[Paulos Faraj Rahho's] death is the latest in a string of attacks on churches, priests and lay Christians.
In January, bombs exploded outside three Chaldean and Assyrian churches in Mosul, two churches in Kirkuk and four in Baghdad.
The attacks seem to have been co-ordinated all over the country to occur at roughly the same time. And this was not the first time violence had come close to Archbishop Rahho.
Last June, his secretary, a priest called Ragheed Ganni, was shot dead in his church along with three of his companions.
If this is news to you, you are not alone. Last January you would be very hardpressed to find any mention of these church attacks amongst all the debate about how great the surge was going, when you could find any Iraq coverage at all. Unsurprisingly they weren't mentioned in
LA Times' article on the Archbishop's death either. However Iraq's
minorities continue to be persecuted, and it's clear from these bombings and now the kidnapping and murder that it not simply a matter of the general insecurity in the country (just ask a Mandean,
if you can find one.) It's incredibly tragic that something like this had to happen for the world to finally pay attention.
