IRAQ: MINISTRY REPORT DETAILS IMPACT OF VIOLENCE ON MINORITIES

IRINnews.org
Friday 04 July 2008
NY

Christian minorities in Iraq have been targetted by extremists DUBAI,
3 July 2008 (IRIN) – A new report by Iraq’s Ministry of Human Rights
sets out the number of deaths in different ethnic communities caused
by direct or indirect attacks in Iraq between 2003 and the end of
2007, and the numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) for
each minority.

The report, released on 1 July, said the Shabak minority in the
northern province of Nineveh topped the list with 529 fatalities and
3,078 families (about 16,000 individuals) displaced.

Shabaks, whose numbers are estimated at 300,000-400,000, have
a religion containing elements of Islam, Christianity and other
religions, according to theologians. Some see them as a sub-group of
the Kurds, while others say they are a distinct ethnic group.

Second on the list is the Yazidi community, which also lives in Nineveh
Province and worships Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel. The report said
335 Yazidis had been killed, but gave no data on the number of IDPs.

The Yazidis, considered by some as infidels, were hit in August 2007
by four simultaneous suicide car bombings in a suburb of the provincial
capital, killing 215.

In third place with 172 fatalities were Iraq’s Christians: 107
Chaldeans, 33 Orthodox, 24 Catholics, four Assyrians, three Anglicans
and one Armenian. It said 1,752 Christian families, about 9,000
persons, were living as IDPs.

In fourth place were the Sabis, who live in different parts of Iraq
but mainly in the south, with 127 killed; 62 families were living as
IDPs. A further 3,500 families had sought refuge in Jordan and 10,000
in Syria.

Photo: IRIN Yazidis worship Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel, who some
Muslims and Christians consider the devil Persecution

For nearly 36 years, Yousif Yacoub Qado, a 39-year-old Christian, lived
in peace with his Muslim neighbours in Baghdad’s southern district
of Dora, but he was forced to leave after threats by militants.

"They told me to convert to Islam, pay protection money or leave
my house," Qado said, recalling how five masked gunmen, presenting
themselves as al-Qaida in Iraq, knocked on his door.

"When I said I can’t do that as I need the money to feed my family,
they said they would slaughter me like a goat to make me an example
to other Christians," Qado said.

"I left my house and now I’m staying at my brother’s house; he left
Iraq two years ago."

Ahmed Jaafar al-Mayahi, a Baghdad-based analyst who lectures in
Islamic theology at Baghdad’s University of Mustansiriyah, blamed
what he called "a culture of extremism" in society for the attacks
on minorities.

"In the absence of the rule of law, a new culture emerged after 2003
– the law of the jungle," al-Mayahi told IRIN from Baghdad, adding:
"Sunni and Shia extremists see each other and other non-Muslim groups
as apostates and renegades."