Source: SIR
Threats against the Iraqi Christian community go on. And this time it is not just weapons that do the talking. The news was relayed today by the agency Aina that “a Christian bishop received a threatening letter from the Islamic fundamentalist group Ansar al-Islam, a member of Al Qaeda, ordering Christians to leave the country all together”. The text, published in Arabic language by the website of the online daily news service Al-Ittihad, states that “the Secretary General of the members of the Islamic Brigade decided to give the Christian crusader infidels of Baghdad and the other provinces the last warning, to leave Iraq immediately and permanently and join Benedict XVI and his followers, who have trampled on the greatest symbols of humanity and Islam”. In addition, the letter says that “there’ll be no room in Iraq for the Christian infidels from now on”, on pain of slitting their throats as “it is happening to the Christians of Mosul”. The threat, the umpteenth in the troubled life of the Iraqi Christians, adds up to a long series of persecutions they have suffered, ranging from the payment of the “jizya”, i.e. protection money, to the imposition of the hijab, to forced conversations and even rapes, murders and the destruction of their homes.