IRAQI RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE SPIKING, STATE DEPT SAYS
by Khody Akhavi

Antiwar.com, CA
Inter Press Service
September 15, 2007

Despite the addition of 30,000 US troops to enhance security in the
country, the freedom of average Iraqis to practice their religions
deteriorated sharply during the past year, according to a report
released Friday by the US State Department.

The ninth "Annual Report on International Religious Freedom," which
covers 198 countries, described continued violence targeting people
of specific faiths in Iraq, and largely blamed the ongoing insurgency,
as well as "conservative and extremist Islamic elements," for harming
the ability of religious believers to practice their faith.

While acknowledging that some Iraqi government institutions continued
their long-standing discriminatory practices against the Baha’i and
Wahhabi Sunni Muslims, the report praised the government of Prime
Minister Nouri Al-Maliki for denouncing all incidents of sectarian
violence and emphasizing its commitment to equal treatment for
religious groups and ethnicities.

The Iraqi Constitution protects religious freedom yet focuses
predominantly on Iraq’s Islamic identity, mandating that Islam be
considered a source of legislation and that no law be enacted that
contradicts the faith’s universally agreed-upon tenets.

"While conditions deteriorated during the reporting period, this
situation was not due to Government abuse," said the report. "Unsettled
conditions prevented effective governance in parts of the country,
and the Government’s ability to protect religious freedoms was
handicapped by insurgency, terrorism, and sectarian violence."

Four years after the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s government, more
than 1.9 million Iraqis remain displaced inside their country and
more than 2 million have fled abroad to neighboring countries such
as Syria, Jordan, Iran, Egypt and Lebanon, according to figures from
the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

Many Iraqis fled before the fall of Hussein’s government in 2003,
but in the following two years, more than 300,000 returned. The
trend reversed, especially after the February 2006 bombing of the
Shi’ite-revered al-Askari Mosque in Samarra, which intensified
sectarian violence in the country.

Since then, Shi’ite militia members, unchallenged by the Iraqi
government, have been accused of driving Sunnis from religiously
mixed neighborhoods in Baghdad. Shi’ite families experience similar
threats and harassment at the hands of self-professed Sunni insurgents.

Iraq’s Christian community has steadily dissipated, similarly driven
out by a campaign of intimidation and violence. Of the 1.2 million
Christians estimated to be living in the country before the 2003
invasion, only 600,000 remain, according to Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop
Andreos Abouna of Baghdad, as mentioned in the State Department report.

"Although [sectarian violence] affected both the Sunni and Shi’ite
secular Muslim population, non-Muslims were especially vulnerable to
pressure and violence, because of their minority status and, often,
because of the lack of a protective tribal structure," said the report.

Shi’ite Muslims – predominantly Arabs, but also including Turkmen,
Faili Kurds, and other groups – constitute 60 to 65 percent of the
population. Sunni Muslims make up a 32 to 37 percent minority. The
remaining 3 percent is comprised of Christian groups such as Chaldeans,
Assyrians, Syriacs, Armenians, and Protestants, as well as Yazidis,
Sabean-Mandeans, Baha’is, Shabaks and Kaka’is.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is also alleged to have engaged
in discriminatory practices against religious minorities. Christians
living north of the city of Mosul claimed that the "KRG confiscated
their property without compensation and began building settlements
on their land."

Despite the claims, non-Muslims were among the 160,000 Iraqis who
fled to Kurdish controlled Northern Iraq from more volatile areas in
the middle and southern parts of the country, according to estimates
by the Iraqi Red Crescent Society.

The George W. Bush administration’s "surge strategy" was aimed, in
part, at providing increased security for all Iraqi citizens and, thus,
breathing room for political reconciliation among Iraq’s increasingly
adversarial political factions.

However, the report underscores the extent to which Iraq’s population
continues to be polarized along sectarian lines, as well as the
blurring lines between religiously-inspired violence and political
forces that utilize religion to achieve political ends.

"It is fair to say the attacks can be laid at the feet of the
insurgency, whatever and whoever it is," said Joe Stork, a Middle
East expert at Human Rights Watch.

Stork described violence carried out by government-connected Shi’ite
"death squads" as not having "religious freedom connotations" per se,
but rather as manifestations of political violence.

"The point of a deadly political contest," he said.

Analysts are leery of comparing the conditions of religious freedom in
Iraq under Hussein to the current situation. Stork would not comment
on the issue.

But the US Committee for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF),
an independent, bipartisan federal agency that monitors freedom of
belief and gives independent policy recommendations to the secretary
of state, has placed Iraq on its "watch list" one rung below "countries
of particular concern (CPC)."

Iraq was designated a CPC under Hussein from 1999 to 2002 because
of systematic government violations of religious freedom, but was
dropped from the list following the US intervention and subsequent
collapse of Hussein’s government.

"Today the issues are different, but extremely serious," said Judith
Ingram, communications director at USCIRF. She said Iraq would be
moved to the list of CPCs if improvements to religious freedom are
not made in the next year.

The USCIRF has urged the US government to take more effective action
to respond to the growing refugee crisis that has grown due to the
sectarian violence, and will hold a public hearing on Sep. 19 to
examine intra-Muslim sectarian violence, including what role, if any,
the Iraqi government plays in that violence.

"From what we’ve seen and written so far, this government body does
believe the Iraqi government does bear some responsibility, and
we’re trying to determine further how direct that responsibility is,"
said Ingram.