Entries for August 2007

Jdeide, LEBANON- One-way exodus for Iraqi Christian families resigned to never returning to land of their ancestors.

Reduced to sneaking in the night across borders to escape and then moonlighting to survive, most Iraqi Christian families are resigned to never returning to the land of their ancestors.

"Under Saddam we lived in safety. At least we had our dignity and a decent life," said Duleir Nuri Sleiman, father of three girls, referring to Iraq's executed leader Saddam Hussein who ruled with an iron fist.

With his eyes on Europe or the United States for resettlement, Sleiman has reached the transit stop of Lebanon, filled with worries about health care, schooling and avoiding detention by immigration authorities.

The Chaldean family lives five to a spartan room above a barber's shop in the Christian suburb of Jdeide on the outskirts of Beirut, relying on his modest income as a painter and decorator.

Georgina, CAN - A Georgina man is in a desperate race against time to rescue his sister and her family from Baghdad, Iraq.

Described as the most dangerous city on Earth, Baghdad is torn apart by sectarian violence amid a wider civil war.

It is a city where how you worship God can literally get you killed.

Sam Taan, who operates the Daisy Mart in Sutton, said the urgency to get his sister, Ban, her husband Raad (their last names are withheld over safety concerns) and their two young sons, grew last month when Raad's brother Fatah was murdered by one of the many Islamic militias that prowl the city.

Baghdad, IRAQ - Chaldeans in Iraq go on high-alert as word spreads that Islamic terrorists groups are aggressively targeting non-muslims in Iraq.  The religious genocide by Islamic fanatics has taken a horrific and dreadful turn as over 500 Yazidi villagers were massacred this past week.  Islamic leaders and followers in Iraq and around the world continue to remain silent, and by doing so send a message of approval. 

The Tuesday bomb attack near Mosul is the latest in an onslaught of targeted killings against non-Muslims.  Provincial authorities in Nineveh province fear that in addition to those already accounted for, another 200 people might still be buried in the rubbles left by the devastating truck bombings. Sources in Iraq warn that the multiple attacks are part of a wider plan that is likely to target Christian villages in the historically Christian Nineveh plain very soon.

The bombings are the deadliest since the war began in 2003. The coordinated operation involved five trucks filled with explosives that killed indiscriminately as body parts of men, women, and children were torn apart and shredded across the streets in a ghastly portrayal of Islam gone awry.