Amid violence, Iraqi archbishop ‘more pessimistic than ever’ about Christians’ future

Archbishop Louis Sako

Kirkuk, Iraq, Aug 27, 2009 / 08:24 pm (CNA).- Louis Sako, Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk, has said that Iraqi Christians are facing “bad days” as “ineffective” security cannot prevent criminality and violence targeting Christian minorities. Many of the Christians who remain are in such fear that they too want to leave Iraq, he said.

The future of Christianity in Iraq, even in the short term, now “hangs in the balance,” Archbishop Sako said in a phone interview with the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
Christians lack the protection of militia and have become “easy targets” for criminals, he reported.

Violence and the lack of jobs and services have encouraged many Christians to leave. There are now only 300 Christian families in southern Iraq and less than 400,000 Christians in Iraq as a whole. Within the past decade, their numbers have declined by 750,000.

In the northern city of Mosul, a former Christian heartland, many Christian families are “too afraid to come back.”
At one point in the interview, Archbishop Sako warned of rising extremism.

“Iraq is going to a narrow form of Islam,” he commented.
“I feel more pessimistic now than ever before. We do not have the same hope that we had before,” he told ACN. “In fact I am not seeing any signs of hope for the future. Our whole future hangs in the balance.
“We are experiencing bad days. Every group involved in criminal activity seems to be active.”

Archbishop Sako called Iraq’s security system “ineffective” and “unprofessional.”
“The government and the police are doing their best but they are incapable of controlling the situation,” he reported, saying that Christians are generally being attacked not because they are Christian but because they are seen to be defenseless.

Even one crime, abduction or killing makes the whole community want to move, he reported.
The archbishop spoke from Kirkuk, ten days after a Christian father of three was shot dead and a doctor was abducted on his way home in the city.

The turmoil is not localized to one part of Iraq.
“Every day, there are explosions – in Baghdad, Mosul, so many different places,” he added.
In July, militants attacked seven churches in Baghdad, killing and injuring dozens. Last week nearly 100 were killed in a series of attacks.
“Living in this climate, the Christian people are afraid. They are really worried. Despite what we tell them, encouraging them to stay, they want to leave,” Archbishop Sako said.

He reported that the people have lost patience with the country’s politicians. The prelate also called on Western countries to pressure Iraqi political groups to reconcile and try to reduce conflict and restore law and order.

“There can be no proper security without a real reconciliation. The only people who seem to be benefiting from the situation at the moment are the criminals. This has got to change,” he explained.

Archbishop Sako noted the crucial importance of interfaith work for coexistence between Christians and Muslims. While the archbishop is involved in initiatives in Kirkuk, such as hosting a Ramadan dinner this weekend, they are generally not replicated elsewhere in the country.

The work is small scale and involves individuals rather than the large groups crucial for attitude changes.

Church leaders and Christian politicians are also not doing enough to cooperate to confront common problems, Archbishop Sako told ACN.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=16963

EDWARD LEIGH, BRITISH MP VISITS CHRISTIANS IN IRAQ

British MP visits Christians in Iraq
October 4th, 2008

By: A staff reporter.

Edward Leigh, a British Catholic MP, recently visited Christians in northern Iraq in mid-September, as part of a fact-finding mission jointly organised by the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM) and the Jubilee Campaign.

Edward Leigh, a British Catholic MP, recently visited Christians in northern Iraq in mid-September, as part of a fact-finding mission jointly organised by the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM) and the Jubilee Campaign.

The delegation also consisted of Emmanuel Yacoub, a representative of the ADM’s UK branch and Wilfred Wong, Researcher and Parliamentary Officer for the Jubilee Campaign. The visit’s objective was to examine firsthand the situation of Iraq’s Christians.

The delegation found a decimated Christian community under pressure and attack from many different sides. Over 700 Christians have been killed in Iraq since the 2003 US-led military intervention. They said that Iraq’s Christians have lost about half of their community since then. Thousands have fled anti-Christian violence, ending up as impoverished refugees in neighbouring countries such as Syria and Jordan.

Today there are only about 600,000 Christians left in Iraq. Over 95 per cent of Iraq’s Christians are AssyrianChaldeans, the descendants of the Assyrians of Old Testament times. They are Iraq’s indigenous people, with a continuous presence in that land for over 6,000 years.

The delegation found that Iraqi Christians face a wide range of threats. They have to deal with attacks from Islamic extremists, who want to drive them out of Iraq, kill them or force them to convert to Islam, attacks by insurgents who mistakenly view the Christians as close allies of the “Christian” West, abduction by kidnappers who think that the generally well educated Christians are more wealthy than other Iraqis and having large areas of their land and many of their houses misappropriated by neighbouring Kurds in northern Iraq in what appears to be a systematic attempt by the Kurds to take over Christian-owned land and drive them out of the Kurdish region of Iraq. At least 58 Christian villages have been partially or wholly misappropriated by the Kurds.

Edward Leigh MP, Emmanuel Yacoub and Wilfred Wong visited numerous Christian villages during their stay in northern Iraq and were told by many of the Christians how their land and houses and sometimes even their sources of water had been misappropriated by the Kurds. In every single case the Kurdish authorities failed to ensure that the misappropriated property was returned to the Christians. In some cases it has even been the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the ruling political party in the region, who have misappropriated Christian land.
For example the KDP office at the Christian village of Kany Masy was built on Christian-owned land without the owner’s permission.

The delegation found that in the area of northern Iraq under Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) control an environment of impunity prevails, where Christian-owned property is often viewed by many of the Kurds as simply there to be taken.

The delegation was informed that the KDP is even encouraging Kurds from abroad to come and settle in the region as part of their systematic attempt to Kurdify the entire area and push out the AssyrianChaldean Christians.

Edward Leigh MP said: “Iraq’s leading Christian political party, the ADM, have long called for a self-governing province to be established for the AssyrianChaldeans, linked to the central government in Baghdad, situated in and around the Nineveh Plains, including the Talkepeh, Hamdaniya and Bashika Districts, and governed by the AssyrianChaldeans and other ethnic groups living in that area, as these lands form part of the ancestral homeland of the AssyrianChaldeans and are still heavily populated by them.

The ADM have consistently received the highest number of votes from Iraqi Christians at elections, indicating that their call for a province is strongly supported by the majority of Iraq’s Christians. This province would provide better security for the Christians and encourage many of the thousands of Iraqi Christian refugees in neighbouring countries to return and live there.
The delegation added that if the AssyrianChaldeans do not get their province then the KDP will probably eventually annex the Nineveh Plains to Kurdistan and much of the property of the AssyrianChaldeans living there will be misappropriated by many of the Kurds as currently happens elsewhere in northern Iraq.

“The Kurds are already trying to establish a foothold in that region. I saw numerous Kurdish military checkpoints set up in the Nineveh Plains by the KDP although they have no authority to do this and less than one percent of the population there is Kurdish,” said Mr Leigh.

http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=2949