With Heavy Heart, Christians Leave Baghdad

Sometimes when I read stories like the one I am going to share with you in this post, I feel completely heartsick.  In fact, it reminds me of a television show I was watching recently where a woman was being stalked by her crazy neighbor for four years.  After this woman who was being stalked, did all she could to get help from the police, and then even having to deal with a false accusation of her trying to run her neighbor off the road and kill her, she was able to move out of her house in secret, so she could get rid of her stalker.

Well, Christians in Iraq aren't being stalked like this woman was, but they are targeted by radical Muslim terrorists who want them dead.  And unfortunately, since there has been so much carnage and death, many Christians are leaving Baghdad to find places where they can live in peace.

Here's part of the story from The Assyrian International News Agency.

BAGHDAD (AFP) -- Bassam Anis was for a long time an optimist, but persistent attacks against his Christian community convinced him that his home country, Iraq, no longer offered him solace. So, on April 30, he fled.

While his solution may seem extreme, it is by no means uncommon.

On October 31, a group of Al-Qaeda commandos stormed a Syriac Catholic church in Baghdad, with the ensuing siege killing 44 worshippers, two priests and seven Iraqi security force officers.

The attack was the worst against Iraq's Christian community since the 2003 US-led invasion, and countless members of the minority have since fled the country.

For Bassam, himself Syriac Orthodox, the attack hit particularly close to home -- among the worshippers killed was his friend, Raghad.

"Before, I was optimistic," the 26-year-old biology teacher told AFP before his departure, sat in a restaurant in central Baghdad.

"I never imagined I would leave Iraq, because I could not imagine starting my life over again."

He continued: "Since the attack, though, I've begun to realise there is no hope in this country any more. It is terrible to think like this, but leaving is the only solution."

Bassam then recounted the Biblical parable of Lot, who reluctantly fled Sodom with his family after being told to do so by God as the city was being destroyed.

Eight years after the US-led invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein and his regime, violence remains high in Iraq, despite having dropped off since its peak in 2006 and 2007.

Even so, the Iraqi government has insisted that local forces are capable of maintaining security, and has said that the situation has improved as violence has declined.

But despite such assurances, thousands of Iraqis continue to flee the country every month in search of a better life, according to UN figures.