21 October 2014
A.D. Remembering Obama’s Supreme
Sacrifices—Vicar of Baghdad, “Intervention
Has Been Totally Wasted”
Christian Post Reporter
October
20, 2014|2:47 pm
(Photo: Reuters/Ahmed Jadallah)
A Kurdish Peshmerga
fighter holds a a rocket-propelled grenade launcher as he takes up position in
an area overlooking Baretle village (background), which is controlled by the
Islamic State, in Khazir, on the edge of Mosul, Sept. 8, 2014. The Kurdish
fighters are firing from an area they had retaken from the Islamic State, on
Bashiqah mountain.
A Kurdish
Peshmerga fighter holds a a rocket-propelled grenade launcher as he takes up
position in an area overlooking Baretle village (background), which is
controlled by the Islamic State, in Khazir, on the edge of Mosul, Sept. 8,
2014. The Kurdish fighters are firing from an area they had retaken from the
Islamic State, on Bashiqah mountain.
Canon
Andrew White, the Anglican pastor who's known as the Vicar of Baghdad, says
that after U.S. troops left Iraq in 2011, the country has been facing
"total devastation," even worse than under Saddam Hussein. White also
described what Christians are facing as one of the worst persecutions in
history.
"It
was total devastation, it was the most horrendous thing," White told The News Tribune in Takoma, Washington, Sunday when
speaking about the persecution Christians have endured in Iraq since the U.S.
pulled its troops out in 2011. "The terrible thing that the Americans have
to realize is that all of their intervention, everything they tried to do, has
totally been wasted. Nothing has been achieved by this at all."
He
continued, "Are we worse now than under Sadam? A million times
worse."
Speaking
to an audience at the Life Center church in Takoma, White was critical of
Obama's decision to pull troops out of the country in 2011, instead of leaving
over 10,000 soldiers, which the Iraqi government had requested.
"The reason
we have this tragedy now is because you came in and you left us too soon,"
he emphasized. "We weren't ready to be left. Your military gave their
lives, they worked to save our country, and then they left us. And I said,
within three month, we will have terrorism ... and we did."
(Photo: Screengrab)
Iraqi
Reverend Andrew White who is also known as the Vicar of Baghdad.
"I
think it could be one of the worst persecutions of Christians in history,"
he explained.
White, who
since 2005 has served as the pastor at St. George's church in Bagdad, the only
Anglican church in Iraq, is visiting the Puget Sound area this week to raise money for tens of
thousands of Iraq Christians who were driven from their homes by the Islamic
State terrorist group.
Militant
Sunni Muslims have purged the city of Mosul of all Christians by forcing them
to convert to Islam or be killed. This area, along with others in Northern
Iraq, have had a strong Christian population for 2,000 years. Many of these
Christians are now being forced to take refuge in schools, churches and refugee
camps located in Iraq's Kurdish provinces, or flee to surrounding countries,
such as Jordan.
Life
Center's pastor Dean Curry said he visited a refugee camp in Northern Iraq and
confessed during White's visit to the church that "what I saw horrified
me."
The United
Nations estimates that about 1.8 million people have been driven out of their
homes due to the fighting in Iraq this year. Sunni sects that are fighting
against the Islamic State have also fled from their communities in western and
northern Iraq.
In August,
Father Nawar, a priest in Nineveh, an area considered to be the Christian
capital of Iraq, made a horrifying statement to the Catholic News Agency, saying that
Christianity "is finished in Iraq" because of the ongoing persecution
from organizations such as ISIS.
"Today
the story of Christianity is finished in Iraq," Nawar said. It's a very
difficult life … very, very difficult. [Families] are dying because of the
temperatures, dying because they can't eat, dying because of fear, and also
because of war, of bombs."
He
continud, "When ISIS arrives, the Christians must change religion or
escape. There is no other option. Change religions, become Muslim, and those
who don't convert, leave. There is not mercy today in this life."
Nawar was
driven out of the area and now the same thing seems to be happening to White.
Conditions are so harsh that White's church has forbidden him from returning to
Bagdad. He blames it on the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.
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