By Baghdadhope*Photo by Amer Gammo and Majeed Hazim for Baghdadhope
In these days there are many expressions of solidarity with Iraqi Christians, especially in Mosul, where they are victims of violences and abuses that are causing their flight to by now safer areas.
According to a report released yesterday by OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) 4320 Christians left Mosul for the neighboring districts of Hamdaniyah and Telkief.
Families such as those who found shelter in the Chaldean monastery of Alqosh and who received the visit of the Patriarch, Mar Emmanuel III Delly, accompanied by the Bishop of Mosul, Msgr. Emile Shimoun Nona, that of Al Qosh, Msgr. Mikha P . Maqdassi and Fr. Jibrail Toma, General of the Order of St. Hormizd of the Chaldeans.
A tragic situation that is pushing many voices, in Iraq and worldwide, to speak in their defense. Thus the call for the protection of Iraqi Christians made by the Syriac Orthodox Church Patriarch, Mar Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, was joined by that of the Bishop of Aleppo of the same church, Mar Gregorious Ibrahim, who, speaking to Christians and Muslims, the believers in one God, cited the Gospel of John 15:12 "This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you" and Sura XXII (Al Hajj - The Pilgrimage) of the Holy Quran, "And if Allah did not repel some people by others, cloisters, and churches, and synagogues, and mosques in which Allah’s name is much remembered, would have been pulled down."
A demonstration of solidarity with Christians in Mosul took place in Basra with the presence of both Muslims and Christians, and among them Father Aziz Emad Al Banna, Chaldean chorepiscop of the city.
The U.S. Dominican Iraq Coordination Committee, which is part of the great family of the Dominicans in the United States, sent a letter to Cardinal Francis George, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops requesting to put pressure on the U.S. government because it in turn put it on Iraqi one for rights and protection to be insured to the Christians.
A similar letter was sent to U.S. President Barak Obama by the German Society for Threatened People, which goes up accusing American forces, that work in support of the Sunni Al Hadbaa list that rules the city and the areas of the province where Sunnis are the majority and that are held liable for discrimination against Christians, of inertia in defending them.
In Beirut, the Council of Maronite Bishops accepted the proposal of a day of solidarity with Iraqi Christians on March 13 in the Basilica of Notre Dame du Liban in Harissa, one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Lebanon, about 20 km from the capital.
In Rome Iraqi Christians's situation, but not only theirs, will be discussed during the three days that the Pontifical Lateran University will dedicate on the next 17-18 and 19 of March to prayers and reflections on the passion of Christ and the Church during the meeting "In Memoriam Martyrum. If the grain of wheat does not die ... " organized by Aid to the Church in Need.
Among the speakers Msgr. Philippe Najim - Procurator of the Chaldean Church to the Holy See.