IT’S SPECIAL PRAYER DAY!



Our Lady of Salvation Church, Baghdad
... after the bloody incident



If you are a practicing Christian, you are either getting ready for church, on your way to church, in church already or have gone returned from church, depending on the time you are reading this. That is as it should be and I congratulate you for staying in the faith.

But imagine with me, if you will, that while in the midst of service, armed men stormed the sanctuary, took the entire congregation hostage and began to bark orders at everyone, and making demands that you barely understand. One hour snailed into another and the “service” that was supposed to have lasted only one hour, if you attend one of those “microwave” churches (apology to Rev B) or two/three hours dragged on and on. Imagine that the matter eventually caught the attention of the authorities and security agencies were drafted to the scene. One lead to the other and you began to hear gunshots and cries of agony and bodies dropping all around you in dull thuds. All you could do was await your turn, because you dared not look up. Then as suddenly as the explosions started, it ceased. A surreal quiet returned. You opened your eyes, summoned some courage and looked around you. The siege was over! But so was the earthly sojourn of 55 of your brethren – their lives cut short, suddenly and brutally. Over 80 others were also in danger of losing life or limb. None of it made any sense to you. But then, it’s real!

Now, if you thought that was taken from a work of fiction, you must have missed the news of the unfortunate incident three Sundays ago in Baghdad, Iraq. One news report rendered it this way: “At least 55 people were killed and 70 were injured in a massacre yesterday in the Syrian Catholic Church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad, after Iraqi forces carried out a raid to free the faithful taken hostage by al-Qaeda….According to local sources, there are two priests among the dead, one of whom was shot by a terrorist. Among the dead were also women and eight to ten children. The security chief of Baghdad, Qassem Atta, spoke of eight militants among the dead….The terrorists, who claimed to belong to the organization the Islamic State of Iraq, the Iraqi cell of al Qaeda, had threatened to kill the hostages if some members of the terror network of Osama bin Laden prisoners in Iraq and Egypt were not freed”

WIN WHILE WE WAIT QUIZ Question 3
(Go to www.kingdompeoplemag.com for questions 1 &2)

An Iraqi group linked to Al Qaeda, known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) soon claimed responsibility for the attack and went on to give a 48-hour ultimatum to the Coptic Church of Egypt, to free two wives of priests who them are "imprisoned in monasteries" because, they converted to Islam. They described their attack on the church as “a raid on one of the shelters of obscene idolatry, which had always been used by Christians of Iraq as a headquarters for the fight against the religion of Islam and which supports those who fight this religion” and aimed at helping “our poor Muslim sisters…imprisoned in infidel monasteries in idolatrous churches in Egypt." The reference to “our poor muslim sisters,” in the statement, is believed to refer to Camellia Shehata and Wafa Constantine. Both of them were said to be wives of priests; one of whom was believed to have converted to Islam, and the other set to follow suit but have been held in the church against their will. The Egyptian Coptic Church has denied the accusation.

This is neither the date nor the forum to debate the recourse to terror in these matters. Our objective here is to draw the attention of all Christians, particularly those of us in those parts of the world where hostility is far less deadly, to the plight of our brethren in Iraq and similar places across the globe.

Iraq is in the news currently because of that October 31 deadly attack. But it has never left the radar of persecution watchers since the US-led invasion of the country. So deep has been the persecution that it is believed that as many as 500,000 Christians have fled that country since the war started. No prizes for guessing that many more will follow in the wake of the recent attack. But Iraq is not alone. She’s not even in the top-10 of Christian-persecuting nations in the world, according to Open Doors, a persecution watchdog ministry.

North Korea tops the list. Described as “the most difficult place in the world to be Christian”, North Korea tops that list. It is a place where “all religious activity is seen as a revolt against North Korea’s socialist principles and the cult of Kim Jong-il and his father and where “considerable numbers of secret Christians have been discovered, arrested, tortured, and sometimes killed..”. Iran, with only 0.35% of its population professing the faith, comes next. In 2009 alone, at least 85 Christians were arrested many reportedly mistreated, with, those released remaining under surveillance, and court cases are pending. A number have death sentences hanging upon their head for apostasy.

Predictably, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is in the big league. Public non-Muslim worship is forbidden, at the risk of arrest, imprisonment, flogging, deportation, and sometimes torture. Expatriates form the bulk of 2.2% of the population who are Christians. Open Doors say “they are generally allowed to worship privately but some have been arrested, issued with death threats and forced into hiding. Recently there has been an increasing number of arrests. Most Saudi believers must keep their faith secret or risk honour killing.

Somalia, Maldives, Afghanistan, Yemen, Mauritania and Laos complete the top ten; while China, Pakistan and India with their large populations feature prominently in almost daily reports of life-taking and life-threatening incidences of persecution.

I have said of these to say this important thing: Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted (IDOP) and I strongly implore ALL of us to join in prayer for our brothers and sisters all over the world facing the fire just because, like you and me, they profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Incidentally, Northern Nigeria has featured on the list for at least one decade; it’s currently at Number 27. Doesn’t that make it even more urgent and important? Thank you.