Reza Aslan writes:
Iraq’s 2,000-year-old Christian community is on the brink of extinction, its members targeted by al Qaeda attacks and fleeing abroad. But Hillary Clinton, the one person who could force the Iraq government to act, is keeping her mouth shut.
A full-scale genocide is under way in Iraq: a well-planned, well-financed, deliberate plot to cleanse the country of its Christian citizens. And thus far, neither the Iraqi government nor the United States is doing anything to stop it.
On Wednesday, al Qaeda militants launch a synchronized bombing attack on 11 Christian communities throughout Iraq, killing six and wounding more than 30. That attack followed on the heels of the ghastly assault last month on Christian worshippers attending a service at Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad, in which 58 people were brutally murdered and another 60 wounded.
After that attack, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued a statement condemning the violence: “Those with deviant thoughts from al Qaeda and their allies belonging to the followers of the ousted regime targeted our Christian brothers in a terrorist crime that aims at undermining security and stability, inciting strife and chaos and sending Iraqis away from their home.”
Yet beyond these empty words, the Iraqi government has done absolutely nothing to protect the besieged Christian community from further attack, despite a promise from al Qaeda in Iraq that “all Christian centers, organizations and institutions, leaders and followers, are legitimate targets for Mujahedeen wherever they can reach them.” Indeed, just a couple of days after Maliki’s speech, three more bombs aimed at Christians went off in western Baghdad.
“A full-scale genocide is under way in Iraq: a well-planned, well-financed, deliberate plot to cleanse the country of its Christian citizens. ”
It’s embarrassing to see you reprinting this kind of inflammatory scare-stuff. Yes, the Christians are suffering, so is everybody in Iraq (except the Kurds). Calling it “genocide” is absurd, way over the top.
If it weren’t that the Christians can get visas for the west relatively easily, they would have to stay and suffer like everybody else. All the injured from church attack are recovering comfortably in France: how many Muslims injured in bombings get that chance?
I read the article that this portion originated from, but I didn’t see any mention to the injured recovering comfortably in France. As with all Iraqi’s who have/had the wherewithal, they did leave, with a large number still in camps in neighboring countries. Not all Christians get Visa’s, as they don’t have the money to leave. Perhaps, collateral damage might be a better term instead of Genocide, as it seems that anything resembling western beliefs are targets, regardless of ethnicity. Of course, we are only given the thinnest information, so to draw conclusions is rather tricky, as best.