TIME
Sept 20 2004
Iraq’s Persecuted Christians
Members of one of Iraq’s minority faiths face new repressions and
discrimination after the fall of Saddam’s regime
By CHRISTOPHER ALLBRITTON/ BAGHDAD
SAMANTHA APPLETON / AURORA FOR TIME
Layla Istifan, 23, prays in her local church days after her brother
was killed. She and her family have been repeatedly threatened
because of their Christianity
When Keis Isitfan headed home from work one recent night, he had
reason to watch his back. As a laundry worker for the U.S. embassy
inside Baghdad’s green zone, he risked being attacked by insurgents
targeting Iraqis who work for the U.S. But there was another source
of anxiety: Isitfan, 27, is a Christian and, like others of his
faith, is facing growing hostility from hard-line Islamic groups who
accuse Christians of being sympathetic to the Western occupiers.
As Isitfan was driving home on Sept. 7, his worst fears came true.
After he left the green zone, two cars pulled up alongside, and
attackers inside opened fire. Four bullets hit Isitfan, who died on
the street. His family, convinced Isitfan was killed for his faith,
plans to flee the country. “Christians in Iraq are weak,” says his
sister Layla, a translator for the U.S. embassy. “All they can do is
leave here, like we will do.”
Between 10,000 and 30,000 of Iraq’s 800,000 Christians have fled the
country since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, according to
Christian groups in Baghdad. Although Christians make up only about
3% of Iraq’s 25 million people, the U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees has said they account for about 20% of the refugees fleeing
Iraq for Syria. They are escaping a climate of violence and a surging
Islamic radicalism that have made the practice of their faith a
deadly enterprise.
The worst moment came on Aug. 1 when Islamic insurgents – most likely
connected with terrorist leader Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, according to
Iraqi government officials – attacked five churches in Baghdad and
Mosul with car bombs, killing a dozen people. While Muslim
authorities in Iraq widely condemned those attacks, local Christians
say security has continued to deteriorate. Says Layla Isitfan: “If I
can’t go to church because I’m scared, if I can’t dress how I want,
if I can’t drink because it’s against Islam, what kind of freedom is
that?”
Like the larger insurgency targeting U.S. troops and the new Iraqi
government, the campaign against Christians appears to be becoming
more organized. Sa’ad Jusif, a Chaldean-Assyrian Christian, was
kidnapped on Sept. 8, according to Dr. Munir Mardirosian, who heads a
political party for Armenian Catholics in Baghdad. His captors showed
him a list of 200 names, most of them Christian, and demanded to know
where they lived. When he refused, he was hung from the ceiling and
beaten with iron pipes. He was released only when his family paid a
$50,000 ransom on Sept. 13. He left the next day for Jordan. Says
Mardirosian: “If they opened the doors to America or Australia, I can
say there would not be one Christian left in Iraq.”
The violence in Iraq threatens one of the world’s oldest Christian
communities, dating back 2,000 years. The population includes
Chaldean Assyrians (Eastern-rite Catholics who recognize the Pope’s
authority); Assyrians, who form an independent church; Syrian
Catholics; and Armenian Catholics. Under Saddam, Christians coexisted
more or less amicably with the Muslim majority. Easter services were
broadcast on state television, and Christians were allowed to own and
operate liquor stores.
Christians today keep a low profile. While most of the anti-Christian
violence has been committed by a small group of Islamic extremists,
Christians say they are encountering rising anger among their Muslim
neighbors. Layla Isitfan says taxi drivers have insulted her when
they realized she was Christian, in some cases saying all Christians
should be shot and killed. At work, she wears a Muslim head scarf and
tells colleagues that she is Muslim. Raja Elias, a Syrian Catholic in
Baghdad, says that recently a neighbor began to dump garbage on her
front porch. When Elias complained, the neighbor said, “You are a
Christian, and I can put it inside your house if I want to.”
With so many other problems to contend with, the new Iraqi government
hasn’t done much to protect Christians. Businesses traditionally
owned by Christians, such as liquor stores and beauty salons, have
been regularly vandalized by Islamic fundamentalists who some suspect
may be loyal to Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Elias, who ran a
dental clinic in central Baghdad before the war, recently asked the
Health Ministry to reopen it. But she was told to work in Sadr City,
the seething Shi’ite slum dominated by al-Sadr’s men. So her clinic
remains shuttered. “I think they will come for me sooner or later,”
she says.
For Iraqis like Elias, the best option is to leave. Many Iraqi
Christians say their reversal of fortune has been especially
disappointing given the backing the Bush Administration receives from
evangelical Christians. “Why did the U.S. come here?” asks
Mardirosian, the Armenian-Catholic leader. “To protect the Christians
or allow others to kill them?”
– With reporting by Samantha Appleton/Baghdad