While outright violence is a well-known — and very obvious — way of annihilating a people, lesser known are the subtle, slow-motion ways that can be exerted to suffocate a people into extinction.
For example, earlier this year, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, leader of the Chaldean church in Iraq, sounded the alarm over the near extinction of Christianity in Iraq (where it had been firmly embedded for nearly 2,000 years, since shortly after the time of Christ). While he mentioned the most obvious form of persecution — the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other “radical” elements — he also made clear that anti-Christian sentiment infused the whole of Iraq’s Muslim society and (U.S.-installed) government.
h/t Kiki9
