A new slaughter of Iraqi Christians brings hundreds to Loop protest
ICC Note:
Protestors in Chicago demand an end to the killings of Assyrian Christians in Iraq.
By Justin Saper
11/9/2010 Iraq (MEDILL) – The message was clear. “Stop the killing. Stop the hate.”
But even as hundreds marched in the Loop to show their outrage at the recent killings of Assyrian Christians in Iraq, many say they recognize that it will take much more than a march to make a difference.
“Something has to be done [for] the persecuted Christian minority in Iraq,” said Sam Shamoun, an Assyrian activist in Chicago. “They can’t go on as sheep to the slaughter.”
Shamoun said many Assyrians in Iraq are helpless to defend themselves against Arab extremists who want to drive them out. He said he hopes the protest’s message resonates abroad.
Nearly 60 were killed after Al-Qaeda militants took Christian worshipers hostage at a Baghdad church on Oct. 31. The violence was the latest in a litany of attacks against Christians throughout Iraq.
Christian churches and businesses have been bombed and burned in recent years. In 2006, a Syrian Orthodox priest was found beheaded in a suburb of the northern city of Mosul.
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