IRAQ: VIOLENCE NOW CORNERS CHRISTIANS
By Mohammed A. Salih
Inter Press Service, Italy
June 13 2007
ARBIL, Iraq, Jun 13 (IPS) – For Janet Petros’s family it all started
when the al-Mahdi militia of the radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr
took control of their mixed neighbourhood Hay Muwasalat in Baghdad
last year.
That was after long fighting between Shia and Sunni armed groups for
dominance in the area.
One summer morning, Janet’s younger daughter Maha Faiq, 26, was hit
in the leg by a bullet as she slept. She was lucky it was no worse.
It was not an accidental shot. Janet’s family, the only Christian
family in that district, had been harassed and threatened by the
militias on both sides for long to follow their imposed Sharia rules.
"It was a very bad situation in Baghdad," said Sahar Faiq, 28, Janet’s
elder daughter. "We couldn’t mix with the neighbours any more and
were so afraid." Sahar quit her job with a British security company
after being threatened by militias.
Last February, Janet’s family decided to move to Arbil, in the
relatively safe Kurdistan region in the north. "After what happened,
I was afraid that someone will come in and do something bad to my
daughters," Janet, 55, told IPS in her two-room house in Arbil’s
Christian district Ainkawa.
Christians, who have lived in peace with their Muslim neighbours for
years are today badly hit by the rising tide of religious extremism.
In his meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush in the Vatican last
week, the Pope expressed concern that "the society that is evolving
(in Iraq) would not tolerate the Christian religion."
That is already happening. Hundreds of Christians have been killed,
their churches bombed and a ferocious campaign is under way to
intimidate them, particularly in the insecure parts of the country.
Iraq’s Christians are divided into a number of sects like the
Chaldeans, who form the majority, Assyrians, who are descendants of
the ancient Assyrian empire, Armenians and Syriacs.
During Saddam Hussein’s reign, Christians lived in a largely secular
atmosphere and were protected from extremism. But many did face
discrimination and attempts to get them to conform to Arab cultural
ways.
A small minority, many Christians have either left the volatile parts
of the country for safer areas, or moved outside Iraq.
The Kurdish region is now home to thousands of Christian families who
have escaped violence in cities like Baghdad and the northern city
Mosul. The recent killing of several Christian clergymen in Mosul
could push many others to leave.
About 2,800 Christian families have moved to Arbil, and another 1,550
to Zakho on the Iraqi-Turkish border, according to the Hizel Cultural
Centre, a Christian group that offers aid to displaced families.
Life in the north is safer but not easy. The huge influx of tens
of thousands of refugees has led to a sharp increase in rents and
prices. Inflation is rising and job opportunities are decreasing.
Janet’s family pays 600 dollars a month for their two-room house.
Father Sabri al-Maqdasi, a priest in Ainkawa’s largest church
Saint Joseph believes that given the continuous flow of refugees,
accommodation will be extremely hard to find. The group Hadyab
Financial Aid for Refugees offers 100 dollars a month to each Christian
family coming to Arbil, but that money does not go far.
With attacks and pressure rising, there are attempts by some leaders
to create a Christian zone in the historically Christian populated
areas of Nineveh and Dohuk provinces in the north.
But there is no agreement on this. Some are asking for an autonomous
territory within Kurdistan region where Christians will have their
own regional government and parliament. Others demand a self-rule
arrangement where Christians control the local administration and
police force in the areas they constitute the majority.
Father al-Maqdasi says a separated homeland will isolate Christians
from the rest of Iraq and would "destroy our mission of building
bridges and relations with other religions." Instead, he encourages
a plan for Christians to have self-rule in effect as in Ainkawa in
Arbil, where the local administration is run by Christians.
The wounds caused by the ongoing violence against Christians are not
going to be healed easily. The suffering has given rise to a sense
of alienation and detachment among many.
"The only dream we now have is to leave Iraq," Janet told IPS. "We
don’t feel that we belong to this country any more."
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