The End of Christianity in Iraq

Christians of Iraq ^ | July 24, 2006 | Glen Chancy

[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

The End of Christianity in Iraq

by Glen Chancy
July 24, 2006
Christians of Iraq.Com

The news from Iraq has been especially grim of late. Daily it seems violent death is everywhere in the form of car bombings at mosques and other public facilities, ethnic cleansing carried out by militias roving about the streets seeking victims, even soldiers and police doubling as sectarian enforcers. The statistics themselves tell a grim tale. Baghdad's morgue is receiving nearly twice as many dead Iraqis each day as it did last year. In June 2005, the Baghdad morgue was receiving 700 to 800 bodies a month, or an average of between 24 to 26 a day. In July of 2006, this number has shot up to an astounding 50.

This increase in the death toll is happening despite two events that were supposed to reduce the level of violence. First, almost 100,000 new U.S.-trained troops have been added since last year. Second, the U.S. military has an ongoing security "clampdown" in Baghdad designed to reign in the violence in the capital. Unfortunately, both the new troops and the "clampdown" have failed so blatantly, that even the US military was forced to admit that the level of violence in Baghdad has been hardly unaffected by its efforts.

Of course, the carnage is not limited to Bagdad alone. Nationwide, the situation is hardly any better. The United Nations mission in Baghdad recently reported that 2,669 civilians were killed across Iraq during May and 3,149 were killed in June. In total, 14,338 civilians were killed from January to June 2006.

Life across Iraq in the midst of growing sectarian violence is only becoming more dangerous for Iraqi civilians. Sunni insurgent attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces have been increasing at an alarming rate. Attacks on American and Iraqi troops in June 2006 grew 44 percent from 88 from 61 compared to June 2005. While the number of American troops killed by hostile fire has declined, life is just as dangerous for them as it has ever been in post-Saddam Iraq.

All of this violence and mayhem is tearing the country apart at an increasing rate. In Baghdad, the Tigris river has become a dividing line between the Sunni west and Shiite east. This divide is stranding many of the city's seven million on the "wrong"; side, making even their daily trips outside for shopping or to work into dangerous missions in enemy territory. To stay alive, many Iraqis have turned to fake IDs that can be used to fool sectarian militias out hunting for victims. For $35, those with easily identifiable sectarian names can get false documents that might mean the difference between life and death on an Iraqi street.

Other Iraqis have simply packed up and fled religiously mixed areas for what they hope will be safer ground among their co-religionists. The number of Iraqis who have registered for assistance as refugees within Iraq since the 22 February bombing of a Shiite shrine at Samarra stands at 162,000 people. Many of them live in 11 new tent camps. They include Abd Hammad al-Saeidi, who said that, "Gunmen told us to leave or they would kill us." The farmer from just south of Baghdad now lives with his family of 11 in a tent.

Obviously then, Iraq is rapidly becoming a nation of refugees. Sunnis and other minorities are leaving the south, while Shiites have been fleeing the areas around Baghdad and the north. For both the Sunni and Shia civilians caught in this cauldron of violence, the situation is tragic beyond description. However, as bad as things have been for Muslim Iraqis, for one vulnerable group of Iraqis, life inside "free" Iraq has been even more difficult. For the Assyrians, who are both Christian and the indigenous people of Iraq, the aftermath of Iraq's "liberation" has been downright catastrophic.

The Assyrian Christian population of Iraq has been brutalized by both ethnic and religious attacks since the US-led invasion in 2003. Glyn Ford, a UK Labor member of the European Parliament and member of the "Save the Assyrians" campaign, recently laid out a litany of woe that has befallen the Assyrians. Ford reports that torture, kidnapping, extortion, harassment, church bombings, forced religious conversion, political disenfranchisement and property destruction are just some of the deliberate human rights violations that are both ruining and taking the lives of Assyrians in Iraq.

The President of "Save the Assyrians", Andy Darmoo, told a news conference in New York: "Today, the situation is the worst we have ever lived in Iraq."

Christians accounted for somewhere between five and twelve percent of the pre-war Iraqi population of 26 million. Most Iraqi Christians are Assyrians whose native language is a form of Aramaic. Over half of the Assyrian Iraqi community resides in the north, primarily in the Nineveh Plains and its surrounding areas. This location puts them at the mercy of America's allies, the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), which has been anything but kind to the Assyrians.

Shamiran Mako, an analyst with the Council for Assyrian Research and Development (CARD), a Canadian-based think-tank, told the IPS that since the "liberation" of Iraq, oppression has become more prevalent in the North.

Recently, there have been systematic measures taken by the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) officials, under the Kurdish-controlled areas to marginalise and suppress Assyrians through the dictatorial policies of the KRG.

The remaining Assyrians living elsewhere in Iraq have faired little better, of course, as they have been frequently targeted by the insurgency, by religious extremists, and even by criminal gangs bent on earning ransom money. As Halfath Hamama, an Iraqi refugee who fled to Syria explained, "Our children, wives, and family members are kidnapped every day. They send us a note telling us to give them fifty thousand dollars or they will kill our family. They send us their fingers or toes, pictures of them beaten and bruised, and tell us we bring this on our head because we are Christians and collaborate with the Christian Americans."

Anecdotal evidence aside, one must turn to the hard numbers to get the true measure of the Christian catastrophe unleashed by the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Statistics from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in October 2005 show that around 700,000 Iraqis took refuge in Syria alone between October 2003 and March 2005. Of this number, fully 36 percent were Iraqi Christians, an astounding rate given their small percentage of the overall population of Iraq.

In total, over 250,000 Christian refugees are now stranded in Syria, Jordan and Turkey. This is not even counting those that are displaced within Iraq itself, many having fled north trying to find some measure of safety among other Assyrians. Despite the scale, however, of this human tragedy, the Assyrians have largely been left to their own devices.

While the Kurds, for example, have received millions of dollars in aid following the end of Saddam's regime, aid to the Assyrians has been almost non-existent. This has resulted in many refugees living in appalling conditions. It was even recently reported that some of the Assyrian refugees in northern Iraq had been reduced to sleeping on bare dirt in Christian cemeteries.

Since 2005, the Council for Assyrian Research and Development has sought to record the abuses endured by Assyrians through the Assyrian Human Rights Documentation Project. The first outcome paper produced by the group pulls no punches in its grim assessment. The paper warns, "At the current rates of ethnic cleansing, forced assimilation and migration, the indigenous Assyrian Christians will be fully eradicated from the new 'democratic Iraq' in less than 10 years... the Kurdification, Arabisation, and Islamification of Iraq have left an ancient people at the doors of extinction."

The Assyrians have been calling for assistance, and these pleas have largely fallen on deaf ears. What is most needed is an Assyrian Administrative Unit, a safe haven that would be administered and guarded by the Assyrians themselves. While international groups such as the European Parliament have issued declarations and resolutions of support, the actual power in Iraq, the United States, appears to have already relegated the Assyrians to the dustbin of history. Unless the American people themselves choose to demand a policy reversal, it is unlikely that the Bush Administration will become interested in the fate of Iraqi Christians on its own accord.

It is doubtful that George W. Bush will be remembered as the American President who brought Jeffersonian Democracy to the Middle East. But it appears that at least one historic achievement is well within his grasp. It is quite likely that "W" will succeed where the Arab Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, the Ottoman Empire, British colonialism, and decades of Ba'athist misrule all failed: When "W" finally saunters off the world stage... the Assyrian Christian community in Iraq will probably be gone as well.

And the world will be a much poorer place because of it.

[xzins]

I repeat, there was no reputable military mind who thought that Saddam could mount an offensive against the US using WMDs.

The issue was use of WMDs in some kind of terrorist plot.

Even Cheney's statement is in that context.

[P-Marlowe]

Suitcase nukes, therefore, are not a credible threat. (Source)

Ok how many of this sized nuclear bomb (1950's technology) can you fit in a shipping container?

This technology is in the hands of China, North Korea, Pakistan, India, France, Great Britan, Russia and most of its now independent former republics, Israel, and probably several others. It will soon be in the hands of Iran.

They do not need to launch a missle from Tehran to strike America. All they need to do is to drop one in the hands of some independent terrorist group and it will be on the next boat to New York Harbor. They will have plausible deniability and will point their fingers at Israel and Pakistan.

[xzins]

Suitcase nukes are simply small warheads.

Other nuke options exist including various dirty bomb and radiation poisoning schemes.

The major options would always have been chem/bio. Bio was the most formidable, and the reason all the troops were required (initially) to get the anthrax shot.

[MikeA]

Who said I approve of them doing it any more than anyone else?? Why do you assume to know what I approve of? Regardless, while I don't support any of the people you name, neither do I support someone being so disrespectful of Christ to put a silly picture of him with a text ballon over his head saying something they have NO RIGHT to claim he said.

[MikeA]

Or I should say, they have NO RIGHT to claim he would say that. I don't think that person was claiming he did say that. I thought it was blasphemous and a blatant case of someone misappropriating Christ to support their left wing ideas.

[P-Marlowe]

Your ridiculing him tells me a lot about you, Jude24.

Jude is still a student at college. I grew out of it. There is hope for him.

Although I will admit that I do not recall ridiculing high profile Christians when I was a long haired bleeding heart socialist anti war commie sympathizer. While I was a young stupid pinko, I did still have respect for my elders and I did not question the committment to Christ of others simply because they were on the other end of the political spectrum. All that mattered to me was that they proclaimed Christ and him crucified.

Eventually I came around. I came to the realization that liberalism was not the way to acheive inner peace or world peace while I was meditating in 3 hour gas lines.

Thank you Jimmy Carter.

[karnage]

Points well taken. I do know that the situation is serious. I know General Georges Sada personally, and other Iraqi Christians. I am concerned. But I also know their incredible resilience. Beyond prayer, what practical steps do you advise for us "rich, well-fed American Christians" to take in aid of our Iraqi brethren?

[Old_Mil]

The Assyrians and Chaldeans have survived quite a lot in the 2,000 years of their amazing Christian history. They will survive the current crisis. The above piece makes valuable points, but its doom-laden, handwringing tone is overwrought.

And yet the fact remains that the Assyrian Christians went from living in a secular dictatorship where they faired no worse than any other group to being the most highly persecuted religious group in Iraq under what will undoubted be another "Muslim Democracy" like the new Afghani regeime that wanted to behead a man for converting to Christianity.

[Old_Mil]

Hopefully, Jim Robinson will continue to tolerate my Old-Right, Ultra-Conservative, Reactionary Utopian perspective on his website. It's his Property; I'm just a Calvinist fly in the Modernist ointment.

You're not the only fly, friend.

[xzins]

Just War, OP.

We were attacked. We are responding. George Washington did some of that, too. In fact, it seems pretty clear that he led a war with somewhat less, obvious justification than our current war on terror. That's why the necessity of explaining it all in the Declaration of Independence.

Nothing else really needs to be said.

[P-Marlowe]

The Christians of Iraq are not engaging in "handwringing" -- they are being Raped and Murdered. By the Hundreds of Thousands.

OK OP, what is your solution? Cut and Run? Do you believe that the Christians in Iraq will be any safer if we pull our troops and leave the country to the insurgents? And will the Christians in this country be any safer if the we surrender to the islamic radicals there?

War is Evil. God hates War.

Did not God ordain this conflict? Did not God ordain George Bush to be the president? Is this not all part of God's plan?

God hates war? Do you have a bible verse to match that allegation? God ordered the Israelites to conquer the "promised land" It was promised to them, but they had to fight dozens of wars that were all ordered by God in order to claim it and reclaim it. Did not God order the Babylonians to come in and steal away the Jews to Babylon? Was that not part of God plan? Did not God order the occupation of Israel by the Romans? Could Christ have been crucified if Rome had not taken the promised land by force? Did not God order the destruction of Israel? Were the wars and plagues in the Bible ordered by a different God than the one you say "hates war"?

God does not "hate war". There has never been a war in which God's hand did not rule over the leaders on both sides. Do you disagree? Are you standing here today crying that this present conflict is not ordained of God? Are you standing here today crying that God is not in control?

And when you are done answering these questions, answer this one: What is YOUR solution? Anyone can complain, but coming up with a solution takes real thought. Right now you are in the company of those thoughtless peacenicks like Cindy Sheehan and Michael Moore and John Murtha whose solution would embolden the terrorists everywhere and leave Christians everywhere in peril.

So what is your solution?

[xzins]

Any people, who when attacked, are more worried about getting back to bread and circus, than in preserving their lives, deserve not the bread, the circus, nor the life.

Their conquerors do them a favor.

[Theo]

You're speaking from ignorance. Rough words, but true. Perhaps some day you'll realize that.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Maybe the poster only speaks for blonde Jesus.

LOL, I had that thought myself, the gay blond Jesus?

[karnage]

Not quite, according to General Sada.

[xzins]

God does not "hate war". There has never been a war in which God's hand did not rule over the leaders on both sides. Do you disagree? Are you standing here today crying that this present conflict is not ordained of God? Are you standing here today crying that God is not in control?

I'm continually confronted in this eschatology debate as to who really believes God has this all planned out.

Why is it so hard to believe that God has ordained this conflict in Israel? It's just like breathing to see it that way.

[George W. Bush]

There is no reputable military person I can think of who would have thought that Saddam had the capacity to launch a WMD offensive against the US.

And yet the civil defense advisories which strongly suggested the purchase of duct tape and plastic sheeting by the civilian population. Remember the run on them in the hardware stores? Recall those videos of panicked people? How about that guy outside New York who wrapped his entire house in plastic sheeting and duct tape?

Do you recall the unwarranted talk about Saddam's killer ocean-crossing model airplanes, loaded with WMD potentially?

It was a panic. Perhaps a deliberate one. Our government and Britain's have softened up civilian resistance to war by such means prior to previous wars.

[xzins]

Model airplanes are a delivery system, but they are not an offensive. We must be using terms diffently.

[George W. Bush]

Model airplanes are a delivery system, but they are not an offensive. We must be using terms diffently.

I'm referring to small unmanned aircraft built on the lines of R/C models. Typically, they are a long-range powered glider design and are computer-controlled and GPS-guided. These type of craft have been built for under $10,000 and have been launched and crossed the Atlantic and landed at their destination in Europe for at least the last five years. It's not rocket science, merely applying known principles to readily available off-the-shelf technology.

I'm sure you recall the panic over reports that Saddam was testing these and had models that were flying over five hundred miles at his testing grounds.

We had threads on the topic here at FR. And it was on national news repeatedly during the U.N. flap and the run-up to invasion. That was how Saddam was going to get us with his WMD and tied directly into why we should have the plastic sheeting and duct tape for civil defense.

Very reminiscent of the panics over Japan's war balloons in WW II. Fortunately, Japan never launched any war balloons equipped with bioweapons but they certainly had the edge over Russian, America, Germany and Britain in bioweapons. They just never tried to use them. I'm sure you're familiar with their infamous project and the thousands they killed testing their weapons on live subjects.

[xzins]

I'm talking about conducting an offensive campaign against the US.

After one such strike, there would be no ability to sustain operations. In fact, there were no such strikes, and Hussein was easily rendered incapable of sustaining military operations. Our ability to project power and mount an offensive campaign is not an ability that we alone have. Great Britain, China, Russia, France, and others could do it.

There was never any suggestion that Saddam could bring a WMD war to us. Nor is there any likelihood that Iran or N. Korea can do it. N Korea would be able to mount a campaign against any of their neighbors.