Church Seized: Muslim Extremists Kidnap 50 Catholics, at Least 37 Dead UPDATE: 58 Dead

UPDATE: Death toll soars

BAGHDAD – Iraq's dwindling Christian community was grieving and afraid on Monday after [Muslim] militants seized a Baghdad church during evening Mass, held the congregation hostage and triggered a raid by Iraqi security forces. The bloodbath left at least 58 people killed and 78 wounded — nearly everyone inside.

Misunderstanders of Islam strike again. Horrible. Expect the media to report it every which way but the truth. Jihad.

Ahmad Al-Rubaye  /  AFP - Getty Images file
Iraqi Chaladean Catholic Christians celebrate Easter mass at the church of Virgin Mary in central Baghdad's Al-Karrada neighborhood on March 23, 2008. The same church was the site of a four-hour seige on Sunday.
By Waleed Ibrahim and Muhanad Mohammed

Iraq: Dozens dead following Muslim standoff at Catholic church 

A siege by Iraqi security forces at one of Baghdad's largest Catholic churches ended on the night of October 31, leaving at least 37 people dead and twelve injured.

A group of gunmen wearing suicide vests walked into the Syrian Catholic Church of Our Lady of Salvation during Sunday Mass. They held more than 50 parishioners hostage for several hours and threatened to kill them if al Qaeda prisoners were not released.

The siege was finally broken on that evening when Iraqi security forces stormed the church. Iraqi spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi claimed that five gunmen were killed during the rescue operation as well as one policeman a parishioner and one of the priests celebrating Mass.

The Christian community in Iraq has suffered persecution since the war. Many thousands have fled abroad. In this case it is still not known why the church was targeted. Some reports suggest that the gunmen had first planned to attack the nearby stock exchange.

Christian clergy and lay people have been kidnapped, murdered, and raped by Muslim terrorists and criminal gangs in Iraq, sparking the exodus of Christians from the country.

[...]

Iraq's Jews, who had lived in the region since the time of Abraham and during their Babylonian Captivity, were expelled in the 1940s and 1950s following the infamous pogrom known as The Farhud. Sparked by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, one of the lead Muslim religious men of the region, Muslims went on a killing spree in Baghdad and elsewhere during the Second World War having allied themselves with the genocidal Nazi war machine in the Mideast's version of the Holocaust.

More on Hitler's partner The Mufti of Jerusalem

Comments

[what's that?]

what's it gonna be, folks?

you're either part of the problem of part of the solution.

[Mac-101]

I say we take one Christtian or Jew and send em back one of their own kind!

[Gerald]

BBC(Biased Broadcasting Corporation) News carried news of this attack but there was no mention of Islam, Muslims or Jihad only mention of gunmen or militants. It's freaking unbelievable.

[Mac-101]

Guess we better build that Mosque right in the middle of WTC! We have to prove we're better, NOT!

[Doda McCheesle]

So, ultimately, what will we get in Iraq and Afghanistan after the smoke clears? Two more evil, corrupt muslim regimes, with a country in a constant state of civil war as various islamic factions fight it out on a daily basis?

Gee, that's swell...

[Jamadagnii]

I'm very sad for the loss of life, which this report seriously understates, as well as the fear under which Christians now live in Iraq -- and elsewhere in the Muslim world. It's pitiful and shameful that the Church officially decided not to help them. I can only imagine the fear and pain they are feeling.

[gcm]

The Vatican should unequivocally condemn this act.
It is a Christian thing to do.
The Church claims to believe in retribution for crimes-- even to the point of supporting the death penalty.
They should speak up now.

[Zilla of the Resistance]

I was so upset by this and so troubled by the way the media has made no mention of it, that I wrote about it in my blog also:

http://politizilla.blogspot.com/2010/11/catholics-slaughtered-at-church-in-evil.html

I've found more information about it from some other sources in addition to the information I quoted from here at Atlas in my post.

[Zilla of the Resistance]

Pope Benedict has spoken out about it, you can read about it my blog...

http://politizilla.blogspot.com/2010/11/catholics-slaughtered-at-church-in-evil.html

[Mary]

Video Catholic Church Attack in Baghdad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z38-3ZWJOFU

[knightemplar2]

..and Muhammad invented Islam..a religion of bloodshed and sexual perversions.
(video)
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2010/07/perfect-man.html

[Roderick]

MSM is ignoring this. Sports figures and celebs more important.

[Roderick]

"I was so upset by this and so troubled by the way the media has made no mention of it" --- Right on Zilla. So true and sick.

[WAKE UP]

Iraq is intractable. Afghanistan is intractable. Pakistan is intractable. We should ring-fence them, get our boys the hell out of there, and leave them to it.

And as a bonus, we should offer any Muslim in America who doesn't like America a one-way ticket to any of the above destinations.

[xavier 823]

The main stream media as well as many of our cultural elite went crazy when a Cristian preacher no one ever heard of said he was going to burn the Quran , yet these same groups say almost nothing when a group of Muslims violently seize a Catholic Church.

[Roderick]

I'm with you WAKE UP.

[Gptippett]

Can an armed attack on a Christian Church or Jewish Synagogue take place in America? You betcha!!

It's best to be "prepared".

http://howcanoneknow.org/blog/2010/11/02/attack-in-baghdad-kills-58-christians/

[Saoirse O'Malley]

Maybe now the Catholics will wake up and realize that the damned muslimes are spewing taqiya every time they claim to want peace.

I'm sick of this crap. There's so much talk about Catholics having interfaith dialogue with the muslimes. Whenever there *is* such dialogue, out comes the taquiya from the 'slimes and both groups start the negative garbage about the Jews in Israel.

Wake up, Catholics, the Jews aren't our enemies. THEY are our allies!

And, for the record, I'm Catholic.