|
Published: January 1, 2007
“Wherever they go, they will be persecuted”
The fall of Saddam Hussein has been anything but a blessing to Iraqi Christians
(This is part 1 of a 3-part series on the plight of Chaldean Catholics in Iraq.)
In what Muslims insist is a “Holy War” against the godless West, the biggest losers may be Iraqi Christians, a group that enjoyed relative safety under the regime of Saddam Hussein. For parishioners of St. Peter’s Chaldean Rite Cathedral in El Cajon, the new cost of being a Christian hits dangerously close to home.
Chaldean Catholics are in full union with the Roman Catholic Church, but their liturgy and sacraments are offered according to their own unique rite. The Chaldean Rite dates back centuries and is one of 22 Eastern Rite churches united with Latin Rite Catholics under the authority of the pope.
Kamal Alsawaf, 52, a native of Mosul, Iraq, has lived in El Cajon since 1979. Although he is no fan of Saddam Hussein, Alsawaf says that Christians had a much easier life under Saddam’s regime and that of his predecessor, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr. “Under the Ba’th party, we weren’t truly free, because like the rest of the country, we knew we were being watched, but Christians had the freedom to practice their religion,” said Alsawaf. “We’d mind our own business and nobody bothered us.”
Dr. Nori Barka, 52, another member of St. Peter’s, agrees. A U.S. resident since 1986, Barka comes from Telaskuf, a village near Mosul. He says that under Hussein, Christians enjoyed economic prosperity and were left alone. “Muslims, by their own law cannot sell liquor, but Christians can — even though Muslims are the biggest drinkers! So Christians owned liquor stores and owned and supplied restaurants. So most of the time a Christian owned the business and the Muslim would drink.”
Hussein’s fall ended any tolerance for Christians. Barka says that first they would be told that they had to shut down their businesses. “Now their houses are threatened and told they have to move. You will find a letter at your door that says, ‘Leave your house and move from this area.’”
Alsawaf says that most of the refugees end up in Syria, Jordan, Turkey or Lebanon. “We want to keep our identity there (Iraq). Now these people have left their homes, belongings and don’t have anything. The government won’t call it a civil war, because if they do, the West has to take care of all the refugees, creating more of a mess. These are hard-working people who didn’t want to leave. They were forced to. Wherever they go, they will be persecuted.”
|
No reader comments yet - post yours now
|
© California Catholic Daily 2007. All Rights Reserved.
|