BAGHDAD, IRAQ (ANS) — At least 11 people have died and dozens were rushed to hospitals following the largest ever terrorist attacks against Iraq’s minority Christians since the insurgency began, 15 months ago, reports said early Monday, August 2.
Jerusalem, Israel (ICEJ) — It was all smiles at the White House Tuesday as US President George W. Bush toned down expected criticism of Israel’s seam-line security fence and repeated his call for the Palestinian Authority to “dismantle†the terrorist infrastructure, angering the PA leadership and Islamic terror groups.
After 20 weeks in a Saudi jail for participating in prohibited Christian activities, Eritrean Christian Girmaye Ambaye was deported from Jeddah by plane back to his home country on Saturday, August 9.
The body of a Muslim convert to Christianity who went missing in mid-July, has been returned to his family, slaughtered and cut into four pieces by Islamic extremists, according to a report from the Barnabas Fund which monitored the incident.
Two and one-half weeks after an Ethiopian Christian was deported from Saudi Arabia for alleged “Christian activities,” a fellow Christian prisoner of Eritrean citizenship remains jailed in Jeddah.
An Arab convert to Christianity was killed in a bomb blast last night outside his Tripoli apartment, adjacent to the home of a European missionary family thought to have been targeted in the attack.
(MEMRI) — On April 26, 2003, the Islamic website Islam Online (1) hosted Wasef Mansour, a diplomat with the Palestinian mission in Morocco, in an online discussion titled “What Israel Gains From the Occupation of Iraq.” (2) During the discussion, Mansour held Israel responsible for the looting of museums and banks in Baghdad, called for Jihad against ‘the occupiers’ of Iraq, Palestine, and three cities under Spanish rule regarded by him as Moroccan, denied Israel’s right to exist, and compared President George W. Bush to Hitler and other tyrannical leaders. The following are excerpts from Mansour’s discussion with visitors to the website:
THE PALESTINIANS:
“Whether consciously or unconsciously, the Americans are paving a long, broad path for the death of tens of thousands, maybe even more, of their people. The American madness will bring nothing but counter-madness. They [Americans] have begun an era of destructive and lethal war for human beings in order to feed their aggressive military economic machine, and they will bear the responsibility for it.” Al-Ayyam (PA), April 10, 2003.
Jerusalem, Israel (Bridges for Peace) — Here in Israel, we have watched the interplay on the Iraq Crisis play out for months. On several occasions, it seemed that the war would start within days, and then a diplomatic detour put it off. Yet, all along, it was apparent that the battle would ultimately be fought if Saddam and his sons did not stand down and come clean on the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in Iraq. It was like a game of “hide and go seek” to watch UN Weapons Inspectors travel here and there, sometimes arriving just as trucks were leaving sites. More important than what was found during their inspections, is what was not found. The western nations that sold Hussein the raw materials or processing equipment to make his WMD know more than the public or the media what is there and what is missing and unreported.
Kurdish Christian Ziwar Mohammed Ismaeel was shot dead in front of his taxi stand last month in Zakho, the northern-most city in the Kurdish safe-haven of Northern Iraq.
“Prayer is everything! God brought us safely from Baghdad to Mosul/Dohuk and the many small Assyrian Christian villages in the north of Iraq,” writes Ken Joseph of a recent visit to northern Iraq.
Indian Christian, Prabhu Isaac, is due to be deported from Jiddah tonight after spending more than six months in Saudi prisons in connection with his Christian faith.
Jerusalem, Israel (Worthy News) — Just before 9 A.M. this morning at least 10 people were killed and 50 wounded when a bomb was detonated in a bus traveling down Gaza Road in Jerusalem, Israel. The explosion occurred near the home of Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, who was not home at the time, and also near the Moment Café, where 11 people were killed in a previous attack in March of 2002.
ISTANBUL, January 18 (Compass) — Less than 24 hours after armed gunmen kidnapped the Syrian Catholic archbishop of Mosul, the 66-year-old cleric was set free today unharmed.
While the Kurds of Northern Iraq are well known, for some reason almost completely ignored in the current discussion are 1.2 million Assyrian Christians living, many in their historic lands in Iraq.
Jerusalem (ICEJ) — While Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was getting battered at home, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was hosting Sharon’s chief opponent in the upcoming Israeli elections, Labor Party chairman Amram Mitzna. Blair said on Thursday that he would work toward reversing England’s restrictions on exporting security-related equipment to Israel.
Jerusalem (ICEJ) — Israeli politics reached a crescendo of scandal and media hype on Thursday night as embattled Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, walloped in the past week by accusations of wrongdoing, was cut off mid-sentence during a speech to answer charges of improper campaign financing in the 1999 elections.
Jerusalem (ICEJ) — Two Syrian soldiers crossed into the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights on Wednesday, the first reported infiltration since September 2001.
Jerusalem (ICEJ) — The web sites of the cult-UFO group, Rael, which claimed last week to have cloned a woman, are rife with potent anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli propaganda tucked among movement’s doctrines and cloning stories.
Jerusalem (ICEJ) — The Israeli Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the Central Elections Committee’s decision to disqualify two Arab Knesset members and the Balad party from running in the Jan. 28 election.