Posted on 06/09/2004 7:42:31 AM PDT by A. Pole
The long-predicted exodus of Christians from Iraq has begun.
Facing a June 30 deadline for transfer of power, a temporary constitution that reads, in Article 7, that Islam is the "Official Religion of the State," and the most recent humiliation for the community -- the failure to receive even one position on the Executive Council and only one ministry post, the Ministry of Emigration -- the Christians of Iraq are voting with their feet.
"On a recent night the church had to spend more time on filling out baptismal forms needed for leaving the country than they did on the [worship] service," says Amir, a deacon at a local church who does not want his full name published. "We have been flooded with parishioners desperate to leave the country, and as they cannot get an exit permit without a baptismal certificate from the church we have been swamped with requests. ... In recent days nearly 400 families as far as we can tell have filled out baptismal forms to leave the country. Our community is being decimated."
Most of the Christians in Iraq are Assyrians -- people who claim to be the original inhabitants of Iraq. The Assyrians were the people of Nineveh -- present-day Mosul -- the city to which God sent the biblical Jonah.
Because they are Christians and seen as allies of the West, the Assyrians have long been subject to persecution. The Assyrian Church, known officially as the Assyrian Church of the East, is the oldest continually existing church in the world. Assyrians are the only people in the world who still speak Aramaic, the language spoken by Christ.
During the Assyrian genocide, in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, it is estimated that nearly two-thirds of the Assyrian people were slaughtered.
According to figures from the previous regime, there were 2.5 million Assyrian Christians in the country with an estimated 3.5 million outside the country for a worldwide total of as many as 6 million, many of whom would return to Iraq if they had a future.
"We thought the Americans were going to bring us freedom and democracy," said 31-year-old Robert. "Instead, they are promoting Islam. We do not understand it. ... We love the Americans! We are so grateful for them removing Saddam and giving us back our freedom. We do not want their effort to be a failure if the dictatorship of Saddam is replaced by the dictatorship of Islam."
Robert continued: "The American-funded TV station, Al Iraqia, broadcasts Muslim programs four times every day and for two hours each Friday but nothing for the other religions. The recent inauguration of the new government was opened by a Muslim mullah reciting a long passage and a prayer from the Koran, but none of our priests were invited. Why do they do this? Why do the Americans promote Muslims? They need to promote equality and democracy and freedom, not Muslim dictatorship."
He lamented: "What happened to the American promise to help [Iraq] become a democracy that would be a place for all to live? This is our homeland! We are the original people of Iraq! We should not have to leave."
The community is working on two projects -- one to establish a 24-hour nationwide hotline to provide security for daily acts of intimidation that is much of the cause for the panic among the Iraqi Christians. The other is a nationwide network of "safe houses" to take care of the community, when -- as they believe -- following the handover of sovereignty to Iraq, the country will descend into chaos and civil war.
"We are having to take care of daily cases of harassment of Assyrians by Muslims," says one priest. "I just got back form helping one of our parishioners who was falsely accused by a neighbor and was about to be arrested. I had to go and sort it all out. ... Our women are accosted on the street and intimidated to start dressing according to Islamic tradition, our businesses are being burned, and the constant harassment is because of the attitude of appeasement toward Muslims."
In addition, a proposal for an Assyrian Regional Government based on Article 54 of the Transitional Administrative Law is being circulated in Iraq and in Washington in a last-ditch effort to persuade the community to stay.
"We want to stay. This is our homeland," the priest said. "But if we do not have a place where we can go, if we will be persecuted daily by Muslims again we cannot stay. We are appealing to the world to help us -- to guarantee us an area where we can be protected, where we can live in peace and where we can worship in freedom."
Ken Joseph Jr. is an Assyrian and directs Assyrianchristians.com. He is writing a book on his experience in Iraq entitled I Was Wrong. United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of UPI, a sister news organization of Insight.
Because the state of Israel is the only Jewish nation and was created because Jews were decimated in Europe. In 1939 there were 3 million Polish Jews. Today there are 30,000. Jews have to live somewhere. Meanwhile there are plenty of Christian nations and Muslim nations so take your pick. Poland is a very Christian nation compared to France and Germany.
Many of the recent Russian immigrants to Israel are Christian and semi Christian. Israel does not expel them but is concerned about a further influx.
The Iraqis do not want an Islamist state.
That would be like Jews in post-Hitler Germany supporting the Nazis (though their support for the DNC is almost as mysterious).
Sistani and co. have authority the same way Kofi and Jesse Jackson and Clinton still have authority - and have not been held accountable for their corrupt acts, protected by political accomplices in the mainstream press who want Pres. Bush out of office in Nov.
Ken Joseph was a peacenik who discovered only after we went to war that Saddam and heirs and associates were sadistic monsters.
I hope he remembers that our brave troops and this administration ARE allies, and are NOT on the side of those with the mighty pens who incite hatred in the public square with little effort, a few dirty $$$ and plenty of willing press standing by.
The Iraqis do NOT want an Islamist state.
They are surrounded by vultures telling lies, and the rest of us too ready to buy the tales.
It is not easy to stand against those peddling lies 24/7, even as they pick the pockets of our dead Soldiers and attempt to rebury the mass-graves.
This enemy seeks to divide - and point fingers at our allies, and we continue to fall - and attack our own, and ignore the far greater threat from a real enemy who is NOT stronger than we are and who will NOT win this fight - unless we continue to listen to enemy lies, and attack each other, instead of standing united in faith, and against the enemy.
Keep repeating it. And I am sure that Iraqis on the street when asked will confirm it. (They passed through a good school of telling what you want to hear.)
So you agree with me.
From the ARTICLE: "According to figures from the previous regime, there were 2.5 MILLION Assyrian Christians in the country."
The one good thing about Saddam was the secular rule of Iraq. (I imagine if he allowed it to get too religious he thought the mullahs might take over?) Mainstream protesant churches are also in Iraq.
It is Christians that continue to hold countries together, so too speak. This is the real reason America is America. As hard as the liberal unbelievers continue to try to kill Christianity, they can not. And will never be able too.
So I suppose that you know how to preserve liberty without democracy? What are you smoking? What would you have us do, impose liberty on them? ha ha!
Giving them democracy without constitutionally safeguarding their liberties, including religious liberties and religious pluralism, just enables them to vote into office those who will impose sharia. Liberty is NOT a natural outgrowth of democracy--tyranny of the majority is. But, democracy is a natural result of liberty. We've been focusing on the exporting the wrong (or at least incomplete) ideas.
OK, I misread that to mean that pre-Saddam there were that many.
6 out of the 11 top advisors to President Bashir Assad of Syria are Christians. The Neocons would like to reverse that. They would love for Assad to be killed, and a Moslem fanatic cleric to rule, where churches will be burned, and the Christians will run for their lives or killed. We did that in Kosovo with the help of the godless Neocons. Now after we screwed up the Iraqi Christians, and women, the neocons are salivating to destroy Syria and Lebanon. With friends like that, who needs enemies?
This is exactly what they'll get.
Exactly, and those who have knowledge about bible prophesy knows that Iraq will be among the nations that will try to invade Israel before they are completely wiped off the map, well, almost. Again, your hard-earned tax dollars at work.
You are not a very careful reader. It was someone else who suggested that Israel would be happy to take in Christian refugees. I said that it is not true. And you AGREE with me!
So far Syria is the Middle Eastern country most preferable for the Christians.
But not all kings are good, not even all Christian Kings.
Consider the pogroms of the Jews in Eastern Europe and Russia under the royals of that time.
You must be a genius! I wish the top dogs in Washington were as smart! I have been saying the same even before 9/11! I realized that for us to infiltrate the Moslem Arab losers, we must use people who look like them, and speak the language, and able to get around within the Arab slums. The CIA insists on blond dudes who had a three days seminar on Arab culture. Wake up America! No one would have better understanding of the Moslem hate then the Christian Arabs. Who is chasing the Nazi criminals? A Jew, who escaped the concentration camp! You would not trust an Arab, or an Italian to have the burning desire to catch all the Nazis?
So let me get this straight, Christians had a better deal in Iraq under Saddam than they will ow have under an American sanctioned government?
Thanks for the interesting info.
That is not an answer. That is giving in to the Islamic fanatics.
Even though our own Constitution prevents the establishment of a state religion, it could be amended to allow such with a sufficient super-majority.
That is another illustration of your partiality. The US is a SUPER MAJORITY Christians, if you demanded that there will be a constitution change that says the religion of the USA is Christian! You will never see the end of it!
As a matter of fact, a few years back there was a famine in Ethiopia, where the population was mostly Christians, and minority Jews; the US air force lifted ONLY the Ethiopian Jews to rescue them to Israel. So much for separation of church and state! I guess the US policies are basically against the Christian religion!
There are millions of them idiot!
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