Islamic radicals forced a Christian woman (Tamar Goregian) to give up the Miss Iraq crown. Another Christian has taken the crown and is also being threatened.
If the radicals are keeping Christians out of contests in Iraq, what would they do with a convert from Islam?
Iraq’s Beauty Queen Resigns After Four Days
Pageant Winner Cites Threats by Religious Extremists
On April 9, the 23-year-old, who was the first Armenian Iraqi to win the Miss Iraq pageant, announced her resignation after receiving threats by a group of religious extremists who referred to her as “the queen of infidels” for participating in the contest.
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Pageant organizers had hoped to pass the crown to the runner-up, or “Maiden of Beauty,” Mona Hilmi, an Iraqi Sunni Muslim. One of the organizers said she was “equally intelligent and beautiful.”
However, the second and third runners-up also withdrew from the competition for security concerns. They had not received specific threats.
Miss Teen Iraq, Silva Shahakian, a Christian, accepted the title.
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Hat tip to Michelle Malkin.
This is only part of an on going saga of problems for Christians in Iraq. The latest rounds of attacks against Christians ironically started with the fall of Saddam.
Deadly attacks against the Assyrian Christians of Iraq
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Between 10,000 and 30,000 of Iraq’s 800,000 Christians have fled the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, according to Christian
groups in Baghdad. Although Christians make up only about 3% of Iraq’s 25 million people, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has said they account for about 20% of the refugees fleeing Iraq for Syria. They are escaping a climate of violence and a surging Islamic radicalism that have made the practice of their faith a deadly enterprise.
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Be sure to read all of that one.
If you want some other details on the current situation for Christians in that region you can also check out this report from NPR.
Believe it or not, the area now known as Iraq was once majority Christian. What happened? Islamic invaders is what happened!
Who Are Christians of Iraq?
Most people think of the Middle East as mostly Arab and Moslem and was always that way. Such is not the case. Before the seventh century invasion of the Middle East by Moslem Arabs the predominant population of Mesopotamia (today’s Iraq), Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt was none Arab Christians. The growth of Islam in these countries was not due to a sudden influx of Arabs but gradual conversion to Islam by the native population who later became to be known as Arabs. It was not until the eleventh century when Moslems became a majority in Iraq.
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Islamists always cry about someone being on “their land”, but they always ignore what they acquired by force themselves. If not for the invaders, the people would not have started changing to Islam at all. This is how Islamic Radicals gain new territory and how the “great prophet of Islam” (Muhammad) did it himself.
April 11th, 2006 at 6:15 pm
[...] The Independent Conservative talks about Christians being persecuted in Iraq [...]