Christians flee Mosul after ISIS ultimatum to convert or leave

[Sally]

This is what is happening to the Christians in the Muslim Middle East. They are the descendents of the original Christians who were lucky enough to survive the Muslim onslaught when the Arabs left the Saudi Peninsula, but now they have to flee themselves to get away from these crazy extremists.

Christians flee Mosul after ISIS ultimatum to convert or leave

Al Arabiya News
Friday, 18 July 2014

Christians have fled Iraq’s northern city of Mosul en masse before a Saturday deadline issued by the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) for them to either convert to Islam, pay tax, leave or be killed.

Al Arabiya correspondent in Iraq Majid Hamid said the deadline set by the jihadist group was 12 p.m. Iraqi time (10 a.m. GMT). Hamid reported that many Christians fled the city on Friday. It is not clear if any remained after the deadline.

See also:

ISIS burns 1,800-year-old church in Mosul

Patriarch Louis Sako told AFP on Friday: “Christian families are on their way to Dohuk and Arbil,” in the neighboring autonomous region of Kurdistan. “For the first time in the history of Iraq, Mosul is now empty of Christians,” he said.

Witnesses said messages telling Christians to leave the city by Saturday were blared through loudspeakers from the city’s mosques Friday.

Continue reading at:

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...after-ISIS-ultimatum-to-convert-or-leave.html

 

[waltky]

Sham conversions to stay in Germany...

At a Berlin church, Muslim refugees converting in droves
Sep 5, 2015, Mohammed Ali Zonoobi bends his head as the priest pours holy water over his black hair. "Will you break away from Satan and his evil deeds?" pastor Gottfried Martens asks the Iranian refugee. "Will you break away from Islam?"

"Yes," Zonoobi fervently replies. Spreading his hands in blessing, Martens then baptizes the man "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost." Mohammed is now Martin - no longer Muslim, but Christian. Zonoobi, a carpenter from the Iranian city of Shiraz, arrived in Germany with his wife and two children five months ago. He is one of hundreds of mostly Iranian and Afghan asylum seekers who have converted to Christianity at the evangelical Trinity Church in a leafy Berlin neighborhood.

Like Zonoobi, most say true belief prompted their embrace of Christianity. But there's no overlooking the fact that the decision will also greatly boost their chances of winning asylum by allowing them to claim they would face persecution if sent home. Martens recognises that some convert in order to improve their chances of staying in Germany - but for the pastor motivation is unimportant. Many, he said, are so taken by the Christian message that it changes their lives. And he estimates that only about 10 percent of converts do not return to church after christening. "I know there are - again and again - people coming here because they have some kind of hope regarding their asylum," Martens said. "I am inviting them to join us because I know that whoever comes here will not be left unchanged."

Being Christian alone does not help an applicant, and Chancellor Angela Merkel went out of her way this week to reiterate that Islam "belongs in Germany." But in Afghanistan and Iran, for example, conversion to Christianity by a Muslim could be punished by death or imprisonment, and it is therefore unlikely that Germany would deport converted Iranian and Afghan refugees back home. None will openly admit to converting in order to help their asylum chances. To do so could result in rejection of their asylum bid and deportation as Christian converts. Several candidates for baptism at Martens' church would not give their names out of fear of repercussions for their families back home.

Most said their decision was based on belief, but one young Iranian woman said she was convinced most people had joined the church only to improve their chances for asylum. Congregation member Vesam Heydari initially applied for asylum in Norway and converted there in 2009. But his case was rejected because the Norwegian authorities did not believe he would be persecuted as a Christian in Iran, so he moved to Germany to seek refugee status here _ and is awaiting a decision. He criticized many of the other Iranian church members, saying they were making it much harder for "real, persecuted Christians" like himself to get approved for asylum. "The majority of Iranians here are not converting out of belief," Heydari said. "They only want to stay in Germany."

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See also:

Most of EU not welcoming to non-EU immigrants, harbouring anti-foreigner sentiment
Sep 5, 2015: A recent survey has exposed how Europeans aren't the most welcoming when it comes to non-EU immigrants. Eurostat - European Union's official statistics agency looked at how most of the countries looked at immigrants coming into the 280member bloc and found that most of them had strong anti-foreigner sentiments.

The countries which recorded the highest percentage of anti-immigrant sentiments emerged as Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia and Latvia where only between 15% to 21% were open to immigrants. Some of the other states like Hungary - the centre of the migrant crisis in Europe right now, Bulgaria and Greece were not too far behind with only 22% to 28% of the population being positive towards non-EU immigration. This means that in most of these states, almost 2 in 5 citizens don't want to see immigrants inside their country. Sweden was the only EU country where majority of the people were open to immigrants while in the larger EU member-states like Britain, France, Spain and Belgium, almost 1 in 2 people did not have a positive view of non-EU immigration.

Interestingly, over two lakh Indians moved to the European Union's 28 countries in 2013 in order to live there making them the second largest migrant community which were allowed into EU. Eurostat says over 53,174 Indians moved to EU to work in 2013. Over 20,901 Indians reached European shores for education while 43,295 visited family in the EU. Data shows that in 2013, 2.36 million first residence permits were issued in the EU28 to non-EU citizens. In 2013, 28.5% of first residence permits were issued for family reasons, 19.7% for education, 22.7% for employment reasons and 29.1% for other reasons. Ukraine, India and United States were the citizenships granted the most residence permits.

Britain admitted almost three times more migrants from outside the EU than any other member state, it emerged from the latest data. The latest official estimate is 243,000 in the 12 months to March, up from 175,000 during the previous year. The largest numbers of visas were issued to Indians (460,000), Americans (105,000) and Filipinos (87,000). When it comes to asylum seekers, EU member states granted protection to more than 185,000 such people seekers in 2014 - up by almost 50% compared with 2013. Since 2008, more than 750,000 asylum seekers have been granted protection status in the EU. More than 1 out of 3 persons granted protection status in the EU was Syrian.

Around 160,000 people received positive decisions at first instance in the EU-28 in 2014 for asylum status. The highest number of positive asylum decisions (first instance and final decisions) in 2014 was recorded in Germany (48,000), followed by Sweden (33,000), France and Italy (both 21,000) and UK (14,000) and the Netherlands (13,000). Altogether, these six member states accounted for 81 % of the total number of positive decisions issued in the EU-28.

Most of EU not welcoming to non-EU immigrants, harbouring anti-foreigner sentiment - The Times of India

 

[waltky]

Jihadis have no respect for women and children...

Iraqi Officials: ISIS 'Massacred' Civilians Escaping Mosul
8 Apr 2017 | The Kurdistan Region Security Council said ISIS had “massacred 140 civilians” trying to escape on Monday and Tuesday.

Islamic State militants this week executed scores of civilians trying to flee west Mosul and hanged some of their bodies from utility poles, Iraqi officials said Friday. On Twitter, the Kurdistan Region Security Council said the jihadis had "massacred 140 civilians" who were trying to escape to areas held by Iraqi security forces on Monday and Tuesday. "Some bodies were later hung on electrical poles in [the] Islah Zirai and Tanak neighborhoods, others were taken to nearby front lines," the security council tweeted from an official account.

The fight for Iraq's second largest city, which militants have held since 2014, has been grinding on for more than five months as U.S.-backed Iraqi forces have faced snipers, mortars and suicide car bomb attacks. Iraqi forces have surrounded the city and cut off militants' escape route to Syria. The news of this week's executions comes as ISIS has reportedly started sacrificing civilians to repel the Iraqi advance. Militants have been threatening civilians to hold the populace in the city, in part to complicate the government's offensive. They have executed some civilians as examples and fired small arms and mortars at fleeing men, women and children.

Women and children wait for transportation to camps for people displaced from Mosul, Iraq, on March 8. More than 300,000 civilians have fled the offensive in Mosul.​

Brig. Gen. John B. Richardson IV, a coalition deputy commanding general in Irbil, said on Monday that Iraqi troops recently found the bodies of nine beheaded Iraqis at a traffic circle with a sign threatening more executions of anyone caught fleeing the militants' self-styled caliphate. Recovered ISIS propaganda and interviews with fleeing residents indicate militants told civilians that Kurdish forces, Shiite militias and international troops would kill or imprison them if they fled. But more than 300,000 civilians are currently displaced after fleeing the offensive, which began in October. Roughly 150,000 have escaped the city since the campaign moved into the western half of the city in February.

Still, roughly 600,000 civilians remain. The United Nations estimated late last month that about 400,000 people are still "trapped" in the dense Old City, where streets are narrow and winding, and troops have been fighting in close-quarters urban combat. This week's executions came as Richardson and other U.S. officials announced that ISIS has adopted a new "sinister" tactic meant to slow the Iraqi advance by sidelining the coalition air and artillery support that enables them. "They brought the civilians back into the fight," Richardson said of the militants. "They're actually telling them to stay in the neighborhoods," he said. Richardson is one of a few officers charged with approving precision strikes in support of the Iraqis.

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[eagle1462010]

A Genocide of Christians has been going on for quite some time in this region. Should this surprise anybody.

ISIS wants to fulfill their religious beliefs and bring the end of the world in a fight in Syria. They are butchers.