By Blanca Ruiz
Erbil, Iraq, Jan 9, 2015 / 12:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Archbishop Emil Nona is the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul, the Iraqi city overrun by the Islamic State last summer. Since then, he has brought the voice of the Christians of Iraq to the West.”For us the faith is everything. It is our life, our identity, our history and our way of life. We can’t separate ourselves from our faith in any way,” Archbishop Nona told CNA. “Our faith, which has been in this land for more than 2,000 years, cannot come to an end so easily.”
He speaks with the clarity of someone who knows that without international help soon, more of the region will become territory of the Islamic State. Christians will have to abandon Iraq for good in order to save their lives and escape persecution and they will leave behind a land where Catholics have been present for more than 2,000 years.
The Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul said, “Most Christians plan to leave Iraq because they thought the crisis would be short-lived and after we would return to our homes, but this has not been the case. There have been no positive signs in the last six months that our land will be liberated. The Islamic State is becoming increasingly stronger.”
No plans for liberation
Although shortages are widespread in Iraq, thanks to Aid to the Church in Need shelter is being provided for more than 120,000 displaced Christians in northern Iraq. There temperatures in the winter drop to single digits, and so large tents have been set up so families can come together and stay warm. Space is limited but the people are grateful not to be exposed to the elements.
In addition, help from Aid to the Church in Need made it possible for thousands of refugee children to receive a Christmas present, and plans are underway to set up schools so that children can continue studying until the situation becomes normal again.
The shortages are widespread, but what this group of Christians lacks most isn’t material things, but hope, as there are no signs things will improve.
“They have lost faith in their land, where they have lived for thousands of years. They have lost faith in Muslim society because they helped loot our homes. Now they live in waiting, not knowing what is going to happen. The only thing they haven’t lost is their Christian faith. We are proud because none of the 120,000 people in this area has converted to Islam,” the archbishop explained.
Faced with the choice of converting to Islam or death, the Christians of Mosul have preferred to die rather than deny the faith.
In this desperate situation, Christians there do not complain or cry out to God for justice. “When something like this happens, we in the East thank God for everything. Because we know well that man is the cause of this problem, not God. In this situation, the existence of God is more necessary than ever, the presence of God is more powerful,” Archbishop Nona said.
“When there is such brutal violence on the part of man, the presence of God is even stronger, because He is good. We believe even more, because it is more necessary than ever to believe amidst a situation as extreme as this one.”
The question of where is God in this persecution is a question “only you in the West pose. In the East we never ask that question. For us faith is enmeshed with our identity and the faith cannot be separated from our identity.”
These martyrs of the faith only ask that the rest of the world not forget about them, about their suffering, about the injustice they have endured each day for more than six months. For this reason, whenever they receive help it means much more than just a solution to the lack of shelter or food.
“This aid is not only material but also shows that other Christians have not forgotten about us and experience the needs of Christians in Iraq as their own. We cannot ask them to stay in their land suffering if we do not help,” Archbishop Nona said.
“We can’t know what will happen but up to now we have not seen any positive signs that our land and peoples will be liberated. Islamic militants are in the city of Mosul, on the Nineveh plain, in much of Iraq, but the Iraqi army does nothing to liberate these lands. We do not know the exact reason why we are not liberated and why there are only air raids. Up to now we haven’t seen any region liberated, much less any plans for liberation,” Archbishop Nona said.
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DNA Confirms: Here Lieth Richard III, Under Yon Parking Lot
DNA Confirms: Here Lieth Richard III, Under Yon Parking Lot
The king’s genes also raise some royally embarrassing questions about the legitimacy of the Tudors who ended his reign.
On the left a photo of the skull. On the right a photo of a wood engraving of Richard III.
Researchers conservatively estimate that the chances of the skull at left not being that of Richard III (right) are 6.7 million to 1.
Photographs by University of Leicester and Universal History Archive, Getty Images
Dan Vergano
National Geographic
Published December 2, 2014
Ancient bones discovered under a parking lot have been confirmed as those of the medieval king Richard III, through a DNA test that also raises questions about the legitimacy of Henry VIII and other famous English royals.
The team of genetics detectives reported Tuesday that DNA from the skeleton shows that the bones were Richard III’s, with a probability of 99.9994 percent. This is the first genetic identification of a particular individual so long after death—527 years.Archaeologists had peeled back a parking lot in 2012 to excavate the skeleton, which was among buried relics of the Greyfriars Friary in Leicester, England, long the reputed burial site of Richard III. (See “The Real Richard III.”)
Most people know the hunched-shouldered king through Shakespeare’s play Richard III, in which the maligned ruler utters such memorable lines as “Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by this son of York,” and “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!”
Earlier this year, a forensic study of the remains revealed that the doomed king—the last English monarch to die in combat—suffered 11 wounds at the time of his death, in a 1485 battle with the Tudors that ended England’s War of the Roses
But there had been lingering questions about whether the skeleton was really that of Richard III.
“The evidence directly indicates that these are the remains of Richard III,” says geneticist Turi King of the University of Leicester in the U.K., who led the team reporting the results in the journal Nature Communications. (Related: “Richard III Mania: Understanding a Kingly Obsession.”)
The scientists examined DNA inherited along maternal lines, known as mitochondrial DNA, from two distantly related modern-day relatives of Richard III’s sister. That DNA is a near perfect match for the maternal genes of the hunchbacked skeleton buried at the friary. What’s more, the DNA was “unusual,” King adds, containing stretches that don’t quite match anything in registries of European genes.
A statistical analysis led by David Balding and Mark Thomas of University College London took those genetic results and calculated the chances that a man of Richard III’s age with battle wounds and a curved spine could turn up at Greyfriars and not be the slain king. They conservatively estimated that chance at 6.7 million to 1.
“It is surprising how many people initially argued that these skeletal remains weren’t those of Richard III,” says bioanthropologist Piers Mitchell of the U.K.’s University of Cambridge, who was not part of the study team. “Well, here it is.”
In 2012 archaeologists peeled back a parking lot to excavate this skeleton, buried among relics of the Greyfriars Friary in Leicester, England. Photograph by University of Leicester
Photo of the skeleton at the burial site.
In 2012 archaeologists peeled back a parking lot to excavate this skeleton, buried among relics of the Greyfriars Friary in Leicester, England.
via DNA Confirms: Here Lieth Richard III, Under Yon Parking Lot.
In Response to “Pope urges Muslim leaders to condemn violence “
Submitted on 2014/12/01 at 8:08 pm in response to“Pope urges Muslim leaders to condemn violence “ by Sergei Bourachaga
“At the end of his three-day visit to Turkey Pope Francis said that he understood how Muslims were offended by the stereotype that equates Islam with terrorism. “They say: ‘No, we are not this, the Koran is a book of peace, it is a prophetic book of peace. This is not Islam,’” he said.
Turkish Muslim academics and researchers from “The Centre For European Studies” at Istanbul Bilgi University, pointed out to the western media, at the end of Pope Benedict XVI visit to Turkey in 2006, that “the only thing that will change the attitude of Turkey’s Muslims toward its Christians, is if we take all of the school text books, including the Koran, that teach Muslim kids to hate Christians and burn them”.
Turkish president Erdogan supported the previous notion of the Turkish academics by showing his contempt of the West in linking directly Islamic Terrorism on growing anti-Muslim sentiments in Europe and America, and the growing Western conspiracies to dominate the Middle East. Erdogan insisted during Pope Francis’ visit to Istanbul that there was a “very serious and rapid trend of growth in racism, discrimination, and hatred of others, especially Islamophobia in the West.”
Let us analyze closely the following verses from The Koran and see who hates the “OTHERS” more, the West or Islam:
“Know that we send down to the unbelievers (Jews and Christians) Devils who incite them to evil. Therefore have patience: their days are numbered”. Koran 19:87
This verse is often chanted during the beheading rituals we often see on radical Islamic websites. For the pious Muslim beheading his defenceless hostage, it is an act of heroic proportion, because he is slaughtering the Devil incarnated in the human form of an Infidel.
“Satan has gained possession of The People of The Book (Jews and Christians) and caused them to forget Allah’s warnings. They are the confederates of Satan; Satan’s confederates shall assuredly be lost in hell. The Believers are the confederates of Allah (Hizbollah); and Allah’s confederates shall surely triumph”. Koran 58:19
Another verse recited frequently in the background of beheading rituals, to reinforce the view that by slaughtering Christians and Jews, a pious Muslim is killing Satan not an innocent captive.
“We will put terror into the hearts of the unbelievers (Jews and Christians). They serve other Gods for whom no sanction has been revealed. Hell shall be their home; dismal indeed is the dwelling place of the evil-doers”. Koran 3:149
A verse often used by Salafist radicals to spread terror and encourage Muslims to kill indiscriminately innocent children, women, and seniors attending a wedding or using the public transit system. After all Jews and Christians worship Gods that have not been sanctioned by the Allah of Islam, and they are all classified as evil-doers who shall perish in an earthly hell of Muslim design, make, and timing.
“Do you fear the unbelievers (Jews and Christians)? Surely Allah is more worthy of your fear. If you are true believers make war on them; Allah will chastise them through you and humble them. He will grant you victory over them and heal the spirit of the faithful”. Koran 9:14
A favorite passage of Hizbollah fighters in Lebanon, who scored with the help of Allah a “Divine Victory” against the mightiest army in The Middle East (IDF 2006). Hassan Nasrallah, the supreme leader of The Hizbollah movement in Lebanon exploits this passage extensively in his fiery speeches to remind his followers that Allah’s will for the believer is very clear; his or her primary religious duty should be to wage war on the Jewish State of Israel to liberate Jerusalem, destroy Christian unbelievers who sustain the existence of Israel, and thus impose on the “Kouffar” Allah’s agenda for the salvation of humanity.
“Cast into hell every hardened unbeliever, every opponent from the people of the book (Jews and Christians), and every doubting transgressor who has set up another God besides Allah. Hurl him into the fierce tormenting flames of hell”. Koran 50:21
Suicide bombers use this verse (in videos taped prior to their heroic operations) to justify the blowing up of their explosive charges on buses and in a variety of public places frequented by Jews and Christians. By becoming a “Shahid” (Arabic for martyr) and securing a place in Allah’s heavenly kingdom, the suicide bomber is hurling his victims (hardened unbelievers) into the fierce tormenting flames of hell-the inferno created by the explosion in a confined space.
Believers, do not make friends with any men other than your own people. They will spare no pains to corrupt you. They desire nothing but your ruin. Their hatred is clear from what they say, but more violent is the hatred which their breasts conceal”. Koran 3:117
These verses are used extensively every Friday, in dozens of mosques located in major capitals such as London, Paris, Brussels, Spain, Toronto…to deepen the schism between Muslims and non-believers, and insulate them from any arguments that may challenge radical Islamist narratives. The time has come to reinforce the key principle that no democracy has any legal or moral obligation to tolerate the intolerable, including Muslim presidents like Erdogan.
And to all Western apologists who believe that tolerance should remain one of the most distinct characteristics of democracies, I invite them to reflect on the following statement of British novelist
Dorothy Sayers:“In this world it is called Tolerance, but in hell it is called indifference, the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die.” ”
Sergei Bourachaga
Searching for Muhammad -Robert Spencer- Part 3 of 4
Truth & Anonymous Charity – Pope Pius XII – The Documented Truth
Gary Krupp- Pope Pius XII – Documentation – interview
Here is an amazing interview setting the record straight about Pope Pius XII and WW II. Gary Krupp, a Jew who grew up hating Pius XII providentially discovers documents that turned him about and set him on a crusade to proclaim the Pope’s heroism and love for the Jewish people:
podcast via Foundationstone.org
Pope Pius XII and World War II- The Documented Truth
Be Holy! 