Assyrian International News Agency
Dec 22 2007
Lambs To Slaughter: the Assyrians of Iraq
When most Westerners think of Iraq, more than likely the images that
come to mind are related to the U.S.-led war there, or perhaps the
suffering of Iraqis trapped between warring Shiites and Sunnis, rival
Muslim sects.
That would be understandable. Such images have dominated the news
since the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003.
But there is a story beneath the daily images of patrolling U.S.
troops or the gruesome results of roadside bombs and terrorist
attacks on civilians. According to some, Iraqi Christians are facing
annihilation at the hands of an increasingly militant Islam that
demands submission — or else.
There are Christians in Iraq? Westerners might think Muslim nations
like Iraq are practically devoid of Christians. But at one time there
were 1.5 million believers in that country — comprising 8% of the
population.
Peter BetBasoo, an Iraqi Assyrian and the director of the Assyrian
International News Agency (AINA, ), said his people —
the Assyrians — are ethnically distinct from the Arab and Kurdish
populations of Iraq. They are, in fact, the only indigenous people
there, having lived in that part of the Middle East for 7,000 years.
The majority of Assyrians are Christians, and belong to three main
denominations: the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the
East, the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Chaldean Church of Babylon.
"This distinct identity of Assyrians, especially their Christian
faith, sets them apart from the rest of the population," BetBasoo
said.
It has also made them the target of Muslim violence. In his report,
Incipient Genocide: The Ethnic Cleansing of the Assyrians of Iraq,
BetBasoo said, "A systematic campaign of persecution of [Christians]
… is unfolding."
The result has been devastating, as thousands of Christians flee the
country. The percentage of the Iraqi population that is Christian is
now down to 3-4%, according to Archbishop Avak Asadourian, the
primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Baghdad.
According to an article on Frontpagemag.com, Asadourian told a World
Council of Churches gathering of 130 international church officials
in Amman, Jordan, that due to persecution the members of his own
church had declined from about 650 members to about 125.
Asadourian’s estimates reflect U.S. government statistics. The yearly
report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
(), released in May 2007, said that since April, 2003,
50% of Assyrian Christians have fled Iraq.
Oppression, expulsion and flight Muslim anger towards Christians in
Iraq always seems ready to explode. In one night, for example,
Incipient Genocide said 500 shops owned by Assyrians in Dora, a
primarily Assyrian neighborhood in Baghdad, were burned.
Church buildings are not exempt from Muslim rage, either. Last June,
St. Jacob Church in Dora was attacked, the Christians guarding the
building were murdered, and the church was looted and then designated
to be turned into a mosque.
Meanwhile, in northern Iraq, which is home to Kurdish Muslims who
have escaped the brunt of the war and the civil discord between
Sunnis and Shiites, Assyrian Christians have also come under
pressure.
"Kurdish authorities denied foreign reconstruction assistance for
Assyrian communities and used public works projects to divert water
and other vital resources from Assyrian to Kurdish communities,"
Betbasoo said. "Kurdish forces blockaded Assyrian villages."
When Christians aren’t being denied help, they’re often being forced
to pay extortion. Incipient Genocide related that in March 2007,
al-Qaeda terrorists moved into Dora and began forcing Assyrian
Christians to pay the jizya, the tax demanded by the Koran which all
Christians and Jews must pay in exchange for being allowed to live
and practice their faith in Islamic countries.
Christian families were told by Muslims at their doors "to either pay
money (jizya) to support the insurgents or convert to Islam, or leave
the house within 24 hours or else be killed."
As early as October 2004, BetBasoo said Muslims were distributing
leaflets with the message: "Christians go; leave Iraq." He said,
"Word was passed around in the mosques, telling Muslims not to buy
anything from the Christians. Not only are they infidels, it was
said, but also they would soon be leaving, so the Muslims would be
able to take their homes and property for free."
Sometimes poorer Christians were allowed to pay a different price if
they did not have enough money to pay the jizya. BetBasoo said one
representative from a nearby mosque said families who could not pay
"were told to send one family member to the mosque on Friday to
announce their conversion to Islam. Families who refused to do this
were told they must leave their homes immediately and not take any of
their belongings with them because ‘your properties belong to the
mosque.’"
This spring Mar Addai II, the Patriarch for the Ancient Assyrian
Church of the East complained to AINA, "Only the families that agree
to give a daughter or sister in marriage to a Muslim can remain,
which means that the entire nuclear family will progressively become
Muslim."
This oppression is taking its toll on the Christian community in
Iraq. In May the Reverend Temathaus Eisha, pastor of the Church of
St. Shimoni in Dora, confirmed to AINA that Christian Assyrians are,
in fact, being displaced from their homes in the district. He said
that the majority of Assyrians have abandoned these areas, and that
churches and a number of monasteries had also been deserted.
Killing of Christians While the persecution of Christians has not
turned into a killing spree involving thousands, some of the murders
are horrific and appear to be meant to serve as a warning. For
example, in one incident in October 2006, a 14-year-old boy in the
al-Basra neighborhood of Mosul was actually crucified.
"There is no greater symbol of life and hope for Christians than the
cross and crucifixion of Jesus Christ," BetBasoo said. "This very
symbolism was inverted and used to terrorize the [Christian]
residents" of that city.
The boy’s family certainly got the message. "The family intended to
leave Iraq as soon as possible," he said. "So effective was the
terror effect of the crucifixion that even the victim’s family could
not properly grieve for its son. The Assyrian community in al-Basra
was terrified."
Also that same month in the city of Baquba, another 14-year-old
Christian Assyrian named Ayad Tariq, was decapitated at his work
place. A co-worker witnessed the incident after hiding himself when a
group of masked Muslim insurgents approached.
The Muslims asked the boy for his identification. BetBasoo relayed
what happened: "[T]he insurgents questioned Ayad after seeing that
his ID stated ‘Christian,’ asking if he was truly a ‘Christian
sinner.’ Ayad replied, ‘Yes, I am Christian but I am not a sinner.’
The insurgents quickly said this is a ‘dirty Christian sinner!’ Then
they proceeded to each hold one limb, shouting ‘Allahu akbar! Allahu
akbar!’ ["God is great! God is great!"] while beheading the boy."
Another murder that month, as explained by Incipient Genocide, was
also particularly gruesome. The report said, "An Assyrian toddler was
kidnapped in Baghdad. The mother, a Christian, could not pay the
ransom and the young child was returned to her, beheaded, roasted and
served on a mound of rice."
Genocide under cover of war These grisly murders reveal a savage
hatred for Christians that must seem alien to believers in the West,
who consider it persecution when they aren’t allowed to sing
Christmas carols at a public school. But for the Assyrian Christians
living in Iraq, extortion, expulsion or even death are a daily threat
to the lives of family and friends.
It is true that the persecution of Assyrians is occurring during what
is arguably a Sunni-Shiite civil war in Iraq. But BetBasoo said he
did not believe that Assyrians are random victims of this civil war;
rather they are being "targeted specifically because of their ethnic,
religious, cultural and linguistic differences."
In other words, BetBasoo said the Assyrians are facing, literally, an
"incipient genocide."
According to the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
the Crime of Genocide, "genocide" is defined as specific crimes
"committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national,
ethnical, racial or religious group."
While the use of words like genocide may be controversial, Doug
Bandow, vice president for policy of Citizen Outreach, agreed that
the word is appropriate.
In an article for The American Spectator, Bandow argued that
"Christianity is disappearing from Iraq. A distinct ethnic, language,
and religious community is being driven out."
He said, "Although the violence appears to be more anarchic than
concerted, it has had the same effect as an organized campaign to
destroy Iraq’s Assyrians. Virtually every member of the community is
under siege."
By Ed Vitagliano
, October, 2007 issue.