama Fareed (31) and his sister Maysoon whose bodies, riddled with bullets, have been found in a garbage dump. According to what reported by AP, the man had been kidnapped by armed men driving a a white unlicensed SUV and who obliged him to call his sister asking her to leave her work to meet him.
In Basra, too, on the eve of the disengagement of the British troops who will soon hand over the control of the city to Iraqis, threats against women continue. The city, by many considered out of control, is infested by Islamic militias in favour of the strict application of what they think are the right rules of Islamic behaviour. According to what the police chief of the city, Gen. Maj. Jalil Khalaf, declared, more than 40 beheaded and mutilated women's body have been found in the last 5 months with a sheet of paper nearby saying, «she was killed for adultery,» or «she was killed for violating Islamic teachings."
In Kirkuk, after 4 years the Armenian Orthodox church of the Virgin Mary has been reopened and a Holy Mass has been celebrated by the Armenian Orthodox parish priest of the city: Fr. Padre Avaidak Dirusian.
While in Basra the Chaldean parish priest, Fr. Emad Aziz Banna, celebrated today the funeral ceremony of Usama Fareed (31) and his sister Maysoon whose bodies, riddled with bullets, have been found in a garbage dump. According to what reported by AP, the man had been kidnapped by armed men driving a a white unlicensed SUV and who obliged him to call his sister asking her to leave her work to meet him.
In Basra, too, on the eve of the disengagement of the British troops who will soon hand over the control of the city to Iraqis, threats against women continue. The city, by many considered out of control, is infested by Islamic militias in favour of the strict application of what they think are the right rules of Islamic behaviour. According to what the police chief of the city, Gen. Maj. Jalil Khalaf, declared, more than 40 beheaded and mutilated women's body have been found in the last 5 months with a sheet of paper nearby saying, «she was killed for adultery,» or «she was killed for violating Islamic teachings."
The leaflets show that the killings have been perpetrated by criminal gangs ever more resembling the "moral police" of the nearby Iran. These criminals hit not only women not wearing the veil - Muslim and Christian - but also everything is considered an "illecit behaviour" as shaving or having long hair for men, boys and girls sitting near at school, listening to music, having parties and even having images and video considered as "immoral" on mobile.
If the victims of such a situation are the moderate Muslims it is deeply suffering for the small Christian community of the city whose identity is even debated, as declared to Times the 21 years old Zeena. When she explained to the Shia militiamen who wanted her to wear the veil to attend university that, being a Christian, she was not obliged to do it by her faith, the answer was that outside the university she could be a Christian and do what she wanted but not inside, or she would be killed.
