Touching Story From Iraq

Michael Yon has the touching firsthand account along with his compelling photography, of Muslim's coming together in Iraq in support of their Christian friend's and neigbors and calling them home.

This is the truth about what is really going on Iraq, that you wont' hear from most of the media. Iraqi's of all faith's are coming together and al Qaeda is on the run and just about defeated. In Iraq there is now hope not only for Christian's and Muslim's coming together in brotherhood, but also for the world's youngest democracy that can one day be a shining light of freedom and a guiding example of peace and fellowship in the volatile Middle East.

Now more than ever America should see this thing through to the end and stand by Iraq until the very end. We owe it to Iraq, but more than anything we owe it to ourselves and our brave men and women who fought so bravely and laid down their lives to make the Iraqi's a free people.

Keep in mind that a Muslim setting foot in a Christian church could be considered apostasy in their religion, which is a crime punishable by death in the Islam faith, which make's this outpouring of support all the more signicant.

From Michael Yon Online:

Today, Muslims mostly filled the front pews of St John’s. Muslims who want their Christian friends and neighbors to come home. The Christians who might see these photos likely will recognize their friends here. The Muslims in this neighborhood worry that other people will take the homes of their Christian neighbors, and that the Christians will never come back. And so they came to St John’s today in force, and they showed their faces, and they said, “Come back to Iraq. Come home.” They wanted the cameras to catch it. They wanted to spread the word: Come home. Muslims keep telling me to get it on the news. “Tell the Christians to come home to their country Iraq.”



It was the first mass said in St John’s since the church was shuttered after the nearby St George’s was destroyed and clergy in the north were kidnapped, tortured and executed.But things have changed dramatically in Dora, which is how the locals refer to this part of Baghdad. So much so that St. John’s is open and mass is being said again.

LTC Stephen Michael at St John’s. LTC Michael told me today that when al Qaeda came to Dora, they began harassing Christians first, charging them “rent.” It was the local Muslims, according to LTC Michael, who first came to him for help to protect the Christians in his area. That’s right. LTC Michael told me more than once that the Muslims reached out to him to protect the Christians from al Qaeda. Real Muslims here are quick to say that al Qaeda members are not true Muslims. From charging “rent,” al Qaeda’s harassment escalated to killing Christians, and also Muslims. Untold thousands of Christians and Muslims fled Baghdad in the wake of the darkness of civil war. Most of the Christians are gone now; having fled to Syria, Jordan or Northern Iraq.

This Christian mom wanted to show off her kids. Muslim women also do this. Iraqi women love to show off their kids.A truce in the battle of pigtails had been declared, or a cease fire enforced. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen any fighting. I can’t remember my last shootout: it’s been months. The nightmare is ending. Al Qaeda is being crushed. The Sunni tribes are awakening all across Iraq and foreswearing violence for negotiation. Many of the Shia are ready to stop the fighting that undermines their ability to forge and manage a new government. This is a complex and still delicate denouement, and the war may not be over yet. But the Muslims are saying it’s time to come home. And the Christians are saying it’s time to come home. They are weary, and there is much work to be done.

The interpreter “Ice,” pictured here with members of the congregation outside St John’s after mass, grew up in this neighborhood. His family is Christian and St. John’s is their church. I asked Ice if the Muslims treat the Christians poorly in Iraq, and he said what other Iraqi Christians and Muslims have also told me: an unequivocal “No.” Ice said they had no problems at all until al Qaeda instigated friction between people.

Michael Yon is on the ground in Iraq and has independantly witnessed and recorded first hand the truth that America along with the Iraqi's are winning this war despite what the MSM and the white flag Defeatocrat's are telling the American people.