For those concerned about religions that get "denigrated" and "dumped on"

[Mornac]

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CHINA  Thousands brave weather, government ban to attend bishop's funeral

On 2010-1-6

XIWANZI, China (UCAN) -- Some 2,500 Catholics braved freezing conditions Jan. 6 to pay their last respects to "underground" Bishop Leo Yao Liang of Xiwanzi, who had spent almost 30 years of his life behind bars.



Coadjutor Bishop Leo
Yao Liang of Xiwanzi

 
Vatican-approved Coadjutor Bishop Yao, who the government recognized only as a priest, died on Dec. 30 at the age of 86.

He had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 1958 as he refused to join the independent Church movement, and released only in 1984. In 2002, he was clandestinely ordained as a bishop and had been detained several times since then.

The funeral service was held in Xiwanzi town, Chongli county, in Hebei province. Bishop Yao was referred to as "shepherd" during the service, after authorities disallowed the use of the term "bishop."

The government also banned Catholics outside the county from attending the funeral, while snow-covered roads prevented others from coming, according to sources.

Of the 15 diocesan priests, only three who have registered with the government were allowed to conduct the funeral Mass and the burial liturgy.

Bishop Yao's death leaves the local Church in a dilemma.

Bishop Andrew Hao Jinli of Xiwanzi, 93, is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and other illnesses, and is confined to a wheelchair.

Sources say that due to the difficult relations between the underground and government-approved Church communities, the Holy See is unlikely to appoint a younger coadjutor bishop to succeed Bishop Hao.

The issue of bishop succession had worried Bishop Yao before his death, sources say.

The prelate fell seriously ill in mid-December and died of multiple organ failure two weeks later. Authorities had prohibited him from leaving Xiwanzi parish after he was released from a 30-month detention in February 2008.



Bishop Yao being buried at the
Catholic cemetery in Xiwanzi

 
Bishop Yao was born in 1923 and ordained a priest in 1948. Three years later, under the Communist regime, he was banned from doing pastoral work and forced to grow vegetables and cut firewood for a living.

The late bishop is remembered for laying the foundation stone of a new Gothic church building in Xiwanzi town after the older building was demolished. The new building is still being constructed.

Catholicism was introduced to Xiwanzi more than 300 years ago. In the 19th century, the village became the headquarters of the Mongolia apostolic vicariate and the base of the Immaculate Heart of Mary congregation's missionary work in the extensive region beyond the Great Wall.

The government-approved Church had merged Xiwanzi diocese and neighboring Xuanhua diocese to form Zhangjiakou diocese in 1980. However, the two underground Church communities continue to operate despite government pressure and surveillance.

http://www.ucanews.com/2010/01/06/thosuands-brave-weather-government-ban-to-attend-bishops-funeral/

[lucy]

May he rest in peace...He lived quite a life.

I found some interesting info while googling...just thought I would add this/

"Modern Age

Between 1949 and 2007, indigenous Chinese Christianity has been growing at a rate unparalleled in history. Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist of the New York Times wrote on June 25, 2006, "Although China bans foreign missionaries and sometimes harasses and imprisons Christians, especially in rural areas, Christianity is booming in China. "Most of the growth has taken place in the unofficial Chinese house church movement. In 1800 there were 250,000 baptized Roman Catholics, but no known Protestant believers out of an estimated 362 million Chinese. By 1949, out of an estimated population of 450 million, there were just over 500,000 baptized Protestant Christians. Anonymous internet columnist Spengler speculated in 2007 that Christianity could "become a Sino-centric religion two generations from now."
Some Chinese terms in Christianity

There are various terms used for God in the Chinese language, the most prevalent being Shangdi (literally, "Sovereign King Above"), used commonly by Protestants and also by non-Christians, and Tianzhu (literally, Lord of Heaven), which is most commonly favored by Catholics.

While Christianity is referred to as Ji du jiao (Christ religion), the modern Chinese language typically divides Christians into three groups: believers of Protestantism Xin jiaotu (literally "new religion followers"), believers of Catholicism Tianzhu jiaotu (Lord of Heaven religion followers), and believers of Orthodox Dongzheng jiaotu (Eastern Orthodox religion followers, but more correctly "zhengjiaotu", because there is only one Chinese term for both Eastern and Oriental which is "dong" and simply means the east. The latter term is more correct also because Eastern Orthodox churches are not in communion with and thus differ from the Oriental Orthodox churches.)
History
Earliest period

Christian tradition suggests that St. Thomas, known as "the Apostle of India" or possibly St. Bartholomew were the first to spread the Christian gospel in China. Third century Christian writer Arnobius mentions in a text a people known as the "Seres" as being among the groups (he enumerates also the Persians and Medes) which had been evangelized at that time. While there is evidence that Christianity existed in Mesopotamia and Persia by the early fourth century, there is no documentation that it had entered China. The form of Christianity often called Nestorianism but known by its adherents as the Assyrian Church of the East spread widely across the continent of Asia following the banishment and condemnation of Nestorius, Archbishop of Constantinople, at the Council of Ephesus in 431.
Medieval period

The 13th century saw communications between the Papacy and the Mongols, in attempts to form a Franco-Mongol alliance against the Muslims in the Holy Land. The Christian Chinese Mongol, Rabban Bar Sauma, born in Beijing, visited the courts of Europe in 1287 - 1288, and gave a report on Christianity among the Mongols. In 1289, Franciscan friars from Europe initiated mission work in China. For about a century they worked in parallel with the Nestorian Christians. The Franciscan mission collapsed in 1368, as the Ming Dynasty set out to abolish Christianity (Nestorian and Catholic) in China.
Post-Reformation

The first Jesuit attempt to reach China was made in 1552 by Francis Xavier, but he died the same year on the Chinese island of Shangchuan, without having reached the mainland. In 1582, Jesuits once again initiated mission work in China, introducing Western science, mathematics, and astronomy. One of these missionaries was Matteo Ricci.

In the early 18th century, the Chinese Rites controversy, a dispute within the Roman Catholic Church, arose over whether Chinese folk religion rituals and offerings to their ancestors constituted idolatry. The Pope ultimately ruled against tolerating the continuation of these practices among Chinese Roman Catholic converts. Prior to this, the Jesuits had enjoyed considerable influence at court, but with the issuing of the papal bull, the emperor circulated edicts banning Christianity.
Modern Age
Missionary Expansion (1807 - 1900)

140 years of missionary seed-sowing began with Robert Morrison, regarded among Protestants as being the first Christian missionary to China arrived in Macao on 4 September 1807. Morrison produced a Chinese translation of the Bible. He also compiled a Chinese dictionary for the use of Westerners. The Bible translation took twelve years and the compilation of the dictionary, sixteen years.

During the 1840's, Western missionaries spread Christianity rapidly through the coastal cities that were open to foreign trade; the bloody Taiping Rebellion was connected in its origins to the influence of some missionaries on the leader Hong Xiuquan, who has since been hailed as a heretic by most Christian groups, but as a proto-communist peasant militant by the Chinese Communist Party.

The Taiping Rebellion was a large-scale revolt against the authority and forces of the Qing Government. It was conducted from 1850 to 1864 by an army and civil administration led by heterodox Christian convert Hong Xiuquan. He established the "Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace" with the capital Nanjing and attained control of significant parts of southern China, at its height ruling over about 30 million people. The theocratic and militaristic regime instituted several social reforms, including strict separation of the sexes, abolition of foot binding, land socialization, suppression of private trade, and the replacement of Confucianism, Buddhism and Chinese folk religion by a form of Christianity, holding that Hong Xiuquan was the younger brother of Jesus Christ. The Taiping rebellion was eventually put down by the Qing army aided by French and British forces. With an estimated death toll of between 20 and 30 million due to warfare and resulting starvation, this civil war ranks among history's deadliest conflicts.

By the early 1860's the Taiping movement was almost extinct, Protestant missions at the time were confined to five coastal cities. By the end of the century, however, the picture had vastly changed. Scores of new missionary societies had been organized, and several thousand missionaries were working in all parts of China. In 1854, Hudson Taylor arrived in China, who is one of the greatest missionaries of all time, and one of the four or five most influential foreigners who came to China in the nineteenth century for any purpose. The China Inland Mission was the largest mission agency in China and it is estimated that Taylor was responsible for more people being converted to Christianity than at any other time since Paul the Apostle brought Christian teaching to Europe. Out of the 8,500 Protestant missionaries that were at one time at work in China.

British and American denominations, such as the British Methodist Church, continued to send missionaries until they were prevented from doing so following the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Protestant missionaries played an extremely important role in introducing knowledge of China to the United States and the United States to China. The book The Small Woman and film Inn of the Sixth Happiness tell the story of one such missionary, Gladys Aylward.
Popularity and Indigenous Growth (1900 - 1925)

The opening of the twentieth century was a period of transition for both the church and the nation. China moved from Qing dynastic rule to a warlord-dominated republic to a united front of the Guomindang and Chinese Communist party in league against warlords and imperialism. Christianity enjoyed unprecedented popularity for two decades. Variety within the Protestant community increased; conservative, evangelical societies strengthened their presence; the social gospel approach gained momentum, and Chinese formed their own faith sects and autonomous churches.
The Japanese Occupation Period (1925 - 1949)

Since many Chinese Christian leaders were internationalists and pacifists, the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 presented a dilemma. Most abandoned their pacifism, and many joined the National Salvation Movement. After the December 1941 Pearl Harbour incident, Japan shortly invaded much of China and the Pacific region, with the evacuation or internment of most Westerners. As a result of being separated due to World War II, Christian churches and organizations had their first experience with autonomy from the Western-guided structures of the missionary church organizations. Once again Chinese were left to carry on and once again the Chinese Protestant church moved toward independence, union, or Chinese control.

The chaos that was China during the 1930's and 1940's spawned religious movements that emphasized direct spiritual experience and an eschatology offering hope and comfort beyond this cruel world. In opposition to the "Y" and the Student Christian Movement, conservatives organized the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship in 1945. By 1945, the local churches claimed a membership of over 70,000, spread into some 700 assemblies. The independent churches altogether accounted for well over 200,000 Protestants.
Communist rule

The People's Republic of China was established in October 1949 by the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong. Under Communist ideology, religion was discouraged by the state and Christians endured widespread persecution by authorities over the next three decades.

Persecution of Christians in China has been sporadic. The most severe times were during the Cultural Revolution. Believers were arrested and imprisoned and sometimes tortured for their faith. Bibles were destroyed, churches and homes were looted, and Christians were subjected to humiliation. Several thousand Christians were known to have been imprisoned between 1983 - 1993. In 1992 the government began a campaign to shut down all of the unregistered meetings. However, government implementation of restrictions since then has varied widely between regions of China and in many areas there is greater religious liberty.

Independent churches and a variety of evangelical sects have broadened the appeal of Protestantism, especially in rural China. Although outside observers thought that the Cultural Revolution had ended Christianity in China, Christianity in all its variety had taken root and possessed the strength and techniques to survive decades of hostility and persecution.
Christianity in the contemporary PRC

Today, the Chinese language typically divides Christians into two groups, members of Jidu jiao (literally, Christianity), Protestantism, and members of Tianzhu jiao (literally "Lord of Heaven" religion), Catholicism (see Protestantism in China and Catholicism in China.)
Official Christian organizations

Since loosening of restrictions on religion after the 1970's, Christianity has grown significantly within the People's Republic. It is still, however, tightly controlled by government authorities. The Three-Self Patriotic Movement and China Christian Council (Protestant) and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, which has disavowed the Pope and is considered schismatic by other Roman Catholics, have affiliations with government and must follow the regulations imposed upon them.
Orthodox Christianity in China

There are a small number of adherents of Russian Orthodoxy in northern China, predominantly in Harbin. The first mission was undertaken by Russians in the 17th century. Orthodox Christianity is also practiced by the small Russian ethnic minority in China. The Church operates relatively freely in Hong Kong (where the Ecumenical Patriarch has sent a metropolitan, Bishop Nikitas and the Russian Orthodox parish of St Peter and St Paul resumed its operation) and Taiwan (where archimandrite Jonah George Mourtos leads a mission church)."

link http://yeschinatour.com/china-guides/chinese-culture/christianity-china/

One my dear friends grew up as the son of missionaries in China. As a teen, he was a POW in Korea during the war..He later returned to Japan and became a prominant pastor in Kyoto.

He gave me my first bicycle when I went to Japan and he and his wife nursed me through a bout with pneumonia after a mountain hike that stranded several of us on a mountain in a snowstorm....Anyway...just a personal note. I did not think of myself as a Christian at the time....It didn't matter to the Wynns, I suppose. I was eighteen and needed help.We forget about the Christian influence in Asia, really. Korea also has a incredibly strong Christian community.

[lucy]

One of the most interesting families in modern Chinese history with a connection to the protestant church...the Soongs..


"Early life

Charlie Soong was born as Han Jiaozhun (韓教準) in Hainan as the third son of Han Hongyi (韓鴻翼) sometime between 1863 and 1866. At the age of 15 he sailed with his uncle to Boston in the United States and became a migrant worker. After working for his uncle for some time, he left on his own and was soon taken in by a group of Methodist missionaries. Soon thereafter he converted to the Christian faith and was baptized Charlie Jones Soon—Charlie Soon was probably an Anglicized version of his given name Chiao-Shun, but there is more confusion towards from where he got his middle name Jones. It was not until years later that he added the extra letter to his surname, spelling it Soong.[1]

The Methodists arranged for Charlie Soong to live with the industrialist and philanthropist Julian Carr in North Carolina. Carr had been a great contributor to Trinity College (now Duke University) and was subsequently able to get his Chinese protégé into the school in 1880, even though he met none of the qualifications for entry to university. The prospect of having a native Chinese as a missionary in China thrilled some of the pastors around him, and thus the focus of his studies were mastering the English language and study of the bible. One year later, Soong transferred to Vanderbilt University, from which he received a degree in theology in 1885. In 1886 he was sent to Shanghai on a mission after spending almost half of his life to that point abroad.[1]
[edit] From missionary to revolutionary

Soong's career as a missionary proved to be a short one. In the late 1880s, Charlie had begun to tire of the mission and felt that he could do more for his people if he was not bound to the restrictions and methods that came with working for the church. When he founded his first business—a small printing establishment—he seemingly found it appropriate to resign from preaching. Instead, another society required his time and loyalty. Around this time, Charlie had secretly been initiated into Shanghai’s thriving anti-Manchu resistance movement, more specifically an organization that went by the name of Hung P’ang, or the Red Gang. This organization had its roots in the movements to reinstate the Ming dynasty in the latter part of the 17th century, but had since transformed into a republican revolutionary force.[2]

In 1894, Charlie Soong made the arguably most important connection in his life when he met Sun Yat-Sen at a Sunday service in a Methodist church in Shanghai. The two men were kindred spirits of sorts, sharing their western education, region of birth, dialect, the Christian faith and a burning ambition and craving for change in China. Perhaps most importantly, they were both members of entwined anti-Manchu triads. They quickly became good friends and Charlie started funding Sun’s campaigns. A political body was set up, and the plan was to connect the triads into a network of opposition. When their first attempt at uprising failed in 1895, Sun fled China, and would not come back until sixteen years later. Charlie had remained incognito during the resistance and deemed it safe to remain in Shanghai, as his name had not yet been connected to the failed coup. In the coming years, Charlie Soong funded Sun Yat-Sen’s travels in search of support and major financial backing. [3]
[edit] The founding of the Soong family

In the years leading up to the revolution in 1911, Charlie Soong started a family in Shanghai with his wife Ni Kwei-Tseng. The couple had their first child in 1890—a girl whom they named Soong Ai-ling. Their next daughter, Soong Ch'ing-ling, was born in 1893, followed by their first son T. V. Soong a year later. Their last daughter, Soong May-ling came in 1897 and was followed by the brothers T.L. Soong and T.A. Soong. [4]

Charlie intended for all of his children to be educated in the United States, and Ai-Ling was the first to go at the early age of thirteen, after attending an English-language school in Shanghai from the age of five. Ai-Ling became a special student at Wesleyan College in Georgia. All of the three sisters attended Wesleyan, Ching-Ling and May-Ling moving to Georgia in 1907. Ai-Ling graduated in 1909, and moved back to China. Charlie instated her as Sun Yat-Sen’s secretary, in charge of handling his correspondence and of decoding messages to him from the republicans. A few years later in 1911, Sun Yat-Sen was successful in bringing about the Xinhai Revolution, and the Qing Dynasty fell to be replaced by the short-lived presidency of Sun Yat-Sen. [5]

In 1912, Ching-Ling returned to China, just in time to see the republic collapse under the leadership of Yuan Shikai. The connection between Charlie Soong and Sun Yat-Sen was now widely known, and Charlie felt that his family would not be safe in China. In 1913, they fled with Sun Yat-Sen to Tokyo. They remained there until 1916, when Charlie deemed the situation in Shanghai to be safe enough to return. [6]
[edit] Dispute with Sun Yat-Sen

While in Tokyo, Soong Ai-Ling had married a wealthy banker, and it was no longer suitable for her to work as Sun Yat-Sen's secretary. Instead, Soong Ch'ing-ling had started this job in 1914 while in Tokyo. The relationship between Ch'ing-ling and Sun soon turned romantic, and when Charlie Soong moved his family back to Shanghai in 1916, they secretly kept in touch. It was however problematic, as Sun Yat-Sen was already married, to pursue this relationship. Thus, Charlie was outraged when Ch'ing-ling asked to go back to Japan to join Sun. When she then defied him and escaped on a boat to Tokyo in the middle of the night, it was enough for Charlie to break all ties with Sun and disown his daughter.[7]
[edit] Death

Charlie Soong died on May 3, 1918. The cause was believed to be stomach cancer. Neither Sun Yat-Sen nor the rest of the KMT showed any public mourning, as the feud over Ching-Ling was still fresh in the public memory."

link  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Soong


The older daugters also studied in Tennessee....

One of the famous incidents in US history is the meeting of FDR and the Soong sister, Ai-LIng. He was mezmerised, according to records...She persuaded FDR to give their cause quite a bit of gold..... Later, FDR mentioned the intoxicating effect of Ai-Ling's southern dialect...I love this story/

Her younger sister was married to a very prominant Chinese politician who fled to Taiwan...

And Ch'ing Ling, whose house I have visited, although under house arrest during the Cultural Revolution, is considered a cultural icon for her love of her country.

[lucy]

"She was born in Shanghai, China on March 5, 1898, but some biographies use the year 1897 because Chinese tradition considers everyone to be one year old at birth.[3] She was the third of six children of Charlie Soong, a Hakka Chinese Methodist minister and businessman. Her siblings were: Oldest sister Ai-ling, middle sister Ching-ling, May-ling herself, then her brothers T. V., T.L., and last T.A.
1943 photo taken during a visit to Wellesley.

In Shanghai, May-ling attended the McTyeire School for Girls with her sister, Ching-ling, before their father arranged to have them further their education in the United States in 1907. Initially, May-ling and Ching-ling were attending a private school in Summit, New Jersey. In 1908, Ching-ling was accepted by her sister Ai-ling's alma mater, Wesleyan College, at the age of 15 and the two sisters moved to Macon, Georgia to join Ai-ling. However, problem rose as May-ling could neither gain permission to stay with her sister on campus as a family member nor could she gain acceptance as a student due to her young age. May-ling spent the subsequent year in Demorest, Georgia, with the family of Ai-ling's Wesleyan friend, Blanche Moss. Mrs. Moss took care of May-ling and enrolled her as an 8th grader at the Piedmont College. A year later, in 1909, Wesleyan's newly appointed president, William Newman Ainsworth, gave May-ling special permission to stay at Wesleyan and assigned her special tutors. May-ling was officially registered as a freshman at Wesleyan in 1912 at the age of 15. She then transferred to Wellesley College a year later to be closer to her older brother, T.V., who, at the time, was studying at Harvard. By then both her sisters had graduated and returned to Shanghai. She graduated from Wellesley as one of the 33 Durant Scholars on June 19, 1917 with a major in English literature and minor in philosophy. As a result of being educated in English all her life, she spoke excellent English, with a pronounced Georgia accent which helped her connect with American audiences. [1]
[edit] Madame Chiang
Chiang-Soong wedding photo

Soong May-ling met Chiang Kai-shek in 1920. Since he was eleven years her elder, already married, and a Buddhist, May-ling's mother vehemently opposed the marriage between the two, but finally agreed after Chiang showed proof of his divorce and promised to convert to Christianity. Chiang told his future mother-in-law that he couldn't convert immediately, because religion needed to be gradually absorbed, not swallowed like a pill. They married in Shanghai on December 1, 1927. While biographers regard the marriage with varying appraisals of partnership, love, politics and competition, it lasted 48 years. The couple never had any children.

Madame Chiang initiated the New Life Movement and became actively engaged in Chinese politics. She was a member of the Legislative Yuan from 1930 to 1932 and Secretary-General of the Chinese Aeronautical Affairs Commission from 1936 to 1938. In 1945 she became a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang. As her husband rose to become Generalissimo and leader of the Kuomintang, Madame Chiang acted as his English translator, secretary and advisor. She was his muse, his eyes, his ears, and his most loyal champion. During World War II, Madame Chiang tried to promote the Chinese cause and build a legacy for her husband on par with Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. Well versed in both Chinese and western culture, she became popular both in China and abroad. Her prominence led Joseph Stilwell to quip that she ought to be appointed minister of defense.
[edit] Visits to the USA
On February 18, 1943, she addressed both houses of the U.S. Congress.

In the United States, she drew crowds as large as 30,000 people and made the cover of TIME magazine (she had first appeared in 1937 with her husband as "Man and Wife of the Year)" [4] Both husband and wife were on good terms with Time Magazine senior editor and co-founder Henry Luce, who frequently tried to rally money and support from the American public for the Republic of China. On February 18, 1943, she became the first Chinese national and second woman to address both houses of the U.S. Congress.

After the defeat of her husband's government in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, Madame Chiang followed her husband to Taiwan, while her sister Soong Ching-ling stayed on the mainland, siding with the communists. Madame Chiang continued to play a prominent international role. She was a Patron of the International Red Cross Committee, honorary chair of the British United Aid to China Fund, and First Honorary Member of the Bill of Rights Commemorative Society. Through the late 1960s she was included among America's 10 most admired women.
[edit] Later life

After the death of her husband in 1975, Madame Chiang assumed a low profile. Chiang Kai-shek was succeeded to power by his eldest son Chiang Ching-kuo, from a previous marriage, with whom Madame Chiang had rocky relations. In 1975, she emigrated from Taiwan to her family's 36 acre (14.6 hectare) estate in Lattingtown, Long Island, New York, USA, where she kept a portrait of her late husband in full military regalia in her living room.

Madame Chiang returned to Taiwan upon Chiang Ching-kuo's death in 1988, to shore up support among her old allies. However, Chiang's successor as president, Lee Teng-hui, proved to be more adept at politics than she was, and consolidated his position. As a result, she again returned to the U.S.

Madame Chiang made a rare public appearance in 1995 when she attended a reception held on Capitol Hill in her honor in connection with celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. Madame Chiang also made her last visit to Taiwan in 1995.

In the 2000 Presidential Election on Taiwan, the Kuomintang produced a letter from her in which she purportedly supported the KMT candidate Lien Chan over independent candidate James Soong (no relation). James Soong himself had never disputed the authenticity of the letter.

Soong sold her Long Island estate in 2000 and spent the rest of her life in a Gracie Square apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan owned by her niece. An open house of the estate drew many Taiwanese expatriates.

When Madame Chiang was 103 years old, she had an exhibition of her Chinese paintings in New York. To this date her work is not for sale."

link  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soong_May-ling#Visits_to_the_USA

[Mornac]

Interesting reading lucy. Thanks.

[Mornac]

01/12/2010 12:38

IRAQ
Mosul: Christian merchant killed as "ethnic cleansing" continues
A 75-year-old greengrocer is shot dead in front of his house. The abduction of a Christian female student is still shrouded in mystery. A wave of violence that includes attacks against churches, abductions and targeted killings of Christians is trying to force them into a mass exodus.

 Mosul (AsiaNews) – Mosul's Christian community has been the victim of another targeted killing. Hikmat Sleiman, a 75-year-old greengrocer, was killed yesterday. His death follows a wave of violence against Iraqi Christians that included a number of attacks over the past few weeks against churches and convents as well as abductions and execution-style murders. Local bishops have slammed the trend, calling it a plan of "ethnic cleansing" at Christians' expense.
The store owner "was assassinated in front of his house," sources in Mosul told AsiaNews. “Hikmat Sleiman, 75, owned a small greengrocery across from the Dominican convent in Sa'a neighbourhood, said the source who preferred to remain anonymous for security reasons.

"After closing his store, he went home. A group of criminals was waiting for him and opened fire," he added. The victim died instantly.

Yesterday's murder is further evidence that Iraqi Christians are the victims of a plan of "ethnic cleansing" designed to force them to leave the country. The central government and the local governatorate are powerless against such attacks as the various ethnic groups, Arab, Kurdish, Turkmen as well as extremist cells, blame each other.

On 23 December of last year, the Church of Saint George of the Chaldeans and the Syro-Orthodox Church of Saint Thomas were hit in separate attacks. Three people were killed in the first attack. On Christmas Eve, a man was killed in front of his house, whilst on 31 December an Islamic group abducted a Christian female student whose fate is still unknown. Two days later, on 2 January, a local Christian man was also abducted.

Back in December, four churches and the convent of the Dominican nuns were attacked in Mosul. The explosions caused by car bombs and other explosive devices caused major damage to the surrounding buildings and homes. Many homes belonging to Christians as well as Muslims were destroyed.

After the attacks, a Christian source in the city sounded the alarm, saying "the community is destined to day". Indeed in Mosul, many believe that the attacks are mafia-style "warnings" designed to provoke a mass exodus of the community.

"Families fled north, in Kurdistan, where they have no work or life prospects. The Christian community is destined to die," the source said.

Since 2003, the year when Saddam Hussein fell, at least 1,960 Christians have been killed in Iraq. The community has been cut by half as Christians fled for safer areas inside the country (Kurdistan) or abroad.

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Mosul:-Christian-merchant-killed-as-ethnic-cleansing-continues-17322.html#

[lucy]

Remember SH's friend and minister Aziz? He was Catholic and appealed to the Vatican to help stop a war....

Whatever happened to him, anyway?

Is the ME now safer for indigenous Christians or not as safe?

[Mornac]

I remeber Tariq Aziz well. He was (is) a Chaldean Catholic and (in my opinion) the voice of reason in Iraq. I believ he was brought up on some charges and convicted. I don't know if he served time and I don't know where he is today.

Many parts of the ME are trying to flush Christians out either by force or intimidation. It's certainly true in Iraq, Pakistan, and Israel.

[lucy]

I hope he is well. I also appreciated his voice of reason at the time.

[johnhp]

Tariq Aziz is a Chaldean Catholic.  He is serving 15 years in prison.

[johnhp]

Mornac

Do you think the US invasion of Iraq has anything to do with the plight of the Christian community (Chaldean, Assyrian, etc) there?

[Mornac]

Christians are fleeing due to the intolerence of Islam which is the dominant religion in the area.

[johnhp]

Not before the war.

[Observer]

Tariq Aziz is a Chaldean Catholic.  He is serving 15 years in prison.

Do your homework.

He is serving 22 years in prison, convicted at two different trials.

He was sentenced to 15 years for his complicity in the executions of 42 rice merchants who violated Saddam's price control orders. In a separate trial, he was convicted of the forced displacement of Kurds in northeastern Iraq, and sentenced to 7 years.

[Observer]

I hope he is well. I also appreciated his voice of reason at the time.

He is a war criminal and should have been hanged.