Posted by pancho from host-148-244-221-47.block.alestra.net.mx (148.244.221.47) on Monday, October 07, 2002 at 12:58PM :
Open Letter From Assyrians To Christians and Muslims
Whatever religion we may be... Assyrians, Chaldeans and others of our ancestry are an ethnic group and as such can have faith in any number of religions. We do not recognize the authority of any one religious order deciding what it takes to be a member of our ethnic group. You people can set whatever rules you want for belonging to your particular religous faiths...but you have no say when it comes to determining who is and who is not an Assyrian...as you can't decide what makes an Italian or a Lebanese...just because you are Christian or Muslim.
Therefore there can be no "punishment" meted out by you, or ordained by your religions for anyone you think is a "bad" Assyrian. None of your damn business, as it isn't the business of any Assyrian how many fingers you want to cross yourselves with, or the number of wives you want...or if an Assyrian belives in Ashur or beieves in no one. If we can turn from our own ancestral gods to others...then we can go right on turning and turning until it makes us dizzy and ditzy too.
Any Christian or Muslim or Buddhist going against the basic requirements for inclusion in his or her faith would be considered a poor speciman...and if he or she should call down thunder and destruction on the faith, especially by enlisting the help of any other group or faith to attack and harm his or her own people and nation...would not be thought of as a good example of a "believer", but would be reviled and deservedly so.
Likewise with being an Assyrian or Chaldean or any of similar ancestry. Any Assyrian or Chaldean or other who would encourage anyone to attack his ethnic group, their homelands and treasures, anyone who would help someone else steal the resources of the people of that homeland...and anyone who would take sides with any foreign nation which plans to attack or harm our ethnic ancestry in any way...no matter how much that person TALKED and CRIED...would not be considered a fit example of an Assyrian or Chaldean or other...no matter what religion he or she professess.
If an Assyrian or Chaldean is unhappy with the government of his or her homeland, he or she should do what civilized people do the world over...work for change within the structure of his or her nation. But under no circumstance can he or she use a particulr religion and whatever limitations might be imposed it upon it, as an excuse to work for the destruction of the laws or the land or the lives of the people of that country...and to do so by calling in outside help qualifies one as a traitor the world over. Ask John Walker Lindh.
If you happen to not like the way your religion is treated in any country, it does not give you the right to break the laws of that country. If you don't like the way your ancestry is treated, or at least that part you insist is yours and only yours, it still does not give you the right, legal or moral, to break the law of the land, or call in outside forces to attack your country. Black people and Mexicans, and before them the Italians and Irish found themselves badly and even illegally treated in America. That still gave them no right to break the laws in America. Same holds true for Iraq. It doesn't matter what motivates a law breaker, or a traitor...each will face the full force of the law of that country...happens everywhere and always has.
The people of Iraq are as indigenous to that region as any people can be. It is absurd to claim that since one of the religions imported into that region had its origin in Arabia, therefore all believers in that relion MUST be foreign to Iraq and must be Arabs. As ridiculous as to state that since another import to that region, Christianity, originated in Israel, therefore all Christians in Iraq are Israeli. Christianity and Islam were brought to a region made up of ethnic Assyrians, Chaldeans and others who DID have their own distinct and indigenous religions. They are BOTH foreign imports, they both brought foreigners with them...some from Arabia and some from Israel. That did not change the ethnic identity of those who converted to one or the other. We were Assyrians before either of them came, and we remain Assyrian after...and in spite of them.
It is a peculiar fiction of those Assyrians who turned Christian that they are the only true or real Assyrians.
Therefore Assyrians and Chaldeans ARE Iraqis...as to be Iraqi is neither a religion NOR an ethnic identity, but merely a political, national designation. One can be of British or Armenian or Italian extraction and be an Iraqi. This does not make one an Assyrian automatically, just a member of a nation state. Just as Assyrians don't stop being Assyrian when they become Christian or Muslim... neither do they stop being Assyrian when they become naturalized Americans or Dutch or French.
Assyrians have been in Iraq since the very beginning of time. The fact that many changed religions doesn't change their ethnic origin...as you Assyrian Christians would be the first to insist. Any person born in Iraq, and any person born an Assyrian anywhere else, can and should have some care for our ancestral homelands. And just as you can't show your love and care for America or the Vatican by encuraging and helping to pay others in attacking either one, even if you think it would be of "benefit", neither can you call on other nations to attack Iraq...poison it's air and water and starve its children... all while piously maintaining that you are the only true and loving Assyrians, who do these things from love or a desire to "improve" the lives of the people there.
Therefore, we Assyrians call on everyone who feels a strong tie to that region and its history...ALL of its history... Assyrian, Chaldean, Christian and Muslim...to denounce those outsiders who would attack that region to steal its resources...those who have corrupted the governments there, those who have encouraged dictatorial regimes because they best facilitated their rape and robberies...and who care nothing for the harm this is doing to the people of Iraq and our Heritage, treasures and antiquities. And especially to denounce those of our own people who side with, or encourage these crimes against the humanity of all of our Assyrian and Chaldean people...no matter WHAT religion they follow.
To all of these name changers, the "Ross's" and Boohoos, the Whacki Rabis, and Yonadam Donuts...to all and any organizations in their basements with the one dog...we say to you all...you are NOT working for the welfare and benefit of the Assyrian and Chaldean people of Iraq, but more likely for your minority Christian religion within that country, in the fond and foolish belief that ONLY Christians can be Assyrians, for in doing so you are causing great harm to ALL Assyrians. You are using "love of Assyria"..."love of democracy", something you barely can spell, even "love of Christianity", as excuses by which means you hope to weasle some notariety or "power" for yourselves. That you would even attempt to do so by causing the deaths of thousands of innocent people just about fixes you in our minds at the level you deserve. We have been plauged by your kind for generations...and it is you people, far more than any Muslims, that have caused us the greatest harm in the modern era.
You are not working for Assyrians, or for their modern nation of Iraq...but for the chance to be noticed by others as the leaders of the Assyrian people...for which you have invented this "indigenous" Diapers nonsense...as a ruse to win a Christian enclave for yourselves or failing that, to cause as much harm as you can to Muslims...especially Assyrian Muslims because you consider them to be traitors to your Christian beliefs. You have merely invented the best excuses and fabrications you could to win some advantage for yourselves. Only those people working to maintain the modern country of Iraq...the nation state that houses the Assyrians and Chaldeans of that region...are friendly to the people of that region.
We accept bad and traitorous Assyrians too...just as we embrace the good and loyal ones. Just quit kidding yourselves...cause you don't fool us.
-- pancho
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