Ministry Requests Prayers for Iraqi Christians Living in Fear
by Allie Martin
August 9, 2004
(AgapePress) - The president of Open Doors USA says it's the goal of terrorists in Iraq to divide Christians and Muslims in the war-torn nation.A recent series of coordinated attacks targeting Christian churches in Iraq killed 11 people and injured more than 50. According to Open Doors USA, an international agency reaching out to persecuted Christians worldwide, the roughly half-million Christians in that Middle Eastern country were living in "a constant state of fear" even before these recent attacks -- but that now the level of fear and anxiety is even higher.
Dr. Carl Moeller, president of Open Doors, says the situation in Iraq is especially sensitive with the push for a democratic government. That knowledge, he says, is not lost on the insurgent forces in Iraq that are wanting to introduce chaos at this time.
"If they can drive a wedge between the Iraqi Christians and the general Muslim community there, they're going to create more political chaos and maybe have an opportunity, they think, to push their agenda as the nation forms its democracy," Moeller explains.
The ministry's website reports that more than one-third of the Christian population in Iraq left the country after the first Gulf War in the early 1990s, but that emigration was much less following the last Gulf War. But Open Doors says the emergence of a fundamentalist Islamic government in Iraq could result in a complete exodus of Christians.
For that reason, the Open Doors president encourages Christians in America and elsewhere around the globe to pray fervently for believers in Iraq. He says Iraqi Christians are strengthened by such prayers.
"With the additional focus of the world's attention, we hope that the Church will understand that their brothers and sisters here in the West are praying for them and encouraging them, and [that] ministries like Open Doors are committed to getting them the resources they need to stand strong," Moeller says.
Open Doors reports it has halted its training for Iraqi believers for the time being due to security concerns.
