{"id":7919,"date":"2014-08-22T20:31:42","date_gmt":"2014-08-22T19:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=7919"},"modified":"2014-08-22T21:10:16","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T20:10:16","slug":"iraqi-christians-valued-says-ambassador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/iraqi-christians-valued-says-ambassador\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraqi Christians valued, says Ambassador"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"His<\/a>
The Iraqi Ambassador meets\u00a0the protestors.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Iraqi Christians are\u00a0valued, the Iraqi Ambassador told a group of Christians\u00a0earlier today.<\/p>\n

His Excellency Faik Farik Abdul Aziz Nerweyi crossed Queens Gate in central London to speak with protesters opposite the Iraqi Embassy.<\/p>\n

The witness, for Christians in Iraq, was organised by Christian Voice.<\/p>\n

The Ambassador pledged to recover all territory lost to Islamic State, and said he was asking the British Government for help.<\/p>\n

He said the ancient Assyrian Christian community made a valued contribution to modern Iraq.<\/p>\n

His Excellency rejected any idea of negotiation with Islamic State.<\/p>\n

‘You cannot negotiate with a wild animal,’ he said. ‘Either you kill it or it kills you.’<\/p>\n

Over twenty believers came from around London and from as far as Canterbury, Cheltenham, Manchester, St Leonards, Stevenage, Walsall and west Wales to stand for their brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n

HAMMOND WON’T WORK WITH ASSAD<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Iraqi Embassy is in Queen’s Gate, London SW7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In other developments, UK Secretary of State for Defence\u00a0Philip Hammond disappointingly rejected a call<\/a><\/strong> from former army chief and committed Christian Lord Dannatt\u00a0and ex-Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind to work with President Assad of Syria to defeat Islamic State.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lord Dannatt\u00a0told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think whether it’s above the counter or below the counter, a conversation has got to be held with him.”<\/p>\n

Sir Malcolm, the chairman of Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, said history had shown that “sometimes you actually have to make an arrangement with some nasty people in order to get rid of some even nastier ones”.<\/p>\n

Christian Voice has held a consistent view that only President Assad stood between Christians in Syria and a blood-bath, that the UK Government was wrong to support the Islamic militants trying to oust him. \u00a0Our Government are responsible for a colossal loss of life and property. \u00a0They now have a face-saving opportunity to switch sides.<\/p>\n

\"Over<\/a>
Over twenty Christians came from all over England and Wales to stand for their brothers and sisters in Iraq.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

FRANCE TAKING IRAQI REFUGEES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Iraqi Christians with connections to France are being offered asylum. \u00a0About 40 Iraqi Christian refugees flew to Paris from Irbil in Iraqi Kurdistan earlier today to be welcomed by\u00a0Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The British Government has yet to offer asylum to Christians from either Iraq or Syria.<\/p>\n

It could of course be argued that it is better to stay and fight, and we expect Christians in the Qaraqosh Protection Committee and other militias will be of that mind. \u00a0But we have to realise that they will return home to nothing. \u00a0Buildings will be torched by the retreating forces, fields plundered and livestock slaughtered to feed Islamic State militants. \u00a0It will take a massive aid effort to provide for people just to get through this winter, let alone to restock them and help them to get up and running again.<\/p>\n

Christian Voice has asked members to pray that the UK Government will respond with aid, arms, air cover and offers of asylum for Christians in Iraq and to contact their members of Parliament.<\/p>\n

PERSECUTION ELSEWHERE<\/strong><\/p>\n

We need also to recognise that it is not just Islamic State who are persecuting Christians. \u00a0The Christian minority are under intolerable pressure in areas under Iraqi Government control and even in the Kurdish autonomous region. \u00a0In a letter delivered to the Ambassador, we have urged the Iraqi Government to safeguard real religious freedom.<\/p>\n

Persecution.net reports:<\/p>\n

A car bomb targeted believers in Baghdad on Christmas Day 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Canon Andrew White reported that ‘scores’ of Christians were being killed daily in October 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gunmen opened fire on an Assyrian Church in Baghdad in June 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Christian-owned businesses were burned in December 2011 in the Kurdish region.<\/a><\/p>\n

Since 2003, the Christian population of Iraq has halved from their number in 1991.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join)<\/strong>
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Please note that persons wishing to comment on this story must enter a valid email address. Comments from persons leaving fictitious email addresses will be trashed.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iraqi Christians are\u00a0valued, the Iraqi Ambassador told a group of Christians\u00a0earlier today. His Excellency Faik Farik Abdul Aziz Nerweyi crossed Queens Gate in central London to speak with protesters opposite the Iraqi Embassy. The witness, for Christians in Iraq, was organised by Christian Voice. The Ambassador pledged to recover all territory lost to Islamic State, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1285,1359,1294],"class_list":["post-7919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-freedom","tag-iraq","tag-iraqi-christians","tag-the-islamic-state-in-iraq-and-the-levant"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Stephen","author_link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/author\/stephen\/"},"rttpg_comment":15,"rttpg_category":"Christian freedom<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Iraqi Christians are\u00a0valued, the Iraqi Ambassador told a group of Christians\u00a0earlier today. His Excellency Faik Farik Abdul Aziz Nerweyi crossed Queens Gate in central London to speak with protesters opposite the Iraqi Embassy. The witness, for Christians in Iraq, was organised by Christian Voice. The Ambassador pledged to recover all territory lost to Islamic State,…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}