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Christians join new militia to combat ISIS in northern Iraq

December 5, 2014: The Assyrian Democratic Movement has announced the formation of the Nineveh Plain Protection Units, a militia largely comprised of Christian volunteers created to defend civilians from ISIS. The NPU also hopes to recapture land that was taken over by the terrorist organization.

There are reportedly between 500 and 1,000 Assyrian volunteers in training with the NPU, which was fomed by the Assyrian Democratic Movement, the primary political party of Assyrians in Iraq, according to Aletia.

“The mission of the NPU will be first to protect the remaining Assyrian lands from further attacks by ISIS, and then to participate in the necessary military campaigns to liberate the Assyrian homeland of the Nineveh Plain from these notorious terrorists,” reads a press release from the American Mesopotamian Organization, which is helping the project by raising awareness and support for the NPU.

“As a means of protection for themselves and other ethno-religious peoples under attack from ISIS, the Assyrian Democratic Movement is now actively recruiting and training young Assyrian volunteers for service in the Nineveh Plain Protection Units, readying them for combat with ISIS,” according to the press release.

David W. Lazar, a Baghdad native who runs the American Mesopotamian Organization, said that the program is being funded by “Assyrian communities in the diaspora,” specifically in the U.S. and Europe, and plans to eventually seek help from the U.S. and European governments.

“As the NPU grow in strength and size, they will become part of the official security forces of the proposed province, ensuring protection for the lands, homes and lives of Iraq’s minority populations,” according to the press release.

“They will be part of national guard, a project Iraq is putting together,” said Lazar. “We will be pushing for creation of Nineveh Plain Province because it’s our right.”

The units are being formed by Assyrian Christians out of frustration with the Iraqi government and military who they feel failed to protect them during the most critical times. They specifically hold the Kurds, a group that runs part of northern Iraq, responsible.

“Kurds told Christians: ‘Relax, stay in your house, we’ll take care of it.’ They got them to hand over their weapons, saying, ‘We can’t have a lot of weapons floating around; that might cause problems,’” claimed Jeff Gardner, who is helping the American Mesopotamian Organization with public relations.

While some Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters have been successful at pushing ISIS out of certain areas, including the village of Bakufa in northern Iraq, ISIS had driven the Christian population out of the area, which is comprised of 95 houses and is located 243 miles north of Baghdad.

However, after they took back the town, the Kurdish fighters began setting up village militia that was made up of about 70 volunteers. The militia, which is made up of many Christians, now patrol the area around the clock to keep the village free so that their families could return.

“We found ourselves helpless,” Caesar Jacob, deputy to the Christian militia’s commander, told The Associated Press. “We must defend ourselves to defend our land for now and the future.”

The Kurdish peshmerga fighters seem proud of their accomplishments in Bakufa.

“We came here to protect our Christian brothers and their homes,” said Abdul Rahman Kawriny, the local peshmerga brigade commander. “There is constant cooperation and assistance. We are always together.”

It is important to ensure safety once an area is cleared of ISIS, according to Michael Stephens, a Middle East expert at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies.

“One of the biggest problems is that when ISIS leaves an area, it leaves it full of roadside bombs and mines and traps everywhere, which makes the place uninhabitable for anybody who wants to move back,” he told Aletia.

The placement of bombs along roads, and inside homes and churches was also reported by The Christian Post in October.

Both sides of this fight will face a potential harsh winter and displaced people and refugees face an even greater challenge as the U.N. recently announced that its World Food Program ran out of funds and is cutting off its programs in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Egypt.

- christian post

Indian Shias are disappointed over restrictions due to ISIS threat

Delhi, December, 2014: The annual ritual of Arbaeen – it falls on December 12 this year – has commenced. Young and old, men and women, more than 20 million of them clad in black are marching towards the city of Karbala, south-west of Baghdad in Iraq. Chants of Labbaik Ya Husain (being at the service of Husain, the grandson of Prophet Mohammed) rent the air.

These mourners from Shia faith are visiting the shrine of Imam Husain, risking their lives to travel through Iraq, braving the threat of deadly attacks, which have in the past targeted the Shia community. Many pilgrims walk barefoot from the city of Najaf to cover a distance of 80 KM; some even take over 500 KM foot journey from the port of Basra to Karbala over two weeks. Braving the scorching sun and chilling nights, the pilgrims now also face threats passing through the ISIS – known as Islamic State – controlled areas.

Arbaeen marks the end of a 40-day mourning period following Ashura, commemorating the martyrdom of Husain, one of the Shia Islam’s most revered figures. He gave his life in saving Islam against the tyrannical rule of Yazid in 680 AD. Karbala is one of the holiest places for Shia Muslims as it holds the shrine of Imam Husain.

Millions throng to pay the respect to the bereaved Imam. Last year, more than 20 million people visited the shrine. This number is almost four times more than the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca. Easily, one of the largest annual religious peaceful congregations, only the Hindu pilgrimage of Kumbh Mela in India sees more pilgrims than this, but it is held once every three year.

While Arbaeen is an exclusive Shia spiritual exercise, Sunnis, Christians, Yazidis, Zoorastrians and people from other faiths also take part in both the pilgrimage as well as for serving the devotees.

The pilgrimage was banned during the regime of Saddam Husain but was reintroduced in 2003.

Security threats in Iraq

Many pilgrims have lost their lives during their pilgrimages to holy Karbala since 2003 in bombings and armed attacks. This year with ever-growing presence of the radicalized ISIS terror group, the threat is more extreme as many hardliners denounce Shias as Muslims and regard them as apostates; thus justifying their killing. They attack both the believers and their places of worship. Last year, the terror groups attacked the pilgrimage with suicide bombers and rockets leaving dozens dead.

Security forces in Iraq have been taking tougher measures to secure the routes for this year’s pilgrims, according to the Iraq state news agency. The police have increased the number of highway patrol and check points. They are working in tandem with the National Security, the Army and the Intelligence agencies to counter the attacks.

Shias in India

Shia is a minority but a growing community in India. In July, more than 6,000 Shias had applied for visa at the Embassy of Iraq for this annual pilgrimage and volunteering for the relief mission. Incidentally, many others from Sunni and Hindu communities joined in to be a part of the volunteers in facilitating the relief work for Shia community in Iraq.

The Indian government is sceptical in issuing visas to these pilgrims-cum-volunteers, apparently because of the security fear as ISIS has also listed India as one of their targets. It is also being reported that 40 missing Indians in Iraq have been shot dead by ISIS.

About two week ago, a Shia delegation known as Anjuman-e-Haideri flying to Iraq headed by a notable Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad was detained at the Delhi airport.

The Maulana, who clarified that they had taken prior permission from the Ministry of External Affairs and were going for the rehabilitation and relief work, later condemned the move. Mahmood Pracha, legal advisor of the delegation said, “The lookout circulars (LOC) issued against the delegates were illegal and so is the forcible abduction and detention of the delegates by Delhi Police.”

Anjuman has now written to the Prime Minster and the Home Minster seeking intervention. Bahadur Abbas Naqvi, general secretary of Anjuman-e-Haideri, told TwoCircles.net that the government has stopped a peaceful delegation that was going to voluntarily serve the pilgrims and to make a public statement that Muslims are against terrorism. “When Sri Sri Ravi Shankar can go, why was the delegation led by Maulana Kalbe Jawad denied permission,” he wondered.

Unrelenting Spirit

Even after the potential life threats, the devout defy the worst security conditions, terrorists’ threat. Every year the attacks take place but with each passing year, the pilgrims continue to grow in numbers. What moves them?

It’s the spirit to challenge terrorism and oppression that these worshippers have embodied from Husain, who defied tyranny, about 1400 years ago but continues to live among the hearts of billions of faithful.

Being at the service of Husain, expresses the idea of fighting for the justice and being on the side of the justice. Once again, ‘Labbaik Ya Husain’ is a slogan of believers who only worship Allah and thus they support the righteous slave of Allah – the Imam Husain. Just as Mahatma Gandhi had aptly summed up after achieving freedom for India “I learnt from Husain how to achieve victory while being oppressed.”

- tcn

500 Christians join BJP in Delhi

New Delhi, December9, 2014: The BJP’s Delhi unit on Sunday made a special membership drive among Christians ahead of state elections in the national capital and successfully enrolled some 500 Christians.

Atif Rasheed, president of Delhi BJP’s minority wing that organized the drive, said his people worked at four churches for two hours from 10 in morning and enrolled over 500 Christians, according to a report in the Indian Express.

The membership drive was at four churches including the Sacred Heart Church, the Catholic cathedral of Delhi archdiocese. The other churches were in Mandir Marg, Turkaman Gate and Kingsway Camp, he said.

During the drive, “over 500 people took membership” and “a similar drive will be carried out for next few Sundays in similar fashion,” said Rasheed.

The minority cell of the BJP, which always focuses on the Muslim community, has decided to reach out to other minority communities in the city, some reports said.

The BJP aims to enroll over 10,000 Christians in the party in next one month.

Delhi’s 70 assembly constituencies have some 500,000 Christians with voting rights and they are at the center of BJP strategy for the upcoming Delhi elections.

- new indian express

China: Why churches full and communists are furious

China, December, 2014: China’s Communist government has been on an anti-Christian rampage of late, tearing down churches in the coastal city of Wenzhou and elsewhere, arresting underground bishops and home church leaders, and illicitly ordaining pliant priests as Catholic “bishops”. But underneath this escalating campaign of repression — in fact, the reason for it — is a rapidly growing population of Christians.

There are now an estimated 100 million plus Christians in the world’s most populous country, with Catholics alone accounting for about 12 million of this number. Many of these are new converts who, eager to fulfill the Great Commission, are busy evangelizing their fellow Chinese citizens.

The Chinese Communist Party has been doing some recruiting of its own in recent years, opening its ranks to intellectuals, business owners, and other previously suspect classes — even capitalists! Still, the 86.7 million formal members of this decaying “faith” — most of whom are Communists in name only — are now outnumbered by a growing and vibrant Chinese Christianity.

For China’s leaders, who vastly prefer that the Chinese people believe there is no god but the Party (and remember: they are the Party), this is an intolerable situation. This latest wave of persecution is their answer. The good news is that Catholicism in China is on the rise nonetheless.

Let me share with you some of the many hopeful faces of the Catholic faith that I saw on a recent trip to China.

One is the face of a Catholic priest, serving as the pastor of a large parish near a major Chinese city, who is determined to save souls. As we sat in his office, he unrolled a drawing of a huge statue of Jesus. He intends to have it built in secret and then erected overnight on a pedestal overlooking the freeway that runs near his church. “How are you going to get permission from the authorities?” I said. “It’s Church land,” he said firmly, “I don’t need permission.”

There were no churches being torn down in the North China provinces I visited, but there were certainly churches being built. The thousands of churches that were torn down or confiscated on Party orders during the fifties and sixties have nearly all been rebuilt or refurbished, often with foreign donations. This includes the parish church at Dongergou in Shanxi province that I visited, where Masses have been held continuously for more than 220 years.

Many new churches have been built as well, sometimes with official permission, sometimes without. This is an area where the laity often takes the initiative. In one village, the parishioners — many of them new converts — were holding prayer meetings and occasional Masses, when a priest was able to be present, in an abandoned stable.

- ucan