Iraq Update: Shiite Ascendency Threatens Region

AUSTRALIA -- Fr AL-BAZY RELEASED: Father Douglas Yousef Al-Bazy (34), a Chaldean Catholic priest who had been kidnapped from his Baghdad parish, has been released without serious injury. He was not tortured during his nine-day captivity. RLP 405 requested specific prayer for his safe return and Compass Direct (CD) reports Fr Al-Bazy as saying, 'I know that the prayers of people saved me.' He regards his life as being 'in the hand of God' and despite the dangers he plans to return to his ministry in St Elijah's Church.

KILLINGS AND KIDNAPPINGS CONTINUE: On Sunday 26 November Presbyterian elder Munthir (69) was kidnapped at gunpoint outside his home as he returned from worship at the National Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Mosul. The kidnappers negotiated for three days before cutting off all communication. On Thursday 30 November Elder Munthir's body was found, having been executed the previous evening. CD reports that Munthir was 'the sixth generation of his family to serve in Mosul's Presbyterian Church'.

As Mosul's Christian community grieved, Baghdad's Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate confirmed to CD that another priest had been kidnapped. Fr Samy Abdulahad was kidnapped on the morning of 4 December after he left home for the Church of Mar Khorkhis (Saint George) in the Al-Sinaa district of Baghdad. Fr Abdulahad is also a professor of theology at the Chaldean Babel Seminary which has been temporarily closed due to insecurity.

A believer in Mosul, accepting the death of Elder Munthir as being in the providence and sovereign will of God, and affirming his faith that God was always in control, told CD, 'We will never just pray, "God, save us from this." But we will pray also, "God, show us your will in this."' Another Iraqi Christian said to CD, 'As Christians, we are giving a lot of martyrs, a lot of blood for Jesus' name here in Iraq.'

SHIITE ASCENDENCY THREATENS REGION

For decades, Iran's (Shiite) Islamic Revolution was contained by Saddam Hussein's US-backed Iraq to the west, and Saudi-sponsored Sunni radicalisation in Pakistan (which evolved into the Taliban) and Afghanistan to the east. But the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime from Shiite-majority Iraq dissolved the western buffer and Iraq is now the first Arab nation to be under Shiite domination. The Iran-backed Shiites intend to control Iraq and expand political influence further westward. Though Syria is majority Sunni, its Baathist rulers are Alawite (a Shiite sect) so they have Iranian support. (It is purely  political convenience that motivates Lebanese and Iranian Shiites to accept Syria's Alawites as Shiites rather than rejecting them as heretics.)

Lebanon, home to the Shiite militia and political force Hezballah, is around 40-50 percent Shiite. The Shiites, led by Hezballah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, want to dominate Lebanon. For Iran's apocalyptic theocrats Iraq, Syria and Lebanon are hugely strategic geopolitically, as they can enable Shiite military power to stretch from Iran right around to the northern border of Israel. Like the sizable indigenous Christian minority in Iraq, the significant indigenous Christian minority in Lebanon (who were a majority a few decades ago) are sitting atop a tremouring volcanic Sunni/Shia sectarian fault-line. Like Christians in Iraq, Christians in the Levant desperately need our prayers.

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR:

• God to protect his Church in Iraq so the light of Christ is not extinguished or forced underground; may the Church grow in grace and faith - refined, not consumed, by this fire. (Isaiah 43:1-7)

• Fr Al-Bazy's ongoing ministry in Baghdad despite the dangers, giving thanks for his safe return from kidnap.