Kurds Provide Safe Haven for Christians

By Kenneth R. Timmerman

The Kurdish regional government in Northern Iraq is providing a safe haven to several thousand Iraqi Christians who have fled persecution in other parts of the country, government officials and local pastors told Newsmax.

Unlike refugee camps set up for some 100,000 Shia Muslims fleeing attacks from Sunnis, which are closely monitored by Kurdish security forces, Christians have been encouraged to live anywhere.

"Christians in Iraq need special attention, because they've been suffering because they are Christians," Deputy Prime Minister Omar Fattah told Newsmax in an exclusive interview in Erbil. "Maybe we give some instructions to others where they can go, but to Christians, never, because we are not afraid they will be terrorists." Read more ...

Source: NewsMax

Iraqi Kurdistan schools will teach religions other than Islam

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq — Judged solely by one of the big, bold words on its cover, the book that Fadel Mahmoud clutched in his hands would be considered blasphemous in many parts of the Muslim world.

Most people in Kurdish northern Iraq believe that the Quran, the holy book of Islam, is the final word on religious life. Mahmoud and other teachers, however, are preaching a message of religious tolerance in hopes of preserving the region's relative stability.

The book in his hands is an introduction to Judaism written by an Arab.

Last month, the Kurdish Regional Government's Ministry of Religious Affairs began requiring its 19 campuses, from grade school to college, to broaden their curricula by including courses on comparative religion that better expose students to other religious thought, including Christianity and in some cases Judaism.

Read more ...

Source: McClatchy Newspapers
H/T: Dhimmi Watch

Muslims Against Sharia praise the decision of Kurdish Regional Government's Ministry of Religious Affairs to broaden religious horizons of Kurdish students.