Tim Hall | Monday, 27 October 2008 14:31
Since the Iraq War launched in 2003, the U.S.-led coalition forces have learned the hard way that Saddam Hussein's brutality, despite atrocities committed against his own people, prevented the sectarian violence that has broken out since he was removed from power. Over the last five years, since Iraq's ruling Baath regime was deposed, Iraq has seen the release of dormant frustrations and tensions among its people.
Sectarian attacks between Shiite and Sunni Muslims have occupied the front pages since 2003, but the Christians of Iraq have been under violent attack since the beginning of the war. There are many reasons for this; Christians are a minority, ethnically and religiously speaking, so they are more vulnerable. Also, they are commonly seen as American allies and targeted by Muslim extremists as infidels. These problems are compounded by the inability of coalition forces to provide safety for those who can't defend themselves.
Their ancestral homeland is centered around the ancient city of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian people for the last seven millennia. While most of the Christians in Iraq claim this heritage, they are still divided along denominational lines. The majority are Chaldean Catholics, numbering from 350,000 to 400,000. The rest include Syrian Catholics, Armenian Orthodox, and Armenian Catholics, and small amounts of Greek Orthodox, Anglicans, and evangelical Protestants.1 These groups largely identify themselves as Assyrians, not as Iraqis; they are a people without a country. Without a land to call their own, their national cohesion comes from a common history of suffering and persecution throughout the ages.2
During World War I, the Assyrians were subject to a genocide campaign by the Ottoman Turks, part of the same campaign that targeted Armenians. Hundreds of thousands were killed, and the rest were driven from Turkey into Iraq. In the 1970s and 80s, Kurds and Christians were marginalized and murdered according to Hussein's Arabization efforts. His goal of promoting Arab nationalism was accomplished through a variety of means, including forcing Assyrians to register on the census as Arabs or Kurds, disallowing Christian education, and ensuring that Christians were killed in numbers disproportionate to the rest of the population during the Iran-Iraq War.3
Still, some Christians were able to prosper under Hussein. For example, one Chaldean Christian, Tariq Aziz, rose to the position of Foreign Minister in Saddam's government. During this time, 1.2 million (estimated) Christians lived and worked in urban centers in the North: in Baghdad, Mosul, and Kirkuk.4
After March 2003, however, a different Iraq emerged even for Iraq's better-off Christians. Instead of holding a middle-class position in society, they dropped to the bottom of the ladder as they were targeted by insurgents and extremists for a variety of reasons. First, Christians were seen as allies of the American forces.5 America is often generalized as a Christian country, so this was a natural assumption for Iraqis. Furthermore, as non-Muslims, they were subject to attacks on the basis of their ‘infidel' status. The extremist interpretations of the Qur'an held by the insurgents call for the subjugation of non-Muslims, which often manifests as killing, kidnapping, and extortion.
The latter form of persecution is usually exercised via the "jizya," a tax placed on non-Muslims who live in an Islamic society, which in Iraq today amounts to mafia-style extortion. A recent New York Times article detailed how a Catholic Church in Mosul was forced to pay a weekly fee or face the murder of church members. Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, the leader of the church there, paid a Sunni man for several years until the reduction in violence convinced him to stop paying. He was kidnapped and killed two weeks later, after secretly calling his church and telling them to pay no ransom money.6
Stories like this one are fairly commonplace. In September 2006, a small bomb exploded outside of St. Mary's in Baghdad. When parishioners were drawn outside, a larger bomb was set off. One man, Sargon Hanna, saved some lives by directing people back inside; his son was kidnapped soon thereafter, tortured, and left for dead. The family fled to Damascus.7 In her testimony before Congress, Nina Shea, Director of the Center for Religious Freedom at Freedom House, reported two incidents in Mosul and Basra of 20-year-old Christian women being beaten to death for wearing Western clothing.8 These atrocities are just a few examples; other reports give lists of attacks on Christian businesses and churches, kidnappings and beheadings of children, church bombings, shootings, and even reports of Christians being crucified.9
These crimes are complicated by several factors: since 2003, the social schism has taken place primarily along religious lines, leaving Christians without a source of protection; they have no militia, tribal background, or a "safe zone" to retreat to in the region. The Kurds have had all of these things, and have enjoyed a measure of autonomy in the North since 2003. However, there has been an ongoing dispute about the status of Kirkuk, which has a mixed population of Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, and Assyrians. This city was subject to Saddam's "Arabization" policies, under which non-Arabs were forcibly removed. Now, as Kurds return in large numbers, Assyrian voters are being marginalized. Despite their shared history of Arabization and the infamous Faisal gassing campaigns, the Kurds do not seem eager to share their land or political power.
Furthermore, it has yet to be seen whether the new government will adequately protect minorities. Section One of their constitution guarantees "full religious rights to freedom of religious belief and practice of all individuals." However, in the same Article, Islam is defined as the official religion of the State, and the document states: "No law may be enacted that contradicts the established provisions of Islam." There is an inherent danger here, because it makes the Constitution and the law secondary to the accepted interpretation of the Qur'an, which has yet to be defined. An extremist interpretation could result in laws contrary to the principles of free expression and freedom of conscience.
Meanwhile, Christians are leaving Iraq at unprecedented rates. The average estimate is that half of the Assyrian population has fled.10 Most have traveled to Syria and Jordan, where they remain trapped in refugee camps between the Iraq border and unhelpful governments. Syria and Jordan have allowed them to stay, but are resisting the prospect of granting them refugee status because of the aid that would necessitate. They have, however, demanded large amounts of U.S. aid money, which also has caused problems because of the prospect that the money will fund Islamic schools (which are the only education source for the Christian children).11 A long-term Christian settlement in either of these countries is not likely.
Who will protect the Christians? The governments of the region are largely self-interested, as are the Kurds, and the Iraqi government is not in a position of strength to effect change. In her testimony before Congress, Assyrian-American Christian Rosie Malek-Yonan said Christians don't retaliate with violence; they "walk away as a Christian should."12 In fact, American soldiers have recounted that the Christians' Muslim neighbors were the ones who first came to the Americans seeking help protecting the Christians from Al-Qaeda.13 There have also been charges that the coalition forces have not fully protected Christians because of fears that the special attention would ‘prove' the relationship between Americans and Christians, drawing more attacks. The perception of this relationship, real or imagined, has promoted violence against Christians.
There seems to be very little hope for the Assyrian people who have occupied this land for thousands of years. Many have given up on Iraq and sought asylum in the West. Some, including Assyrian leaders, have begun to call them to return to Iraq to rebuild, but for many it is not worth it. The violence is too great, and it is not known if Iraq's new government will treat them fairly. Without significant steps by the government to promote religious freedom, intervention by the coalition forces to protect individual churches and families, and continuing reduction of violence encouraging refugees to return, the Iraqi Christian community may never recover fully.
An apt metaphor used to describe them is that of a canary in a coal mine; their suffering is a harbinger of worse things to come for Iraq. At this stage in Iraq's development, extra care must be taken to provide for minorities and non-Muslims. If the political settlements following an American withdrawal do not entail better protection of minorities, especially the Assyrian Christians, any ‘stability' or ‘democracy' achieved will have come at too great a cost.
