Christian exodus from Iraq gathers pace

[Alexandros]

A shrine to Christians killed at the Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad in the autumn. Al-Qaida has renewed threats against Iraq's Christians. Photograph: Ali Al-Saadi/AFP/Getty Images


Christian exodus from Iraq gathers pace

Churches empty and Christmas decorations are put away after al-Qaida renews deadly threat

Martin Chulov in Baghdad

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 23 December 2010 15.04 GMT

Article history

Their cathedrals stand silent and their neighbourhoods are rapidly emptying. Now Iraq's Christians face two further unthinkable realities: that Christmas this year is all but cancelled, and that few among them will stay around to celebrate future holy days.

It has been the worst of years for the country's Christians, with thousands fleeing in the past month and more leaving the country during 2010 than at any time since the invasion nearly eight years ago. Christian leaders say there have been few more defining years in their 2,000-year history in central Arabia.

The latest exodus follows a massacre led by al-Qaida at a Chaldean Catholic church in central Baghdad on 31 October, which left about 60 people dead, almost 100 maimed and an already apprehensive community terrified. Since then, the terrorist group has targeted Christians in their homes, including family members of those who survived the attack.

In Baghdad, as well as the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, Christmas services have been cancelled for fear of further violence. Church leaders said they would not put up Christmas decorations or celebrate midnight mass. They told families not to decorate their homes, for fear of attack after al-Qaida reiterated its threat to target Christians earlier this week.

"Now more than 80% of Christians are not going to the churches," said the head of Iraq's Christian Endowment group, Abdullah al-Noufali. "There is no more sunday school, no school for teaching Christianity. Yesterday we had a discussion about what we would do for Christmas. We took a decision just to do one mass. In years before we had many masses."

Noufali's church was closed and barricaded in 2005 when violence was consuming Baghdad. Many others had stayed open since then. Until now. In the wake of the attack on the Our Lady of Salvation church, at least 10 churches are believed to have been closed. At others, congregations are down to a handful.

Iraq's Christian population has halved since the ousting of Saddam Hussein. But in the past two months, the rate of departure has soared. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees is reporting high numbers of registrations by Christians in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. And in Iraq's Kurdish north, the number of refugees is overwhelming.

Christians have been arriving since the president of the Kurdish regional government, Massoud Barazani, offered them protection and refuge days after the massacre.

Kurdish officials say at least 1,000 families have taken up the offer. Noufali believes the number is far higher. He says the Kurds have been warm and welcoming, but fears that moving there does not offer his community a long-term solution.

"We have seen in Kurdistan that they have no ability to accept the Kurdish students in the universities," he said. "There are not enough chairs in the university for them. They must have opportunity to learn and work. The problem is not just security."

In Lebanon, the plight of Iraq's Christians is being carefully scrutinised. Father Yusef Muwaness, of the Council of Catholic Churches in the Middle East, said: "We understand the shock [the Iraqis] are enduring. We want them to know that they won't be left alone.

"There are ancient issues at work. These people [al-Qaida] are killing because of a fatwa. There has not been a mufti who has stood up and said this is wrong."

Lebanon's Christians once held a demographic majority. Emigration and a brutal civil war has whittled numbers away. Amin Gemayel, a former Lebanese president and now patriarch of many of the country's remaining Christians, believes far more could be done by Muslim leaders to ensure that the exodus is not total.

"The Christians were very nationalistic," he said. "They are part of the foundations of this area. We can't understand such extremity then passivity from the leaders. When the region is completely cleansed of other religions (apart from Islam) it will be a surrender to the fundamentalists."

In the Chaldean archdiocese in Baabda, above Beirut, Father Hanna has been receiving Iraqi families fleeing their homeland. "I would go back there to give a service in front of one person, if I had to," he said. "But even that may not be possible now. Since 1 November, we have seen 450 families register here. Many more have gone to the UN."

Among those who have stayed in Iraq and tried to build a new life in the north, there are mixed feelings. "Three days after the church attack I left my house (in Baghdad) and came to the KRG," said Georges Qudah, 30, a pharmacy assistant. "At the main checkpoint I said we are a Christian family, and they said we are welcome to stay as long as we want. I feel safe and comfortable here, but the problem is how to live. The council here has given us blankets and beds, but housing is very expensive."

In Baghdad, there are few signs of the joy of Christmas.

"There is no hope here anymore," says Noufali. "No one can believe they [the Christians] will stay. Christmas came with two messages, peace in the world and hope for the people and we need these two things for our life in Iraq. If there are no more Christians here, I am certain Iraq will become a more dangerous country."


Christianity in the Middle East

Freedom of worship for Christians varies greatly across the Middle East.

In Lebanon, where about half the population are Christian, believers are allowed to practise their faith without fear of persecution. The Maronite Church is the largest, most politically active and influential denomination, holding 34 of the 64 Christian seats in the Lebanese parliament.

In Jordan, Christians are free to profess their faith, build churches, schools, hospitals and universities. They attend mass and there are public celebrations of religious festivals and ceremonies. They experience less discrimination and more freedom than fellow believers in Egypt and Iraq. There is a similar portrait of stability and freedom in Syria, where Christians comprise up to 10% of the population.

Evangelising bvy Protestants in Jordan has prompted a crackdown on churches, visas and summer camps. Attempting to convert Muslims is illegal, but there is no law against proselytising to other Christians and some Catholic and Orthodox groups have complained of energetic wooing from Protestants. It is this evangelising that has offended authorities, keen to avoid religious zealotry of any sort.

What Saudi Arabia lacks in violent persecution it makes up for in outright intolerance. There is no religious freedom in Saudi Arabia, which counts a million Catholics in its population. The country allows Christians to enter for work purposes but severely restricts the practise of their faith.

Christians worship in private homes and there are bans on religious articles including Bibles, crucifixes, statues, carvings and items bearing religious symbols. The religious police bar the practice of any religion other than Islam. Conversion of a Muslim to another religion is considered apostasy and carries a death sentence if the accused does not recant. Still, Christians in Saudi Arabia are positively blessed compared with those of Iraq. Riazat Butt

Link

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Christian exodus from Iraq gathers pace

In Iraq churches, on images depicting Hell, they should paint the face of George Bush onto the Devil, with the faces of Rumsfelt, Powell, Rice, Blair and the various lesser minions onto the images of his demons.

Though the truth is, most of those Iraqi Christians will end up in America and become rabid, flag-waving Republicans.

[Haykakan]

Re: Christian exodus from Iraq gathers pace

Al-Qaida and the islamic fundamentalist movement is a tool of the zionists in their quest to completely control all of the middle east and pave the way for their vision of zion. The plan is to make the region so backward and inhospitable that no one will mind later if israel went in to "civilize" the region by taking it over as the only legitamit power left in the region. Playing the muslims and chrytians against each other is no new trick, it has been the prefered tactic used by zionists for a long time. For those who are terrified about the spread of islamic fundimentalism it would be prudent to look at its cause, the reason why it exists and is growing. This is all planned out and only a few unlikely events can derail it but most likely won't.

[Davo88]

Re: Christian exodus from Iraq gathers pace

It's really a shame that the descendants the ancient Assyrian civilization have to endure persecution in their own lands, much to the indifference of the West.

[Haykakan]

Re: Christian exodus from Iraq gathers pace

It's really a shame that the descendants the ancient Assyrian civilization have to endure persecution in their own lands, much to the indifference of the West.

O i would not call it indifference when it comes to what the west is doing there. It is more then obvious the "west" supports one side over the other thus there is no indifference.

[retro]

Re: Christian exodus from Iraq gathers pace

Copts return to scene of deadly bombing in Egypt

Emotional congregants returned to their church Sunday in Alexandria, Egypt, mourning the loss of fellow worshippers in a bombing a day earlier.

Inside the Church of the Two Saints, grisly reminders of the explosion -- believed to be caused by a suicide bomber -- remained as tearful worshippers lighted candles to honor the dead. Broken glass and debris littered the church's interior and portions of the walls were splattered with blood.

At least 21 people were killed and 97 others injured in Saturday's blast, which occurred shortly after midnight as Coptic Christians were attending services at the church, according to Egyptian government officials. Evidence indicates that a suicide bomber caused the blast, the country's interior ministry said Saturday, though witnesses reported seeing a car parked outside the church explode.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/01/02/egypt.attack/?hpt=Sbin

[Davo88]

Re: Christian exodus from Iraq gathers pace

The attack in Egypt deserves a thread of its own, I think.

Arab Christians, America's new victims
By May Akl
Commentary by
Monday, January 03, 2011

The voice at the other end of the phone line from Beirut suddenly became nervous. “No, no, no, please!” the panicking nun said. “You cannot mention my real name, you understand, what we are doing is illegal.”

This is why I call her Sister Mary. Sister Mary does not launder money nor trade drugs. Instead, she leads an association that assists clandestine Christian Iraqi refugees whose plight leads them to travel to Lebanon by foot.

She anticipated more refugees after the church massacre last October 31, a dark day for Iraq’s Christian community, though the incident received little attention from international media and policymakers. A terrorist group took the Lady of Deliverance church in Bagdad by siege, holding the congregation hostage and killing 46 Chaldean worshipers, including two priests celebrating mass, and wounding some 67. This was not the first act of violence against Iraq’s dwindling Christian community, but it was by far the most horrific. And it was not the last act of violence targeting the Christians of the Middle East.

After surviving millennia of religious and cultural persecutions in its own cradle, Christianity in the Middle East, could face demise at the hands of this Christian West. In fact, political alliances sought by Western states and, most importantly, by the United States leverage existential threats against the remaining Christian minorities in the Middle East. Rescue is not high on the agenda.

Realizing the magnitude of the plight for its community, the Iraqi Chaldean Archdiocese has dispatched a representative to Lebanon to oversee the needs of the Chaldean, Assyrian and Syriac refugees there. Father Rony Hanna noted that the number of refugees in Lebanon amount to 1,000 families, about 6,000 people in all. There are nearly 20,000 in Syria, and some 5,000 in Jordan. More than half of Iraq’s Christians have left their home, he added, their numbers shrinking from 1.1 million to around 450,000.

The 2000-year old Christian community has dwindled to some 0.5 percent since the US grand strategy to promote democracy in the Middle East made its debut in Iraq. Oddly enough, Father Hanna pointed out that under Saddam Hussein, the rights of minority Christians were protected. “Security forces were sent to our religious celebration to provide us with protection, and they did,” he noted. “This is what we most miss now, being protected.”

The most likely scenario for Christians eludes scores of strategists: Sacrificing Iraq’s Christian minority only reinforces intolerance, in a country where extremists find fertile ground to expand. Reducing the Christians also renders uniform one of the oldest multi-religious civilizations in the world. So far the issue has been met with astounding silence.

After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, violence against Christians soared, with reports of abductions, torture, bombings, killings and forced conversions to Islam. In 2006, an Orthodox Christian priest was beheaded and mutilated despite a ransom being paid. In 2008, the Archbishop of Mosul died after being abducted. In January 2008, bombs exploded outside nine churches. Fleeing the violence has become an imperative.

“Refugees are smuggled through the Iraqi-Syrian border, then through the Syrian-Lebanese border,” Sister Mary explains, describing a 16-hour journey. “When we saw these thousands of refugees flocking into Lebanon four years ago, we thought we needed to

do something.”

The refugees arrive to Lebanon bereft. “The little money or valuable items they might have been able to carry … ends up in the hands of Kurdish [and other agents] that smuggle them into various borders of neighboring countries,” she explained.

Lebanon is not the end of their journey. The families usually wait one year before receiving emigration visas to Europe, the United States, Canada or Australia. During their temporary stay in Lebanon, charities like Sister Mary’s association and Caritas – a worldwide Catholic charity – try to provide housing, small jobs and schooling for the children.

Information about the numbers of visas given to Iraqi refugees is largely decentralized and thus not highly credible. Father Hanna could only confirm that the US Embassy is the largest provider of visas.

It goes without saying that the suffering of Iraqi civilians is not restricted to Christians. Both Christians and Muslims have been affected, though in diverse ways. But the massive exodus of Christians does have repercussions on the social fabric of both Iraq and the Middle East.

In Egypt, the Coptic Church that has inhabited the region since the 1st century has seen its membership shrink considerably over the years. Not only does it suffer from groups linked with Al-Qaeda, but also from Hosni Mubarak’s regime, backed by the US. The regime has taken no measures to end oppression of the Coptic minority – with worshippers killed outside churches and churches being looted and burned, and forced expulsions from villages. The regime not only fails to prevent violent attacks against Coptic churches, but also blames the attacks on the Copts themselves.

In a bid to force the Mubarak government into action, Coptic associations based in the United States have urged that sanctions be imposed against the regime. These demands have been met with silence because the increasingly unpopular and autocratic regime is a main US ally.

The Christians of Lebanon – by far the most powerful minority in the region – have been stranded twice in recent history. With Israel to the South, the Christian community alone confronted the threat posed by hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees fleeing their lands, which eventually ignited the 1975 Civil War. Similarly, in 1990 the US gave Lebanon’s eastern neighbor, Syria, the go-ahead to invade the Christian hinterland of Mount Lebanon in exchange for Syria’s support in Operation Desert Storm against Iraq.

The US grand strategy for Iraq has failed to secure a peaceful Iraq, let alone provide safety for its Christians. The world may indeed “be a better place” without Saddam Hussein, but certainly not for all people. Ending his dictatorship has allowed new strands of extremism, both Sunni and Shiite, to thrive. Father Hanna noted, “We wonder, why do they turn a blind eye to what is happening to us?”

The US has paid Iraqi Christians lip service by offering no alternative to their prevailing chaos. The long-term consequence of the Iraq war are dire: The search for non-existent weapons for mass destruction has bred “people of mass destruction.” Iraq has porous land borders, exporting to the Mediterranean, then on to the West, two sorts of people: broken, scarred refugees, and indoctrinated, hideous terrorists. Some 2000 years after its emergence, a religion that spread to the rest of the world faces the prospect of being erased from the lands where it was born.

May Akl, a Yale University World Fellow, is a spokesperson for Lebanese parliamentarian Michel Aoun. This commentary is reprinted with permission from YaleGlobal Online (www.yaleglobal.yale.edu). Copyright © 2010, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, Yale University. The views expressed are her own.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=5&article_id=123151#ixzz1A13yorrF