Aramean people: Aramean people (not to be confused with ‘Armenians’) speak Aramaic, the language spoken by Abraham, Moses and Jesus. They are the indigenous people of what was called in ancient times Aram- Nahrin, in our days it is called ‘Mesopotamia’.

Some Arameans today identify themselves with “Assyrians”, because of the spiritual colonial hate generating activities of the Western missionaries and diplomats in the Middle-East. Other Arameans became known as “Chaldeans”. However all of them are Arameans.

 

Mgr. Faraj Raho on Iraq War and How Christians should respond to it.

 

 

Dutch Version

 

Please click here to download or play video (mpg format)

(http://www.aramnahrin.org/Photo/Paulus_Faraj_Raho_On_Iraq.mpg)

 

A typical example of Aramean Christianity: Forgiveness, Cooperative, not-suspicious, faithful and respectful to others, loving his country and obedient to Christ.

 

Transcript of video:

 

The question remains, why? Why did they kill father Bolus (= Paulus)?

Why did they kill father Ragheed and those who were with him?

Why did they kill that certain guy?

Why did they blast that particular church? Why did they single out that mosque and blast it?

Why did they pick on that religious man, why?

What is the reason?

If we go on looking for a reason, we may perhaps not be able to find the answers to these queries.

What we know for sure is that we Christians are not enemies to anyone. In other words, we don’t want to be enemies to anyone in order for this to be taken as a pretext for others to attack us as their enemy.

And if we do have enemies, then we on our part, are not their enemies, and if they choose to be our enemies, then our Lord Jesus Christ, Glory to Him, tells us in the Gospel, “as we have heard”, Love your enemies, those who persecute us, we ask mercy for them from the father, and those who want to be foes to us, we don’t want to be their enemies.

We don’t want to be enemies of anyone, and if we do have an enemy because he chooses to be our enemy, then Jesus tell us to love him saying, “Love them and pray for them”. And I have called upon you today to pray together for those who take us for their enemies and hence come along and blast our churches.

I call upon you today to pray for them so that God may make their hearts merciful so that they in turn may have mercy for this suffering and injured people.

We have had enough, yes enough indeed, of these acts of evil in this country, for we would like to experience love, to witness peace. We would like to experience brotherhood, we would like to see solidarity in this country, we want to reconstruct this country.

We have therefore here today, my blessed brothers, to pray, and to say first, that this is our homeland, and second to say that we are staying here.

Our ancestors stayed despite all the persecutions, and we too we are staying and will stay and will not leave this place because this is our country.

And all the blood that our ancestors shed for the sake of believe in Christ and stayed on this land.

This soil has given fruits and we are the daughters and sons of those forefathers and like them we remain steadfast in our faith.

And for our brothers who live in this country, we share it with them with love and peace.

We used to be in this country before them by years. They came 600 years later, 600, and when they did, we loved them and lived with them in solidarity, we would like to stay with them in solidarity and reconstruct this country.

So, please, just like Jesus, who had no hatred in His heart for those who crucified him.

And said on the cross, “Forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing”.

We today all say together in one heart, “Forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing”.