Category Archives: Iraq
How do you know it’s Ramadan? The blood keeps on flowing.
Suicide attack kills at least 24 at Baghdad mosque
By Muhanad Mohammed | Reuters – 20 hrs ago
Related Content
A man inspects bloodstained copies of the Koran a day after a blast occurred inside …
Residents inspect the site of a blast inside Umm al-Qura mosque in Baghdad’s Ghazaliya …
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A suicide bomber posing as a beggar detonated his explosives inside a major Baghdad Sunni mosque on Sunday, killing at least 24 people, including an Iraqi lawmaker, just as they finished evening prayers, hospital and local officials said.
The bomber wearing a cast on his arm blew himself up in the main hall of the Umm al-Qura mosque, an important Sunni religious site in Baghdad and one frequented by top Iraqi Sunni leaders in the capital’s western Ghazaliya district. Continue Reading →
Al Queda promises 100 attacks for Ramadan!
Yep Christianity and Islam are basically the same thing. Christianity celebrates love with mistletoe while Islam celebrates hatred with tow missiles.
Iraq: Al Qaeda Vows Attack Campaign
August 20, 2011
Al Qaeda in Iraq announced a “100 attack” campaign across the country during Ramadan as revenge for the deaths of Osama bin Laden and other senior leaders, Xinhua reported Aug. 20.
LOVE FEST RAMADAMDINGDONGDOO STYLE: SEVEN MUSLIMS TAKEN FROM SUNNI MOSQUE AND EXECUTED
Ramadan, it’s a blast!
Yep, every time I hear the word ‘ramadan’, I think of endearing, heartwarming tales like this. KGS
7 pulled from Iraqi mosque, killed execution-style
BAGHDAD (AP) — Gunmen wearing military uniforms pulled seven people from a Sunni mosque south of Baghdad and then shot and killed them execution-style, officials said Tuesday, raising the death toll to 70 in Iraq’s deadliest day this year.
The killings late Monday came at the end of a day that saw a wave of crushing violence sweep across Iraq, from the northern city of Mosul to the Shiite heartland — including suicide bombings, roadside bombs and shootings. The violence was reminiscent of the bloodletting that used to plague Iraq daily a few years ago and a stark warning that al-Qaida in Iraq is still a force to be reckoned with.
The fact that militants were able to pull off such a wave of violence is especially disturbing considering that U.S. forces are scheduled to leave Iraq at the end of this year, leaving the country’s security in the hands of still-struggling Iraqi security forces.
Attack against Kirkuk’s St Ephraim Syrian Orthodox Church
From Asia News:
A bomb exploded at around 1.30 am. No one was killed or injured, but the church was heavily damaged. The incident follows others against Kirkuk Christians in early August.
Kirkuk (AsiaNews) – A bomb exploded last night near the St Ephraim Syrian Orthodox Church in Kirkuk, which is just a few hundreds of metres from the Chaldean cathedral, in central part of the city. The device blew up at 1.30 am and there were no victims. The damages to the church were however huge (pictured).
Today’s incident is the latest in a string of attacks against Christians and their places of worship. On 2 August, a car bomb exploded in front of the Holy Family Syrian Catholic Church, wounding 15 people. The bomb had been placed inside a car, parked near the building.
On the same day, another bomb also placed in a car parked near a Presbyterian church was defused before it went off.
Islamic fundamentalists, who remain very active, as well as groups involved in local feuds, have targeted Iraqi Christians.
With a population of 900,000, Kirkuk is located in Iraq’s most important oil fields. For years, it has been embroiled in a political fight among various ethnic groups, most notably Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds. The latter would like to see Kirkuk’s region annexed to Kurdistan, whilst Arabs and Turkmen would like it to remain directly linked to Iraq’s central government.
Kurdish church of former Muslims, now Christians.
This is very interesting. And inspiring. I wonder what Sam Harris would say about this. The problem I have with weighing the value of religion is, that it is much more difficult to quantify the good it does than quantifying the harm. All this of course, utterly separate from the truth or falsity of the claims a given religion makes.
Saddam Hussein’s torture doctor has been working in British hospitals for SEVEN years, immigration scandal reveals
From The Daily Mail:
- Dr Mohammed Kassim Al-Byati given a permit to work in NHS by Labour in 2004
- ‘Horrified’ Home Secretary orders urgent inquiry
By James Slack, Michael Seamark and Fay Schlesinger
Last updated at 11:12 PM on 1st July 2011
Intelligence job: Mohammed Al-Byati at his home in a leafy suburb of Birmingham, where he claimed he was only doing his job as a doctor when working for Saddam Hussein
A doctor involved in horrific torture by Saddam Hussein’s henchmen is working in British hospitals.
In an astonishing immigration scandal, border officials have allowed the suspected war criminal to treat thousands of British patients.
Dr Mohammed Kassim Al-Byati was given a permit to work as a doctor in the NHS by the Labour government in 2004.
Checks failed to uncover his history of working for the notorious Iraqi Intelligence Agency, which ran the country in a reign of terror during the Saddam years.
His job was to patch up torture victims so that they could be subjected to more appalling treatment.
In 2007, Al-Byati contacted the Home Office to confess to his horrific past so that he could claim asylum.
But, incredibly, this did not prevent him from carrying on earning tens of thousands of pounds working at a hospital in Wales. Continue Reading →
The Silent Extermination of Iraq’s ‘Christian Dogs’
From this site. H/T Fjordman
Last week an Iraqi Muslim scholar issued a fatwa that, among other barbarities, asserts that “it is permissible to spill the blood of Iraqi Christians.” Inciting as the fatwa is, it is also redundant. While last October’s Baghdad church attack which killed some sixty Christians is widely known—actually receiving some MSM coverage—the fact is, Christian life in Iraq has been a living hell ever since U.S. forces ousted the late Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Among other atrocities, beheading and crucifying Christians are not irregular occurrences; messages saying “you Christian dogs, leave or die,” are typical. Islamists see the church as an “obscene nest of pagans” and threaten to “exterminate Iraqi Christians.” John Eibner, CEO of Christian Solidarity International, summarized the situation well in a recent letter to President Obama:
Iraqi man grieves at the funeral of his two brothers, slain for being Christian.
The threat of extermination is not empty. Since the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime, more than half the country’s Christian population has been forced by targeted violence to seek refuge abroad or to live away from their homes as internally displaced people. According to the Hammurabi Human Rights Organization, over 700 Christians, including bishops and priests, have been killed and 61 churches have been bombed. Seven years after the commencement of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Catholic Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk reports: “He who is not a Muslim in Iraq is a second-class citizen. Often it is necessary to convert or emigrate, otherwise one risks being killed.” This anti-Christian violence is sustained by a widespread culture of Muslim supremacism that extends far beyond those who pull the triggers and detonate the bombs.
The grand irony, of course, is that Christian persecution has increased exponentially under U.S. occupation. As one top Vatican official put it, Christians, “paradoxically, were more protected under the dictatorship” of Saddam Hussein.
What does one make of this—that under Saddam, who was notorious for human rights abuses, Christians were better off than they are under a democratic government sponsored by humanitarian, some would say “Christian,” America?
Like a Baghdad caliph, Saddam appears to have made use of the better educated Christians, who posed no risk to his rule, such as his close confidant Tariq Aziz. Moreover, by keeping a tight lid on the Islamists of his nation—who hated him as a secular apostate no less than the Christians—the latter benefited indirectly.
Conversely, by empowering “the people,” the U.S. has unwittingly undone Iraq’s Christian minority. Naively projecting Western values on Muslims, U.S. leadership continues to think that “people-power” will naturally culminate into a liberal, egalitarian society—despite all the evidence otherwise. The fact is, in the Arab/Muslim world, “majority rule” traditionally means domination by the largest tribe or sect; increasingly, it means Islamist domination. Continue Reading →
Iraqi immigrant who ran over daughter in Arizona ‘honour killing’ gets 34 years in prison
YAHOONEWS… PHOENIX – An Iraqi immigrant was sentenced Friday to 34 1/2 years in an Arizona prison for running over and killing his 20-year-old daughter because she became too Westernized.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Roland Steinle told Faleh Hassan Almaleki that forgiveness is the core of all religion, but the judge said he was struck by Almaleki’s apparent lack of remorse for killing Noor Almaleki.
The case caused outrage nationwide after prosecutors deemed it an “honour killing” because Faleh Almaleki had said his daughter dishonoured his family.
Defence attorneys called the death an accident. Continue Reading →
Muslim population in Western Europe rising
IB NEWS… The population of Muslims in Western Europe has been steadily rising in recent decades, largely due to immigration from the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa.
In Southeastern Europe, much of which once formed part of the Ottoman Empire, Muslims have been present for many centuries, but they are a relatively new phenomenon in the western part of the continent.
On the whole, Muslim’s represent about 5 percent of the population of the EU 27.
Far-right politicians in Europe have long warned that the Muslim numbers will continue to grow due to higher birth rates. Marine Le Pen, the head of France’s anti-immigrant National Front party, who openly discusses the rising number Muslims in France, could conceivably win next year’s presidential election, according to polls.
While the percentage of Muslims as part of the overall population of western European nations are in single digits, a 2009 study by the Telegraph newspaper in the UK estimated that by 2050, Muslims will account for 20 percent of the European Union’s populace. Long before that, Britain, Spain and The Netherlands will reach and surpass that figure. Continue Reading →
Sister Hatune – The persecutors are given refuge -not the persecuted
This video is about the same German nun who you may remember from a previous VTB post about brutally abused Christian girls in Iraq. I simply do not have the adjectives to adequately describe how Islam treats infidel women when Muslims feel sufficiently empowered.
CNN: Girls sold into sexual slavery, then jailed or punished for dishonour.
BREAKING: TWO SUICIDE-HOMICIDE JIHADIS DETONATE CARS IN KARBALA IRAQ
NOTE: The picture is from a prior jihadi incident
At least 45 dead in twin Iraq car bombs
January 21, 2011 – 12:19AM
SydneyMorningHerald:Two suicide bombers detonated vehicles packed with explosives on the outskirts of the holy Shiite shrine city of Karbala on Thursday killing at least 45 people, a top official said.
At least 150 people were wounded in the twin attacks, which occurred about 20 minutes apart at the northern and the southern entrances to the city, 110 kilometres (70 miles) south of Baghdad, the head of Karbala provincial council Mohammed Hamid al-Mussawi said.
Italy: EU Aid Should Be Tied To Christians’ Rights – FM
January 3, 2011 Stratfor:
EU aid should be reduced or eliminated for countries that do not protect Christian minorities, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Jan. 3, ANSA reported. Twenty-one Coptic Christians were killed in Alexandria, Egypt, during a church bombing Jan. 1. Italy cannot stay “isolated” in the battle for Christians’ rights and must shift from monitoring to action, Frattini said. The European Union should work with and encourage countries that respect Christians’ rights, he said. Italy will present a resolution on religious freedom to the United Nations; the resolution is supported by the European Union, and several non-EU nations have expressed “great interest.”
LATMA does excellent sketch on the reality of Christians in the Muslim world
As you watch, remember the post Vlad did the other day of how the cross has been banned from souvenir shops in Bethlehem.