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well worth the read...
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from a Christian Forum....

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Published by LewRockwell.com, September 15, 2003
Christians in Iraq

by Glen Chancy

Many public services such as water and electricity may be spotty in
Iraq, but at least mail delivery seems to be going well enough.
Christian Assyrian families all over Iraq have been receiving versions
of the following letter delivered to them in their homes:

By the name of God the most merciful and compassionate!
"Do not adorn yourselves as illiterate women before Islam."
From the leadership of Islamic troops of "Al-Bader"

To this noble family:

We hope that the head of this family will stand with the "brothers of
Muslims" group and follow basic Muslim rules of wearing the veil and
possessing honorable teaching of Islam that Moslems have continued from
old epoch. We are the Iraqi people, the Muslim people that do not accept
any mistakes.

If not – and the message will not be followed, we will take the actions of:

1. Killing.
2. Kidnapping.
3. Burning the house with its occupants or exploding it.

For the Christian community of Iraq, one of the oldest on Earth, the
message is crystal clear. Convert to Islam, or at least comport yourself
to Islamic law – including the veil for your women. Or else you will
regret it.

The threats contained in this letter are, unfortunately, all too real.
Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, Assyrians have been the targets of
numerous fatal attacks. In Shiite-dominated Southern Iraq, there have
been many accounts of Assyrian businessmen being shot dead on the street
for such crimes as running liquor stores or selling other goods
prohibited by Islamic law.

Under the regime of Saddam Hussein, Christians had been allowed to
peacefully conduct such business without fear. Under U.S. and British
liberation, many Christians are closing their shops or switching to
other merchandise. Church officials have also been attacked. His Grace,
Bishop Mar Adai of the Assyrian Church of the East was attacked on the
streets of Baghdad. His assailants wanted to steal his gold cross from
around his neck.

In the Kurdish enclave of Northern Iraq, America’s Kurdish allies have
also been paying attention to the Christians in their midst. It has been
reported by Assyrians in various villages scattered throughout Northern
Iraq that they have been illegally forced out of their own homes and off
their land. They report being constantly pressured to convert to Islam
in exchange for guarantees of their safety from the Kurds.

Perhaps the worst of all have been the kidnappings. On August 6th the LA
Times reported of these crimes, "The kidnappings have a dark, ruthless
quality, often targeting children and teenagers, usually from Iraq's
tiny Christian community where no tribal networks exist to fight back
against the gangs."

Who Are the Iraqi Christians?

Most Christians in Iraq are ethnically Assyrian. The Assyrians are the
original inhabitants of the land now referred to as Iraq. The Gospel was
preached to the Assyrians by the Apostle Thomas himself, shortly after
the Resurrection of Christ. The majority of the Assyrian population had
converted to Christianity by the second century, giving the Assyrians a
legitimate claim to being the first Christian nation in history.

Fired by their new faith, the Assyrians began one of the most successful
missionary enterprises of all time. By the end of the twelfth century
the Assyrian Church spanned the Asian continent, from Syria to the
Philippines. Marco Polo reported that during his visit to China in the
thirteenth century, he was astonished to find Assyrian priests in the
Chinese royal court, and tens of thousands of Chinese Christians. The
Assyrian missionaries had been there since the sixth century, and had
made such an impact that the first Mongolian system of writing used the
Assyrian alphabet.

Over the next centuries, however, Muslim rule and its attendant
repression eventually reduced the Assyrians in number and sapped the
vigor of their culture. By the mid-1800s wholesale slaughter of
Assyrians was being reported at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, under
whose control their homeland had fallen. Between 1914 and 1918,
two-thirds of all living Assyrians were murdered in a genocide the world
has chosen to ignore.

Today, on its ancestral soil, all that is left of the world’s oldest
Christian nation is a desperate minority of less than one million
people. It didn’t have to be this way. As one Assyrian anonymously
wrote, "Today’s Assyrians are the descendents of courageous Christians
who resisted many attempts of Arabization and surrender to the Islam.
They repeatedly paid with their lives and all their possessions to
preserve their beliefs in Jesus Christ. What is so sad, is that I
honestly believe that if my ancient ancestors had chosen to adopt Islam
instead of Christianity, today, Iraq would be an Assyrian country, not
an Arab one. Just like Turkey or Iran, we would be a Muslim country with
our own language and identity, instead of a persecuted minority whom the
world has forgotten. For Christ, we have sacrificed all."

A Difference of Opinion

There are Assyrians, both in and outside Iraq, who believe the current
U.S. occupation could be the answer to their prayers. They hope that
U.S. forces will convert Iraq into a modern state, with a secular
constitution and an autonomous region in which the Assyrians can live in
peace. To this end, some Assyrians have supported U.S. troops in various
ways, even risking their lives as guides and interpreters in the field.
A few have been killed in action serving alongside U.S. troops.

There are other Assyrians who are not convinced that the occupation will
make life better. They remember that when the British ruled Iraq, in the
middle of the 20th Century, their situation actually got worse. Saddam
Hussein was a brutal tyrant. He led his people into senseless wars that
got hundreds of thousands of them killed. But, as these Assyrians point
out, Saddam and his regime did have at least one redeeming
characteristic – the genie of Islamic militancy was ruthlessly bottled
up. Now that the U.S. and Britain have seized control of Iraq, the cork
has been popped.

Islamic militancy is growing, and appears to be gaining steam. To make
matters worse, civil wars appear to be brewing within, as well as
between, the major ethnic factions such as the Sunni, Shiite, and Kurds.

So far the skeptical Assyrians seem to be the most prescient. U.S.
forces in Iraq are spread thin, and taking casualties everyday. They are
unable to prevent themselves from being assaulted, even when traveling
in armed convoys. U.S. forces also appear unable to guarantee the
security of Iraqi civilians. Many Assyrians view the rising tide of
****-Christian violence as evidence of U.S. impotence to protect them.

But even if the U.S. forces could protect the Assyrians from their
Muslim neighbors, there is no guarantee that they would even want to.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that U.S. policy makers in Iraq
consider the Christians to be a "most inconvenient minority." Evidencing
too much concern for Iraqi Christians, it is feared, would reinforce the
idea that the U.S. is fighting a "war on Islam," thereby strengthening
the resistance to U.S. forces. It is obvious to observers on the ground
that Washington would prefer if the whole messy problem of Iraqi
Christians would just go away.

Occupied Iraq is an unstable and dangerous place. Only now that the true
bill seems to be coming due, are members of Congress and concerned
citizens asking questions they should have posed months ago. In the
cauldron of violence that is Iraq, the U.S. stands ready to lose men,
money, and equipment seemingly indefinitely. They are losses that will
be grievous, but as a nation, the U.S. will survive.

The Assyrians, in contrast, stand to lose everything, and no one seems
particularly concerned.

Conservatives Don’t Care About Foreign Christians

No one expects liberals to care much for the fate of Christian
communities in the Third World. On the other hand, almost anyone would
expect conservatives to care about the persecution and suffering endured
by Christians throughout the world. After all, aren’t conservatives
pro-life, pro-Bible, and pro-prayer? Isn’t the Republican Party the
party of the God-fearing? Given the rhetoric of many Republican
politicians and pundits, one would definitely expect a great deal of
concern.

Sadly, this just isn’t the case. Prior to the invasion of Iraq, no
conservative politicians or pundits of note expressed concern over what
an invasion would mean for the Christian community there. Now that the
U.S. has occupied Iraq, and is failing miserably in its obligation to
protect the Christian minority, the topic goes unmentioned.

Why Don’t Conservatives Care About Christians?

The answer to this question is surprisingly simple. Conservative
politicians and pundits care little for the welfare of Christians
outside the United States for one primary reason.

The Evangelical Christian base of the Republican Party doesn’t care.
There have been no demonstrations protesting the inability/unwillingness
of U.S. forces to protect Iraqi Christians. Their cause has not been
championed by any of the televangelists. Christian persecution in
post-Saddam Iraq has not been a centerpiece article in any of the
Evangelical magazines. At the same time, there have been large protests
against the Bush Administration’s ‘Roadmap for Peace,’ a plan many
Evangelicals opposed as being too tough on the Israelis. The message is
clear to Christians outside the U.S. – Israel matters and you don’t.

Worse still, even when Evangelicals do pay attention to Christians
outside American borders, it is often tinged with hostility. Ask the
Serbs or the Israeli Christians about that. Of course, the Evangelicals
do not consider Catholic or Orthodox Christians to be Christians.
Somehow, though, one has to doubt that Jesus feels that way, especially
when so many of those suffering persecution for His name are from those
communions. If strength in the faith under adverse conditions is the
measure of a Christian, then surely many Catholic and Orthodox believers
are among the greatest living. Would that the Evangelicals only
recognized that fact, while there is still time to prevent any more
suffering.

Glen Chancy [send him mail] is a graduate of the University of Florida
with a degree in Political Science, and a certificate in Eastern
European Studies. A former University lecturer in Poland, he currently
holds an MBA in Finance and works in Orlando, Florida as a business
analyst for an international software developer.



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