Overlooked by many in the news leading up to the 2010 mid-term elections was the terrorist massacre of at least 50 worshippers and clergy in Baghdad's Our Lady of Salvation Syriac Catholic Church on November 1st. Terrorists thought to be with al-Qaeda in Iraq initially targeted the Baghdad stock exchange before moving to the church across the street. Iraqi security forces quickly cordoned off the area surrounding Our Lady of Salvation and attempted to negotiate, but the attackers threw grenades and detonated explosive vests when the Iraqi forces stormed the church, killing 49 parishioners and 9 policemen.
In the days following the church attack, more Iraqi christian were targeted by car bombs and mortar attacks, killing at least five more. Some of the survivors of the terrorist attacks were given asylum by France and flown to Paris for medical treatment.
Many of Iraq's remaining Christians are concerned for their own safety after the latest attacks and want to leave Iraq. However, leaders in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq have invited Iraqi Christians to relocate to Kurdistan from elsewhere within Iraq. Kurdistan's autonomy during the final decade of Saddam Hussein's regime and after Operation Iraqi Freedom has meant that for the most part the economic and security situation is far more stable than elsewhere in Iraq.
Iraq's president Jalal Talibani (a Kurd himself) has even raised the possibility of establishing Christian-majority provinces within Iraq in an interview with France 24 television.
Hmm....wait a second. The sanctimonious self-appointed righteous indignation brigades that were out in force preaching tolerance when that douchebag Florida pastor promised to burn a bunch of Korans on September 11 have been pretty quiet since the Our Lady of Salvation massacre.
This would mean Iraqi and Kurdish Muslims have shown more concern over the plight of Iraq's Christians than the professional whiners and victims in their perpetual seethe-apalooza trying to hold up even token opposition to the 9/11 mosque in Manhattan as bigotry and Islamophobia.
Even if the Our Lady of Salvation massacre never took place, there's still the matter of Egyptian Muslims torching the homes of Coptic Christians over rumors a Coptic man was in a relationship with a Muslim woman. Or the Pakistani Christian mother of two who was reportedly sentenced to death for 'blasphemy' after she rebuffed efforts by Muslim co-workers to convert her.
Just some food for though the next time the head of an Islamic organization says that pointing out what's taking place in the Islamic world is akin to '1930s Germany'.
[Hat Tip: Eat it or Wear It; Weasel Zippers]
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