The
following excerpts are from Aina.org:
Isis's
persecution of Iraqi Christians, which has already forced tens of
thousands of men, women and children to flee for their lives, is fast
becoming a genocide, religious leaders have warned.
Archbishop
Athanasius Toma Dawod of the Syriac Orthodox church said that Isis's
capture of Qaraqosh, Iraq's largest Christian city, had marked a
turning point for Christians in the country.
"Now
we consider it genocide -- ethnic cleansing," he said. "They
are killing our people in the name of Allah and telling people that
anyone who kills a Christian will go straight to heaven: that is
their message. They have burned churches; they have burned very old
books. They have damaged our crosses and statues of the Virgin Mary.
They are occupying our churches and converting them into mosques."
The
archbishop, who leads the Syriac Orthodox church in the UK, urged the
UK government to open the country's doors to those fleeing the
violence. "We are dying, 100%," he said. "The British
government needs to help people and to give them asylum. If they stay
here, they will be killed."
His
pleas were echoed by Patriarch Louis Sako, the Iraq-based leader of
the Chaldean Catholic church, who said that about 100,000 Christians
had abandoned their villages in the Nineveh plains earlier this week
after Isis launched mortar attacks. He asked the EU and the UN to
help them before it was too late.
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