quote:BAGHDAD: After almost five years of war, many young Iraqis, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach.
In two months of interviews with 40 young people in five Iraqi cities, a pattern of disenchantment emerged, in which young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives.
"I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us," said Sara Sami, a high school student in Basra. "Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don't deserve to be rulers."
Atheer, a 19-year-old from a poor, heavily Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad, said: "The religion men are liars. Young people don't believe them. Guys my age are not interested in religion anymore."
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Almost forgot... Iraq is a locality where house churches are a must - church buildings there have a way of attracting those who desire to level them.
Let's pray today that doors will be opened in the Mid East and that the Jesus story will be diffused.
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My first thoughts to your question were, (having just come out of the IC) that there is no hope ...just one religion replacing another. However, I feel that this fact changes everything! There is such a difference between religion and fellowship!
Please let me ask you this, since you have "been in the business" so much longer than I D Anderson. Does "real Christianity" mostly exist in countries where there is persecution to the point of risk of death?
Email this page to someone.
