Kidnapped Archbishop Found Dead

I. Citation

Kidnapped Archbishop Found Dead, New Zealand Herald, March 14, 2008http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10498132

II. Summary

The Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul, Paulos Faraj Rahho, was recently found buried in an empty lot, after being kidnapped last month. The Shi’ite Islamic based government Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki believes that his death was brought by al Qaeda. U.S. and Iraq forces launched a search for Rahho, but found no success. Police are still unsure for the cause of his death, and found no bullet wounds. Ever since the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, many Christians and churches have been attacked.

III. Reactions

A) This article relates to State- building, expansion and conflict. It shows how if the attackers were al Qaeda, that Islam extremists don’t want foreign influence from other countries, such as the U.S. They attack the Christians because they feel feel threatened and that they are trying to take over or destroy their culture.

B) Last month, on February 29, Rahho was kidnapped by armed men, who killed his driver and two guards. Rahho wasn’t the first archbishop to be kidnapped. In 2005, the former archbishop of Mosul, Basile Georges Casmoussa, was kidnapped, but released a day later.

C) The point of view of this article is from a market data provider and news service, Reuters. Their main headquarters are in London, but they have businesses all throughout the world. This article could have been written from a male/ female of any nationality. However, since this is a New Zealand paper, it is an outsider point of view.

D) This article should be read with caution, because it seems to accuse al Qaeda of this act, while there is no hard evidence of al Qaeda being behind the attack. While police say there are no signs of him being killed, the article seems to show that al Qaeda did it. It also describes how Christians are targeted in attacks in Iraq, which shows the author may favor Christianity over other religions.

E) A missing voice inside this article is that of a scientist who would be able to determine the cause of Rahho’s death. This would be helpful because it might help prove who killed him or the reason why he died.

F) I think that if al Qaeda was behind the attack, it was because of the other reasons they have been resisting U.S. and U.S. allies’ forces. They don’t want other cultures, especially the U.S. affecting their Shi’ite form of Islam. Therefore, they lash out using violence to try and stop the western countries from diluting Islam.