The swedish newspaper Metro is reporting that alot of christians are fleeing from Iraq.Many of them are seeking asylum in Sweden. In the city of Södertälje the Iraqy population has grown from 750 to 5300 in just five years. There is a lot of stories of kidnappings and persecution. I know a christian family from Iraq, the woman is here with her husband and 10yr old boy but their older children cant get asylum.
Information about Iraq taken from
http://www.persecution.org/suffering/pdfs/HallofShame2007.pdf
There has been a native Christian church in Iraq since the apostle Thomas brought the gospel here in the first century AD. Known as the Assyrian Church of the East, it is now a minority in the Christian community. The largest church in Iraq is the Chaldean Church, which broke away from the Assyrian Church of the East to re-join communion with the Roman Catholic Church in 1553. The Christians in Iraq have lived under Muslim domination since Islam arrived in the seventh century, but have always been able to adapt and survive among a majority of Muslims.
Unfortunately, one unintended result of the Iraq war and the fall of Saddam was to bring more pressure on these native Christians as Iraqi Muslims associated Iraqi Christians with the Western "Christian" armies of the USA and the United Kingdom. Thus, as conflict escalates between Kurds, Sunni Arabs, and Shiite Arabs, Christians are caught in the middle without an ally. The result is a huge increase in the persecution of Christians that has caused an exodus of Iraq’s Christians. In 1980, there were 1.4 million Christians in Iraq. By the beginning of 2003 that number had shrunk to 800,000, and presently there are only 250,000 - 500,000 Christians in Iraq. 2006 saw any number of horrible incidents including kidnappings, murders, and beheadings of priests as well as other Christians.
PRAY:.....
* that the persecution of christians will cease
* that the war in Iraq will end.
* for the refugees from Iraq.
* that Jesus will be known and followed in Iraq
* for the kurds
* for protection for the two boys that cant get asylum
