Targeted Christians and other religious minorities find shelter—for now—in Iraq’s northern provinces | Mindy Belz
Sarab (left) and Akram
SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq— When Yousif Almashmos was born in March 2003, coalition bombs were falling outside. His family's Baghdad apartment swayed as his mother made her way to the hospital. Akram and Sarab Almashmos lived near headquarters for Saddam Hussein's security services, a prominent target for U.S. forces. Worse, Saddam had positioned rocket launchers between houses in the area, making them a target for U.S. heat-seekers.
Some neighbors died in those early days of the U.S. invasion, and when her baby was born, Sarab asked God, "Why are you protecting me? What is our purpose?" Holding her infant in her arms eight months later, she told WORLD she read her Bible that night and decided to name her fourth child Yousif, after the ancient patriarch Joseph, "because he is not here by accident. God has something for us."
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Danny arrived in a village in Nineveh Plain earlier this year with his mother, father, and older sister. They escaped Mosul after 8-year-old Danny was captured by militants on a spring day. Danny fought his captors for 15 minutes, drawing his sister's attention. When she ran to his aid, the armed and masked kidnappers shot at her but missed. She ran to her home and alerted her parents but it was too late. A ransom demand soon followed, and Danny's father (he asked that the family name not be used) negotiated the amount down to $750, a sum he had to borrow. After Danny was released, the masked men let neighbors know they would come after the daughter next, and the family took shelter in a new government home in the north—where life is hard, jobs are scarce, and the children stick closer than ever to their parents.
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COVER STORY |
Issue: 
No pious baloney
