Thursday, March 13, 2008

Chaldean Bishop found dead


BAGHDAD: The body of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop kidnapped in Iraq last month was found just outside the northern city where he was abducted, the auxiliary bishop of Baghdad said Thursday.
Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was seized in Mosul and three of his companions were killed Feb. 29 when gunmen attacked them soon after he left mass. It was the latest violence in what church members call a series of attacks against Iraq's small Christian community.
Monsignor Shlemon Warduni, the auxiliary bishop of Baghdad, told The Associated Press that the church in Mosul had received a phone call from the kidnappers on Wednesday telling them the archbishop had been killed. They also told church officials where they could find the body.
"We are hurt by this painful incident," Warduni told the AP.
A Mosul police officer and morgue official also confirmed that the body of the dead archbishop was found. Both men spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. read more

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Senseless and so very sad. God bless him and keep him.

Benfan

George said...

Well done 'the religion of peace'.

Another senseless murder notched up for 2008. How many more must die needlessly to satisfy the 'blood lust' of islam???? Is this really about a jihad until the whole world submits to allah???

Will these people ever come out of the 'dark ages'?

May the Lord have mercy on the good Bishop's soul.

Anonymous said...

Another heroic martyr..may he rest in peace...

nickbris said...

I can't help it but this is another one for BUSH and his gang

Anonymous said...

Why Europe wellcomes islam people, and honor them more than Christians?

Anonymous said...

Rest in Peace Father. I am really sad and feel hopeless as I heard the news that I expected from the moment that the lovely Bishop was kidnapped. My country was not like this we lived in peace with our Muslim neighbours and to this day many Iraqis of the Islamic faith are my friends. None of us can explain what is really going on in Iraq today. I want to make it clear that Iraq was a GREAT place to live until 1979 from then until this day it has got steadily worse.

I was never a supporter of Saddam Hussein but since this was a war of choice and not of self defence it would have been really nice if the American and British Governments and others who supported them have been more careful and took greater care in managing the aftermath of the war. I stress that life under Saddam was bad but it is rather sad and depressing state of affairs when I come to look at the dark days of Saddam as better than what we have now! Operation Iraqi Freedom merely replaced the Iraqi Hell under Saddam with the Iraqi Hell under Al-Qaeda and its supporters. The temperature of hell under Saddam was 500C it’s now 1500C.

Iraq has finished and in time it will fall apart and will become a number of smaller states. How democratic and friendly to the West will those new countries be I am not sure?

It is difficult for me to accept that what Iraq has today is Freedom and we are simply having a difficult birth. I have to tell you that Iraq and Iraqis since its birth in 1920 (current borders, etc) as a country (regardless of faith or race) have systematically been brutalised, occupied, raped, murdered and made refugees in their own land and elsewhere. Today in Iraq we are not served by faithful and loyal leaders rather treated even more badly than before and Iraq’s economy is mismanaged horrendously even when compared to Saddam’s stupid stewardship of the state of Iraq and its economy this lot could not even arrange to serve coffee at a café. My 7 year old kid could sincerely do a much better job. No gas, no petrol (yet we are talking about a country that supposedly has the second largest oil reserve after Saudi Arabia), no reliable clean drinking water (we now have Cholera), no phone system that actually works, no electricity, a health system that was once one of the best in the Middle East is now worse than most poor African Countries, teachers and University Professors leaving the country because they are constantly being killed. It is really upsetting that 5 years after the end of the brutal regime of Saddam we are MUCH, MUCH worse off as a nation with the exception of the Kurdistan province of Iraq. Even there this owes little if anything to the war of 2003, the Kurdish people who had been gassed by Saddam understandably welcomed the removal of the dictator yet if Kurdistan is such a great place then why are so many Iraqi Kurds still applying for asylum worldwide? The truth is that while by Iraqi standards Kurdistan is relatively safe it is still not a “bed of roses” and that the Kurdish government just like its counterpart in Baghdad is corrupt and only serves the interests of those related to the leaders, their family and friends.

I lived as a child in Basrah and it was a nice lovely place to live and I can tell you that ALL of our Muslim neighbours bar non were the salt of the earth, the nicest people you would ever wish or want to meet yet today poor Basrah is in a terrible state. It was not enough that it had to endure the worst action of the Iraq-Iran War and then the brutality of Saddam and the worst sanctions in the history of the UN it then got a real good “kick in” when the British Army (no less) left the city and left it to the murders Shia militias who are terrorising all the people (regardless of their faith). The British Army from the start was too soft and adopted a very strange posture, the British Army while obliged under all sorts of conventions to protect the people of the city, the British Army never got involved.

It is not good to simply mention the 2 elections that we have had since 2003 and while by most standards the elections were free and fair they did not bring about democracy. I say that because of a very curious system in Iraq which is called the “List” where you can have for example the Communists, the Conservatives, Labour, and Liberal Democrats in one list! The list that won both elections in Iraq was a Shia list which, had in it parties who would normally not even stay in the same city let alone in the same political list! The list contained parties that actually fought and still fight each other. However, they knew that they would win seats in the elections and therefore get their hands on money and power.

It is not wrong to criticise what is going on in Iraq today and I am not and was not a supporter of Saddam’s regime however, it is quite depressing that if you object to the horror that is Iraq today then those who supported the original decision of the war come back with arguments such as; it was not better before and it was even worse but it was not reported and the press today are only interested in bad news! The last time I saw and heard the news about any country and any place it was about reporting tragedy and not about opening a new school (this is the job of the local press usually). On the subject of good news I would be thrilled and delighted if today Iraq was no longer in the news because Iraq had become like Switzerland!

I am sorry for all my friends and the few family members who still live in Iraq today. I repeat this was a war of choice and not of self defence and those who had planned it had a duty to ensure that it went better and that the country did not have its present nightmare. I promise you that I cried (tears of joy) when I saw the statue of Saddam fall down and would have been thrilled (despite my objections and reservations about the decision to go to war) if Iraq had become the beacon of democracy and freedom and liberty that we were promised by President Bush and Mr Blair. It is particularly upsetting to me to see someone like Mr Blair now having such a great time and going around the world telling others how they should conduct themselves. Even the Catholic Church in England has fallen in love with Mr Blair (at least the good Cardinal has).

In the meantime Iraqi Christians will through persecution by various elements, including Islamic extremist and the wilful and deliberate negligence of the new Iraqi political elite will, without doubt be persecuted until we either leave Iraq all together or are exterminated by dying there.

Christianity first sprouted in the land that is now known as Iraq in the first century AD and yet we are strangers in our own land and not wanted elsewhere. I wish all Iraqis well and hope that God can help us today and every day. I pray for peace and for all the victims of the war.

Was it worth it? Tens of thousands dead {(if not more) on ALL SIDES), millions of refugees inside and outside Iraq and billions spent and above all terrorism has continued in Iraq and elsewhere. Was it worth the sacrifice? If I want to wish you true ill then I pray that you will get Freedom, Liberty and democracy Bush and Blair style. Tragedy has built its statue in Iraq and it’s not a woman welcoming you as you enter some harbour but it is rather the Grim Reaper waiting to scythe you down.

May the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace.

Tim Shamoon

Anonymous said...

Tragic news - may he rest in peace.

George said...

Tim Shamoon writes words that tear the human heart apart. Why? Why? Why? is a word that must be said over and over as mothers bury their sons, wives bury their husbands, the land of Iraq must be saturated with the tears of suffering of its people. I don't know what the answer is but pray that an end to this misery and cycle of violence comes sooner than later. Let there be laughter and joy among the children even if it is too late for the current adult generation. Surely Christian and Muslim alike want nothing more than peace to rebuild their country, take the kids to the parks to play football, ride a bike, go swimming in the pools, husbands and wives to walk hand in hand enjoying the coffee bars, cafes and sights of the cities and be allowed to pray in peace to their God. For indeed there is only ONE God. We must all pray that one day this may become a reality in this ancient and beautiful land - a land where my own grandfather, whom I never knew, died because of the tyranny of another 'time', and lies buried in an Iraqi WW11 cemetary.

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