Another attack against Christians
in Iraq, a week after the massacre in the Syrian Catholic Church of Our
Lady of Salvation in Baghdad.
Two worshipers were killed
November 7: Louay Daniel Yacoub, 49, was in front of his apartment when
strangers shot him dead. Another Christian was killed the same day, but
his identity is not yet known.
The shootings were referred by local AsiaNews sources, anonymous for security reasons.
The Muslim community has expressed its solidarity and closeness
to Christians under attack in Iraq.
On 5 November, during Friday
prayers, all the mosques in Kirkuk condemned the "barbaric attack"
against the church in the capital.
The mayor and the sheikh of the Arab,
Kurds and Turkmen tribes, have expressed condolences and solidarity
with the Chaldean archbishop of the city.
The next day, the Sunni and
Shiite imams of the northern Iraqi city also strongly condemned,
alongside Archbishop Louis Sako, the carnage that killed over 50 people
in Baghdad on Oct. 31.
The Muslim religious leaders have been clamouring
for the preservation of "the Iraqi mosaic" of ethnic groups and
religions.
The same imam called for Muslims to protect Christians, who are
a model of loyalty, "and launched an appeal for all the Iraqis do not
succumb to fear and do not leave their country.
The violence in Iraq has accelerated the formation of a new
Iraqi government, stalled eight months after the elections.
According to
government spokesman Ali al Dabbagh, an agreement for an executive of
national unity is pending.
It seems the Shiite Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki has been reconfirmed, after gaining the support of the
Sunni-Shiite secular Iraqiya Party led by rival former prime minister
Iyad Allawi, and winner at the polls in March.
The latter will "lead
Parliament", as Speaker, while Jalal Talabani, of the Kurdish Alliance,
will remain head of state.
The U.S. has not yet confirmed the news, but
is urging the Iraqi authorities to form a "inclusive" government.
Christians in Baghdad yesterday held the first mass in the
Syro-Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation after the massacre of
31 October.
The interior was without any pews, down the length of the
aisle hundreds of candles were laid on the ground, forming a large cross
in the middle of which were placed the names of 46 victims of the
massacre of the faithful on Sunday.
''Today we pray for those who have
attacked, who attacked our church and killed our priests fathers Wassim
and Thaher,'' said Father Mukhlas Habash in his homily, citing the names
of two priests of 32 and 27 years of age killed seven days ago.
Their
smiling faces are displayed in posters on the blackened and bullet
riddled walls of the cathedral.
SIC: AN/INT'L