{"id":3635,"date":"2014-10-04T15:08:27","date_gmt":"2014-10-04T15:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bothness.uber.space\/?p=3635"},"modified":"2014-10-17T23:53:42","modified_gmt":"2014-10-17T23:53:42","slug":"3635","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/norwichpeace.org\/?p=3635","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIraq\u2019s Assyrian Christians: Past and Present Hardship\u201d."},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;\">Dear  Friends,<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">It is time to introduce UNA\u2019s October talk on Friday  17<sup>th<\/sup> October\u00a0 at 1pm in  the Friends Meeting House in Upper Goat Lane, Norwich. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">A special and timely talk will be given this month by Dr  Johan Franzen from the School of History at UEA. \u00a0Dr Franzen is a historian of the modern  Middle East and the title of his talk will be\u00a0 \u201c<strong><em>Iraq\u2019s Assyrian Christians: Past  and Present Hardship<\/em><\/strong>\u201d. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">Christians have been present in  Iraq since the end of the first century but today they are being persecuted and  forced to flee their homes by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant\u201d (ISIL) \u2013  a jihadist group who wish to proclaim an Islamic state or Caliphate in the  region.\u00a0 On 9<sup>th<\/sup> June,  ISIL took over the city of Mosul in northern Iraq. Mosul is Iraq\u2019s second  largest city. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;\">In 2003, before the American invasion,  there were 35,000 Christians in Mosul \u2013 today there are none.\u00a0 The jihadist militia ordered public  officials to suspend the food and gas supply for Shiites, Kurds and Christians  still in the city of Mosul and those on the vast plain of Ninevah up to several  kilometres from Mosul.\u00a0 They issued  a decree that Christians should become Muslim, or agree to pay a special tax, or  be put to death by the sword.\u00a0 This  decree was distributed to all Christian families still in Mosul, who then left  the city in the direction of Iraqi Kurdistan, which is considered to be a safer  place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;\">How did this state of affairs come  about?\u00a0 This was surely not the  intention of the Americans and the British when they injudiciously invaded Iraq  in 2003?\u00a0 Come to the talk on  17<sup>th<\/sup> October and learn more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;\">Best Wishes,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;\">Marguerite<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;\">Vice Chair United Nations Association\u00a0 (Norwich &amp;  District)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Friends, It is time to introduce UNA\u2019s October talk on Friday 17th October\u00a0 at 1pm in the Friends Meeting House in Upper Goat Lane, Norwich. A special and timely talk will be given this month by Dr Johan Franzen from the School of History at UEA. \u00a0Dr Franzen is a historian of the modern [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/norwichpeace.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3635"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/norwichpeace.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/norwichpeace.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norwichpeace.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norwichpeace.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3635"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/norwichpeace.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3654,"href":"https:\/\/norwichpeace.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3635\/revisions\/3654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/norwichpeace.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norwichpeace.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norwichpeace.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}