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In this mailing:
* Giulio Meotti: The Extinction of Christians in the Middle East
* Amir Taheri: Could this Be the Year of Persian Poetry?


** The Extinction of Christians in the Middle East ([link removed])
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by Giulio Meotti • August 18, 2019 at 5:00 am
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* "I don't believe in these two words [human rights], there are no human rights. But in Western countries, there are animal rights. In Australia they take care of frogs....Look upon us as frogs, we'll accept that — just protect us so we can stay in our land." — Metropolitan Nicodemus, the Syriac Orthodox archbishop of Mosul, National Catholic Register.
* "Those people are the same ones who came here many years ago. And we accepted them. We are the original people in this land. We accepted them, we opened the doors for them, and they push us to be minorities in our land, then refugees in our land. And this will be with you if you don't wake up." — Metropolitan Nicodemus.
* "Threats to pandas cause more emotion" than threats to the extinction of the Christians in the Middle East. — Amin Maalouf, French-Lebanese author, Le Temps.

Most Christian churches in and around Mosul, Iraq were desecrated or destroyed by ISIS. Pictured: The heavily damaged bell tower of Saint John's Church (Mar Yohanna) in the town town of Qaraqosh, near Mosul, on April 16, 2017. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Convert, pay or die. Five years ago, that was the "choice" the Islamic State (ISIS) gave to Christians in Mosul, then Iraq's third-largest city: either embrace Islam, submit to a religious tax or face the sword. ISIS then marked Christian houses with the Arabic letter ن (N), the first letter of the Arabic word "Nasrani" ("Nazarene," or "Christian") . Christians could often take no more than the clothes on their back and flee a city that had been home to Christians for 1,700 years.

Two years ago, ISIS was defeated in Mosul and its Caliphate crushed. The extremists, however, had succeeded in "cleansing" the Christians. Before the rise of ISIS, there were more than 15,000 Christians there. In July 2019, the Catholic charity, Aid to the Church in Need, disclosed that only about 40 Christians have come back. Not long ago, Mosul had "Christmas celebrations without Christians".

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** Could this Be the Year of Persian Poetry? ([link removed])
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by Amir Taheri • August 18, 2019 at 4:00 am
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* Iran is one of few countries in the world where the list of celebrities at any given time includes a number of poets and where poetry recitals draw crowds that compete with those of pop-music concerts.
* One of the first acts of Khomeini's regime was to have the young poet Saeed Soltanpour, abducted from his wedding ceremony, and executed on a spurious charge of "Communist militancy." Later, the poet Rahman Hatefi-Monfared, alias Heydar Mehregan, also a noted journalist, was put to death under torture in one of Khomeini's prisons.
* Celebrating [Esmail ] Khoi's great poetical achievement would be a fit tribute to what three generations of Persian poets have achieved during almost a century of exceptional creativity. Nobel judges should not miss the opportunity to share the joy that modern Persian poetry has given lovers of poetry all over the world.

Whatever you may think of Iran, you are likely to acknowledge it as one of the oldest homelands of poetry. Any list of top poets from all over the world is likely to include at least one or two Persian names -- say Omar Khayyam or Molavi (Rumi). Pictured: Omar Khayyam. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Whatever you may think of Iran, you are likely to acknowledge it as one of the oldest homelands of poetry. Any list of top poets from all over the world is likely to include at least one or two Persian names -- say Omar Khayyam or Molavi (Rumi). Goethe believed that poetry has reached its peak of beauty with Hafez of Shiraz.

I know of only two countries, Iran and Russia, where poetry still finds a mass audience and poets could attain celebrity status.

Ask any Iranian who the persons they most admire are and you are likely to hear a list of poets -- from Ferdowsi and Saadi centuries ago to Iraj Mirza and Forugh Farrokhzad more recently. For the average Iranian, the poet is not only a creator of beauty but also the guardian of the nation's conscience. Iran is one of few countries in the world where the list of celebrities at any given time includes a number of poets and where poetry recitals draw crowds that compete with those of pop-music concerts.

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