When Iraqi terrorists attacked Roman Catholic Churches in August I entitled my post Bombing Churches, yeah that will build support. Consider this the sequel.
Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, 66, of the Syrian Catholic Church was kidnapped in Mosul, Iraq (hat-tip DrudgeReport)
...According to reports from Baghdad, Casmoussa was walking in front of his church in Mosul's eastern neighborhood of Muhandeseen when he was abducted.
Mosul is a northern Iraqi city that in recent months has been a hotspot of violent insurgency.
The reason for the kidnapping was unclear, but Christians - tens of thousands of whom live in and around Mosul - have been subjected to attacks in the past.
Christians make up just 3 percent of Iraq's 26 million people. The major Christian groups in Iraq include Chaldean-Assyrians and Armenians. There are small numbers of Roman Catholics.
There is no "strategic" reason for Iraqi terrorists to do this. The Roman Catholic Church was not in favour of the invasion (liberation) of Iraq and are certainly not American puppets. This is not the work of freedom fighters or minute men (thanks Michael Moore) this is terrorism of the "clash of civilizations" brand.
Update: Appears it was terrorism of the "making a buck" brand not clash of civilizations, at least according to PowerLineBlog:
Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, kidnapped just yesterday in Mosul, has been released . It appears that the kidnapping may have been of the for-profit rather than political variety, as it has now been disclosed that the kidnappers demanded a $200,000 ransom. At this point, the facts are still unclear, but the Vatican denies having paid anything to secure the Archbishop's release.
