Annotated Bibliography For Iraq's Christians Persecuted '

The Middle East is home to the creation of so many different cultures and religions. It is the home to the most prominent monotheistic faiths of this lifetime. Those faiths are Christianity, essentially Catholicism, and Islam. They do not only share a similar origin, but share the same ancestors and stories of prophets and people. There is a connection between the profound values of truth, love, and mercy that Catholics and Muslims hold dear. Although there are a great many commonalities between Catholicism and Islam, it is important to note the key foundations that make both religions special.

"You arrive at a village, and in this calm environment, one starts to hear echo."

You are Fatima, a middle-aged, middle-class woman in El Nahra, Iraq in 1954. You have met an American woman for the first time in your life, and have come to know her pretty well. But you just cannot understand how she can be happy living according to the American customs she has described to you. Construct Fatima’s argument for why the customs of Iraq, especially as they relate to gender roles and gender relationships, are vastly superior to those of the United States.

The Crusades hold a place in the canon of Western history as valiant wars against the infidel in the East, motivated by an unparalleled pious zeal. Whilst revisions to this history have considered more mundane and ordinary motives, such as a want for land or an attempt to reinforce the Peace of God movement, there is something to be said of the religious motivations of the crusaders. The words ‘conquest’ and ‘conversion’ seem ideologically charged – with conquest being what is done by temporal rulers to physical land and people, and conversion being what is done to the spiritual self, by someone who does not have anything material to gain from the action. However, it can be argued that these lines can be blurred; I wish to present the case of conquest being religiously charged, and the idea that any subsequent conversion is of little importance. By examining the geographical targets of various crusaders, I will conclude that they were more interested in conquest than conversion: but this was not necessarily for earthly reasons alone.

When the crusades failed to regain control over the holy, they went on a rampage. They killed thousands of people “in the name of religion” and some people (Jews) weren't part of it at all

("Persecution of Christians in the contemporary world.") Young children are being kidnapped from Christian families in the Middle Eastern countries to be raised as Muslims. Children that have well enough memories to still believe their faith are put with their families and most likely killed. ( "Persecution of Christians in the contemporary world.") A recent story tells of two dozen Iraqi Christian refugees who escaped from the Middle East and across the U.S. borders. After coming into the U.S., they were refused any shelter or food; debates are being held if the refugees should be removed or not. The debate is held for the reason that there is not enough room for twenty-four people, but there is for ten-thousand Syrian

A new documentary short film titled “Under Caesar’s Sword” highlights the remarkable resilience of Christians in Turkey, India and other places where they are persecuted and their religious freedom is being violated.

The crusades are a polarizing event, from one perspective depicting a righteous campaign to reclaim territory rightly belonging to the Church, another telling a tale of unprecedented savagery and bloodshed as Christian knights betrayed all that is commonly accepted today as being Christian values. The events of the Crusades act to tell not only a different side of Christianity than is most commonly accepted, but also a different side of Islam as the roles between saint and barbarian are most plainly reversed from what westerners commonly believe.

According to Amin Maalouf, “It seems clear that the Arab East still sees the West as a natural enemy. Against that enemy, any hostile action-be it political, military, or based on oil-is considered no more than legitimate vengeance. And there can be no doubt that the schism between these two worlds dates from the Crusades, deeply felt by the Arabs, even today, as an act of rape” (Amin Maalouf). When reflecting on The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, this quote always sticks out as the most powerful piece of Maalouf’s work. As a growing college student this quote brings harsh reality to the world I live in. I believe as you grow through life, you become more and more aware of the world around you through education. In order to

The last of several Muslim dynasties following the Crusade was the Ottoman Empire in 1453. The Ottomans reinforced the minor status of Christians and Jews. They used the millet system. Under the millet system, the religious leader was recognized by the government and was responsible for relations with them. Later in the Ottoman period, different governments were protecting different churches, which often tied Middle Eastern churches to European political feuds. This was caused because European powers began commercial relationships in the Middle East. They wanted the right to protect individual trading clients who were often Christians and this led to responsibility for whole groups of Christians. As a result, the millet system was gradually

According to Amin Maalouf, “It seems clear that the Arab East still sees the West as a natural enemy. Against that enemy, any hostile action-be it political, military, or based on oil-is considered no more than legitimate vengeance. And there can be no doubt that the schism between these two worlds dates from the Crusades, deeply felt by the Arabs, even today, as an act of rape” (Amin Maalouf). When reflecting on The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, this quote always sticks out as the most powerful piece of Maalouf’s work. As a growing college student this quote brings harsh reality to the world I live in. I believe as you grow through life, you become more and more aware of the world around you through education. In order to be aware you must

The Crusades are commonly classified as an act of Christian aggression against the weakened and fractured Muslims. There are many mistakes with this view, the Crusades were not against Arabs specifically, despite what is commonly believed. As mentioned in “Our Worlds Story” and some others, the Arabs were under attack by a steppes horde from Asia called the Seljuk Turks. The Seljuk and Arabs, despite both being Sunni Muslims had been in conflict against each other since the late 900’s. The Seljuk Turks expanded swiftly through the Middle East and Anatolia, the heartland of the East Romans, known as the Byzantines. Now, during the 1090’s Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire became under attack by the Seljuk, the Seljuk had also been treating Christians and Jewish harshly which is a sharp contradiction from the Arabs, co-existing with Judaism and Christianity due to their roots as Abrahamic religions. This is just the beginning of the Turkish reign of terror throughout the Middle ages to the fall of the Ottomans, slaughtering, Greek Orthodox Christians in Armenia, Georgia and parts of the Balkans, along with Arab Muslims, Shia Muslims, Hindu Indians, and Zoroastrians, which were nearly wiped out (out of the top 3 countries India, the United States, and Iran, with the highest Zoroastrian population, equals about 139,000 people, despite being the dominant religion in Iran for a millennia.) (Cohen)

Instead, from its onset, Islam spread as a conquering power and remained that way for some time. Explaining it this way, the reader gets a sense of the psychology behind Islam and why, besides being a religious task, spreading Islam is such a goal. By showing the issues Islam faces today in the context of past Islamic traditions, Lewis paints a much clearer picture of the skewed view today’s radicals have and the way they use history to manipulate. He examines influential Muslim voices like Saddam Hussein and Usama Bin Laden, who have used history to give Islam victim status or to claim the continuance of a predecessor’s mission to not only justify terrorist activities, but also to recruit followers. He tells the history of Bin Laden’s statement referring to the “humiliation and disgrace” Islam supposedly has suffered. What Bin Laden was referring to was the defeat of the Ottoman sultanate in 1918 and the imperial presence of Westerners on sacred Muslim lands. Lewis explains the offense many Muslims take to the desecration of their holy lands by foreigners. He describes how the discovery and exploitation of oil in the Holy Land of the Hijaz has exacerbated the growing resentment many Muslims

On the day of February 12, 2015, the then called the Islamic State of Syria released a video of themselves savagely beheading 21 Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Christians in which were kidnapped. This event shook my friends and family, as I myself am a Coptic Christian. This was not the first time these barbarians have murdered simply due to the fact that their “prey” if you will, did not share their beliefs. These incredibly faithful individuals were willing to die by the hand of the sword in order to preserve their doctrine. This could not go unnoticed, and the entire Coptic Community had decided that this cannot keep happening. The youth and I at the local Coptic Orthodox in Daytona Beach, Florida held a gathering and decided to hold a vigil in

It’s the twenty first century. Scientists have found evidence of water on Mars, they have successfully cloned human embryos, and everyday, they are getting closer to finding a cure for cancer. Still, in a world of groundbreaking facts and evidences, where the newest discovery leaves older ones out of commission, we fool ourselves into blindly putting faith on a series of chronicles conceived during the primitive age. Religion probably started out as a result of mankind trying to explain the physical world, but then became a tool to control and oppress, a reason for bloodshed and hate. While religion may have been of great help in