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They Say We Are Infidels , livre ebook

Lion Hudson - Mindy Belz

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182 pages

English

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A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

The rise of ISIS and the murderous trail they have carved across the Middle East have brought the fate of thousands of Iraqi and Syrian Christians to the forefront of the news. This book, drawing on eye-witness accounts, brings that suffering into clear focus. Beginning with the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the book traces the story of the war, the occupation, and the resulting impact on Iraqi and Syrian churches, to the present day. The book traces the lives of key individuals and their families, as the author returns again and again, over a twelve year period.

Sujets

Histoire

History of the Middle East

Religious intolerance

Christianity

Informations

Publié par	Lion Hudson
Date de parution	19 février 2016
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780745968681
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0650€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

What happened to the Jews in Germany in the 1930s and to the Rwandans in the 1990s is happening to Christians in Iraq and Syria today while the United States does nothing. Again . And again U.S. journalists are ignoring it, the story of our generation. But thank God one journalist has not ignored it. In fact, Mindy Belz has lived through much of it, and in They Say We Are Infidels she has produced a searing, journalistic tour de force. It is a courageous, absolutely fascinating book that tells us how this has happened-and how it is happening now, this minute. Tolle lege.
ERIC METAXAS New York Times bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio host
To be a Christian in Iraq and Syria is to live in mortal danger. Churches are bombed, pastors murdered, children kidnapped. Families whose ancestors have survived two thousand years in the region where Christ and his disciples walked now risk elimination by Islamic terrorists. Journalist Mindy Belz has spent more than a decade covering persecuted Christians in the Middle East. They Say We Are Infidels is her brilliantly reported account of what it means to be a follower of Jesus there. It is the harrowing and often inspiring story of men and women of unshakable faith.
MELANIE KIRKPATRICK Author of Escape from North Korea: The Untold Story of Asia s Underground Railroad
This sensitive, informative, and beautifully written book possesses all the immediacy and emotional power of a novel. Yet it combines meticulous reporting of real people with an enormous knowledge of the contemporary Middle East. Belz reflects a deep concern for the courageous Christians suffering persecution there, and her writing is engaging and wrenchingly intimate. Insightful, lucid, and irenic, this book will do much to dispel the fog of misunderstanding that prevails among so many concerning the extent of suffering there. Her moving and gripping account could not be more urgent and timely. After finishing this book, readers will immediately want to pray for our brothers and sisters in this troubled region of the world. I know I did.
MICHAEL CROMARTIE Vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, DC
Mindy Belz has earned respect for reporting on world affairs with accuracy and insight for over twenty-five years. In They Say We Are Infidels , Belz chronicles the rise of Islamic extremism and the worsening plight of Christians in the Middle East since 2003 through the eyes of the Iraqi people. The narrative is informative, powerful, and beautifully written. This book is a must-read for all who are concerned about what is happening in the Middle East.
FRANK R. WOLF Member of Congress, retired (1981-2014); senior distinguished fellow, The 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative; Wilson Chair in Religious Freedom, Baylor University
Mindy Belz s book should be nominated for Book of the Year! The world cannot continue ignoring the genocide and persecution in the Middle East. Read this, then buy copies for all your friends.
DR. RICK WARREN Author of The Purpose Driven Life

THEY SAY WE ARE INFIDELS
MINDY BELZ
On the run from ISIS with persecuted Christians in the Middle East
Text copyright 2016 Mindy Belz This edition copyright 2016 Lion Hudson
The right of Mindy Belz to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by Lion Books an imprint of Lion Hudson plc Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Road, Oxford OX2 8DR, England www.lionhudson.com/lion
ISBN 978 0 7459 6867 4 e-ISBN 978 0 7459 68681
First published in 2016 by Tyndale House Publishers
Acknowledgments Interior map copyright Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
Designed by Dean H. Renninger, adapted for the UK by Jonathan Roberts
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible , English Standard Version (ESV ), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the Holy Bible , King James Version.
Cover image copyright Stringer/Iraq/Reuters/Corbis
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
For Mom

Man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord s Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.
VIKTOR FRANKL
CONTENTS

Map of Iraq and Syria

Preface: Pay Money

PART 1: War and Peace

1. Insaf s Journey

2. Right of Return

3. No Guarantees

4. Fire like Cold Water

5. The War Before

6. Window of Opportunity

PART 2: Chasing Peace

7. Vanished

8. Crusaders and the Mujahideen

9. Places of Exile

10. The Keeper of Nahum s Tomb

11. A Church of Martyrs

12. Fasting and Flight

PART 3: Inside the House of War

13. The Coming of a New Caliphate

14. The Death of One American

15. The New Jihad

16. Emptying Mosul

17. Enlisted

18. The Final Fall

19. Fighting ISIS

20. Cities of Refuge

21. A Garden by Night

Acknowledgments

Time Line of Key Events in Iraq and Syria

Notes

About the Author

PREFACE
PAY MONEY

Odisho Yousif choked on baked dust and felt gravel tear into his cheek. His chest throbbed where the man his captors called Commander had kicked him. Odisho s breath came in sharp heaves as he looked up at the Commander towering over him, holding his identity card.
Like all Iraqi IDs, Odisho s had a line indicating his religion, and his was marked Christian . The Commander, who never removed his black face mask, paced to and fro in the gray dawn, turning the tattered card over and over. You are an agent with the Jews of Israel! he exploded.
No, no! Odisho protested. I am a Christian from Iraq.
Odisho was pummeled once more by the Commander s boot, and by a sense of the helplessness of his predicament.
The irony didn t escape him. His job, after all, was to carry money-the funds raised by church members to pay ransom for Christians kidnapped by Islamic militants. As often as he had helped other victims, Odisho never dreamed he might become one himself.
The year was 2006-eight years before the Islamic fighters known as ISIS launched strikes into the center of Iraq s Christian heartland. Everywhere militants were blowing up Christians-their churches, grocery stores, and homes. They threatened them with kidnapping. They vowed to take their children. The message to these infidels : You don t belong in Iraq. Leave, pay the penalty to stay, or be ready to die.

Much of the world didn t grasp the deadly dangers for Iraq s Christians until 2014, when a group calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, took Iraq s second-largest city, Mosul, in a lightning-fast overnight strike. From that moment genocide unfolded-with rapes, shootings, and beheadings-as ISIS fighters forced thousands of Christians and other non-Muslims to flee.
Long before, Odisho was among thousands who could testify to a decade of such brutality. The ultimatum ISIS handed Mosul s Christians in 2014-pay jizya , convert to Islam, or be killed-was too familiar to believers like him.
Paying ransom came as part of the commerce of war. Christians knew that it financed more bombings and more terror, yet they had no choice but to pay. Given Odisho s connections and his ability to raise money and direct it to families who needed it, he naturally became the conduit of funds for kidnapping victims and bombing survivors.
Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, [even if they are] of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued, reads the Quran, 1 and the ancient church leaders historically paid the jizya mandated by Islamic law. Modern infidels were paying it just the same: paying special taxes to hold public events and to serve Communion wine. In other words, it was the price to live among Muslims in the Christians own homeland. In times of war, it was the price to survive.
The decimation of Christians and their communities in the Middle East looks at first like a problem over there. While sad, it appears too complicated, too tied up in the complex politics of the region, and too big to solve. For me a tragedy held at arm s length over time has become personal. As a reporter covering international events, I ve made multiple trips to the region over the past twenty years. While I m supposed to remain an objective observer, many of these infidels -ordinary people committed to raising families and finding work, often after being forced from their homes and losing everything they own-are not merely sources or subjects. They have become friends.

For fifty-year-old Odisho, the second of July had begun like so many others. Temperatures rocketed past 110 degrees as he left Dohuk, the city in the far north where he lived, in the company of his driver, a distant relative. By morning he had collected four thousand dollars from churches in Mosul and the surrounding villages of Nineveh Plains; by afternoon, he was making his way along a stretch of good highway south to Baghdad.
Halfway along the five-hour route, the car broke down. As his driver went for help, Odisho, a wiry man with dark hair and tinted glasses, paced and smoked, kicking up dust with the toe of his black leather shoe.
Minutes later a black Opal drove up. Four men wearing black masks stepped out. Before Odi