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Aljazeera.net, Qatar
May 14 2006
Violence robs Iraq of Christian heritage
By Firas al-Atraqchi
Sunday 14 May 2006, 8:32 Makka Time, 5:32 GMT
Christian children sing carols in a church in Baghdad last year
The flight of religious minorities escaping violence in post-war Iraq
is threatening to rob the country of its once diverse Christian
heritage.
In the early 1980s, Iraq's Christian population numbered 1.4 million
but economic strife brought on by the war with Iran and UN sanctions
after the 1991 Gulf War pushed some in the ancient community to
emigrate.
Nevertheless, the Christian community continued to enjoy religious
freedoms in the majority Muslim country until the US-led invasion of
2003, says Adli Juwaidah, a former director of cultural relations in
Iraq's ministry of higher education.
"The relationship with the [former Baathist] ruling regime was good
and it trusted them, but it is important that significantly this was
because the Christians did not interfere in politics and did not have
political ambition," he told Aljazeera.net.
But after the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, the Christian community
found itself under attack and tens of thousands have since fled the
country in fear of religious persecution.
"The days of officially preached religious tolerance during Saddam's
rule are gone and freedom to worship now gives way to fear about an
impending Islamisation of Iraq," a United Nations High Commissioner
on Refugees (UNHCR) study of Iraqi Christians said in 2004.
On August 2, 2004, more than a dozen Christian worshippers were
killed when five Armenian, Assyrian and Chaldean churches came under
co-ordinated attacks in the capital Baghdad and the northern city of
Mosul.
Nine other churches were attacked before the end of the year.
Shop owners threatened
In addition to church bombings, Christian shop owners selling alcohol
have been targeted by groups trying to enforce Islamic laws.
Stores selling music tapes and CDs, mostly owned by Christian
merchants, have also been firebombed and their owners told to stop
"corrupting Islamic society".
In 2004, leaflets were left at the homes of Christian families
warning the "men of the households" to adhere to Islamic law and
ensure that women were dressed "conservatively", which often refers
to Islamic attire.
Churches in Baghdad and Mosul
have come under bomb attacks
Young Christian women have reported harassment and intimidation in
the streets to don veils or scarves to cover their hair.
Fayrouz Hancock, an Iraq-Australian computer programmer now living in
the US, says Iraqi Christians are fleeing "because of the
difficulties of practising their faith and leading normal social
lives in a country that has turned conservative due to the threats
from extremists".
She also blames the breakdown in security in the country.
In early May, the United States Commission on International Religious
Freedom (USCIRF) warned that religiously motivated attacks signalled
"an exodus that may mean the end of the presence in Iraq of ancient
Christian and other communities that have lived on those same lands
for 2,000 years".
Michael La Civita, assistant secretary for communications for the
Pontifical Mission, a Vatican development agency working in the
Middle East, says there is no "outright" persecution of the Christian
community.
Social discrimination
However, "there is social discrimination of Iraqi Christians. And
since the collapse of central authority (beginning with the second
US-led invasion), Iraqi Christians have been targeted by extremists",
La Civita told Aljazeera.net.
"As a result, large numbers of Iraqi Christians are leaving Iraq,
settling in Jordan, temporarily. Because Middle Eastern Christians
are typically middle class, well educated, speak a number of European
languages and have family in the diaspora, they find refuge in the
West."
Practising their faith has become
difficult under extremist threats
Exact figures of how many Christians have left since the US invasion
are hard to come by. The Iraqi government has not issued any figures
on the community and many who have left do not register with any
refugee or aid organisations.
"Western sources seem uninterested in writing about their number or
situation," says William Warda, an Assyrian researcher and webmaster
of Christians of Iraq, a website that monitors news and information
on the community.
"Christians of the Middle East have practised a pacifist form of
Christianity and have always strived to live in peace with their
neighbours regardless of their religion," he said, adding that the
Iraqi Christians are afraid to complain fearing retaliation.
Terrified community
Soon after the August 2004 church bombings, reports from the
Iraq-Syria border indicated 40,000 Iraqi Christians had fled to
Damascus and Aleppo, with thousands more crossing into Turkey.
La Civita says figures from the Holy See indicate less than 300,000
Catholics (Chaldean, Syriac and Armenian Catholics) remain in Iraq.
"The days of officially preached religious tolerance during Saddam's
rule are gone and freedom to worship now gives way to fear about an
impending Islamisation of Iraq"
UNHCR report
NA, a 35-year-old Christian woman in Basra, who agreed to be
identified by her initials only, is alarmed by the new Iraq and the
militias which roam the streets of her once beautiful city.
A few weeks ago, as she walked to her church a few blocks from her
home, she and a female friend and their children were accosted by two
men on a motorbike who shouted anti-Christian slurs.
"The police were standing there without trying to prevent them from
harassing us, I was terrified, not only for myself but for the whole
group and especially the little ones," she said.
The men on the motorbike left once the entourage entered the
sanctuary of the church.
But Basra area churches are also declining in number.
Death threats
In previous weeks, two churches closed when their reverends fled for
Jordan after receiving death threats.
"The number of Christian families leaving is growing," NA says.
"I don't know the exact number, but from around me each month more
than 10 families are fleeing, and that's just the families I can see
at the Catholic Church."
While she says she refuses to don the headscarf, she will leave the
country at the first chance she gets.
"I fear for my life because they are killing people without any
reason, and making others leave their jobs just because they are
Sunni or Shia and the Christians in here are like a very weak old
person ... we don't know what to do or where to go," she told
Aljazeera.net.
Sectarian havens
With Baghdad and other cities unofficially becoming demarcated into
sectarian neighbourhoods, Christian families have found themselves
particularly vulnerable.
While the cities of Mosul and Falluja, for example, are considered
Sunni safe havens and Karbala and Najaf are Shia safe havens, there
are no regions where Christians are a majority and therefore could
escape to.
With no militias to protect them,
Christians are feeling vulnerable
The result has been that many have left the country entirely.
Furthermore, Christians do not have the support of militias which
many Sunnis and Shia are afforded because of tribal affiliations.
"At least the Kurds, Shia and the Sunnis [have] well equipped
militias to protect them from wholesale attacks against them, and
they have allies who will come to their help if there is a civil
war," Warda said.
Friar Yousif Thomas, a Chaldean Catholic in Baghdad, says all-out
sectarian conflict means Christians will be caught in the middle.
"If a civil war is declared between Shia and Sunni, it is
comprehensible that Christians cannot defend themselves. The choice
of going out is very bitter for the majority of them, but do they
have any other choice?" he says.
Grim future
Despite the difficulties in practising their faith and threats, an
Iraq bereft of Christians is difficult for the community to grasp.
Christians pre-date Islam by some 700 years and have lived in the
area known as Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) since St Thomas the
Apostle preached in 30 CE and founded the East Syriac Church.
"I can't imagine an Iraq without Iraqi Christians, says Hancock.
"Iraqi Christians contributed to Iraq with their skills and loyalty
to the country. It is sad to watch what happened to them for the last
three years."
May 14 2006
Violence robs Iraq of Christian heritage
By Firas al-Atraqchi
Sunday 14 May 2006, 8:32 Makka Time, 5:32 GMT
Christian children sing carols in a church in Baghdad last year
The flight of religious minorities escaping violence in post-war Iraq
is threatening to rob the country of its once diverse Christian
heritage.
In the early 1980s, Iraq's Christian population numbered 1.4 million
but economic strife brought on by the war with Iran and UN sanctions
after the 1991 Gulf War pushed some in the ancient community to
emigrate.
Nevertheless, the Christian community continued to enjoy religious
freedoms in the majority Muslim country until the US-led invasion of
2003, says Adli Juwaidah, a former director of cultural relations in
Iraq's ministry of higher education.
"The relationship with the [former Baathist] ruling regime was good
and it trusted them, but it is important that significantly this was
because the Christians did not interfere in politics and did not have
political ambition," he told Aljazeera.net.
But after the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, the Christian community
found itself under attack and tens of thousands have since fled the
country in fear of religious persecution.
"The days of officially preached religious tolerance during Saddam's
rule are gone and freedom to worship now gives way to fear about an
impending Islamisation of Iraq," a United Nations High Commissioner
on Refugees (UNHCR) study of Iraqi Christians said in 2004.
On August 2, 2004, more than a dozen Christian worshippers were
killed when five Armenian, Assyrian and Chaldean churches came under
co-ordinated attacks in the capital Baghdad and the northern city of
Mosul.
Nine other churches were attacked before the end of the year.
Shop owners threatened
In addition to church bombings, Christian shop owners selling alcohol
have been targeted by groups trying to enforce Islamic laws.
Stores selling music tapes and CDs, mostly owned by Christian
merchants, have also been firebombed and their owners told to stop
"corrupting Islamic society".
In 2004, leaflets were left at the homes of Christian families
warning the "men of the households" to adhere to Islamic law and
ensure that women were dressed "conservatively", which often refers
to Islamic attire.
Churches in Baghdad and Mosul
have come under bomb attacks
Young Christian women have reported harassment and intimidation in
the streets to don veils or scarves to cover their hair.
Fayrouz Hancock, an Iraq-Australian computer programmer now living in
the US, says Iraqi Christians are fleeing "because of the
difficulties of practising their faith and leading normal social
lives in a country that has turned conservative due to the threats
from extremists".
She also blames the breakdown in security in the country.
In early May, the United States Commission on International Religious
Freedom (USCIRF) warned that religiously motivated attacks signalled
"an exodus that may mean the end of the presence in Iraq of ancient
Christian and other communities that have lived on those same lands
for 2,000 years".
Michael La Civita, assistant secretary for communications for the
Pontifical Mission, a Vatican development agency working in the
Middle East, says there is no "outright" persecution of the Christian
community.
Social discrimination
However, "there is social discrimination of Iraqi Christians. And
since the collapse of central authority (beginning with the second
US-led invasion), Iraqi Christians have been targeted by extremists",
La Civita told Aljazeera.net.
"As a result, large numbers of Iraqi Christians are leaving Iraq,
settling in Jordan, temporarily. Because Middle Eastern Christians
are typically middle class, well educated, speak a number of European
languages and have family in the diaspora, they find refuge in the
West."
Practising their faith has become
difficult under extremist threats
Exact figures of how many Christians have left since the US invasion
are hard to come by. The Iraqi government has not issued any figures
on the community and many who have left do not register with any
refugee or aid organisations.
"Western sources seem uninterested in writing about their number or
situation," says William Warda, an Assyrian researcher and webmaster
of Christians of Iraq, a website that monitors news and information
on the community.
"Christians of the Middle East have practised a pacifist form of
Christianity and have always strived to live in peace with their
neighbours regardless of their religion," he said, adding that the
Iraqi Christians are afraid to complain fearing retaliation.
Terrified community
Soon after the August 2004 church bombings, reports from the
Iraq-Syria border indicated 40,000 Iraqi Christians had fled to
Damascus and Aleppo, with thousands more crossing into Turkey.
La Civita says figures from the Holy See indicate less than 300,000
Catholics (Chaldean, Syriac and Armenian Catholics) remain in Iraq.
"The days of officially preached religious tolerance during Saddam's
rule are gone and freedom to worship now gives way to fear about an
impending Islamisation of Iraq"
UNHCR report
NA, a 35-year-old Christian woman in Basra, who agreed to be
identified by her initials only, is alarmed by the new Iraq and the
militias which roam the streets of her once beautiful city.
A few weeks ago, as she walked to her church a few blocks from her
home, she and a female friend and their children were accosted by two
men on a motorbike who shouted anti-Christian slurs.
"The police were standing there without trying to prevent them from
harassing us, I was terrified, not only for myself but for the whole
group and especially the little ones," she said.
The men on the motorbike left once the entourage entered the
sanctuary of the church.
But Basra area churches are also declining in number.
Death threats
In previous weeks, two churches closed when their reverends fled for
Jordan after receiving death threats.
"The number of Christian families leaving is growing," NA says.
"I don't know the exact number, but from around me each month more
than 10 families are fleeing, and that's just the families I can see
at the Catholic Church."
While she says she refuses to don the headscarf, she will leave the
country at the first chance she gets.
"I fear for my life because they are killing people without any
reason, and making others leave their jobs just because they are
Sunni or Shia and the Christians in here are like a very weak old
person ... we don't know what to do or where to go," she told
Aljazeera.net.
Sectarian havens
With Baghdad and other cities unofficially becoming demarcated into
sectarian neighbourhoods, Christian families have found themselves
particularly vulnerable.
While the cities of Mosul and Falluja, for example, are considered
Sunni safe havens and Karbala and Najaf are Shia safe havens, there
are no regions where Christians are a majority and therefore could
escape to.
With no militias to protect them,
Christians are feeling vulnerable
The result has been that many have left the country entirely.
Furthermore, Christians do not have the support of militias which
many Sunnis and Shia are afforded because of tribal affiliations.
"At least the Kurds, Shia and the Sunnis [have] well equipped
militias to protect them from wholesale attacks against them, and
they have allies who will come to their help if there is a civil
war," Warda said.
Friar Yousif Thomas, a Chaldean Catholic in Baghdad, says all-out
sectarian conflict means Christians will be caught in the middle.
"If a civil war is declared between Shia and Sunni, it is
comprehensible that Christians cannot defend themselves. The choice
of going out is very bitter for the majority of them, but do they
have any other choice?" he says.
Grim future
Despite the difficulties in practising their faith and threats, an
Iraq bereft of Christians is difficult for the community to grasp.
Christians pre-date Islam by some 700 years and have lived in the
area known as Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) since St Thomas the
Apostle preached in 30 CE and founded the East Syriac Church.
"I can't imagine an Iraq without Iraqi Christians, says Hancock.
"Iraqi Christians contributed to Iraq with their skills and loyalty
to the country. It is sad to watch what happened to them for the last
three years."