ACDP calls for action on ISIS beheading of children in Iraq

Children of a Christian family, who fled from the violence in Mosul two days ago, stay at a school in Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region June 27, 2014. Iraqi forces launched an airborne assault on rebel-held Tikrit on Thursday with commandos flown into a stadium in helicopters, at least one of which crashed after taking fire from insurgents who have seized northern cities. (PHOTO: Reuters/Ahmed Jadallah)
Children of a Christian family, who fled from the violence in Mosul two days ago, stay at a school in Arbil, in Iraq’s Kurdistan region June 27, 2014. Iraqi forces launched an airborne assault on rebel-held Tikrit on Thursday with commandos flown into a stadium in helicopters, at least one of which crashed after taking fire from insurgents who have seized northern cities. (PHOTO: Reuters/Ahmed Jadallah)
SA churches speak out: Obama says militant siege broken but Iraq mission not over yet

African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) Member of Parliament, Cheryllyn Dudley, on Monday (August 11, 2014) responded to shocking news reports saying that ISIS militants are carrying out the beheading of children in Iraq, says the ACDP in a media release.

National spokesman for Iraqi Christians and Chaldean-American businessman Mark Arabo last week told CNN’s Jonathan Mann that, “They are systematically beheading children, and mothers and fathers. The world hasn’t seen an evil like this for a generation. There’s actually a park in Mosul that they’ve actually beheaded children and put their heads on a stick”.

Dudley said that she will urgently call on President Jacob Zuma and International Relations Minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, to do everything they can to ensure the global community does not turn a blind eye to this horrendous situation.

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“I will also try to make contact with the Ambassador of Iraq in South Africa to find out more about the situation and how SA can be most helpful at this time.

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“The ACDP is appalled and heartbroken for families and communities and calls on the world to say NO to Islamic extremism, terrorism and cruelty”, she added.

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Boy cut in half, says Anglican leader in Iraq

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Canon Andrew White is known as the Vicar of Baghdad. (Facebook)
Canon Andrew White is known as the Vicar of Baghdad. (Facebook)

In one of the growing number of accounts of horror in Iraq, Canon Andrew White — known as the Vicar of Baghdad said ISIS militants brutally killed the young son of a founding member of Baghdad’s Anglican Church during an attack on the Christian town of Qaraqosh last week.

White told the Anglican Communion News Service that he baptized the 5-year-old boy several years ago, and his parents named the boy Andrew after him, reports Charisma News.

The boy, whose brother was named George after St. George’s Anglican Church in Iraq’s capital, was reportedly cut in half by the militants.

“I’m almost in tears because I’ve just had somebody in my room whose little child was cut in half,” White said. “I baptized his child in my church in Baghdad. This little boy, they named him after me—he was called Andrew.”

The boy’s father helped found the church in 1998 when White first came to Baghdad.

“This man, before he retired north to join his family, was the caretaker of the Anglican Church,” the canon said.

“This town of Qaraqosh is a Christian village so they knew everybody there was part of their target group,” explained White. “They [the Islamic State] attacked the whole of the town. They bombed it, they shot at people.”

ISIS, also known as the Islamic State, a ruthless offshoot of the al-Qaeda terrorist network, captured the town overnight Wednesday/Thursday last week.

“Sunni militants captured Iraq’s biggest Christian town, Qaraqosh, prompting many residents to flee, fearing they would be subjected to the same demands the Sunni militants made in other captured areas: leave, convert to Islam or face death,” Reuters reported today (Thursday, August 14).

The boy’s family—along with many others—has now fled to Irbil, ACNS said. But according to news reports, that could be the Islamic State’s next target.

As the militants take over parts of Iraq, the United Nations has said the nation could be facing a “humanitarian catastrophe.” White said Anglicans are working hard to provide relief to the Christians who have fled Mosul and Nineveh, as well as other minority groups targeted by the Islamic State.

“Anglicans are literally at the forefront of bringing help in this situation, and there’s no one else,” he said, adding that the church is providing food, water, accommodation and other relief items, thanks to financial support from overseas.

SA churches condemn purge of Christians
The Methodist Church of Southern Africa on Tuesday released a statement saying it strongly condemns the purge of Christians in Iraq byIslamic State jihadists

The church says: “The savage and brutal actions constitute a massacre/genocide against the Assyrian, Chaldean, Syriac ,Christian and Yazidi peoples of Iraq.  These indiscriminate killings and displacement of vulnerable religious and ethnic minorities as a means to establish a caliphate state run under the principles of Sharia and Islamic law are inhumane. The brutality and murder of people can never be justified as a means to an end.

“We also condemn ISIS’s complete disregard for everything democratic and all tenets of domestic and international law as well as basic human freedoms and rights.”

Bishop Siwa President of the SA Council of Churches and Presiding Bishop of the MCSA said: “We call upon all people of faith to stand up and speak out against so great a violation of human rights and dignity; for the international community to act in one accord and condemn in word and deed these savage actions that call to question our very freedoms enshrined in law,” said an enraged 

“We pray that conditions will be created for these native populations of Iraq to return to their homes and live a secure life free of discrimination, oppression, persecution and violence. Our thoughts and prayers are especially with the vulnerable; the children, the aged and the infirm; all those who are incapable of escaping this pogrom to find refuge in neighbouring countries.

“May God help us.”

The Catholic Church of Southern Africa said: “It is absolutely abhorrent that the Christian community of Iraq, a tradition that goes back almost 2000 years, is suffering expulsion from their country and martyrdom,” reports News 24.

In a statement released on Monday (August 11), the church says: “”As Catholic bishops of Southern Africa, we beg for religious tolerance in Iraq. We assure our Christian brothers and sisters of our deepest concern and we assure them that we have not and will never forget them.”

The church said it admired many of the great religious teachings of Islam, particularly their care for the poor and needy.

“We call on faithful Muslims who believe in our common humanity to plead with those driven by extremism to cease their oppression of deeply religious communities and to seek that peace which Islam itself endeavours to promote.”

On Monday, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that air strikes aimed at halting the advance of Sunni Islamic State militants in Iraq had been effective and the US was open to further requests for help.

Obama says airstrikes are helping victims
Fox News reports that President Obama announced today that US-led airstrikes have broken the siege by Islamic militants against religious minorities who were trapped on a mountain in northern Iraq — but made clear the US mission in the region is not over yet. 

The president, in brief remarks from Martha’s Vineyard where his family is on vacation, said he expects the specific operation at Mount Sinjar to wind down. He said military planners will be leaving in the coming days, aid drops will stop and a US-led evacuation is likely no longer needed. 

“The situation on the mountain has greatly improved,” Obama said. “We broke the ISIL siege of Mount Sinjar. We helped vulnerable people reach safety.” 

But Obama said US involvement will not come to an end, as militants with the Islamic State — also known as ISIS, or ISIL — continue to brutalize the civilian population in the region, especially minorities like Iraqi Christians and Yazidis. 

Obama said “we will continue airstrikes” where necessary to protect American personnel and facilities in Iraq. 

And he said the US is working with partners to provide humanitarian aid to “those who are suffering in northern Iraq wherever we have capabilities.” 

 

5 Comments

  1. Johann McFarlane

    “What is outrageous”, George Will wrote after the declaration of martial law in Poland in 1981,”is the absence of outrage” (Stott, 1984). It surely is noteworthy that the objections to what ISIS is doing is nothing compared to the outcry about what is happening in Gaza.

  2. You are so right, Johann. All evil must be condemned, no matter by whom it is inflicted. “Anger” is a Christian virtue when directed at the same things our holy God is angry at. The number of martyrs groan out to God “How long?” (Revelation 6:9-11) and we who live in reasonable security mingle the incense of our prayers with theirs, knowing the God is Just and controls the outcome for His ultimate glory (Revelation 5:8). We feel helpless … but we can and will pray! That is real help.

    • Hugh, I think we need more than prayer – we need action. Psalm 68:21 “Surely God will wound the head of his enemies…” Psalm 143:12 “And in Your loving kindness, cut off my enemies And destroy all those who afflict my soul” 2 Chronicles 15:12- hey entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul; and everyone who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman” Deuteronomy 13:13-19 and Deuteronomy 13:7-12 “If you find it is true and can prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock. Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn it. Put the entire town to the torch as a burnt offering to the LORD your God. That town must remain a ruin forever; it may never be rebuilt” and “…from one end of the earth to the other: do not yield to him or listen to him, nor look with pity upon him, to spare or shield him, but kill him”.
      It clearly states that any person who goes against God’s will or even questions His Almighty presence should be destroyed. Like the vicious and false doctrines of Islam which encourage death to unbelievers of their false god Allah, the time will come soon when God will strike down and obliterate the perpetrators of these ghastly acts of vengeance. Sign me up as warrior for Christ and I will willingly smite them down with God’s Sword.

  3. Thanks, Kenk, for raising an important aspect, one which I’ve long mulled over. When God commanded the massacre of whole towns of those who do not seek the LORD, does that mean that the Church must massacre all who will not believe in Jesus? If so, then we descend to the same level as ISIS who actually kill non-Muslims. A Muslim imam actually threatened to kill me, in a queue at our Pmb municipal offices. Because I would not convert to Islam I did not deserve to live. Fortunately I follow Jesus Christ, so I will pray for him and all Muslims (as I do, see Matt 5:43-48) and leave vengeance to God, who will repay (Heb 10:29-31, and see the prayers you quote from Ps 68:21, 143:12). The Church used the sword against Islam in the 12/13 century Crusades, and this has hardened the hearts of many Muslims against Christians to this day. We must not take the sword into our own hands: we fight a spiritual battle (2 Cor 10:3,4; Eph 6:12-20). God has authorised government (the State) to use the sword as His servant to ensure Justice(Rom 13:4), and so, Kenk, your courageous offer should lead you to volunteer with those governments, or UN, who should use military force to fight ISIS.

    Back to where we started: The OT Scriptures that command ethnic cleansing and genocide cannot be transposed into our NT Christian context. Exegesis requires a sound hermeneutic that takes Progressive Revelation into account, and recognises the distinctions between the Old and New Covenants.

  4. There mere fact that your life was threatened by an imam only corroborates my theory and commitment that we need more than prayer to rectify the current global crisis brought on by Satan and his followers. The teachings of the Old Testament cannot be discarded and the concept of ‘progressive revelation’ is what it is – a theory.Even in Matthew 5:18 Jesus did not contradict the Old Testament law – rather he fulfilled it. If God allows man to continue interpreting the scriptures to accommodate the changes in the modern world, you can be assured the Christian faith will slowly be eradicated by false gods and forces of Satan like al-qaeda, ISIS, Taliban, Mormons, Hamas, Watchtower and Scientologists. How long should we sit back and wait for the day Our Lord Jesus return and Armageddon? The UN, NATO forces together with other Communist and Marxist governed states have no inclination in protecting the God fearing nations from global Satanic domination. It will require a mass movement of like-minded powerful Christians to defend God’s honour and name and we can be assured that the Lord God will not deny us victory.