Iraqi Christian: 'We Have The Honor' Of Being Martyred For Christ

This certainly gives us some perspective:

Iraqi Christian: "We Have the Honor" of Being Martyred for Christ

Experts warn that Christianity could be exterminated in Syria and Iraq within months if the Islamic State (ISIS) continues its genocide.

Most news reports have focused on Muslim refugees (who are not refugees) while ignoring the near extinction and genocide committed against Christians by Islamists in Syria and Iraq.

The entire region is biblically historically and spiritually significant. The Bible tells of the Apostle Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. Today, some Christians in the town of Maaloula, Syria, still speak Aramaic – the language of Jesus. Numerous biblical “heroes of the faith” lived throughout the Levant, including modern-day countries of the Middle East and Gulf states.

Prior to the Obama/US-led overthrow of Assad, and introduction of ISIS, the largest number of Christians living in the Middle East, lived in Aleppo, Syria. Now they are facing extinction. Jean-Clement Jeanbart, the Greek Melkite Catholic Archbishop of Aleppo, told The UK Express,

“Many people have been abducted, many people have been killed, many people have been beheaded, many people have been persecuted, it is a terrible situation. They do not accept anyone different. Anyone who is not like them and with the same choices has not got a right to live.”

Jeanbart added that he would, “die at the hands of ISIS to defend Christians in the Syrian city.”  

Bishop Yousif Habash of Syrian Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance, in New Jersey, told The Express that, “ISIS may take away everything from the Christians, [but] they cannot take away their faith.”

Ultimately, this means extinction, which according to the UK charity, Aid to the Church in Need, could be very soon.

Rev. Ibrahim Nseir, pastor of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon and the Presbyterian Church in Aleppo, told FoxNews.com that,

“We are rooted in this country. Any picture of Syria without Christians in it is the true destruction of Syria.”

In Iraq, ISIS recently forced more than 100,000 Christians to flee from the biblical land of Jonah in the Ninevah Plains. They were some of the last remaining Christians. Under Saddam Hussein’s rule, 1.4 million Christians lived relatively peacefully. After his fall, more than one million were forced to flee; roughly 100,000 Christians remain in Iraq, although the numbers are uncertain. And, according to ISIS, they won’t be there much longer.

ISIS recently announced it plans to “murder every Christian left in Raqqa.” And the activist group, “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently,” tweeted: “ISIS is preventing any Christians or Armenians who remain in Raqqa to leave.”

Juliana Taimoorazy, executive director and founder of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, told The UK Express:

“We gave a lot to Christianity as Eastern Christians, and we gave a lot to humanity as the Assyrian people. Our history is 6,700 years old, and we established the first library in the world, among other contributions.”

Mor Nicodemus Daoud Sharaf, the Archbishop of Mosul, explained that 2014 was the first year in 1500 years that Iraqi Christians could not pray or worship in their churches.

For 1500 years Christians still worshipped despite all of the wars in the region– until 2014. Why? Because countries and groups continue to fund ISIS and buy its stolen oil, Sharaf argues. He adds, the “so-called human rights activists are liars. The officials of the human rights have been watching everything that has happened to our poor people. And no one is helping us.”

His remarks are not without hope or praise, however. He proclaims:

“But, we are so happy for one thing only. All of these things happening to us, and what will happen in the future.

“We are not leaving our Christianity. We are not leaving our Christ. We are not leaving our faith.

“And we have the honor that we are the children of the martyrs. We have the honor that everything that is happening to us is because we are Christians.

“This is an honor for us.”