Christians flee Iraq. Some murdered.

This is from this site.
The story of treatment of Christians in Iraq is for the most part under-reported for some reason. Under Hussein, Christians were better off. Tariq Aziz was an important Christian (Catholic) within his government.



BAGHDAD - 3 December 2007 - 360 words

Vicar claims 90 per cent of Iraqi Christians have fled or been murdered

An Anglican clergyman in Baghdad, who has seen his flock murdered and forced into exile by Muslim extremists, says Christians there are worse off now than under Saddam's rule and are probably suffering more than any time in history. The Rev Canon Andrew White, an Anglican priest known as the 'Vicar of Baghdad' made the claim in an interview with Scott Pelley yesterday, on CBS Television Network's 60 MINUTES programme.

"There's no comparison between Iraq now and [under Saddam]," said White. "Things are the most difficult they have ever been for Christians ­ probably ever in history," he said, Rev White estimates that 90 percent of Iraq's Christians, once thought to number over a million, have either fled or have been murdered by Islamic extremists during the religious civil war.

That includes his own church leaders and most of the men of his parish. "They are mainly killed. Some are kidnapped," said White. "Here in this church, all of my leadership were originally taken and killed. Their bodies were never recovered. This is one of the problems. I regularly do funerals here, but it's not easy to get the bodies."

White invited 60 MINUTES cameras to an underground Baghdad service for what was left of his congregation, mostly the old, the ill and those who cannot afford to flee. The purge is almost complete in the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad, once a Christian stronghold, and the recent surge of American troops also has stemmed some of the violence.

"I don't see a lot of [Christian murder victims] anymore," said Army Col. Rick Gibbs. "But when we first arrived, we saw lots of that. It would not surprise my soldiers to walk down a street on patrol and see three or four bodies laying in the street with a bullet behind their head," says Gibbs.

At the height of the violence, churches were bombed and the Army did not guard them, Gibbs said. "[Christians] feel that if we are overtly protecting the churches, that someone underground covertly will come in and murder the Christians because they are collaborating with the US forces," Gibbs tells Pelley.

It all started after the invasion, said a young Christian who did not want to be identified. "[Muslim extremists] were telling us that Christians were against Islam, that we're infidels, that women shouldn't drive and that a woman who doesn't wear a head scarf should get her head cut off," he said.

Source: CBS


© Independent Catholic News 2007


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Iraqi Christians safer under Saddam: Vatical Official

Of course Saddam also had some Christians in his government. Hussein was basically a secularist. As such, he was hated by radical Islamists such as Bin Laden.

Iraqi Christians were safer under Saddam, says Vatican official

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Although Iraq has a democratic government, Iraqi Christians were safer and had more protection under former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, said the future head of the Vatican's interreligious dialogue council.

During the buildup to the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who will become head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue Sept. 1, had criticized the U.S. government's plan of preventative war and said a unilateral war against Iraq would be a "crime against peace."

In a recent interview with the Italian magazine 30 Giorni, the cardinal said his early criticisms had been prophetic.

"The facts speak for themselves. Alienating the international community (with the U.S. push for war) was a mistake," he said in the magazine's Aug. 10 issue. A copy of the interview was released in advance to journalists.

He said an "unjust approach" was used to unseat Saddam from power, resulting in the mounting chaos in Iraq today.

"Power is in the hands of the strongest -- the Shiites -- and the country is sinking into a sectarian civil war (between Sunni and Shiite Muslims) in which not even Christians are spared," he said.

Christians, "paradoxically, were more protected under the dictatorship," he said.

Cardinal Tauran is a longtime veteran of the Vatican's diplomatic service and a specialist in international affairs. He was Pope John Paul II's "foreign minister," the official who dealt with all aspects of the Vatican's foreign policy from 1990 to 2003.

He said his new appointment as head of the interreligious dialogue council carries "great responsibility" but that he also sees it "as a new chapter in my service to the Holy See." The cardinal will be responsible for overseeing the Vatican's dialogue efforts with representatives of non-Christian religions, including Islam.

His June 25 appointment alleviated concerns that Pope Benedict XVI's temporary merger of the presidencies of the Vatican's interreligious dialogue council with the Pontifical Council for Culture indicated a downgrading of the Vatican's interfaith efforts.

Cardinal Tauran told 30 Giorni, "We have to do everything so that religions spread brotherhood and not hatred."

The Vatican's efforts at bridge-building with Muslims hit a speed bump when the pope's remarks on Islam in a September speech in Regensburg, Germany, prompted negative reactions across the Muslim world.

When asked if the pope's Regensberg address had compromised the Vatican's dialogue efforts with Muslims, the cardinal replied, "At first, yes."

"But later, especially during his subsequent trip to Turkey, the pope explained himself very well," the cardinal said.

He said Pope Benedict has great respect for Muslims.

The controversies that arose after Regensburg only highlighted the importance of having a specific Vatican department dedicated to dialogue with Islam and other religions, he said.

"Thank God the erroneous interpretations of the Regensburg speech did not stop the development of relations -- diplomatic, too -- with Islamic nations," he said, giving the example of the recent establishment of full diplomatic relations between the United Arab Emirates and the Vatican.

Cardinal Tauran said that as head of the Vatican's interreligious dialogue office he would use as his guide the Second Vatican Council's declaration on relations with non-Christian religions, "Nostra Aetate."

"To examine everything humanity has in common ... and to appreciate how much truth and holiness there is in other religions" would be some of the council's goals, he said.

But the quest to understand others will leave room to courageously pay witness to "the way, truth, and life" of Jesus, he said.

"In this sense," he said, "our road map is obviously the declaration 'Dominus Iesus,'" the 2000 document of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which said Christ and the church are necessary for salvation.

Interreligious dialogue should not promote the idea that all religions are equal, he said, but that all religions "which are seeking God must be respected because they have the same dignity."

END

Christians in Iraq face Uncertain Future

The article fails to note that under Saddam Hussein the situation for Christians in Iraq was actually better it would seem. There were even important Christians such as Tariq Aziz in his government but now I doubt there are any in government. I wonder how many have fled along with other refugees.

Christians face uncertain future in anarchic Iraq
By Agence France Presse (AFP)

Monday, July 09, 2007




BAGHDAD: "For the sake of our country, that life may return to Iraq and all its sons enjoy safety, peace and stability, amen." With this nervous prayer of hope, 59 Iraqi boys and girls became full members of Baghdad's dwindling Christian flock.

Dressed in habits like novice monks and nuns, the youngsters came to the Our Lady of Salvation church to take first communion, a rare sight in a city where their minority is keeping an increasingly low profile.

As proud parents looked on, the latest generation of one of the world's oldest Christian communities prayed for an end to the bitter civil war that threatens to drive them from their ancestral homeland.

"I prayed to God to keep my mom and dad and all the family safe. I asked Jesus Christ to keep everyone safe," said 11-year-old Rita Sabah, as her brother Youssef nodded and said: "Amen." Their playmate Matti had an even heavier burden to bear.

"I prayed that Jesus returns my father safe," he said. Nine months ago, Matti's dad was kidnapped by one of the many gangs that roam Baghdad. He has not been heard from since.

"O Christians, do not fret over the threats of the evil-doers," intoned Archbishop Athanase Matti Matoka of the Syrian Catholic Church.

"Christians ought not to fear challenges as Jesus said: 'I am with you until doomsday'," he told the congregation. "Our Christian people are suffering from persecution in parts of Baghdad and some other cities," he lamented.

Before the US-led invasion of March 2003, there were thought to be around 800,000 Christians in Iraq, around three percent of the otherwise largely Muslim population, living mainly in urban centers such as Baghdad.

However, perceived perhaps unfairly to be wealthy, many Christians fell prey to kidnap and ransom gangs and many - probably more than half - of them have fled the country or moved to the relative safety of Iraqi Kurdistan.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb

Now, as the war rages on into a fifth year, views have hardened and some Muslim extremist groups have begun to persecute the Christians.

Militant groups such as Al-Qaeda and its front organization, the so-called Islamic State of Iraq, are targeting Christians on purely sectarian grounds, accusing them of siding with the "Crusader" US forces.

There are reports that in parts of Baghdad and Mosul, some imams have issued edicts ordering the death or conversion of Christians who refuse to flee.

Amid the danger, however, Baghdad's remaining Christians continue to try to preserve the rituals that bind their community together.

"The children have been meeting here for more than a month, receiving Christian teachings to prepare to receive the communion despite these circumstances," Archbishop Matoka told AFP at the church.

"In the past we used to collect the pupils in the church car but this year their parents have to bring them to the church because of the bad security situation," he explained.

Several Baghdad Christian churches have cancelled their annual first communion ceremonies to avoid attracting danger, he said, but the Syrian Catholic Church decided to go ahead despite the risks.

"Our future is in the hands of God, but we know and see there is a hellish scheme to expel Christians from Iraq and the Middle East. I hope this will not happen. Christianity was born in these countries so how could we leave them? We have martyrs these days," the archbishop said.

"Many priests have been kidnapped and slaughtered. Terrorists are compelling Christians to convert to Islam or be killed ... Jesus told us: 'I would send you as sheep among wolves. Don't be afraid. I am with you." - AFP