Iraq: Houses blown up as Christians flee Iraq's Mosul

* Looks like Christian militias didn’t make much of a splash. Could it be  because they are not commanded by Allah to kill and die until all  the world is Christian? Or is it that Muslims are commanded to wipe out the unbelievers? Yusuf, what say you?

900 Christian families leave Mosul after 13 murders in 2 weeks

                    

Christians protest in Mosul last month ahead of elections. An official says protests may have led to the attacks. (Christians are expected to be good dhimmies and not to demonstrate in the Islamic state/ed)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — At least 900 Christian families have fled Mosul in the past week, terrified by a series of killings and threats by Muslim extremists ordering them to convert to Islam or face possible death, officials said Saturday.  More

                           Iraq’s Christian Militias/from Islam Online

          Update: 3,000 Christians Flee Muslim Death Squads

(Mosul, Iraq) Jawa Report: Apparently the moderate Muslim population is not demanding peace and tolerance toward Christians in Mosul. Instead, the Christians are being killed.

Some 3,000 Christians have fled the city over the past week alone in a “major displacement,” said Duraid Mohammed Kashmoula, the governor of northern Iraq’s Ninevah province. He said most have left for churches, monasteries and the homes of relatives in nearby Christian villages and towns. 

“The Christians were subjected to abduction attempts and paid ransom, but now they are subjected to a killing campaign,” Kashmoula said, adding he believed “al-Qaida” elements were to blame and called for a renewed drive to root them out.

Call me torn. The media and political leaders repeatedly contend that extremists are only a tiny fraction of the Muslim population yet the tiny fraction is somehow able to violently force a mass exodus of Christians from a major city. 

One might conclude the deadly conditions provide proof that there likely exists no significant number of moderate followers of the religion of peace in Mosul. They must reside in other cities.

 

More on this story. “Christians flee Iraqi city after killings, threats, officials say,” by Mohammed Tawfeeq for CNN, from DW

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — At least 900 Christian families have fled Mosul in the past week, terrified by a series of killings and threats by Muslim extremists ordering them to convert to Islam or face possible death, officials said Saturday.

Houses blown up as Christians flee Iraq’s Mosul

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) – Militants blew up three empty Christian homes on Saturday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, where more than 800 Christian families have fled in the past two days, a Christian member of parliament said.

The attacks may have been prompted by Christian demonstrations ahead of provincial elections, which are to be held by the end of January, the deputy governor of Nineveh province said.

Deputy Gov. Khasro Goran said 13 Christians have been slain in the past two weeks in Mosul, about 260 miles (420 kilometers) north of Baghdad. Fleeing Christians have sought refuge in monasteries and churches and with family members in other towns, an Interior Ministry official said.

The attacks began after hundreds of Christians took to the streets in Mosul and surrounding villages and towns, seeking greater representation on provincial councils, whose members will be chosen in the local elections.

Duraid Mohammed Kashmoula, Nineveh’s governor, told The Associated Press that the exodus was “a major displacement.”

“Of course, al Qaeda elements are behind this campaign against Christians,” Kashmoula told AP.

The Interior Ministry official said the homes of three families were destroyed with explosives Saturday after the occupants left. No injuries were reported.

A week ago, leaflets were distributed in several predominantly Christian neighborhoods, threatening families to “either convert to Islam or pay the jizyah or leave the city or face death,” said the Interior Ministry official.

Historically, jizyah is a tax paid by non-Muslims in exchange for protection.

One wonders if the author realizes how appropriately mob-like the “protection” explanation comes across in the context of this story. Anyway, this demand is, of course, in accordance with Qur’an 9:29: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”

Goran said that a few days after the leaflets were passed out, gunmen set up checkpoints in parts of Mosul, stopping vehicles to inspect identification papers, searching for Christian names or other signs of religious affiliation. Many of the Christians killed were targeted in this way, he said.

Bashir Azoz, 45, told AP he fled his Mosul home after gunmen warned a neighbor to leave or be killed.

“Where is the government and its security forces as these crimes take place every day?” asked Azoz, a carpenter who is staying with his wife and three children in a town about 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Mosul, according to AP.

The Rev. Bolis Jacob, of Mosul’s Mar Afram Church, told AP he couldn’t understand the attacks.

“We respect the Islamic religion and the Muslim clerics,” he said. “We don’t know under what religion’s pretexts these terrorists work.”

Goran said police have set up security checkpoints in Christian neighborhoods.

In response to the violence, Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul Qader al-Obaidi visited Mosul on Saturday morning, conducting meetings with local authorities and military commanders.

His spokesman, Mohammed al-Askari, said that in addition to ordering more checkpoints in Christian neighborhoods, al-Obaidi ordered more troops deployed, additional security patrols and an increase in aerial surveillance of Christian areas.

Al-Obaidi also ordered more guards for Christian clerics, al-Askari said.