Terrorism Against the Disabled

          It was a sunny Friday afternoon in Baghdad, Iraq.  Two young women with Down syndrome met their friends earlier that morning - their friends told the women they'd be visiting the markets that day.  They even took time to help the girls get dressed then off to the markets they went.  When they arrived, the little group stood back on the edge of the crowd.  One of them told the girl with Down syndrome to go over and see the new chickens and pigeons in the bird market; the girl thought that would be fun.  Her friend was told to go visit the small guinea pigs that had just arrived in the pet market.  The two young women with Down syndrome disappeared into two crowded markets.  And then... there was a horrific, horrible and deafening blast.  A moment later, there was a second blast just as deafening. 

            By the time the smoke cleared, more than 73 people in the markets had been killed - the deadliest day since the U.S. had begun its surge of troops into the country of Iraq.  What happened that day?  Well, that group of so-called "friends" had "dressed" those two mentally handicapped women, strapping explosives around their waists.  When the two women disappeared into the crowds, that's when their explosives were detonated by remote control.

            I was at the U.S. State Department just a week after those terrible explosions - I serve on the Disability Advisory Committee to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.  All of us on the Committee commended Secretary Rice when she said that the use of mentally retarded women as suicide bombers proves al-Qaida is "the most brutal and bankrupt of movements" and will strengthen Iraqi resolve to reject terrorism.  And so the Iraqi people should.

            Because God would have it so - especially when the terrorists use mentally handicapped people who don't know any better... when terrorists send them off on what those with Down syndrome think is a fun mission, only to end up being the agents of murder and death. 

            Psalm 82 puts it this way.  God says, "Defend the cause of the weak, maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.  Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked."  Oh, friend, I'm asking you today to join me in praying against the forces of evil in this world of ours, forces which would perpetrate such crimes against the weakest and most vulnerable among us... people like those two women with Down syndrome who lost their lives, not to mention the 73 other Iraqi civilians in that marketplace.  Pray with me on the basis of Psalm 82.  And may God use our prayers - and use our efforts - to rescue the weak and needy and deliver them from the hand of the wicked, no matter in what part of the world the wicked live.  Thank you for praying, friends, and thank you for caring!

Used by permission of JONI AND FRIENDS  P.O. Box 3333 Agoura Hills, CA 91376

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