Page 8, 24th April 2009

24th April 2009

Page 8

Page 8, 24th April 2009 — The Iraqi faithful are just hanging in there
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Organisations: army, al-Qaeda
People: Joe Seferta
Locations: Birmingham, Mosul, Baghdad

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The Iraqi faithful are just hanging in there

Six months after the Mosul massacre peace has returned to northern Iraq. But the future is still bleak, says Iraqi Chaldean Joe Seferta
Christians and other smaller religious minorities in Iraq have been undergoing the worst persecution in living memory and they are still threatened with extinction if nothing is done about it.
But who is doing the persecuting and why? What is taking place is not an official policy sanctioned by the government, although the Iraqi authorities, as well as the occupying powers, have done hardly anything to protect the Christians. Nor are the culprits ordinary Muslims who have lived side by side with the Christians for centuries.
The perpetrators of acts of violence and murder are primarily Muslim extremists (both Sunni and Shia) — many of them not even Iraqis — whose immediate objective is to oust the Americans from Iraq, but whose real aim is the creation of a purely Islamic state, based on strict Sharia law, a state that would discriminate against non-Muslims.
Supporting these extremists are numerous criminal elements, and all are loosely connected with al-Qaeda and other Islamist organisations that arc seeking the restoration of the old caliphate and theocratic system of government.
The civil war that has been raging between Sunni and Shia since the 2003 invasion of Iraq has, strangely, not prevented both sides from agreeing to fight another common enemy (besides the Americans) — Christians and other religious minorities. Terrorist gangs and militias have been using various tactics to intimidate and try to expel those communities from Iraq, including kidnappings, torture, forced conversions, confiscation of property, rape and murder. The trouble spot has shifted recently from Baghdad to Mosul in the north.
The majority of Iraq's Christians are Chaldean Catholics, with a patriarch residing in Baghdad. Others include Assyrians, Armenians, Syrians and Byzantines (both Catholic and Orthodox), plus some Copts, Latins, Anglicans and Protestants. Under Saddam Hussein Christians numbered some one million and, since he headed a secular regime, they had a fair amount of freedom and security.
Unfortunately for the Christians, following the American-led invasion they became unfairly identified with the "Christian" invaders from the West, and, by implication, became regarded as "enemies" of their own country. What has not helped is the presence of American Evangelical missionaries, who came with the army seeking to convert the Muslims, but of course did not get anywhere.
What compounds the tragedy of Iraq's Christians is not only their small numbers, but their being unarmed and unprotected by clans, as is the case with the Muslims. Hence they have become easy targets for abduction, violence, rape and murder. Christian women and girls must now cover up in public (as the Muslims do) otherwise they face trouble at the hands of the extremists. Priests are told to remove crosses from churches and not to ring bells, or else their churches will be burned down.
The first wave of attacks against churches took place in 2004 and scores have since been destroyed. Also, numerous shops owned by Christians have been firebombed. Worst of all, however, are the many hundreds of Christian men, women and children who have been murdered up and down the country simply for being Christian. This includes dozens of priests, nuns and deacons, as well as the Chaldean Bishop of Mosul. Even the Chaldean Patriarch himself receives threatening messages occasionally.
In the last few years life has become so unbearable for the Christian community that hundreds of thousands of them (maybe half of the Christian population) have fled the country, many seeking sanctuary in the Kurdish north, but many more in the neighbouring countries, especially Syria and Jordan. Their existence as refugees is very difficult. Some are hoping to join relatives in the West, and the majority are too afraid to return to Iraq. As refugees, they all suffer as foreigners, being plagued by poverty, unemployment, disease and homelessness.
The invasion of Iraq had been promised as a "liberation" of the Iraqi people. Sadly, it has proved to be a disaster, particularly for Christians. Their severe persecution at the hands of Islamic fanatics is one of the unintended consequences of the invasion. They have become victims of the political power struggle among Iraq's three major groups: the Sunni, Shia and Kurds. It is also unfortunate that they have been abandoned to their fate by a culture in the West (particularly in America) that is characterised by ignorance and ambivalence.
Not only Iraq's media, but the western secular media as well, have chosen to ignore the religious and ethnic cleansing that is now taking place in Iraq. Only the religious (ie, mainly Christian) media carry the news for those who care to listen.
The small and peace-loving Christian community of Iraq is not a threat to anyone. Iraqi Christians are not seeking any power but simply want to be left alone to live and worship in peace, and they are true patriots. As they did back in the Twenties and Thirties (when an independent Iraq was founded), the Christians can again play a vital role in rebuilding the country.
Let me end on a note of hope, however. The American "surge" operation seems to have reduced the number of terrorists greatly. at least in the capital, Bagh
dad, and many Sunni tribal chiefs have turned against the terrorists and cooperated with both the police and the army, resulting in a noticeable improvement in the security situation.
But it is the recent provincial elections in Iraq that should give us reason for optimism, although we should not go as far as saying that Iraq will become a peaceful democracy in the near future.
There are still huge challenges ahead. But that those elections went generally smoothly and proved to be a great setback for the hard-line religious parties marks, one hopes, the beginning of a real recovery.
Maybe the Iraqi people are realising that a peaceful future for Iraq lies only in having a secular regime that will show respect for all citizens, including non-Muslims, and give them their full human rights. This is not to say that the Christians who are living in exile now will return soon to their ancient land, but let's hope and pray that this possibility does not lie in the too distant future.
Dr Seferta is a member of the commission for interfaith dialogue of the Archdiocese of Birmingham
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