By Baghdadhope*
George Ayub Tobia (51 years old)
Nabil Elias Sam'an (46 years old)
Sahem Adnan Sa'du (20 years old, student)
Samir Kamel Usai (and his wife Nida' and his son Omar)
Nida' Hamid Istivan
Omar Samir Kamel Usai
Aziz Al Mezi (father of 4 daughters)
Yunan Kurkis Assaour (and his son Jean, his daughter-in-law Rita and his grandson Sandro)
Jean Yunan Kurkis Assaour
Rita Matti Kurkis Zaura
Sandro Jean Yunan Assaour (4 months)
Maha Nassif Banu (and her two sons Wisam and Salam)
Salam Adib
Wisam Adib
Faiz Abd-allah Ghazazi
Audai Zuhair Marsina Arab
Adam Audai Zuhaid Arab (3 years old)
Benham Mansour Boulos Momika (60 years old)
Ayub Adnan Ayub Bergu
Sabah Matti Hamami
Sa'ad Adur Assa'ati
Faris Najeeb Philip Hinnawi
Vivien Nasser Maru
Nadheer Abdul-Ahad Ana'i (67 years old)
Fadi Bahuda
Mazen Fadheel Elias Mahruk
Abd-Allah Haddad
Wamiq Haddad
Raghida Wafi Bishara
Nizar Jamil Matlub
Milad Nizar Jamil Matlub
Bassam Adnan Jamil Alkhouri
Adnan Jamil Alkhouri
Benham Mikhael Kafi (52 years old)
Salah Jerjis Abed Al-Ahad Qaqo
Kristin Nabil Tobia Katnawi
Raid Sad-alla Abd-al (Fr. Thair's brother)
Fadi Samir Habib Amso
Athel Najib Abodi
Nizar Hazim Abdel Rahim Assayegh
Suhaila Rufail Gani
Seham Saliwa Jajika (48 years old)
Hikmat Aziz Daqaq
The names above are those of the victims – “martyrs” as they are called – of the terrible attack against the Church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad on last October 31.
Women, men, children, whose memory has faded from the minds of many, but not of those who still mourn them as victims of the blind rage that led a commando of criminals to break into the Syriac Catholic church in Baghdad centre during the afternoon mass, to kill in cold blood the two young priests who were celebrating it, to hold the terrifird hostages for hours, randomly killing some of them without any logic.
A rage that prevented them from hearing the weeping, the cries, the voice of Adam, only three years old, who pleaded for hours to stop all that horror and who saw his father die, wounded first, finished off by a bullet in his head after; or that of a woman who went as far as asking to be killed, appealing to the feeling of pity unknown to the men who continued to shout their hatred of the “infidels”, and who went on destroying the symbols and the images of the religion that they would like to see disappear, in the name of the “Islamic purity” of the new Iraq.
A rage that eventually led them to commit suicide by the altar by blowing themselves dirtying of other blood the walls, the ceiling, the bodies of the deads and of the livings only when, after hours and hours, the Iraqi police decided to put an end to the slaughter.
Those names will not be forgotten by those who care about the fate of Iraqi Christians brothers, more and more foreigners at home. People who, despite the call of the church hierarchy, still want to flee from a country that welcomes and esteems them by words but in practice did nothing to stop the violence against them: only condemnation of the material perpetrators of crimes that in many cases is difficult to imagine as just the result of the common delinquency affecting a state without laws.
It is pointless for a state that is not protecting its own citizens to allocate, a decision of October 27 by the Ministry of Construction, 700 million Iraqi dinars ( 430.000 Euros) for the partial renewal of the church of Our Lady of the Salvation.
Too little.
Too late.
Watch the videos of the accounts of some of the survivors (English subtitles)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaA2Thd1uow&feature=player_embedded#!George Ayub Tobia (51 years old)
Nabil Elias Sam'an (46 years old)
Sahem Adnan Sa'du (20 years old, student)
Samir Kamel Usai (and his wife Nida' and his son Omar)
Nida' Hamid Istivan
Omar Samir Kamel Usai
Aziz Al Mezi (father of 4 daughters)
Yunan Kurkis Assaour (and his son Jean, his daughter-in-law Rita and his grandson Sandro)
Jean Yunan Kurkis Assaour
Rita Matti Kurkis Zaura
Sandro Jean Yunan Assaour (4 months)
Maha Nassif Banu (and her two sons Wisam and Salam)
Salam Adib
Wisam Adib
Faiz Abd-allah Ghazazi
Audai Zuhair Marsina Arab
Adam Audai Zuhaid Arab (3 years old)
Benham Mansour Boulos Momika (60 years old)
Ayub Adnan Ayub Bergu
Sabah Matti Hamami
Sa'ad Adur Assa'ati
Faris Najeeb Philip Hinnawi
Vivien Nasser Maru
Nadheer Abdul-Ahad Ana'i (67 years old)
Fadi Bahuda
Mazen Fadheel Elias Mahruk
Abd-Allah Haddad
Wamiq Haddad
Raghida Wafi Bishara
Nizar Jamil Matlub
Milad Nizar Jamil Matlub
Bassam Adnan Jamil Alkhouri
Adnan Jamil Alkhouri
Benham Mikhael Kafi (52 years old)
Salah Jerjis Abed Al-Ahad Qaqo
Kristin Nabil Tobia Katnawi
Raid Sad-alla Abd-al (Fr. Thair's brother)
Fadi Samir Habib Amso
Athel Najib Abodi
Nizar Hazim Abdel Rahim Assayegh
Suhaila Rufail Gani
Seham Saliwa Jajika (48 years old)
Hikmat Aziz Daqaq
The names above are those of the victims – “martyrs” as they are called – of the terrible attack against the Church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad on last October 31.
Women, men, children, whose memory has faded from the minds of many, but not of those who still mourn them as victims of the blind rage that led a commando of criminals to break into the Syriac Catholic church in Baghdad centre during the afternoon mass, to kill in cold blood the two young priests who were celebrating it, to hold the terrifird hostages for hours, randomly killing some of them without any logic.
A rage that prevented them from hearing the weeping, the cries, the voice of Adam, only three years old, who pleaded for hours to stop all that horror and who saw his father die, wounded first, finished off by a bullet in his head after; or that of a woman who went as far as asking to be killed, appealing to the feeling of pity unknown to the men who continued to shout their hatred of the “infidels”, and who went on destroying the symbols and the images of the religion that they would like to see disappear, in the name of the “Islamic purity” of the new Iraq.
A rage that eventually led them to commit suicide by the altar by blowing themselves dirtying of other blood the walls, the ceiling, the bodies of the deads and of the livings only when, after hours and hours, the Iraqi police decided to put an end to the slaughter.
Those names will not be forgotten by those who care about the fate of Iraqi Christians brothers, more and more foreigners at home. People who, despite the call of the church hierarchy, still want to flee from a country that welcomes and esteems them by words but in practice did nothing to stop the violence against them: only condemnation of the material perpetrators of crimes that in many cases is difficult to imagine as just the result of the common delinquency affecting a state without laws.
It is pointless for a state that is not protecting its own citizens to allocate, a decision of October 27 by the Ministry of Construction, 700 million Iraqi dinars ( 430.000 Euros) for the partial renewal of the church of Our Lady of the Salvation.
Too little.
Too late.
Watch the videos of the accounts of some of the survivors (English subtitles)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q1HS1mtyy8&feature=related
Watch the video of the end of the attack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FolSGZCviqs
Watch the videos of the burial ceremony of some of the victims
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31NqB3JlhHw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkj3BPjg-2A