Sarnaya, confined to a wheelchair, was livestreaming on TikTok about his faith when he was attacked -- in front of his own building as he was returning home, by an assailant who fled the scene.
Sarnaya had been living in France for about 10 years with legal status. He was known to be a deeply devout and practicing Catholic, who was very active on social media talking about religion. He was filming himself live on TikTok talking about his faith when he was murdered.
Since then, many have visited his TikTok account, called "Ashur Love." Until Sept. 10, his followers enjoyed his recordings of speeches, prayers and Sarnaya singing Christian songs in Arabic in a deep voice. But on the evening of his death, instead, his last moments were recorded and circulated on social media with a viral speed.
On Sept. 12, the French association SOS Chrétiens d'Orient, which sends volunteers and humanitarian aid to Christians still living in the Middle East, said in a statement that Sarnaya -- originally from Ankawa in Iraqi Kurdistan, one of the largest Christian municipalities in the Middle East -- "had fled persecution by the Islamic State and taken refuge in Lyon with his sister."
'Fleeing persecution, only to be murdered in France'
"A devout believer, he was a member of the Assyrian-Chaldean community and a faithful member of the Chaldean parish of St. Ephrem in Lyon," the statement said.
"Fleeing persecution, only to be murdered in France!" Charlotte d'Ornellas, a French columnist close to SOS Chrétiens d'Orient, said in the Journal du Dimanche on Sept. 14.
"His virtual comrades and even some members of his family ... described him as a martyr for his faith," she said.
There are approximately 30,000 Assyrian-Chaldeans, Christians of the Eastern rite, in France, according to La Croix. Many of them sought refuge in France after the Islamic State group proclaimed the creation of a caliphate in Iraq and Syria in 2014. The Islamist extremist group controlled parts of the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq from 2014 until 2017.
More than 120,000 Christians sought refuge in Erbil in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region after fleeing their homes in August 2014 and a number left the country.
To date, St. Ephrem des Chaldéens Catholic Parish, in the community of Vaulx-en-Velin, northeast of Lyon, brings together nearly 500 Christian families from Iraq and Syria of different rites and liturgies. Masses are celebrated in Arabic and Suret, a language very close to Aramaic, which was spoken by Christ.
'Violence is a dead end' archbishop says
Archbishop Olivier de Germay of Lyon expressed his compassion for the Iraqi Christians in his region, after the murder of Sarnaya. For 11 years, the Diocese of Lyon has been "twinned" with the Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Mosul, Iraq's second city. This twinning enables the diocese in France to make a concrete commitment to helping Christians who have remained in Iraq despite the war.
"Violence is a dead end," Archbishop de Germay said in his message following the murder of Sarnaya. "Let us fight it with prayer and dialogue."
As the perpetrator has not yet been found, speculation has quickly circulated about the reasons for the murder, focusing on his expressing the Christian faith on social media.
"This often brought him hateful comments and sometimes even bullying, as was the case last spring when he was attacked by Muslims," SOS Chrétiens d'Orient said in its Sept. 12 statement. "He lost his life because he displayed his Christian faith on social media," France's evangelical Christians said in a Sept. 15 statement.
On social media, calls for a Sept. 28 Sunday demonstration in Paris "against Christianophobia" circulated, while speculation about religious motives was taken up on a political level.
"He was savagely stabbed by an Islamist," Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally party, on the far right of the French political spectrum, wrote on X on Sept. 12, without waiting for the results of the judicial investigation.
"While it is legitimate to grant asylum to those who are persecuted in their own countries, our unlimited and uncontrolled immigration policy now leads us to welcome their executioners," she denounced.
For its part, the association L'Oeuvre d'Orient, which helps bishops, priests and Catholic congregations of the Eastern Churches in the Middle East, "condemned in the strongest terms the murder of an Iraqi Christian in a vulnerable situation," in a statement posted on Facebook on Sept. 11.
"It is essential that Christians in the Middle East be able to profess their faith in complete safety and live with dignity," L'Oeuvre d'Orient emphasized in its statement. It stressed that "it awaits the conclusions of the investigation as soon as possible."
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