Mideast Christians beg US to stop aiding their slaughter

Not only is the Islamic State (IS) persecuting Christians but so are the U.S.-supported “rebel” forces, which the Obama administration assures are “moderate.”  According to a recent NPR report, “With backing from U.S. allies, like Turkey and Saudi Arabia, this [U.S. supported] rebel coalition fights both the Syrian regime and the so-called Islamic State, or ISIS. But the coalition has extremists in its own ranks who have mistreated Christians and forced them out of their homes”—just as IS has done.

In response, Mideast Christian leaders made clear that, far from expecting the West to intervene on their behalf, they merely wish that the West stops arming, supporting, or simply facilitating the Islamic terrorists making their lives a living hell—as plainly spelled out in a Christian Today article titled, “Syrian Christian leader tells West: ‘Stop arming terror groups who are massacring our people.”

According to the Patriarch of Antioch, Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, “If the West wants to do something about the present crisis, the most effective thing would be to support local governments, which need sufficient armies and forces to maintain security and defend respective populations against attacks.  State institutions need to be strengthened and stabilized. Instead, what we see is their forced dismemberment being fueled from the outside.”

Another Christian leader had another message to the West.  According to Iraqi priest Fr Douglas Bazi, once a torture victim who takes care of thousands of refugees forced to flee Mosul since the Islamic State took over the city last year, the West needs to “Wake up!”  During celebrations of St Peter and St Paul, the Iraqi priest further reflected that “We cannot celebrate the feast of two martyrs without remembering the living martyrs of our time.”

Nor are these martyrs limited to the Middle East.  Among the many Christians slaughtered in Nigeria in July was ayoung girl who was stoned to death for refusing to renounce Christ and convert to Islam.  Pastor Mark lost his daughter, Monica, in the Chibok abduction which involved almost 300 predominantly Christian girls kidnapped at the hands of the Islamic organization, Boko Haram.  He was told that his daughter refused to change her religion, and so was buried from the neck on down and then stoned to death.

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