Iraqi Christians in a "Sea of Muslims"

CBN ^ | By Chris Mitchell

[Happy2BMe]

Christians in Iraq stand to suffer the most from any regime change in that country. As evil as Saddam is, he holds back horrendous religious persecution to Christians in that country.

[mabelkitty]

I just don't believe it.

[Happy2BMe]

You posted your response less than fifteen seconds after the article was posted.

Apparently you are a gifted speed reader.

As such, which part of it do you find unbelieveable?

[richardtavor]

I almost never remember to pray for the Christians of Iraq, North Korea, China, Iran, etc...(i.e. countries that we don't particularly care for.) I'm adding to my prayer list--thanks for the post.

[STD]

BS, Saddass will kill whomever he wants for any and one reason at all. Regime change and Christian persecution are not linked in any way. Maybe he'll shoot Tariq Azziz! I'll buy the bullet.

[Theo]

Christians in Iraq stand to suffer the most from any regime change in that country. As evil as Saddam is, he holds back horrendous religious persecution to Christians in that country.

I don't see how you can reach that conclusion. It's a very interesting article, but I don't understand what you're saying. Are you saying that the terror that Iraqi Christians live under is better than what they might have if the USA removes Sadaam?

[Happy2BMe]

"Are you saying that the terror that Iraqi Christians live under is better than what they might have if the USA removes Sadaam?"

The terror that Iraqi Christians live under while Saddam is in power is not expected to be any worse than the religious persecution they will encounter once the restraining power of regime no longer holds back the persecutions.

Both are evil, neither is good.

[COBOL2Java]

mabelkitty signed up 2003-01-29.

Welcome to Free Republic...

[k2blader]

Salam said, "My message to every Christian, to people, all Christians around the world: please pray for us, because we need your prayers. " He further said, "They should not depend on their weapons or their army or their strength. They should depend on Jesus, the truth, and power through their praying."

Amen.

Prayer bump.

[Arpege92]

"Christians in Iraq stand to suffer the most from any regime change in that country. As evil as Saddam is, he holds back horrendous religious persecution to Christians in that country"


Saddam holds back his persecution until they step out of line. I don't think he has any great love for them and it's obvious they are afraid of him so it would make more sense to rid Iraq of Saddam if not just for the Christian population but the Muslim population as well. I know some Christians feel afraid even with a Saddam free Iraq but I tend to think the muslims who hate Saddam and the Christians who hate Saddam have that in common and hopefully they can move on with a better understanding of one another.

[hoosierskypilot]

Frankly, I'm amazed that Christians are allowed to exist in Iraq, at all.

[apackof2]

thanks for the article, it reminds me to pray for our Christian brothers and sister in a land occupied by the "religion of peace",(convert or die)

[Happy2BMe]

"Frankly, I'm amazed that Christians are allowed to exist in Iraq, at all."

I don't know any Iraqi Christians personally, but from doing some research, they are given Christmas Day as a legal holiday in Iraq and enjoy more individual liberty than Christians living in other Arab countries of the region.

[hoosierskypilot]

enjoy more individual liberty than Christians living in other Arab countries of the region.

I guess I'm discovering I know less and less about these people all the time. Saddam is one of the most oppressive people on earth, yet he allows some degree of religious freedom. Maybe Saddam isn't as wedded to Islam as, for example, the Saudi hierarchy.

[nickcarraway]

Definitely not.

[Happy2BMe]

"Maybe Saddam isn't as wedded to Islam as, for example, the Saudi hierarchy."

Saddam gives a "nod" to Islam and uses it in his manipulations of Iraqis as it benefits his regime - he is quite secular in lifestyle and living standards (watches American moveies, etc.)

He is often referred to as an "infidel" himself by neighboring Iranian and Saudi Muslims.

[The_Reader_David]

Don't be amazed. The two Muslim countries in which Christians face the least religious persecution are Syria and Iraq. Why? Because their regimes are offically secular, following the Ba'athist ideology, which was explicitly constructed to be a modernizing secular pan-Arabist movement including all Arabs, whether Muslim, Christian or nonbelieving. Moreover, in both countries, the ruling class are drawn from a minority sect of Islam. Hussein's inner circle are Sunnis, while the majority of Iraqis are Shi'ites. Assad's inner circle are Alawites, a curious semi-Christian sect of Shi'a Islam (they celebrate many Christian holidays, have a sort of Eucharist which is supposed to be the blood of Ali, Mohammed's son-in-law whom all Shi'ite regard as his legitimate successor rather than the caliphs) while the majority of Syrians are Sunnis.

Both regimes are therefore strengthened by extending tolerance to other religious minorities, Christians included, who back them in part because of fear of religious persecution by the majority sect if the regime comes undone.

Tariq Aziz is a Chaldean Rite Roman Catholic: he and his priest and bishop are in communion with Rome, but use an order of worship more-or-less identical to the Nestorian "Church of the East" to which the Assyrians traditionally belonged. I believe most Iraqi Christians are still Nestorians.

[Happy2BMe]

Thank you Reader_David - fascinating.

At any rate, in the event of the Hussein regime falling, it will be extremely dangerous times for the Christians in Iraq.

No doubt, this factor is included in the "police action" planning that will follow the aftermath of Saddam.

In-fighting between Muslims is a historical fact. So is persecution of Christians by Islam (and vice-versa).

[Southern Federalist]

Sounds to me like the Christians in Iraq are better off than Christians in most Islamic states, but not any better off than any other Iraqis. That they get to live as well as all the other cattle in the slaughterhouse is a funny reason for suggesting that Saddam has been good for Iraqi Christians.

No one in this interview says that they want Saddam to stay in power, and their unwillingness to answer suggests that they don't. If they supported him, they surely wouldn't have to be afraid to say so. The only person who takes a definite position says that the UN and the US ought to take Saddam out.

It seems to me that these people are saying two things: "War is really horrible" and "It would be even worse for us under Islamists." These are undoubted truths.

But there is no reason to think that very many people in Iraq want an Islamist regime. The most important thing that happened in the Iran-Iraq war is that the dog didn't bark - the Iraqi Shia did not take the side of the Islamic Republic. They viewed themselves as Iraqis fighting Persian foreigners, not Shia being liberated by their Shi'ite brothers. From what I read the large majority of the Iraqi Shia are still not particularly taken with the crazy Persians across the border. The mullahs have agents and groups working for them among the Shia, but I have not heard that they add up to any kind of mass movement.

The situation with the Shia in Iraq is dangerous, but not because of an immediate Islamist threat: it's just always dangerous when a majority of the population is treated like animals for many, many years by a minority. The best way to diffuse that threat is to help Iraq develop a federal republic that treats the Shia like people.

So the idea that Iraq's Christians are threatened by a torrent of virulent Islamism, with Little Saddam alone keeping his finger in the dyke, is entirely misleading. I don't blame the interviewees for worrying about it, however, and we certainly don't want to blow the post-war reconstruction so badly that we actually generate Shia Islamism (i.e., don't let the State Department and the CIA run it).

I conclude from this article that what we can do for the Iraqi Christians is (a) pray for them; (b) be immensely careful about civilian casualties (which we are going to do anyway); (c) don't do something irredeemably stupid after the war; but (d) by all means take out the evil man and the evil regime which force Christian Iraqis and Kurdish Iraqis and Shi'ite Iraqis and Sunni Iraqis and Turkmen Iraqis, all of them, to live in the state of constant pitiful fear depicted in this interview.