Stop the Genocide in Iraq

WORLDWIDE PROTEST AGAINST TERRORISM—NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

On Saturday, August 2nd, a protest is being organized in response to the Islamic State (ISIS) attacks against the Christians in Iraq and Syria. Assyrian, Chaldean, Syriac people all over the world are standing in solidarity with Christians and their Iraqi brothers and speaking up for the voices that are being silenced. They demand immediate action from the United States Government and United Nations to provide a safe haven in Iraq and Syria for the persecuted Christians who live there.

The Assyrian, Chaldean, and Syriac people are among the first to accept Christianity in 4,500 B.C. These indigenous people of Mesopotamia have now become a minority in their own homeland due to ethnic cleansing and religious persecution. According to the most current Iraqi Census there were an estimated 1.5 million Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Syriacs living there before the U.S. invasion in 2003. After the Iraq war, the population dropped to less than 300,000. Today, some of the oldest churches known to man that date back to the first century A.D. are being converted to mosques or stripped of their crosses and burned to the ground. According to an article in the New York Times, the ISIS terrorist group is tagging Christian homes with the Arabic letter N which means “Nazarene” and demanding that they leave everything and flee the area. The Christians were given an ultimatum with a deadline of July 19th at noon: pay “jizya” (a heavy tax), convert to Islam, or die by the sword. Over 1,000 families have fled the area. For the first time in history, the ancient city of Nineveh (Mosul) is void of Christians. This protest is being held in collaboration with more than 30 organizations and religious entities within northern California. For more information, visit our event page on Facebook by searching “WORLDWIDE PROTEST--NORTHERN CALIFORNIA” or by emailing Bella.yousif [at] gmail.com

Stop the Genocide

Assyrians from the Bay Area and Central Valley plan to hold a rally in San Francisco on Saturday to protest the purge of Assyrian Christians in Iraq by Islamic militants.

The 10 a.m. rally at Justin Herman Plaza is expected to draw more than 1,000 people and coincides with similar protests in the United States and overseas.

A militant group called ISIS, or Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, took control of Mosul - the second largest city in Iraq.

Soon after, the native Assyrian Christian population was targeted.

“They were told you either leave, convert to Islam, or we’re going to kill you,” said Assyrian National Broadcasting (ANB) anchor Romena Jones.

ANB broadcast a two-hour special report Wednesday night via global satellite on the crisis from its studio in San Jose.

“You see Gaza, you see Ukraine, they talk about the airplane crashes but you do not hear anything about the Assyrians,” she said.

Assyrians are an indigenous Christian minority in Iraq that has faced persecution in the region for millennia.

By some estimates, 20,000 Assyrians lived in Mosul before ISIS took control of the city. They had a deadline of Saturday to leave or convert.

Now, some fear ISIS will spread its reach further north in Iraq into areas even move heavily populated by Assyrians.

The hope is that the global protests Saturday will finally bring attention to their plight.

“We need help from the Christian community. We need help from the world,” Jonas said