Lives of fear for Iraqi Christians

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Lives of fear for Iraqi Christians


By Jim Muir
BBC News, Baghdad

A week after the worst single disaster to afflict Iraq's Christians in modern times, the Catholic cathedral in central Baghdad where the killing took place was back in business.

With its windows still smashed and walls scarred and pocked by blasts and bullets, the building had been quickly cleaned up in time for a service at exactly the same hour as the killers struck a week earlier.
As the cathedral was being readied for its first service since the attack, a senior Iraqi cleric in London, Archbishop Athanasios Dawood, called on Iraqi Christians to flee the country because it was so dangerous.

"If we stay, they will kill us," he told the BBC after addressing a congregation of Iraqi Orthodox Christians at a service in London.

"Which is better, to flee or to stay? To be killed or to be alive? But when I say 'leave', my heart is injured inside."
But in Baghdad itself, both Church leaders and Christian politicians seemed unanimous in urging their communities to stay.

'Bearing witness'

The Syriac Catholic Bishop of Baghdad, Ignatius Metti Metok, says he lost half his normal congregation in last week's attack on his Cathedral of Our Lady of Deliverance, immediately adjacent to his diocesan headquarters.

"My people say to me, 'You want us to stay after what's happened? It could happen again, and who's going to protect us?'" he said.

"We tell them, the Church is against emigration, we have to stay here, whatever the sacrifices, to bear witness to our faith. But people are human, and we can't stop them leaving."

Christian politicians have been infuriated by suggestions that their community should leave, and that Western countries should open their gates to an exodus from Iraq.

"This is our home, we have been together with Muslims for centuries, this is our destiny, and we will stay together," said Yonadam Kanna, a prominent Christian member of the Iraqi parliament.

"This is almost parallel to what al-Qaeda is doing against us. Al-Qaeda is pushing us out and you are pulling me out. Which is against my interest, against my people, against my country."

He was particularly angered by what he believed were plans by France to invite 1,000 Iraqi Christians to emigrate there.
"That's against the interests of the Christians, it incites Muslims against us, and it's a departure from European values which deal with people as human beings not as Christians or Muslims," he said.

Offer of sanctuary

The French embassy is organising on Monday an emergency medical airlift of about 40 wounded people from the church attack and some helpers to accompany them.

But the French ambassador in Baghdad, Boris Boillon, insisted that the evacuation was a purely humanitarian medical affair and that a separate offer of 1,000 visas to Iraqis in general - not just Christians - was part of a European programme dating back to 2008.
"France has a long tradition going back several hundred years of offering sanctuary to people in danger," he told the BBC.
"But we want Iraq to keep its pluralistic identity, and the presence of the Christians is a part of that identity."

But there are, nonetheless, fears that further waves of emigration could result from the bloodbath at the church.

More than 40 Christians are believed to have died when security forces stormed the cathedral building where they were being held hostage by gunmen who detonated their explosive belts, causing carnage.

Fadya Issa is about to leave the country with her husband, their two young sons and her sister-in-law Samira, to emigrate to the US.
It is not a spur-of-the-moment decision driven by the church attack, though it has made her glad they are going.

It took them two years of waiting to get their American visas.

None of them has ever been out of the country or flown on a plane before. They know they are going to California to meet up with Samira's brother but they do not know where. Between them they have about four words of English.
"Of course, it's sad to leave your homeland, the place you were born and grew up, and all the things you know," said Fadya.
"But what can we do? Here, you're afraid all the time. You're afraid at home, and when you take the kids to school, and when you go to the market. Wherever you go, you're afraid."

Not just Christians

Since 2003 Iraq's Christians, who have lived here for nearly 2,000 years, have dwindled in numbers from an estimated 900,000 to about half that number, though there are no statistics.

"Before the change of regime seven years ago, we didn't have massacres like this," said Bishop Metti Metok.

"Of course we are worried for the future of our community. However much we encourage them to stay, they ask us, 'Will you guarantee our lives?'"

He and other Church leaders pointed out that it is not just the Christians who are targeted and suffering. They all say this, over and over.

Two days after the church attack, around 90 people were killed in a rash of bomb explosions in mainly Shia neighbourhoods.
Shia mosques, pilgrimages and funerals, as well as crowded markets and busy streets. have frequently been attacked by bombers.
 
Far more than that have converted in the last 5 years. Far, far more. Again, not new information.
 
Unfortunately, we are always converting to Islam and losing our culture in that way. I hope that when it becomes safer that they will convert back ...
 
chaldean said:
2 Christian families in Dora have converted. This according to a church offical.

my uncle?s best friends cousins converted to Islam in Bagdad and i believe it was in Dora but this area was populated by almost shi3etts..
 
esz said:
Unfortunately, we are always converting to Islam and losing our culture in that way. I hope that when it becomes safer that they will convert back ...

They should have taken the bullet rather than convert to islam, for there is no use converting back when it is safer because they already denied Jesus in the hard times, and we were told this was going to happen to followers of Christ and it is who that has patience and keeps his/her faith that will see the lingdom of God not make a joke of it by converting back and forth whenever they feel safe. I pray to God that He have mercy on such weak souls even though I don't think they will get it.
 
Ninveh said:
They should have taken the bullet rather than convert to islam, for there is no use converting back when it is safer because they already denied Jesus in the hard times, and we were told this was going to happen to followers of Christ and it is who that has patience and keeps his/her faith that will see the lingdom of God not make a joke of it by converting back and forth whenever they feel safe. I pray to God that He have mercy on such weak souls even though I don't think they will get it.

Easy for you to say behind a computer.
 
Ninveh said:
They should have taken the bullet rather than convert to islam, for there is no use converting back when it is safer because they already denied Jesus in the hard times, and we were told this was going to happen to followers of Christ and it is who that has patience and keeps his/her faith that will see the lingdom of God not make a joke of it by converting back and forth whenever they feel safe. I pray to God that He have mercy on such weak souls even though I don't think they will get it.

I wud easily to do that:)
 
Ninveh said:
They should have taken the bullet rather than convert to islam, for there is no use converting back when it is safer because they already denied Jesus in the hard times, and we were told this was going to happen to followers of Christ and it is who that has patience and keeps his/her faith that will see the lingdom of God not make a joke of it by converting back and forth whenever they feel safe. I pray to God that He have mercy on such weak souls even though I don't think they will get it.

Wow. You are twisted.  Sickening. 
 
Ninveh said:
They should have taken the bullet rather than convert to islam, for there is no use converting back when it is safer because they already denied Jesus in the hard times, and we were told this was going to happen to followers of Christ and it is who that has patience and keeps his/her faith that will see the lingdom of God not make a joke of it by converting back and forth whenever they feel safe. I pray to God that He have mercy on such weak souls even though I don't think they will get it.

Someone's religion has no bearing on their ethnicity.  I have no problem with those who convert as long as they support the cause.  I'd rather have living Assyrians than dead ones.  If their conversions are a "joke" that's between them their god.
 
baklawa said:
Someone's religion has no bearing on their ethnicity.  I have no problem with those who convert as long as they support the cause.  I'd rather have living Assyrians than dead ones.  If their conversions are a "joke" that's between them their god.

Read history, those who convert to a religion like Islam are gone for good and their blood-line will eventually be lost, this is how Islam has been to our people and this is why Assyrians who convert to Islam, are no longer Assyrian in my eyes.
 
jonadona said:
Who cares about your eyes.

jonadona, it seems to me like you care a little more about Islam than the average Assyrian does, I have a feeling you're an undercover Assyrian who converted  :crazy: (I hope I'm wrong though).

Listen, Assyrians who convert to Islam are nothing but traitors, this is the religion that raped our culture, to convert to it is like to spit on our ancestors who died by its name, I don't care if you don't want to be a Christian, but Islam is simply not the answer, this is the fact and our history is the evidence for it, deal with it.
 
Tambur said:
jonadona, it seems to me like you care a little more about Islam than the average Assyrian does, I have a feeling you're an undercover Assyrian who converted  :crazy: (I hope I'm wrong though).

Listen, Assyrians who convert to Islam are nothing but traitors, this is the religion that raped our culture, to convert to it is like to spit on our ancestors who died by its name, I don't care if you don't want to be a Christian, but Islam is simply not the answer, this is the fact and our history is the evidence for it, deal with it.

Interesting.  Assyrians who covert to islam are traitors, but those who place the entire future of our nation in the hands of the KRG are not.  Our people sure do have short memories (much to the advantage of the kurdistani "Assyrians.")
 
baklawa said:
Interesting.  Assyrians who covert to islam are traitors, but those who place the entire future of our nation in the hands of the KRG are not.  Our people sure do have short memories (much to the advantage of the kurdistani "Assyrians.")

I like how you try to target my posts, since you like to play that way, I'll post here what I wrote:

The second thing you must realize is while a Kurdish country is far fetched, a semi-independent Kurdistan region (Part of Iraq) is a reality and exists now, the Assyrians need to do what's best for themselves and not the best for Iraq, if it was up to me, I would say please ship all of our people out of Iraq and to the west, sadly this is not realistic so the next best thing is to include our plains to the KRG and live with the Kurds rather than Arabs.

I would rather have Assyrians get out of Iraq, but if that's unrealistic, I would rather have them live with Kurds than Arabs due to how the current situation is, in other words NO, Assyrians living under the KRG are no traitors just like how living under Arabs does not make you a traitor, but if they go out of their way and call themselves Kurdish Christians, Arab Christians, or convert, then yes, they are traitors and a disgrace to our ancestors.
 
Tambur said:
I like how you try to target my posts, since you like to play that way, I'll post here what I wrote:

I would rather have Assyrians get out of Iraq, but if that's unrealistic, I would rather have them live with Kurds than Arabs due to how the current situation is, in other words NO, Assyrians living under the KRG are no traitors just like how living under Arabs does not make you a traitor, but if they go out of their way and call themselves Kurdish Christians, Arab Christians, or convert, then yes, they are traitors and a disgrace to our ancestors.

If we actually had to do a body count, it wouldn't even be close: most Assyrians have perished under the kurdish sword than by any other.  Are they butchering us right now?  No, not on the scale that Al-qaeda is; a case of "been there, done that" for them.  Our people have forgotten that the kurds have been our own personal al-qaeda for centuries.  This little gimmick of trying to lure our people to the north is akin to a pedophile flashing some candy to a child.  And our people are equally naive in falling for it.
 
we are all traitors we left and ran away from our lands instead of staying.
Those who live in occupied Assyria till today are heroes, someone who converts to Islam, shinto , buddas, jew etc etc is still Assyrian by ethnicity.
Its very easy for us to call people traitors when we live comfortable lives with freedom in the west.
 
Muslims are killing Muslims in Iraq too, I don't get the point of Assyrian's converting to Islam :/
 
baklawa said:
If we actually had to do a body count, it wouldn't even be close: most Assyrians have perished under the kurdish sword than by any other.  Are they butchering us right now?  No, not on the scale that Al-qaeda is; a case of "been there, done that" for them.  Our people have forgotten that the kurds have been our own personal al-qaeda for centuries.  This little gimmick of trying to lure our people to the north is akin to a pedophile flashing some candy to a child.  And our people are equally naive in falling for it.

Are you mad? Do you want me to list you and outline the shit Islam has done to us? Don't even compare what the Kurds have done to us compare to Islam, they're not even comparable, heck, our problems with the Kurds all started when this crappy religion came along, when was the last time you heard of a Kurdish massacre on Assyrians prior to Islam?

we are all traitors we left and ran away from our lands instead of staying.
Those who live in occupied Assyria till today are heroes, someone who converts to Islam, shinto , buddas, jew etc etc is still Assyrian by ethnicity.
Its very easy for us to call people traitors when we live comfortable lives with freedom in the west.

Those who do it back home to survive are just an unfortunate lost cause that will eventually lose their Assyrian blood-lines, however those who decide to convert in the diaspora are nothing but scums and a disgrace to our ancestors.

Tell me, how many Assyrians survived by converting to Islam? Show me the Assyrian Muslims please, the latest ones that converted 200 years ago are living in Mardin and guess what, they no longer speak or identify with Assyrians, a few more hundred years these people will be known as Arabs (They're already known as Arabs now), this is what Islam does to Assyrians.
 
Tambur said:
jonadona, it seems to me like you care a little more about Islam than the average Assyrian does, I have a feeling you're an undercover Assyrian who converted  :crazy: (I hope I'm wrong though).

Listen, Assyrians who convert to Islam are nothing but traitors, this is the religion that raped our culture, to convert to it is like to spit on our ancestors who died by its name, I don't care if you don't want to be a Christian, but Islam is simply not the answer, this is the fact and our history is the evidence for it, deal with it.
I adore such Assyrian spirit and great mind.
For you that think I am twisted, may be you should read more history books and watch the news to see that no good comes out of anything that has been touched by islam, its like an atomic bomb that vanishes everything nationality, personality, and eventually cleans out the brain of any common sense.
You deny your religion at first fearing for your life and not fearing burning in hell for it , then you easily can deny your identity when no punishment will come from doing so, so think before you speak my friend.
God bless us all.
 
Free_Assyria said:
we are all traitors we left and ran away from our lands instead of staying.
Those who live in occupied Assyria till today are heroes, someone who converts to Islam, shinto , buddas, jew etc etc is still Assyrian by ethnicity.
Its very easy for us to call people traitors when we live comfortable lives with freedom in the west.
Even though we are in the west we still have loved ones back home that we can't easily sacrifice, can you please give me statistics of Assyrians you know that converted to Islam and still call themselves Assyrian?
If just the mention of your country of birth makes people think you are an arab imagine when you say you are muslim?
 
maybe thats your problem you have read too many books and watched too much news.
Go to Iraq and talk like that about islam we will see how much you love jesus.

There is a name for Assyrians like you we call em Assyrian Hezbolla.
 
baklawa said:
Interesting.  Assyrians who covert to islam are traitors, but those who place the entire future of our nation in the hands of the KRG are not.  Our people sure do have short memories (much to the advantage of the kurdistani "Assyrians.")

The Kurdistani Assyrians remind as Christians and as Assyrians, they can wave their flagg where ever they want! these Assyrians been able to help our poeple more than zowaa ever have done:)
 
khayaatour said:
The Kurdistani Assyrians remind as Christians and as Assyrians, they can wave their flagg where ever they want! these Assyrians been able to help our poeple more than zowaa ever have done:)

do you punch your pillow at night screaming "Zowaa ohhhhhh Zowaa Youndam I hate you I hate you"?
 
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