The Register-Guard, Oregon
Aug 28 2005

Saddam’s ouster brought end of religious freedom for many
By Timothy Phelps

Newsday
Published: Sunday, August 28, 2005

BASRA, Iraq – For Yousef Lyon and other Christians in Basra, the
downfall of Saddam Hussein has meant a terrible loss of religious
freedom.

The social club where Lyon and his friends would gather in the
evening to play dominoes, where families danced or listened to live
music on holidays, is closed. Wedding celebrations are held quietly
at home.

“Of course, during the Saddam regime it was better,” said Lyon, 40,
a member of the city’s small Armenian community. “Now we are afraid
from the religious parties that maybe they will throw a bomb at us.”

Not just the Christians, but many of the city’s minorities – from
obscure sects such as the ancient Sabeans to the Sunni Muslims who
used to run Iraq and still predominate in the rest of the Arab world
– live in fear of the hard-line Shia religious parties and their
militias that now rule Iraq’s second-largest city.

advertisement Freedom has been curbed for women, too. Several decades
ago, almost no woman in Basra covered her head. Now, they all do, for
fear of harassment or worse. Women working for foreign firms or
governments, and those considered to have loose morals, have been
marked for death by militants: two Iraqi sisters who worked in the
laundry at the American compound in Basra were assassinated last
year.

Basra is an ancient port city with a proud cosmopolitan history,
where Christians, Jews, Sunni, Shia and many other groups lived in
relative peace for hundreds of years, according to local historians.
The Jews left en masse in the years following the founding of Israel
in 1948. Now, although no one keeps records or statistics, the other
minorities are leaving as well, though many had cried with joy at the
toppling of Saddam.

“Saddam Hussein was a criminal and an oppressor. Everybody knew
that,” said Majid, 45, a Sunni taxi driver who said he was afraid to
be identified further. “These new parties cry for society, but try
to drink the blood of the people.”

Saddam murdered thousands or tens of thousands of Iraqis, most of
them Kurds in the north and Shias in the south. Shias in Basra were
particularly singled out in retribution for their leadership in a
failed rebellion against Hussein in 1991, when U.S. forces refused to
intervene to protect them after the first Persian Gulf War.

But Saddam did not see Christians and other minorities in Iraq as a
threat because of their smaller numbers and because his regime was
secular and not as hostile to other religions or the rights of women
as are some current officials.

“You can’t say no to those people; they will kill you,” Majid said
of the current leaders here. “Even just if you have a different
viewpoint, you will have a problem.”

He said he is trying to sell his house and leave Iraq, but has had
few prospects. “By God, I don’t know,” he said. “I want to leave,
but where should I go?”

Basra is a city of 2 million people, predominantly Shia. An estimated
200,000 to 300,000 Sunnis, and 5,000 or 6,000 Christians, live in the
area.