Islamic Outreach, Part LXXXVI

From an earlier post on this blog:

Pope Francis spoke to the diplomatic corps and amongst other things, said, "Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam."

Meanwhile: 


(CNSNews.com) – Chaldean Catholic priest Father Douglas Bazi  spoke at the National Press Club Thursday calling on the U.S. State Department to recognize the genocide of Christians in the Middle East at the hands of ISIS.

“I’m begging here--begging people of America to recognize it as a genocide," he said.

Bazi, a parish priest in Erbil, Iraq, who was also born and raised in Iraq, described the persecution he and his parishioners have faced there.

“'Genocide' is a polite word. Can we think of another word to fit what happened to my people?” he told those gathered. “We are not talking about persecution just like stories.”

 “There is no life in Iraq for my people,” he said. “They call my church the church of martyrs or the church of blood.”

“My church in Baghdad been blowed up, blowed up in front of me,” Bazi said. “I survived twice. They bombed my car. I got shot in my leg by an AK-47.

“I was kidnapped for nine days. They used the hammer to broke my teeth, my nose, and my back,” Bazi said, adding that he still keeps the shirt he was kidnapped in, holding it up for reporters to see faded blood stains.