LIVES - RUINED IN AN INSTANT: Iraqi Catholics in Lebanon recount their harrowing ordeal
Family forced to leave home with little more than clothes on backs
8/12/2014 (1 day ago)
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Meeting with reporters in his adopted homeland of Lebanon, the father asked that he and his families real names not be used.
He recalled how his wife and their teenage son, were in their living room while their two other children were asleep late one evening. They then heard an explosion-like crash. Four militants then burst into their house, guns aimed at the heads of father and son.
"Give us your gold and valuables," he said they demanded. Filled with fear, his wife tried to calmly gather all jewelry she had. One of the militants, noticing his son's cross, ripped off the chain and started to beat the boy, accusing the family of withholding their gold.
"What's for sure is they (the terrorists) are not all Iraqis. The ones with the beards are not Iraqis," he said. The terrorists then warned they would return to the family in 48 hours. At that time, the family must convert to Islam, pay the Islamic jizya tax -- or be killed.
http://www.catholic.org/news/international/middle_east/story.php?id=56529