The numbers are stark, and the situation is getting worse.
Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, there were 1.2 million
Christians living there. Over 400,000 Christians have left
the country since the war started. Many others have been
kidnapped and killed; some have been crucified; a priest was
beheaded, and an archbishop was kidnapped and killed.
One
Chaldean and one Assyrian Catholic bishop from California
presented a plan for protecting the Iraqi Christians who
stay in spite of the danger and the ongoing discrimination
and persecution. "The Iraqi constitution recognizes liberty
of worship rather than freedom of religion," says Bishop
Sarhad Jammo of El Cajon, CA.
The bishops
told me it was "a make or break moment" for Iraqi
Christians, and it is up to the United States -- and
particularly to American Christians -- to help find a
solution.
My
interview with Mar Sarhad Jammo and Mar Bawai Soro took
place just after their meeting at the White House with
members of the National Security Council. Jammo and Soro
want the United States to support the establishment of an
"Autonomous Area" in northern Iraq where Iraqi Christians
could hold the main governmental positions.
The area
they recommend is on the plains of Nineveh, a loaf-shaped
area of land between the Mosul province and Kurdistan. There
is already a majority of Aramaic-speaking Christians living
there, as they have been for thousands of years. Aramaic is
the language of Jesus, which has been spoken there up to the
present day.
Of the
remaining 800,000 Christians, 65 percent are Chaldeans, 25
percent Syriacs, and 10 percent Assyrians. Many Assyrian
Christians are not in communion with the Catholic Church,
but Bishop Soro, who is Assyrian, recently united with the
Chaldean Catholic Diocese in California along with thousands
of fellow Assyrians.
Bishop
Jammo, whose family originates from the Nineveh plains, sees
this plan as the best way to put an end to the bloodshed and
persecution and provide equality of rights to the Christian
inhabitants, including the rights of religious freedom and
cultural expression and activity.
Bishop Soro
predicted thousands of Iraqi Christians, who fled Iraq in
the last few years, would return if they were not subject to
discrimination on a daily basis, especially if they would
have full freedom and an autonomous area of their own. "In
Iraq right now Christians are second-class citizens." Not
only would the creation of this area defend and restore the
Christian community, it also would provide a "stabilizing
factor" in the entire region.
While the
day to day hardships of Iraqi Christians have been little
reported, some of the atrocities have received worldwide
attention. The kidnapping and crucifixion of Christian
children made the headlines, but it was the kidnapping and
killing of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho that elicited
protests from both Benedict XVI and President Bush.
The day of
my interview with the bishops, the New York Times broke the
story that the reason for Rahho's kidnapping and execution
was his refusal to continue paying protection money to
Muslim gangsters. Rahho somehow used his cell phone to call
friends telling them not to pay any ransom for his return.
His body was found twelve days later.
The
bishops think their proposal is getting serious
consideration by the Bush administration. They hope that
their advocacy will develop into a concrete result.
Their
proposal is titled "The Christian Initiative for a
Successful New Iraq." This autonomous area would be
established within the constitutional frame of Iraq, and
would not be any kind of entity separate from Iraq, as
some have suggested. Nevertheless, it would have a
parliament "elected by all the adult
Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people of the area," as a
component of the Iraqi population.
The
bishops' initiative faces serious political challenges.
A source very familiar with the situation told me that
the idea of an autonomous area would have to be approved
at many levels, beginning with the local governments who
share the Nineveh plain, the Iraqi government including
Prime Minister Maliki, various countries including the
U.S., and the UN and its Security Council. Further, the
proposal of an area under "Christian control" might
actually increase anti-Christian tensions even further.
Bishop
Jammo and Bishop Soro have heard these objections
before, but they are not deterred. "I don't see how the
situation can get any worse," said Bishop Jammo. When I
asked him if the solution was the implementation of the
Iraq Constitution," he replied: "The
Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian People should have
constitutional equality with Arabs and Kurds and that
equality should include an Autonomous Area."
While
Christians in Iraq are being persecuted every day and
deprived of their constitutional rights, the United
States is bending over backwards to maintain good
relations with the Muslim community. In May, Maj.
General Jeffrey Hammond held a meeting with Muslim
leaders after a soldier used a Koran for target
practice.
Gen.
Hammond told them, "In the most humble manner, I look in
your eyes today and I say, please forgive me and my
soldiers."
The
proposal the Chaldean and Assyrian bishops offer the
United States is simply to ask for the same level of
respect for Christians struggling to remain in their
Iraqi homeland.
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