Several years ago I had a student in my classes who was born in Baghdad and claimed to have grown up speaking both Aramaic and Arabic. Her family are Christian and consider themselves Assyrian, one of the most ancient communities in that part of the world. They had come to Canada some years earlier but had many relatives still in their ancestral Mesopotamian homeland.
However, since the American attack on Iraq seven years ago, many if not most Assyrian Christians have left that country due to persecution. The BBC’s Jim Muir reports that Christian neighbourhoods have been targeted in deadly Baghdad attacks. To follow ongoing developments concerning the Assyrian Christian communities, one may consult the Assyrian International News Agency and Assyrian Christian News. Open Doors USA prepared the following video to alert people to the trials of Assyrian Christians in Iraq:
Please remember to pray for our beleaguered brothers and sisters in Christ living in that troubled land. Lord have mercy!
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