Bishop of Baghdad reproaches West for “silence” in response to violence against Christians in Iraq

Baghdad, Iraq, Jun 12, 2007 / 08:46 am

The Religious Information Service of the Church in Italy reported this week that Auxiliary Bishop of Baghdad Shlemon Warduni scolded the United States and Europe for their “silence” in the face of the escalating violence against the Christian minority in Iraq.

Bishop Warduni pointed to the recent assassination of a Catholic priest, Father Ragheed Aziz Ganni, and three deacons in northern Iraq, carried out a week ago as they were coming out of a church, and to the kidnapping of Father Hani Abdel Ahad, 33, who has not been heard from since the day of his abduction last Wednesday as instances of this silence.

The bishop said that after the killing of Father Ganni, “nobody showed us any solidarity.”  “Only the Pope sent a telegram of condolences and raised his voice to make know the tragedy of the Iraqi Christians.”

According to the bishop, “If this had happened in any Islamic population, the Muslim masses would have taken to the streets to protest and demand respect, just as what happened with the satirical comics some time ago.”

“Christians, on the other hand, are doing nothing while here they are being killed, kidnapped, forced to convert to Islam, to pay protection money, hand over their own daughters in order to avoid reprisals, or to flee, abandoning their whole life’s work,” Bishop Wardumi said.