Christian Baptists raise funds for needy in Iraq and Gaza
By Ray Hanania
Eron Henry of the Baptist World Alliance discusses fundraising efforts to help Christians who are being targeted by religious extremists in Iraq and in Syria.
Henry, during an interview with Talk of the Town radio Friday August 29, 2014, said that the group has raised $20,000 so far and is continuing to raise money. Henry said that the BWA not only helps Christians but also Muslims who are in need in the Middle East. He said that the BWA is also raising funds for 300 Christian Families and 1,000 Muslim Families in the Gaza Strip who have been targeted by Israel’s brutal military oppression.
The Baptist World Alliance (BWA) sent an initial sum of US$20,000 to assist with Christians displaced inside Iraq.
Funds given by the BWA will be used to help provide food and other urgent relief supplies to approximately 500 Iraqi Christian families who fled Mosul and Karakosh to Irbil city in Kurdistan state.
Christians fled in haste without their possessions, including clothing. Money, jewelry and other valuables were stolen or confiscated.
A sum of US$90 is needed for mattresses, blankets and a two-week food supply for an average family of six persons. Baptists and other Christian groups providing assistance expect the need to last through several months.
Mosul, Iraq’s second largest metropolitan area after Baghdad is an ancient city in Northern Iraq that has had a significant Christian presence going back almost 2,000 years. Karakosh is in close proximity to Mosul.
Problems faced by Iraqi Christians escalated in June this year with the Northern Iraq offensive, when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), sometimes referred to as the Islamic State, and aligned forces, began a major offensive in Northern Iraq against the Iraqi government. The same protagonists attacked Kurdish-held territory in Northern Iraq in August.
Christians and other minority religious groups have been specially targeted by ISIS. A decree was issued in July that all Christians in the area under ISIS control, including Mosul and Karakosh, must pay a special tax of approximately US$470 per family, convert to Islam, or leave. It was later announced that all Christians needed to leave or be killed.
Many Christians have fled to Kurdistan.
Christians have been leaving Iraq in droves after the 2003 United States invasion of Iraq. Violence against Christians by radical Islamist groups rose dramatically, including abductions, torture, bombings and killings. Christians were pressured to convert to Islam under threat of death or expulsion, and women were ordered to wear Islamic dress.
By 2007, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated that 2.2 million Iraqis were displaced to neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, with a large majority being Christian. Another two million were displaced internally.
Donations may be made online at www.bwanet.org or sent to
Baptist World Aid, c/o Baptist World Alliance, 405 North Washington Street, Falls Church, VA 22046, USA.
Spokesman Eron Henry said that the BWA also helps Muslims in need in Iraq, and they are also supporting a program to help the needy in the Gaza Strip, including supporting 300 Christian families in Gaza and 1,000 Muslim families in Gaza, too. Henry said that $60 will help a needy family for two weeks in Iraq or in Gaza.
The Baptist World Alliance is a fellowship of 231 conventions and unions in 121 countries and territories comprising 42 million members in 177,000 churches. Its priorities are nurturing the passion for mission and evangelism, promoting worship, fellowship and unity, responding to people in need, defending human rights and justice and advancing relevant theological reflection.
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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
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