The Iraqi Chaldean Archbishop murder is a new victory for Terrorism
By: Elias Bejjani

March 15/08

The Lebanese Canadian Coordinating Council (LCCC) strongly condemns the vicious, heinous and cowardice kidnapping and murder of the Iraqi Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul, Paulus Faraj Rahho. The Archbishop's body was found on Thursday 13/02/08 in a grave located in Al-Intisar suburb of the south-east Mosul Iraqi City. An anonymous phone call was received by the police informing them where he was buried. The condition of the body indicated that he had been dead for some time. Archbishop Rahho was kidnapped on February 29/08 during which three of his escorting deacons were also murdered in cold blood.

We offer our warmest and deeply heartfelt condolences to the Archbishop's family, friends, his beleaguered Chaldean Iraqi Catholic Church Sheppard's and members, and to all the Middle East Christian Communities. We ask Almighty God to grant them all patience, solace, and courage to endure this big loss with forgiving spirit and solid faith. We pray that the Archbishop's soul is now resting peacefully in heaven alongside all the other saints and angels.

The kidnapping and murder of the Archbishop along with three of his escorting deacons cannot be accepted or justified by any human means or criteria. There is no doubt that the sole motive for such a barbaric and brutal crime is a deeply rooted sickening hatred complex, a set of evil grudges and a malevolent mentality of intolerance. 

This crime is not only a terrorist and immoral atrocity that is committed by wicked individuals and organizations against a prominent Christian figure, but in fact, an organized and systematic pre-set venomous cleansing scheme against all the Middle Eastern Christian Communities.

This scheme is taking place openly and overtly on daily basis in different forms and on many levels in almost all the so-called Arabic countries; Sudan, Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Arabian Gulf countries, Gaza Palestinian territory, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon etc

The Middle East Christians communities are targeted in their very core existence, ethnic identities, properties, freedom, culture, history, civilization and lives.
This repugnant cleansing scheme is covert and not a secret anymore. The global evil forces of fundamentalism and terrorism spearheaded by the Axis of Evil countries and terrorist organizations aim to uproot, annihilate, subjugate, enslave and ultimately either force all the Middle East Christian Communities into exodus or mass murder them.

In almost all the Middle East countries, the Christian communities are exposed without any kind of mercy and subjected on daily basis to an orchestrated and well planned tragic and disastrous persecution, torture, terrorism and systematic killing. Meanwhile their historic and deeply rooted existence in Lebanon, the last safe Christian haven left, is becoming more and more hazardous, while the conspiracy against their existence, land, identity and freedoms is escalating around the clock
What is actually unfortunate, disappointing, despicable and sad about this on-going deadly systematic prosecution and religious cleansing that is targeting all Christian communities in the Middle East lies in the fact that it is carried on with unprecedented brutality while the free world countries are silent, indifferent and completely detaching themselves from this criminal dilemma.

We call on the free world in general, and in particular on the United States, the European Union, Canada, Australia, and Russia, who boast and brag with their secular and anti-religious democracies to step forward out of their deadly and shameful silence and come to the rescue of the Middle East Christian communities before it is too late. 

We denounce these Western countries' naive, shortsighted, uncalculated and uneducated silence. Meanwhile we assure them that the fall of the Middle East Christian communities for terrorism and fundamentalism will put these criminals with their savage anti-humanity schemes on their own Western countries' front doors and backyards.

We are putting all the free world countries on notice and serving them with this warning:  Allowing the emptying and cleansing of the Middle East from Christian communities through persecution, annihilation and exodus means simply emptying this historic part of the world from all aspects of civilization, morals, peace, freedom, democracy, stability and human rights.

It remains that the continuation of this Middle East Christian barbaric killing, cleansing and mass exodus is a colossal victory  for the education of death, terrorism and fundamentalism, and an abominable defeat  for the education of life, freedoms, peace, equality, human rights and moral values.
 

*Elias Bejjani
Chairman for the Canadian Lebanese Coordinating Council (LCCC)
Human Rights activist, journalist & political commentator.
Spokesman for the Canadian Lebanese Human Rights Federation (CLHRF)
E.Mail phoenicia@hotmail.com
LCCC Web Site http://www.10452lccc.com
CLHRF Website http://www.clhrf.com