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7th Christian church bombed in Iraq
Wave of Iraq church bombings stretches into third day
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A church in Iraq was bombed Monday, the seventh Christian house of worship in the country to be bombed in three days.
An Iraqi policeman stands next to the burned-out wreck of a car outside a Baghdad church July 13.
At least three children were wounded in Monday's attack in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, an Interior Ministry official told CNN.
The car bomb exploded in the morning, damaging the church in the al-Faisaliya district of eastern Mosul.
Six churches in and around Baghdad were bombed over the weekend, leaving four dead, officials told CNN. A total of 35 people have been wounded in the wave of attacks, including the three children Monday.
One Christian Iraqi, interviewed outside Sacred Heart Church -- one of three churches bombed Sunday afternoon -- said the bomb went off shortly before 5 p.m., as members were arriving for Sunday evening mass. No one was hurt, Sabhan George told CNN, but the bomb damaged the church building and some cars outside.
George said he is concerned about the church bombings. If this continues, he said, "there will be no Christians left in Iraq."
The first bombing took place Saturday night at St. Joseph's church in western Baghdad, according to an Interior Ministry official. Two bombs placed inside the church exploded about 10 p.m. (3 p.m. ET). No one was in the church at the time of the attack.
Earlier Sunday, three bombs exploded outside churches, wounding eight civilians, the official said. The bombs detonated within a 15-minute span, between 4:30 and 4:45 p.m. local time (9:30 and 9:45 a.m. ET). Two of the churches are in central Baghdad's al-Karrada district, and the third is in al-Ghadeer in eastern Baghdad.
Sunday evening, a car bomb exploded outside a church on Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad just after 7 p.m. (12 p.m. ET), the official said. Four people died, and 21 were wounded.
And in southern Baghdad's Dora district, a bomb outside a church wounded three other civilians.
Most of the churches were damaged in the bombings, according to video footage.
St. Joseph's was one of six churches hit by coordinated bombings of Christian houses of worship in Baghdad and Mosul in 2004. The church is in the al-Jamiaa neighborhood of Baghdad, a former stronghold of al Qaeda in Iraq. There have been recent reports of an increase in targeted attacks in the area.
Many of Iraq's estimated 1 million Christians have fled the country after targeted attacks by extremists. In October, more than a thousand Iraqi families fled Mosul after they were reportedly frightened by a series of killings and threats by Muslim extremists, who apparently ordered them to convert to Islam or face possible death. At least 14 Christians were killed in Mosul in the first two weeks of October.
CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION
February 3, 2009:
Behead a Christian, raise your rank
Islam's Shariah cited in 7 of 10 worst nations worldwide
Reports that at least 10 Christians were abducted and killed for their faith – sometimes by beheading – during 2008 has pushed Somalia into the Top 10 among nation's that aggressively persecute Christians, according to a new report from Open Doors USA.
The organization today released its 2009 World Watch List, which cited North Korea – for the seventh straight year – as the nation that persecutes Christians more intensely than any other around the globe.
But Somalia rose from 12th in 2008 to 5th this year because of the growing level of attacks there, according to the report which noted two of the worst three nations, Saudi Arabia and Iran, are nations governed by Islamic Shariah law, and seven of the Top 10 nations fall into that category.
Paul Estabrooks, the organization's minister-at-large, told WND that those Islamic nations "certainly are impacted significantly by Shariah."
According to reports from Compass Direct News, it was only about 12 weeks ago when an aid worker was beheaded in Somalia specifically for converting from Islam to Christianity.
Witnesses told the organization Muslim extremists had gathered a crowd in Manyafulka village by telling them of a feast that was being prepared.
Eyewitnesses who insisted on anonymity because they feared reprisals said the Islamics carried guns and swords and dragged a handcuffed Mansuur Mohammed with them. They reported one Muslim pulled back Mohammed's head, another recited the Quran and another twisted his head so an executioner could slit his neck.
The killers then displayed the severed head to the petrified crowd, the report said.
The report said a video taken on a mobile telephone later was circulated in what many saw as a strategy to terrify anyone contemplating conversion from Islam to Christianity.
Open Doors said Afghanistan, Somalia and the Maldives are fourth, fifth and sixth, with Afghanistan moving up three spots because of an aggressive effort from Taliban officials during 2008.
In seventh is Yemen, Laos is No. 8, Eritrea, a newcomer to the Top 10, is No. 9 and Uzbekistan No. 10.
Estabrooks told WND Eritrea's jump into the Top 10 was because of its dictator's decision to place as many as 3,000 Christians in prison cells – many made of no more than steel shipping crates – without court hearings.
China dropped from No. 10 to No. 12 this year and Bhutan dropped from No. 5 to No. 11, although they remain of high concern, officials said.
The top offenders influenced by Shariah are Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, Maldives, Yemen and Uzbekistan. North Korea and Laos are communist while Eritrea is a dictatorship.
The World Watch List is compiled from a specially-designed questionnaire of 50 questions covering various aspects of religious freedom. A point value is assigned depending on how each question is answered. The total number of points per country determines its position on the World Watch List of countries that are the worst persecutors of Christians.
"It is certainly not a shock that North Korea is No. 1 on the list of countries where Christians face the worst persecution," said Carl Moeller, president of Open Doors USA. "There is no other country in the world where Christians are persecuted in such a horrible and systematic manner."
The rights of Christians deteriorated in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan (13), Iraq (16), Mauritania (18), Algeria (19), India (22), Northern Nigeria (26), Indonesia (41), Bangladesh (43) and Kazakhstan (50) for the 2009 report, Open Doors said.
Persecution continued "unabated" in Saudi Arabia, where the daughter of a member of the nation's religious police force was killed for writing online about her new faith in Christ.
According to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, Saudi police also just two weeks ago arrested a man "because of his opinions and his testimony that he had converted from Islam to Christianity."
In Iran, Islamic crackdowns have been boosted aggressively on house churches, in Afghanistan, a Christian was killed after being accused of "spreading" Christianity, and India's ranking rose from 30 to 22 because of the "worst outbreak of religious violence on record for Christians in … the state of Orissa," the report said.
The organization estimates 100 million Christians worldwide suffer interrogation, arrest and even death for their faith in Christ, with millions more facing discrimination and alienation.
CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION
January 17, 2009: Missionary murdered in Kenya
A suspect has been identified in the investigation of the murder of father Giuseppe Bertaina, an Italian missionary who was killed January 16 in his office at the Institute of Philosophy of the Missionaries of the Consolata in Langata, western suburb of Nairobi.
Well informed sources have told MISNA that the young man who discovered the corpse of father Bertaina believes to have recognized one of the alleged murderers, a former fellow seminarian. “The young man was heading to visit father Bertaina to withdraw some documents. Before knocking, he noticed that there were other people in the missionary’s office and so he waited. Shortly after, two men and a woman emerged from the room. He waved goodbye to one, a former classmate who had been kicked out of the school. Entering the room, he then found the lifeless body of father Bertaina, launching an alarm”.
The sources also said that while the two men managed to get away from the area, the security guards managed to stop the woman, handing her to police. The police said that the woman was found having some checkbooks belonging to father Bertaina.
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