Bible And Truth And Reconciliation - Essay Example

Bible And Truth And Reconciliation Juliana Taimoorazy has been an activist trying to bring to the fore the plight of the Iraqi Christians living in Iraq. She has devoted most of her public life towards rescuing the Iraqi Christians from the various atrocities meted out to them by Islamist extremists. In her profile, Juliana started the nonprofit organization, the Iraqi Christian Council, to help in fostering awareness about the plight of these Iraqi Christians, and assisting in raising funds to deliver food and medicine to them. Having being born an Assyrian Christian in Iraq, she had to flee her country in 1989 due to religious persecution. She later went on to receive a graduate Degree in Instructional Design and managed to work as a Training and Development Specialist for Fortune 500 companies for several years (Richardson, 23). Juliana Taimoorazy own unique story as a refugee has contributed in making her a strong leader and an unshakable voice for Christians living in Iraq today. Having had to flee Iran in 1989 due to the then religious persecution, she was smuggled into Switzerland where she spent seven days in a monastery in Zurich after which was smuggled again into Germany where she sought religious asylum. She later came to America as a refugee in the December of 1990 after spending one year in Germany. Taimoorazy later attended Northeastern Illinois University and began mentoring young Christian women arriving in Chicago from refugee camps in Turkey and Syria. This is the experience that led her to the formation of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, a nonprofit organization that cooperates with other U.S. entities in educating Americans about the religious and ethnic cleansing occurring to Christians in Iraq. The group′s major objective has been in raising awareness, obtaining financial assistance and requesting prayers for the Iraqi Christians (Richardson, 47). In the year 2006, Juliana made a commitment to become a greater voice and advocate for the persecuted church in Iraq and refugees who have since resettled in the United States. Through her organization, which she formed in 2007, she has managed to help thousands of displaced Christians throughout Iraq with food, shelter, and medicine. Through her activism and several media appearances on Fox News, News Max, and other several Christian radio programs, she has tirelessly managed to promote the cause of the Assyrian Christians throughout the world (Jackson and Claire, 24). Christian persecution has been a major issue in most of the Islamic states. This has been ongoing with little response from the western powers and the outside Christian forces. Historically, since the ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Iraqi-Assyrian Christians have endured vicious criminal acts by Islamist extremists. Systematic and planned ethnoreligious cleansing in Iraq has been ongoing from 2003, with Christian families receiving threatening letters giving them three options for survival; to convert to Islam, pay a form of protection tax paid by non-Muslims or leave their homesteads with nothing. These inventions and human rights violations have continued to thrive in Iraq unabated. ISIS forces have overrun a third of Iraq in the recent past, seizing Mosul, the plains of Nineveh the ancestral Iraqi-Christian homeland, getting closer to Kurdistan’s capital of Erbil where some were repelled by the U.S. airstrikes. The western nations have estimated an increase in the number of Iraqi refugees, mostly Christians in Kurdistan who have had no any sense of ownership of anything. These refugees had been reported to have fled with their clothes on their backs, being robbed by the ISIS forces of their possessions in exchange for their lives (Jackson and Claire, 38). The Iraqi Christian Relief Council, which was founded by Juliana, has been responsible for educating the Americans of the religious and ethnic cleansing being inflicted on Christians in Iraq. Its major objectives have been in raising awareness among the Americans asking them for their prayers and raising and delivering financial assistance to the Iraqi Christians affected by the atrocities. The organization′s current campaign "Aid for Ninevites", has sought to seek support for families who have not able to access food and shelter due to terror attacks. They have also been working on projects to empower widows in Iraq who have lost their husbands to terror attacks and have been unable to properly support their families as a result. The Iraqi Christian Relief Council (ICRC) has been in existence to offer support, protection, and to defend persecuted Assyrian Christians in Iraq and other countries in the Middle East. This has been through the provision of humanitarian aid, prayer support, and advocacy (Hagee, 62). ICRC has managed to help thousands of refugees throughout Iraq through the provision of urgent humanitarian supplies especially during dire situations to people who have needed urgent support. It has established useful networks and partners on the ground in Iraq and this has continually proved vital in reaching the persecuted lot. This has also helped it in managing to deliver its supplies to those in particularly desperate circumstances (Lewis, 81). Some of these donations that have been delivered by the council most of which has been provided by the public to the persecuted Christians in Iraq have included: Food parcels and clean water Medicine and medical supplies Shelter, tents, warm blankets, and mattresses and Other basic necessities like diapers, clothing, and toiletries The organization has encouraged the western citizens especially fellow Christians to offer gifts and assistance out of their own goodwill. The gifts should be able to come from the desire to share the substance of one’s life and livelihood with his/her brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering elsewhere. Following the Lord's instructions, especially in Hebrews for Christians to remember their fellow Christians, especially those undergoing persecutions and difficulties, to act and share with them in their troubles. Most of the Christians in Iraq have been driven from their homes, others tortured, raped, sold into sex slavery and even killed. It should be upon other Christians to be able to come to their rescue, championing for their freedom and providing necessities to the troubled and affected ones (Cleenewerck, 40).  Through ICRC, Taimoorazy has sanctioned the funding of the Assyrian Aid Society’s relief projects and also given to the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena numerous assistance. In the refugee camps, the organization has charged nuns with taking care of the refugees, the nuns being refugees themselves. They have tried to equip the nuns with the necessary experience and expertise to run the pilot hospitals and orphanages resulting from the refugee situations. Juliana also says the organization has been sending money to the tune of fifty thousand dollars to be able to sustain these people for the month. It has also asked various companies to help in the donation of sanitary products for 350,000 women who have run out of the basic necessities for them in these camps (Lewis, 33). With the winter and ever-increasing onslaughts on these Iraqi Christians, Juliana insists the fight save the surviving refugees should be taken a notch higher. This, she argues would be made possible if Christian groups would be able to channel their funding and aids to institutions with manpower and expertise on the ground. This money should be wired to Caritas Iraq and the Catholic's Church's social service arm that are able to purchase goods basically from the local markets and distribute them to the refugees through the parishes. The refugee camps should be planned out and equipped with the necessary facilities including water and winterized shelters to replace the tents. Restoration of these refugees’ livelihoods should also be carried out too through job-skill training and other basic programs (Lewis, 49). Through her activism and media appearances, Juliana Taimoorazy has tried to prevail upon the US government and the United Nations Security Council to seriously consider various options in providing adequate security, safety, and freedom to the Christian Iraqis and these have included; Provision of safe zones Provision of peacekeepers Empowering their own security measures Increase in the provision of basic necessities including food and all other refugee needs Work Cited Richardson, Joel, and Joel Richardson. The Islamic Antichrist: The Shocking Truth About the Real Nature of the Beast. Los Angeles, CA: WND Books, 2009. Print. Cleenewerck, Laurent. His Broken Body: Understanding and Healing the Schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches: an Orthodox Perspective. Washington, DC: Euclid University Consortium Press, 2007. Print. Jackson, Dessi, and Claire Brandenburg. The Saint and His Bees. , 2013. Internet resource. Lewis, C S. Mere Christianity. S.l.: HarperCollins, 2009. Internet resource. Hagee, John. Four Blood Moons. Brentwood, Tenn: Worthy Pub, 2013. Print. Read More