Showing posts with label Current Issues: Arab Racism vs. Jews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Current Issues: Arab Racism vs. Jews. Show all posts
Christians In Iraq Flee North Before Christmas
REBECCA SANTANA | 12/18/10 04:15 PM | 
IRBIL, Iraq — They saw their brethren murdered during Mass and then were bombed in their homes as they mourned. Al-Qaida vowed to hunt them down. Now the Christian community of Iraq, almost as old as the religion itself, is sensing a clear message: It is time to leave.
Since the Oct. 31 bloodbath in their Baghdad church, Iraqi Christians have been fleeing Sunni Muslim extremists who view them as nonbelievers and agents of the West. At a time when Christians in various parts of the Muslim world are feeling pressured, Iraqi Christians are approaching their grimmest Christmas since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 and wondering if they have any future in their native land.
They have suffered repeated violence and harassment since 2003, when the interreligious peace rigidly enforced by Saddam Hussein fell apart. But the attack on Our Lady of Salvation in which 68 people died appears to have been a tipping point that has driven many to flee northward to the Kurdish enclave while seeking asylum in the U.S. and elsewhere.
What seemed different this time was the way the gunmen brazenly barged onto sacred ground, the subsequent targeting of homes by bombers who clearly knew every Christian address, and the Internet posting in which al-Qaida-linked militants took responsibility for the church attack and vowed a campaign of violence against Christians wherever they are.
Ban Daub, 51, narrowly survived the onslaught. She and her nephew were at prayer when they heard explosions. They escaped before five attackers stormed in, but many of their friends did not. A neighbor died clutching his son and daughter in his arms.
Days later a string of bombs went off outside Christian homes across Baghdad. Daub and her family packed a few belongings and headed to a Christian district called Ainkawa in this Kurdish city of Irbil.
"We are afraid for our sons and our children. There is no life in Baghdad for the Christians," she says.
Since 2003 no Iraqi religious or ethnic group has escaped violence. Tens of thousands died in bombings and street battles between minority Sunnis and the Shiites who supplanted them in power after Saddam Hussein, the longtime dictator, was toppled.
But like many of Iraq's minorities, Christians do not have political clout or militias.
IRBIL, Iraq — They saw their brethren murdered during Mass and then were bombed in their homes as they mourned. Al-Qaida vowed to hunt them down. Now the Christian community of Iraq, almost as old as the religion itself, is sensing a clear message: It is time to leave.
Since the Oct. 31 bloodbath in their Baghdad church, Iraqi Christians have been fleeing Sunni Muslim extremists who view them as nonbelievers and agents of the West. At a time when Christians in various parts of the Muslim world are feeling pressured, Iraqi Christians are approaching their grimmest Christmas since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 and wondering if they have any future in their native land.
They have suffered repeated violence and harassment since 2003, when the interreligious peace rigidly enforced by Saddam Hussein fell apart. But the attack on Our Lady of Salvation in which 68 people died appears to have been a tipping point that has driven many to flee northward to the Kurdish enclave while seeking asylum in the U.S. and elsewhere.
What seemed different this time was the way the gunmen brazenly barged onto sacred ground, the subsequent targeting of homes by bombers who clearly knew every Christian address, and the Internet posting in which al-Qaida-linked militants took responsibility for the church attack and vowed a campaign of violence against Christians wherever they are.
Ban Daub, 51, narrowly survived the onslaught. She and her nephew were at prayer when they heard explosions. They escaped before five attackers stormed in, but many of their friends did not. A neighbor died clutching his son and daughter in his arms.
Days later a string of bombs went off outside Christian homes across Baghdad. Daub and her family packed a few belongings and headed to a Christian district called Ainkawa in this Kurdish city of Irbil.
"We are afraid for our sons and our children. There is no life in Baghdad for the Christians," she says.
Since 2003 no Iraqi religious or ethnic group has escaped violence. Tens of thousands died in bombings and street battles between minority Sunnis and the Shiites who supplanted them in power after Saddam Hussein, the longtime dictator, was toppled.
But like many of Iraq's minorities, Christians do not have political clout or militias.
Arab Villagers Declare 'Jews Out!'
Another article exposing what the media won't: Arab Muslim hatred and racism toward Jews is far worse than the alleged Israeli bigotry.
Arab Villagers Declare 'Jews Out!'
by Gil Ronen
Kochav Segal HaLevi, a Jewish security guard, legally bought a house in the mixed Muslim-Christian Arab village of Ibillin in northern Israel, east of Haifa. Upon moving in, however, he discovered that the locals are unwilling to let Jews live there.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
It is a well known fact in Israel that Jews who try to live in Arab villages risk their lives, while Arabs live freely in Jewish neighborhoods. While leftist journalists and politicians, inside Israel and out, portray Israeli Jews as racist for fighting Arab invasions of their cities, stories like this one – which show Arabs' zero tolerance for Jews in their neighborhoods – appear almost exclusively on Arutz Sheva.
A legal purchase
"It was in late September,” HaLevi told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew-language news service. “I bought an apartment legally from a Christian Arab seller whose wife is Jewish, in the Christian part of Ibillin, near Shefaram. He sold the home because of debts to the bank, so the price was relatively low and I purchased the house.”
"It was in late September,” HaLevi told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew-language news service. “I bought an apartment legally from a Christian Arab seller whose wife is Jewish, in the Christian part of Ibillin, near Shefaram. He sold the home because of debts to the bank, so the price was relatively low and I purchased the house.”
"I moved my belongings in and received the key. Before I moved in I spoke with the neighbors and asked them if they had any objection to my coming to live there. They said no there was problem and 'ahlan wasahlan' (welcome). If you do not make trouble there is no problem with you living here.'”
"I was not motivated by a racist or provocative approach, but from a belief that we are 'a free nation in our land,'” HaLevi said, quoting a line from HaTikvah, the national anthem.
End of illusion
The illusion lasted only one day. “On my first day there I came home late in the evening, and entered the apartment. Two neighbors arrived – one from above and one from across the road. One was 'the good cop' and the other was 'the bad cop.' The neighbor from upstairs told me I can't live there because there is an eviction order from the bank. I told him I have no problem with the bank and that the matter has been settled already. Then the neighbor from across the road came and said forcefully 'you will not live here.'”
The illusion lasted only one day. “On my first day there I came home late in the evening, and entered the apartment. Two neighbors arrived – one from above and one from across the road. One was 'the good cop' and the other was 'the bad cop.' The neighbor from upstairs told me I can't live there because there is an eviction order from the bank. I told him I have no problem with the bank and that the matter has been settled already. Then the neighbor from across the road came and said forcefully 'you will not live here.'”
"I brought the seller and his wife there to explain matters to him but nothing helped and the situation became messy. That neighbor brought nine or ten other guys who told me – 'you will not live here.'”
HaLevi says the same neighbor who called in the other men had sat down with him for a friendly cup of coffee several days earlier, to welcome him. “He must have gotten a message from the neighbors that I was not to be allowed in. I tried to understand what I had done but he only said 'I am blocking you' and hit me in the head.”
Fight not over
"At that stage I said that I do not want bloodshed here and that I am leaving,” HaLevi recounted. “I took only the more expensive equipment from the house and that was how I managed to escape. The neighbor who made the threats boasted that his father was serving a jail sentence after shooting another neighbor in the head... and that he is not afraid to sit in jail because of me.”
"At that stage I said that I do not want bloodshed here and that I am leaving,” HaLevi recounted. “I took only the more expensive equipment from the house and that was how I managed to escape. The neighbor who made the threats boasted that his father was serving a jail sentence after shooting another neighbor in the head... and that he is not afraid to sit in jail because of me.”
HaLevi says the fight is not over. “I intend to continue fighting for my democratic right. I filed a complaint with the police but nothing is happening. A month has passed and the police are doing nothing. The man who threatened me is still free, one month later.”
"I am against racism of any kind,” he said, and said he intended to take the matter to court and would welcome any assistance he could get.
Scholars identify Ibillin with a Jewish village from Talmudic times called Avlayim.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
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