The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> History X

History X

Posted by pancho (Guest) - Saturday, March 22 2008, 20:42:59 (CET) from 12.199.144.42 - mail.shpl.org Non-Profit Organizations - Linux - Mozilla Website: Website title:

We have a rare opportunity to witness, first-hand, a replay of all incidents which have plagued the Assyrian community in the modern era, especially the ways in which facts have been and are manufactured or distorted to sell an agenda. This is our story line: 1.We are direct descendants of the ancient Assyrians but not the Sumerians, Amorites, Hurrians or Babylonians. 2.While some undoubtedly converted to Islam it is only those who converted to Christianity who are the real modern-day Assyrians. Muslim-Assyrians became Arabs and forfeited all claims to Assyrianism. 3.As such, we have been murdered for our religion, forcibly converted to Islam, suffered persecution and countless massacres for no good reason other than our Christian faith and Assyrian ancestry. 4.We have been promised a homeland of our own but to date no one has delivered on the promise…we are entitled to it because we are the indigenous people of Mesopotamia and our survival depends on gathering together in what amounts to a Christian enclave. 1.There is no evidence that we are direct, lineal descendants of the ancient Assyrians. We speak Aramaic and not Assyrian….we worship a Jewish rabbi and not the Assyrian god Ashur. For well over 1000 years we knew nothing of the ancient Assyrians except what the Jews preserved in the bible which became our only memory of Assyria. The rest we learned at the feet of European archaeologists in the 19th century and whenever else they discovered something, confirming the fact that this glorious past we now claim had lost all importance to us. Inexplicably the ancient Hebrews, who had not one-tenth the civilization of the contemporary Assyrians, forgot nothing but rather enveloped us in their history, religion and culture. 2.If a Muslim anywhere in the world becomes an Arab by the simple fact of a religion which was born in Arabia and a language from that same country, then a Christian anywhere in the world is an Israeli, since his religion originated there, and likewise his Aramaic language belonged to the Hebrews as well and is the language of his scripture and ritual, just as Arabic is for the Muslim. And yet we know better than to call the Filipino or the Mongolian an “Arab” simply because his religion is Islam. Iraqis are not ethnic Arabs. Their religion and dominant culture originated in Arabia but they have their own national characteristics. They are Iraqi Muslims with an Assyrian heritage, regardless of what religion they converted to. Muslim Iraqis have a glorious history at the center of the great Islamic Empire, which Christians have steadfastly refused to honor or be a part of. Christian Iraqis feed on the distant past, ignoring 1300 years of Islamic culture. Muslim Iraqis honor their distant past as a prelude to a modern identity they have equal reason to cherish. 3.There is no evidence that Christians have been massacred or murdered simply for their religion or for refusing to convert to Islam. Indeed the historical record is clear and attested to by Christian historians that it was Christianity and not Islam which murdered people for their religion(as recently as 1939-45) and forcibly converted them to Christ on pain of death. Christians living under Muslim rule have indeed been executed in large numbers at times but for rebellion and not merely because they worshipped Jesus. Muslim tolerance is well attested to in the ancient world and Christians have been living at peace in Muslim lands up to the present day. The disruption and losses suffered by the Christians of the MidEast since the First World War and up to today came about because of Western Christian missionary zeal which caused suspicion and resentment among their neighbors as well as Muslim rulers. The Christian minorities were wooed and seduced with promises of protection and resources and unwittingly became a pretext for further outside interference supposedly on their behalf. Yet they were abandoned to the justifiable resentment of the overwhelming majority surrounding them when the Europeans left, after getting what they wanted. This pattern is repeating itself today and we will once again suffer retaliation for it as soon as the Europeans have had enough. Such resentment on the part of our fellow countrymen is to be expected and in no way reflects any inherent or built-in resentment of us as Christians….but rather what we DO as Christians who believe the promises of outsiders. This is normal and to be expected and would play out in any country on earth. Treachery and gullibility are our crimes, not Christianity and certainly not an Assyrian heritage, which is respected and honored by all Iraqis. 4.Finally; there is no way on earth and no precedent to suppose or “hope” that Iraq is going to give us a homeland or allow us any meaningful autonomy based on our claims to be the indigenous people of Iraq. Even if this was true it would place no obligation on Iraq to do such a thing…as no other country has ever made such accommodation for its indigenous people. The Iraqi constitution, which supports such autonomy, was forced on a captive and occupied Iraq by Paul Bremmer and the United States as a fig leaf to cover their naked aggression and folly. This American-constitution-for-Iraq is already a dead-letter and will be tossed out completely as soon as possible. Muslims already have one Israel forced upon them and the idea of a Christian enclave which would be wholly dependent on the same United States which is now ravaging their lands would be totally unacceptable to them. The situation and experience of the modern Jews is completely different from that of the Assyrians. At the end of the Second World War there was nowhere in Europe the Jews felt safe to return to and resume their lives….neither was Latin America appealing because it too was entirely Christian with all the same prejudice and hatred felt for them in Europe. The Jews of Europe were forced to settle in Palestine which was illegally shorn of part of its territory to make up for Christian crimes. But Jews had no choice. It’s very different for Assyrians who’ve not suffered a fraction of what Jews did and who have their choice of numerous Christian countries where they are welcome and already living in safety and success. To imagine that Assyrians will long endure suicide bombings and attacks from pissed-as-hell Muslim neighbors, who’ve been pummeled for years by Christian nations, with the active encouragement of local and foreign Assyrians, is to be more than naïve. While Assyrians safely prospering outside of Iraq, and glad to be there, yearn for someone else to “keep a presence in Assyria”, the vast majority of Assyrians in Iraq would be glad to trade places…and this desire to get out will only increase if the day comes when all Assyrians are herded into a small region which will never know a day of peace. While Muslim Iraqis have been suffering and will for a long time to come, Christian Iraqi Assyrians will suffer that much more. This is inevitable as they have identified themselves and been identified by their fellow Assyrians around the world with the invading Christian nations. When these nations depart life will resume, with all its hardships, for the Muslims…but added to everything else will be unfettered and greatly felt anger and resentment at the remaining Christians, as has happened every time in our history when we’ve taken sides with Christian armies invading our homelands. This is our tragedy; not that we are Christians, but that this religion held in common with western nations who’ve made a habit of attacking and despoiling our homelands, has lured us to their side and made us suspect in the eyes of our Muslim neighbors and countrymen. It would have been difficult, under any circumstances to convince our Muslim fellow-countrymen of our loyalty and trustworthiness and avoid the suspicion that we secretly longed for a permanent Christian victory….but, when even a few of us let it be known that we were eager and longed for and looked forward to and supported and hoped to gain from a Christian attack, the situation became dangerous for all. It’s clear that the only way an enclave or autonomous region or anything at all will be “given” to the Assyrians of Iraq is through force, force exerted by foreign Christian nations. This is, understandably, totally unacceptable to the very people who’ve been suffering this war for 17 years and will go on suffering its consequences for some time to come. In this atmosphere, to demand any rights at all by a Christian minority, will bring even harsher retaliation for it will be clear that the war resulted in a benefit to them, and this no Muslim will tolerate. For the sake of all Iraqis, no benefit must be seen as coming from this war, to any minority, let alone a Christian one…when it is Christian nations who brought this misery to the country. No Muslim admits that Assyrians have been persecuted or murdered just because of their religion and therefore to expect them to “give” anything, anything at all, based on such claims is to ask them to accept the idea that they have done what we claim they have. Why should they ever damn themselves so? Every reason or argument that we give for a homeland or ANY special consideration at all, can be easily refuted…very easily. And to give in to us would only mean that Muslims believe they are the monsters we claim we need to be protected from…naturally they will refuse, the have to refuse, to grant or admit any of it…is that really a surprise? Those of us who’ve gladly made our homes and raise our families in the West have shown to those still stuck in Iraq the truth of what we value…we value peace, wealth and security for ourselves and our children. Those of us still in Iraq are no different and long for the same things. It’s hypocritical of us to insist SOMEONE has to make a “presence” in Nineveh…when that someone really wants what we have…and we have no intention of allowing our children to live there and make that presence known. In this regard, I’m afraid, the Assyrians left behind are being used by us just as much as they, and we, ever were by the Europeans who thought we’d make excellent missionaries to convert Muslims. The Assyrians of Iraq are being used by those safely outside as a “cause”…as a way to “keep Assyria’ alive…and this is wrong. Our “leaders” know the score and make sure to make their patriotic speeches about Assyria and Nineveh rising again only in the West…where we are easy prey and give them the money with which they’re supposedly going to finance the birth of Assyria. But on their return to Iraq they know better and dare not make such claims openly or with any serious intent….and so we feel “betrayed” by each new group, but we betray ourselves and our own lack of understanding to have ever placed hopes in them and such promises in the first place…promises they have no way of delivering. Something they already know but neglect to mention on their world tours. Assyrians of Iraq have only one reality facing them and that is to once again become loyal citizens of Iraq or Kurdistan…just as we know well enough that we must become loyal citizens of America or Australia or England. Our Christianity must be downplayed at this time especially and no claims of an Assyrian homeland made. But more than that, the Assyrians of Iraq have to take an active hand in exposing and destroying any claims to nationhood or what is owed them by “leaders” abroad or nationalists at home. They have take responsibility for those in their own community preaching sedition because the backlash hits them all. The only basis to remain in Iraq is as Iraqis first…citizens who’ve never been persecuted for their religion but have suffered criminal justice for what some of them have DONE in the name of and in hopes of rewards from that that religion. Let those outside Iraq talk about Assyria all they want to…those inside Iraq must be Iraqis, in every sense of the word and deny each and every time that they are owed anything more than equal rights as citizens of Iraq….anything more than that will bring swift and justified retaliation by the government and, unfortunately, by the common rabble. --------------------- - BACK TO INDEX - REPLY - QUOTE - EDIT - DELETE -

The full topic: History X pancho - Saturday, March 22 2008, 20:42:59 (CET) even simpler....... pancho - 03/22 20:46

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