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Kidnapped in Iraq: A Christian Humanitarian Tells His Story
Blindfolded, tied, prodded by guns, Alexandre faced intense interrogations, fearing all the while that torture and death were imminent.
In Kidnapped in Iraq, Alexandre Goodarzy describes in gripping detail his abduction by Islamic terrorists in January 2020, how prayer and his Catholic Faith sustained him, and why he now views the entire ordeal as a blessing from God.
After learning of the fate of untold Christians in the Middle East, Alexandre was among a cadre of young men who agreed to assist Christians in danger. As the war in Syria quickly turned into a religious war, Alexandre provided aid to Christians there who were caught between a hardening regime and increasingly bloodthirsty Islamist groups.
The brutalization of Syrian Christians was only recently exposed, since the real story was often distorted by the media. In recent years, Syrian Christians faced the grim choice of fleeing from ISIS and abandoning their homeland or enduring barbaric martyrdom. Their cities were leveled and their churches destroyed. Goodarzy describes how these Christians, loyal to their country, were sporadically kidnapped by Kurds and held for ransom or forced into military service. In Syria, priests provide both spiritual and temporal care, assisting with basic necessities in the community and working to preserve their culture while mediating with secular authorities.
In what reads like a dystopian thriller, Alexandre describes the dangerous episodes he experienced assisting Christians, including the perilous twelve-hour bus ride from Damascus to Aleppo and the numerous face-to-face encounters with Islamic rebels — the last of which resulted in his abduction and sixty-six-day captivity by Iraqi terrorists.
“What is affecting us here today will strike you tomorrow!” people in Iraq and Syria told Goodarzy, predicting that the radical Islamic atrocities in their countries would soon assail France and other Western countries.
Kidnapped in Iraq is a riveting story of bravery and courage and one man’s extraordinary efforts to aid Christians in need. It is also a chilling guidebook on how to fight for justice and proclaim the hope that comes in the triumph of the Cross.
In Kidnapped in Iraq, Alexandre Goodarzy describes in gripping detail his abduction by Islamic terrorists in January 2020, how prayer and his Catholic Faith sustained him, and why he now views the entire ordeal as a blessing from God.
After learning of the fate of untold Christians in the Middle East, Alexandre was among a cadre of young men who agreed to assist Christians in danger. As the war in Syria quickly turned into a religious war, Alexandre provided aid to Christians there who were caught between a hardening regime and increasingly bloodthirsty Islamist groups.
The brutalization of Syrian Christians was only recently exposed, since the real story was often distorted by the media. In recent years, Syrian Christians faced the grim choice of fleeing from ISIS and abandoning their homeland or enduring barbaric martyrdom. Their cities were leveled and their churches destroyed. Goodarzy describes how these Christians, loyal to their country, were sporadically kidnapped by Kurds and held for ransom or forced into military service. In Syria, priests provide both spiritual and temporal care, assisting with basic necessities in the community and working to preserve their culture while mediating with secular authorities.
In what reads like a dystopian thriller, Alexandre describes the dangerous episodes he experienced assisting Christians, including the perilous twelve-hour bus ride from Damascus to Aleppo and the numerous face-to-face encounters with Islamic rebels — the last of which resulted in his abduction and sixty-six-day captivity by Iraqi terrorists.
“What is affecting us here today will strike you tomorrow!” people in Iraq and Syria told Goodarzy, predicting that the radical Islamic atrocities in their countries would soon assail France and other Western countries.
Kidnapped in Iraq is a riveting story of bravery and courage and one man’s extraordinary efforts to aid Christians in need. It is also a chilling guidebook on how to fight for justice and proclaim the hope that comes in the triumph of the Cross.
323 pages, Paperback
Published March 24, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 20, 2022
Have you ever listened to someone talk about a personal experience and realized that that person learnt nothing from their own story? If you have, I'm sorry. If you haven't, pick up this book and read a bit and you will have discovered what that feels like. Goodarzy speaks of believing it is his calling to travel to dangerous countries, leaving behind his wife and son, to "register a charity" (according to his interview with NCR though in the book he says he was their with Cristien d'Orient to travel with an Islamic group to a religious site). A lover of books, and a reader of some particular strenuous reads, it is with no light manner that I refer to this book as a "snooze fest." Having personally travelled through areas spoken of in Goodarzy's work, I found it difficult to believe he even knew what he was talking about in some of his claims. Were it not for a brief news article written by RFI (a French news network), I would probably believe this to be a work of fiction.
I do not write this to discredit anything written by Goodarzy, the loss of senses during a kidnapping would be no light matter. I only say that he is not the best of writers and his topic might have been condensed into just the interview he gave to NCR after the fact. I'm not sure what Goodarzy got from his experience, but I don't think he ever really questioned whether his "Calling" was simply his pride or not. Thus, it was an aggravating read and not a book I would recommend to anyone that I liked.
I do not write this to discredit anything written by Goodarzy, the loss of senses during a kidnapping would be no light matter. I only say that he is not the best of writers and his topic might have been condensed into just the interview he gave to NCR after the fact. I'm not sure what Goodarzy got from his experience, but I don't think he ever really questioned whether his "Calling" was simply his pride or not. Thus, it was an aggravating read and not a book I would recommend to anyone that I liked.
September 7, 2022
This is more the story of the author's work as a Christian aid worker in Syria than the story of his kidnapping in Iraq. With that said, it gives an entirely different perspective on the conflict in Syria than we hear about here in the US, including stories of what our Christian brothers and sisters are experiencing. Well worth a read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews