On 28/1/03 5:36 AM, "David Miller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I would not fret too much about that, Terry. It is my understanding that > Christianity is illegal in Iraq. I could be wrong, because I have not been > there, but from what I have read, the Iraqi government destroyed their > churches.
Peter wrote: > I hope Tariq Aziz the foreign minister doesn't know > about that as he is nominally a member of one of the > Christian churches in Iraq. On further investigation, I find that Saddam has tolerated a Christian presence. I found the following indication: ------------------- http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/9td/9td15b.html Evangelist Billy Graham met with three Iraqi religious leaders who were visiting the United States and Great Britain to promote awareness of the detrimental effects of economic sanctions on the Iraqi people. Patriarch Raphael Bidawad of the Chaldean Church of Babylon (the largest Christian community in Iraq with more than 600,000 members), Ayatollah Sayyid Al-Sadar of the Shi'ite community, and Sunni leader Abdul Latif Mohammad presented Graham with a copy of the Qur'an in English and Arabic at the meeting in Boston on September 25. ------------------ 600,000 members is nothing to sneeze at, but the way this is written, the Christians joined with the Muslims in giving Billy Graham a Qur'an! Sounds a bit odd. Another article at this link shows Bidawad calling these Muslims "brethren." http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Feb2000/feature2.asp Interestingly, this other article published in a Catholic magazine reports 200,000 members instead of the 600,000 reported above. It's hard to know what to believe. In any case, I think I confused another muslim country with Iraq. Sorry about that. Maybe it was Afghanistan, which became a republic about the same time as Iraq, in the mid to late 1970's. No time to sort it out right now. Peace be with you. David Miller, Beverly Hills, Florida USA ---------- "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org If you do not want to receive posts from this list, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and you will be unsubscribed. If you have a friend who wants to join, tell him to send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and he will be subscribed.
