In Iraq, Christian Militia Battles Islamic State Militants: 'ISIS Terrorists Are Our Enemy'

Muslim militias aren’t the only forces taking on the Islamic State group as it continues its spread across Iraq. Christians driven from their homes in Mosul by the fighting have also formed their own brigade, battling alongside anti-ISIS Muslim militias in hopes of exacting revenge and taking back their city.

"[They] displaced us from our houses, they took our money, killed our young men and women and they took our properties," the group's commander, Rayan Al-Kildani, told NBC News. "Therefore, Christians decided to fight the terrorists of ISIS."

The militia, about 1,000 men strong, calls itself the Bablyon Brigades. It is the only Christian formation within the Popular Mobilization Forces, which is an almost exclusively Shiite umbrella of brigades backed by the Iraqi and Iranian governments to fight ISIS. The Babylon Brigades formed in June 2014, immediately after Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, fell to the Sunni extremist group.

"ISIS terrorists do not differentiate among Christians, Muslims, Sunnis and Shiites – they kill everyone," Al-Kildani told NBC. "We have to help our Muslim brothers liberate Iraq."

Christians wanting to take up arms against ISIS, and lacking foriegn backers, are increasingly turning toward Shiite militias, as International Business Times reported from Lebanon earlier this year.

Fighters who spoke with NBC said Iraq had a strong history of religious coexistence – a peace that was brutally upended as ISIS pushed some 125,000 Christians from their homes in a 10-month span, according to CBS News. When ISIS took over Mosul, they demanded Christians convert, be subjected to a crippling tax or leave the city by foot. Subsequently, significant Christian artifacts, along with homes and businesses, were pillaged and destroyed.

For the first time in 2,000 years, there are no Christians left in Mosul, as the city became an early warning of what ISIS control would mean for other cities cross Iraq and Syria that would later fall to its forces. ISIS imposed a stringent interpretation of Islamic law and responded to dissent with harsh corporal punishment and execution.

"I found myself in a position to fight in order to restore what we lost," Yousef Hani Shamon, a 27-year-old Christian who fled the city by foot, told NBC. "ISIS terrorists are our enemy. They targeted our religion, and that is why I have to fight them."

This month, Shiite militias and the Iraqi military launched a counter-offensive to recapture Anbar province in the west from ISIS. Much of the fighting has focused on the outskirts of Fallujah, a strategically important city whose capture could signal a significant turning point for the anti-ISIS forces. It was unclear whether the Christian brigade was involved in any of the recent fighting in Anbar, a mainly Sunni region.

19 Christians Released by ISIS

The Islamic State group released at least 19 Christians on Sunday who were among the more than 220 people the militants took captive in northeastern Syria last week, activists and a local leader said.

The news provided a modicum of relief to a Christian Assyrian community that has been devastated by the abductions, which saw Islamic State fighters haul off entire families from a string of villages along the Khabur River in Hassakeh province. But fears remain over the fate of the hundreds still held captive.

Bashir Saedi, a senior official in the Assyrian Democratic Organization, said the 16 men and three women arrived safely Sunday at the Church of the Virgin Mary in the city of Hassakeh. He said the 19 — all of them from the village of Tal Ghoran — had traveled by bus from the Islamic State-held town of Shaddadeh south of Hassakeh.

The Assyrian Human Rights Network also reported the release, and published photographs on its Facebook page that it said were from Hassakeh showing a crowd dressed in winter coats greeting the returnees.

The photos appeared genuine and corresponded to Associated Press reporting.

It was not immediately clear why the Islamic State group freed these captives.

Saedi said all those released were around 50 years of age or older, which suggests age might have been a factor. The Assyrian Human Rights Network, meanwhile, said the captives had been ordered released by a Shariah court after paying an unspecified amount of money levied as a tax on non-Muslims.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said a Shariah court had ruled the captives be freed, but the reasoning behind the decision was unknown.

The fate of the more than 200 other Christian Assyrians still in the Islamic State group's hands remains unclear. Most of them are believed to have been taken by Islamic State fighters to Shaddadeh, which is located 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Hassakeh.

Assyrian leaders and Sunni tribal sheikhs have begun reaching out to the Islamic State group to try to negotiate the release of the captives, activists said.

"We're trying to contact any party that might help. We're working through our friends the tribal sheikhs," said Younan Talia, a senior official in the Assyrian Democratic Organization. "Some friends of Daesh are trying to send messages."

Talia said there has been no response yet. Daesh is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

The Sweden-based director of the Assyrian Network for Human Rights in Syria, Osama Edward, also said efforts were underway to try to negotiate the captives' release.

The abductions have added to fears among religious minorities in both Syria and Iraq, who have been repeatedly targeted by the Islamic State group. During the militants' bloody campaign in both countries, where they have declared a self-styled caliphate, minorities have been repeatedly targeted and killed, driven from their homes, had their women enslaved and places of worship destroyed.

The Islamic War on Christianity

The media is currently very focused on the very real persecution of Jews in parts of Europe and the perceived persecution of Muslims that is being foisted onto the world stage as an effort to criminalize “Islamophbia.” While the former is serious and the latter is carefully orchestrated propaganda, almost no one is talking about the very real genocide that is occurring in the Middle East and Africa. 

The genocide is of Christians and is occurring to such an extent that Christianity is becoming extinct in the very areas where it began. Here is a small sample of the Christians in the Middle East and Africa that have been tortured and murdered by Islamists in the past few months. The scope of the attacks can only be called genocide and show that we are in the midst of a holocaust of Christians.

Niger: 40 Churches have been torched and 10 Christians killed on Christmas Day. The attacks were blamed on Charlie Hebdo.

Nigeria: 8000 Christians are murdered by Boko Haram.

Nigeria: 200,000 Christians face slaughter in the city of Maiduguri as the city faces attack by Boko Haram. This doesn’t take into account the over 100,000 that have already fled. Entire regions of Nigeria are now devoid of Christians.

Nigeria: Nearly 300 Christian teenage girls were kidnapped by Boko Harem and sold into sex slavery.

Nigeria: Boko Haram bombed a Christian high school in Potiskum, killing 48 children.

Saudi Arabia: Bringing in or distributing a Bible in Saudi Arabia is now punished with beheading.

Nigeria: Members of the Islamic Fulani tribe murdered 15 Christians including a mother and her 1-year-old infant.

Nigeria: Boko Harem ignited a bomb in the majority Christian area of Jos, killing 31.

Egypt: Masked gunmen robbed and shot a Christian man in the head for being a Christian.

Libya: 7 Christians were found executed in Benghazi.

Libya: Dozens of Christians were tortured by an Islamic militia in Libya: Members of Ansar al-Sharia murder a Christian girl’s parents in front of her, then murder her as well.

Libya: 21 Christians were beheaded by ISIS. Afterwards they released the following message:

All Christian centers, organizations and institutions, leaders and followers, are legitimate targets for the mujahedeen (holy warriors) wherever they can reach them… Let these idolaters [Christians of the world], and at their forefront, the hallucinating tyrant of the Vatican [Pope Benedict], know that the killing sword will not be lifted from the necks of their followers until they declare their innocence from what the dog of the Egyptian Church [Pope Shenouda] is doing.

Libya: Unidentified men broke into a Christian household the middle of the night. They handcuffed and killed the father, according to his brother-in-law during an interview. Then they entered the children’s bedroom. The mother was there, cried out, tried to fight back, and was killed. They took the oldest daughter, Katherine, and fled with her. The girl’s body was later found in the desert, shot three times. The other two younger daughters were left for two-and-a-half hours in their bedroom with the body of their slain mother.  

In the early morning, they fled the house and ran toward their school where they were intercepted by the principal who asked them, “Why are you coming to school alone today? Where’s your father?” They answered, “Daddy is in heaven.”

Libya: 20 Christian men and a Christian 14-year-old girl were kidnapped by ISIS. It is suspected the men are being tortured and the girl has been forced to convert to Islam before being married off.

Somalia: Eight Islamic gunmen infiltrated the main African Union base in Mogadishu and killed three peacekeepers and a civilian contractor. Later, the Islamic group Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had killed 14 peacekeepers whom it described as “Christian enemies”: “We targeted the enemies at a time they were celebrating Christmas,” said Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, spokesman for Al Shabaab. Western diplomats who were celebrating Christmas in Mogadishu were evacuated to safety bunkers until the raid was over. Witnesses reported hearing bomb blasts and volleys of gunfire throughout the day.

Kenya: Gunmen from the Islamic organization Al Shabaab launched an early morning raid on quarry workers while they slept in their work site tents near the city of Mandera, along the Somali border. Christians and Muslims were separated before the Christians, thirty-six of them, were beheaded or shot dead. Afterwards, Al Shabaab posted a statement condemning the “crusaders”—a standard jihadi reference to Christians—and added: “We are uncompromising in our beliefs, relentless in our pursuit, ruthless against the disbelievers and we will do whatever necessary to defend our Muslim brethren suffering from Kenya’s aggression.”

Kenya: Two Muslims approached and shot a Christian man to death as he was entering his church.

Kenya: Al Shabaab terrorists stop a bus and separate the passengers into Muslims and non-Muslims. The non-Muslims, including 19 Christians, were shot in the head.

Kenya: Al-Shabaab terrorists separate 28 Christians from Muslims and then shoot them in the head.

Lebanon: Christian towns in Lebanon are under threat for attack by a group of 3,000 Sunni jihadists.

There is a “new death triangle for ISIS,” Lebanese Interior Minister Mouhad al-Machnouq said recently, “stretching from the barren Lebanese lands of Arsal to the Palestinian Ein al-Hilweh refugee camp and Roumieh prison (in east Beirut), reaching Iraq and Raqqa,” the ISIS caliphate capital in Syria.

Portion-of-Imam-Abudalah-Alis-statement-disowning-his-daughter-for-conversion-to-Christ.-Morning-Star-New

Uganda: An Imam beat his 15-year-old daughter to death and severely injured his 12-year-old daughter for converting to Christianity.

Syria: ISIS kidnaps Christians (and others) and harvest their organs while they are still alive.

Iraq: ISIS has converted churches in Mosul into torture chambers where Christians are tortured until they convert to Islam.

Iraq: ISIS kidnaps 4 Christian children and try to convert them to Islam. When they refuse the children are beheaded.

Pakistan: Muslims take a young Christian girl and smash her against rocks in front of her father until she dies.

ISIS and its Horrific War Against Christianity!!

must see...in God's name why?

http://tinyurl.com/p69u466

Sindhi Youth Ignored

Former federal Minister MNA Shahid Hussain Bhutto has said that the youth of Sindh equally talented ignoring them is injustice, those who say that sindhis are not able they are mistaken its in fact inferiority of their thinking. Speaking at the annual function of Knowledge Centre Larkana (KCL) former Federal Minister Shahid Hussain Bhutto said that whenever a chance have been given to the people of Sindh they have got prominence in whole of the world on the basis of their merit. The debating contest on ‘Brain is better than beauty’ and the cultural programme was also components of the function. On the occasion, Dr. Sain Rakhio Mirani, DIG police Larkana said that those people who work for the development and peace in the society they are beautiful because beauty is not only outer appearance but behaviors and character as well. Whereas, the taking part in the debating competition the students spoke in the favour of both the brain and beauty. Favoring the brain ‘they said the brain has enabled the human being to make wonders in the field of science and technology. The brain has helped men to face the challenges of the nature, the brain has empowered us to subjugate the most dangerous animals on the earth, and it has given human a confidence to manufacture the life saving drugs, defend against our enemies, control the temperature and invent way and means to live comfortably and happily in this world. It is brain not beauty which has made the nations most prosperous, prominent and powerful. The other student claimed that beauty is better than brain they argued that there is not a single example in the history that beauty has caused any conflict, turmoil, annihilation, doom and destruction in the world but it has pacified the minds and leveled ground for peace and tranquility. Opposed to it the brain has always helped men to find out many ways of suppression and operation in the world. The brain helps men to exploit other and make him selfish and self centered two world wars which gave the gifts of thousands of the dead bodies, destroyed countries and gave the blemished face to the world. All that is the creation of none other than the brain sir, it is brain which has invented the lethal weapons, and mass destruction bombs. It is brain which has caused many troubles in this world which are increasing with every passing day. The students those participated in debating contest were Zohaib Laghari, Fshan Bhatti, Rizwana Soomro, Kahsif Siyal, Rubab Samo, Jabber Korai, Kashif Abbasi, Mariam Samo, Amber hullio, Haleema Chandio, Syed Muzamil, Sultani Bhatti and Fahad Miran. The Ist postion was secured by Afshan Bhatti, 2nd Haleema Chandio and third Amber Hullio. On the occasion, consolation prize was given to Mariam Samo. Fyaz Hussain Jatoi, Additional Commissioner I Larkana and Dr. Nair Sahikh also Spoke on the Occasion. Prof. Mukhtiar Samo, Honorary Director Knowledge Centre said that youth need to be provided positive platform. They will never go to any negative side if their talent is recognized. He also said that many such chances will be given to the students by knowledge centre in future also.

Christian Man loses Job for Being Christian

Mr. Riaz Sarfraz is a Pipe Fitter, Lahore Area in SNGPL for last twenty years. Chief of LEAD (Legal Evangelical Association Development) and President of PCC Punjab (Pakistan Christian Congress, Advocate Sardar Mushtaq Gill was informed and directed by Nazir S. Bhatti Chairman of PCC and Chief Editor of PCP on the request of Ms. Agnes Massey that Mr. Riaz sarfraz was dismissed from his job after receiving charge sheet on dated 12-09-2011 by General Manager (HR) vide Ref.SN/9076-6, to see the Mr. Riaz and give him legal assistance regarding his job dismissal. Yesterday on 4 February 2013, Mr. Riaz visited Chief of LEAD and he told the mishap of being fired from his job on false allegation which was mentioned in charge sheet against him. He shared that he gave answer of charge sheet on dated 26-09-2011.He gave all written evidences to respective department regarding of his being innocence but his evidences were not be considered while decision and action was taken against him. He told that the alleged charge of misconduct was incorrect, baseless and based on religious prejudice. He told that he was dismissed from job because of his Christian faith. He shared that he had no job and no any means earning for his children. He told that he was not given chance of departmental appeal which was his legal right. Christians in Pakistan often fired from their jobs after false allegations and Charge sheets when they reach to higher rank on basis of seniority. We received many such applications in which such issues are common in private sector and as well as in Government sector. Some are denied to be given jobs in private sectors and Government sectors only due to having Christian faith. LEAD is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organization dedicated to working with Children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. As followers of Jesus, we are motivated by God's grace and love to serve all people regardless of race, religion gender or ethnicity. We ask for financial and moral support for the continuity of work of LEAD in Pakistan. We are thankful for all who are financially supporting LEAD's work for Persecuted Church. We ask for more partners who have same vision for persecuted Church, to be our partner for this noble cause.

PK Christians Reject EquaL Rights Claims

Dr. Nazir S Bhatti, President of Pakistan Christian Congress PCC said that 20 million Pakistani Christians are treated as 2nd class citizen in Pakistan and claims made by Acting President of Pakistan Farooq H Naik in a meeting with Swedish Ambassador that minorities in Pakistan are enjoying equal rights are not true. The Article 2 of constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan undermines equal rights to religious minorities in Pakistan. Article 41 (2) and Islamic provisions are contrary to fundamental rights guaranteed in Article 9-21 of constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Moreover, Article 203 D, section 298, 298 B, 295 B and 295 C of PPC, Law of Evidence and Compensation and Hadood Ordinance make Pakistani Christians 2nd or 3rd class citizens in state. Nazir Bhatti said “5% Quota to minorities is not proportional to our population and Mr. Farooq H Naik, Acting President of Pakistan must note complains of Christian youth that this quota of job is being sold by parliamentarians and heavy bribes are demanded by bureaucracy” “Pakistan Christian Congress PCC have always demanded election of Christian parliamentarians not selection by Muslim political groups because selection under Joint Electorate is undemocratic and negation to equal basic rights. In such circumstances, if government of Pakistan awards few seats in Senate of Pakistan, it will be addition in number of seats of Muslim political group nor representation to Christians in Senate” said Nazir Bhatti “We demand dual voting rights that Christian may elect their representatives in National Assembly of Pakistan, Senate of Pakistan and provincial Assemblies and may also vote to candidates of Muslim political groups in respective constituencies“ added Nazir S Bhatti Commenting of formation of separate Minority Ministry by Farooq H Naik, Pakistan Christian Congress President said “Shahbaz Bhatti is powerless Federal Minority Minister and can not walk out of Islamabad without orders of President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Gillani because he is selected by PPP not elected by Christian voters. Shahbaz Bhatti have less authority than any peon of federal secretariats” Dr. Nazir S Bhatt paid homage to Swedish Ambassador in Pakistan Ulrika Sundberg on raising minorities issues in his meeting with President of Pakistan and urged all foreign missions in Pakistan to raise Christian issues with government of Pakistan in their formal meetings. Nazir S Bhatti invited attention of Acting President of Pakistan on violence against Christians on pretext to blasphemy law, killing of 12 years old Christian girl Shazia Bashir, rapes and abduction of Christian women, enforced conversion of Christian girls and false cases of riots against victims of Muslim mob attacks in Korian, Gojra, Bahminwala, Karachi and Gujranwala. “Mr. Acting President ensure justice for 20 million Pakistani Christians and start with justice for Shazia Bashir who was raped and killed in home of one influential Muslim attorney in Lahore and government of Punjab changed medical reports to safe a culprit” said Nazir Bhatti