Last week I wondered what Christians in Mosul would have to say about remarks by Iraq's ambassador to the Holy See that Western media is exaggerating -- or, at the least, taking out of context -- the plight of Christians in the war-torn country.
This week, the Catholic News Agency provides an answer in an interview with Father Firas Benoka, who ministers to Syro-Catholics in this hotspot of violent persecution of Iraqi Christians.
“Amid all this should the world have been silent? Should such a miserable and humiliating position be tolerated?" Father Benoka asked. “The mass media have not exaggerated in their judgment of the situation. ... Actually, they have missed many of the injustices that continually take place in the villages of Christian majority populations.”
He also scoffed at the ambassador's assertion that Christians enjoyed equal rights under Iraq's Constitution, as well as special protection because of their minority status -- recognizing Islam as the state religion, Father Benoka argued, creates "the biggest obstacle to religious freedom of all the non-Muslim religions.”
It's worth the read for the other side of the story.
Elizabeth Hansen
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