Vicar of Baghdad: ‘We Have Been Left and We Have Nothing!’

By Michael Ireland
Senior International Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

BAGHDAD, IRAQ (ANS) -- Following the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, the Christian minority faces continued sectarian violence, political mayhem, unemployment, lack of security, failing health care and the inability to buy food.

Canon Andrew White, the ‘Vicar of Baghdad'

According to the popular cleric, Canon Andrew White, the ‘Vicar of Baghdad’ who serves St. George’s Church in Baghdad, conditions have grown worse for the Christian community since the American departure. Among the exclamations of the Christians in Iraq is the statement: “We Have Been Left and We Have Nothing!”

Canon White told ANS in a recent update: “None of us thought there would be any change here after the US troops left. They had not been seen on the streets for two years. We were totally wrong: from the day that the US military left we were in total chaos and disarray.

“Violence increased, religious sectarianism increased again in force. We could not even enter the Green Zone, as any badges issued by the US were no longer valid; the new badges were simply not being issued. Total mayhem politically began with the prime minister issuing a warrant for the arrest of the Vice President Tariq Al Hashami. He was accused of terrorism, and sadly there was a lot of evidence to suggest this was true.”

White said that with this action, great significance was placed on the fact that the Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki was Shia and the Vice President was the most senior Sunni political figure in the country. “Terrible sectarian violence targeting the Shia has begun,” White said.

White continued: “There were also coordinated attacks on the institutions of the state, including on the Foreign Ministry, which is very close to St. George’s Church. With the arrest warrant for the Sunni Vice President issued by the Shia Prime Minister, the fragile coalition government is fracturing down sectarian lines and turning violently on itself.

“What I most feared would happen, is happening. I said all along that it wouldn’t make any difference to us if the Americans leave. I was really wrong,” said White.

White stated: “It is becoming really difficult in Iraq right now. Before, we knew that the US were just around the corner, so we could get them if we needed them, but now they are not there. But we won’t give up, we won’t stop our work, and by God’s grace we will keep going.”

Canon White said events in Iraq have escalated in recent days, as the departure of the US troops appears to have sparked a series of attacks and disputes within the divided country.

Just one week ago, US President Barack Obama declared: “We are leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government elected by its people."

White says the reality is “swiftly proving to contradict the President’s words.”

Canon white said there have been attempts to ransack both al Hashami’s office and that of al Maliki in recent days.

“There has even been a car bomb in the supposedly secure Green Zone. The attacks form part of wider and increasing sectarian violence in Iraqi society,” he said.

He continued: “Even as the US troops left Iraq, the fear of the Christians and other minorities has increased. They say, ‘At least before, under the old regime we were protected; now we have nothing. Those who have set us free from an evil dictator have now left us and we have nothing.’”

White asks: “What is this ‘nothing’? It is no security (where) before the Christians, as minorities, were protected. The evil regime of Saddam (Hussein) was led by man who was not the Shia majority but a Sunni from the second group not the first. When the foreign troops were here, even though we often did not see them, they were not far away and if and when we needed them they were there.

“There are times when we ourselves face great danger. Our people have been slaughtered, massacred and murdered, but now we have nobody to turn to. There has been much talk about the security needs of our people. The Iraqi Government has tried to do what it can, but we do not live in a ghetto. The Christians are based all over Iraq, but especially in Baghdad and Nineveh/Mosul. 2,700 years after Jonah, Nineveh is still the place where all Christians come from. So the Christians and all minorities are less safe than they have ever been,” Canon White said.

“ ‘Nothing’ is far more than security though. Employment is far more limited, not least for women. The main industry is now security, and for the Christians -- educated women -- things are more difficult than ever in an increasingly orthodox Islamic state. A state where the rights of women have sadly diminished,” he said.

“No employment means no money, and that means no ability to buy food, pay rent for housing, or even possess proper health care. The health care system here in Iraq has seriously collapsed. The hospitals are falling to pieces and many of its leading doctors have been killed, kidnapped or have fled from Iraq.”

Canon White said that although he may be the leader of a church, “but after services each week I also have to give all my 4,000 plus people food for the week.

“We have had to establish a large clinic with doctors, dentists, laboratory, and specialist units and also a pharmacy. All treatment is totally free -- and it is not just restricted to Christians either, but is totally open to all and is totally free of charge. In addition to these services we also have also built a school to provide excellent education to our many children. It is fortunate that we can provide this service for our people, but we did not envisage that this long after 2003 we would still have to, but we do. 

“Iraq today is still an insecure place where most of the people have nothing.”

White added: “Things are difficult for all Iraqis, but for us as minorities, it is particularly so. The violence here is known about and is terrible and much of it has come from outside, but now we have another huge problem. It is such a big issue that three years ago we became the top nation in the world in this crime; it is nothing less than corruption. Corruption that is so great that we no longer know whom we can even trust.”

Canon White explained that when the Coalition Provisional Authority took control of the nation in 2003, he remembers telling one of the diplomatic leaders that “we needed to deal with the issue of religion in order to prevent religious sectarian violence.

“I was told that this was not really an issue in Iraq. First, I was told that water and electricity needed to be dealt with. It was only a few weeks later that this diplomat came to me and said that he could not even deal with water and electricity because religion kept getting in the way.”

Canon White went on to say that it was William Temple, the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Second World War, who said, “When religion goes wrong it goes very wrong.”

“Sadly, that is what has happened here. Religion here now is not seen as a tranquil means of relating to the Almighty, but a means of fighting for the rights of their own. A fight that sadly often involves violence. The fight that recently arose from Sunni to Shia was just a further symptom of this sectarian violence. If religion is the cause of the violence, it must also be the cure. That is the work of the High Council of Religious Leaders in Iraq that we established in 2004,” he said.

“Many were killed and injured,” said White. “We, as religious, began an urgent process to try reducing the sectarian violence. We met in Najaf, the Holiest City in the world to the Shia. For the first time ever we took some of the Sunni religious leaders to Najaf, we heard first hand from the Shia religious leaders of their immense fear of the renewed sectarian violence. A few days later we met with a large number of Sunni leaders in Baghdad. Together we produced an Islamic Fatwa (injunction) against the Sunni attacking and killing the Shia. Much of diplomatic world still fails to see that this problem of ‘Religion gone very Wrong’ has to be dealt with by religion itself. That is why we are here and what we try and do.”

Canon White concluded: “Sadly, this radical sectarianism is no longer just restricted to Iraq -- the so called Arab Spring has greatly increased this risk of this sectarianism in the whole of the region. Will there now be a lot more minorities in the region saying, ‘We have nothing?’

“I have just come from our prayer meeting and I told people about today’s update and they said, "Everybody may have left us, but Yeshua (Jesus) has not!"

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** Michael Ireland is the Senior International Correspondent for ANS. He is an international British freelance journalist who was formerly a reporter with a London (United Kingdom) newspaper and has been a frequent contributor to UCB UK, a British Christian radio station. While in the UK, Michael traveled to Canada and the United States, Albania,Yugoslavia, Holland, Germany,and Czechoslovakia. He has reported for ANS from Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Israel, Jordan, China,and Russia. Michael's volunteer involvement with ASSIST News Service is a sponsored ministry department -- 'Michael Ireland Media Missionary' (MIMM) -- of A.C.T. International of P.O.Box 1649, Brentwood, TN 37024-1649, at: Artists in Christian Testimony (A.C.T.) International where you can make a donation online under 'Donate' tab, then look for 'Michael Ireland Media Missionary' under 'Donation Category' to support his stated mission of 'Truth Through Christian Journalism.' Michael is a member in good standing of the National Writers Union, Society of Professional Journalists, Religion Newswriters Association, Evangelical Press Association and International Press Association. If you have a news or feature story idea for Michael, please contact him at: ANS Senior International Reporter

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Iraq: propaganda versus reality

-- a call to pray for Iraqi’s imperilled remnant Christians as US and NATO troops withdraw

By Elizabeth Kendal
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) 138 
Special to ASSIST News Service

AUSTRALIA (ANS) -- By 31 December 2011 all US and NATO troops will have completely withdrawn from Iraq. Whilst the US and NATO had wanted to keep thousands of military trainers there, the Iraqi parliament -- dominated by pro-Iran Shi'ites -- ruled that any remaining military personnel would be subject to Iraqi laws and jurisprudence. Without immunity from prosecution, US and NATO forces would not stay. However, if the propaganda is to be believed, the decimated, imperilled, besieged Christian minority will have nothing to fear when the last US and NATO forces leave Iraq after Christmas. On Monday 12 December, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met with US President Barak Obama at the White House in Washington. The two men had nothing but praise for how the Iraq adventure has turned out. PM al-Maliki boasted, 'We have proven success. Nobody imagined that we would succeed in defeating terrorism and al Qaeda.' President Obama likewise effused that Iraq can be 'a model for others aspiring to build democracy'. The reality, however, is somewhat different.

The Superior of the Dominicans in Baghdad, Fr Amir Jaje, described the atmosphere in Baghdad ahead of the US-NATO withdrawal as 'tense'. 'The extremists,' he reports, 'are taking advantage of tensions to make their voices heard and the faithful are increasingly distressed.'

The Latin Archbishop of Baghdad, Mgr Jean Benjamin Sleiman, told Aid to the Church in Need that Iraqi Christians are preparing for a 'Christmas under siege'. Traditions will be quietly kept in the privacy of family homes, while Christmas Masses will only be celebrated during the day for safety reasons. 'It will be a Christmas, between fear and sturdy faith.' Christians, he said, have been reduced to dhimmitude: a state of subjugation, without rights. Helpless before endless mafia and militia attacks, they are forced to pay the jizya (protection money) as mandated in the Qur'an, Sura 9:29.

The situation in the Nineveh Plains of Northern Iraq -- the ancient Assyrian homeland -- is no better. On 2 December, following Friday prayers, thousands of Muslims went on a pogrom through the predominantly Assyrian northern town of Zakho. They looted and torched businesses they deemed 'haram', that is, forbidden in Islam. After torching a Chinese massage centre, the rioters moved on to raze liquor stores, hotels and beauty salons -- most of which were run by Assyrian Christians, others by Kurdish Yazidis. According to eyewitnesses, some rioters tried to attack the Christian quarter of the town. Fortunately those guarding the political offices fired over their heads, dispersing the mob. The Kurdistan Islamic Union is believed to have instigated the violence. That local Muslims could be so easily incited into such a destructive pogrom is of great concern. Nobody expects things to improve after the US-NATO forces leave. 'It's a big mess,' said David Lazar of the American Mesopotamian Organization. When asked who would be there to ensure the safety of Christians he answered, 'Basically, no one.'

Archbishop Louis Sako of the Chaldean Catholic Church in the northern provinces of Kirkuk and Sulimaniya has expressed the fear that, if the persecution continues with such intensity, 'Iraq could be emptied of Christians' completely. The Director of the Christian Defense Coalition, Rev Patrick J Mahoney, is likewise concerned, stating that unless the situation is addressed 'the public expression of Christianity will be exterminated. America must realise,' he adds, 'that this horrible extermination of Christians is directly related to our failure in ensuring their safety. It is a tragedy that America's involvement in Iraq did not bring liberation for Christians but brutality, oppression and possible extinction. We cannot abandon them. We must do better.'

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT --

• Iraqi Christians will draw closer to Jesus, their Saviour, be more reliant on the Holy Spirit, their strength, and more dependent on God, their sovereign, faithful Rock. 'In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.' (Isaiah 30:15 ESV)
  
• God will bless all Christian witness -- active and passive -- with effectual saving power,'because only through Christ is it [the veil that covers the unbeliever's heart, hardening their mind] taken away.' (2 Corinthians 3:14-16) 'Therefore [believers] be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour [including suffering and death] is not in vain.' (1 Corinthians 15:58 ESV)
  
• God will intervene to bring security to Iraq's remnant Christians. (Isaiah 59:15b-19)

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Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate. This prayer bulletin was initially written for the Australian Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (AEA RLC). Elizabeth Kendal's blogs: Religious Liberty Monitoring and Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin

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Group Calls for Obama Administration to Protect Christians and Other Religious Minorities in Iraq

The Christian Defense Coalition states if America does not address this issue, the public expression of Christianity in Iraq will be exterminated.

 

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Christian Defense Coalition prays that President Obama will raise the issue of persecution of religious minorities when he meets with Prime Minister Maliki today at the White House.

 

Less than 15 years ago, there were 1.6 million Christians in Iraq. Today there are less than 400,000. The tragic reality is, America's military intervention in Iraq, without a plan to protect Christians, has resulted in this horrible persecution and oppression.

 

The Christian Defense Coalition led a delegation to meet with Prime Minister Maliki in Baghdad to discuss and pray for the plight of persecuted Christians in Iraq in 2007 (photo Rev. Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney and Prime Minister Maliki in Baghdad).

 

Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition and leader of the delegation to Iraq, states:

 

"We call upon President Obama to passionately address the issue of the persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq when he meets with Prime Minister Maliki today.

 

"The truth is, if the Obama Administration does not confront this crushing of human rights and religious freedom in Iraq the public expression of Christianity will be exterminated in that country. If that happens, the United States will have to shoulder much of the blame because our military intervention into Iraq created an environment for this horrible religious persecution.

 

"How can we pull out of Iraq without a clear plan for protecting Christians and other religious minorities? America must realize that this horrible extermination of Christians is directly related to our failure in ensuring their safety.

 

"It is a tragedy that America's involvement in Iraq did not bring liberation for Christians but brutality, oppression and possible extinction. 

 

"We cannot abandon them. We must do better."

 

U.S. Refugee Clampdown Leaves Iraqi Christians in Limbo

By Julian Lukins 
Special to ASSIST News Service

SEQUIM, WA (ANS) -- Hundreds of Christians fleeing persecution in Iraq have had their bid to resettle in the United States dashed by new security measures.

Iraqi refugees arriving in the US

According to Baltimore-based refugee resettlement agency World Relief, 14,000 refugees have been placed “on hold” overseas since June, creating a “massive” backlog.

Most of them are Iraqis fleeing troubles in Iraq – and about 40 percent of them are persecuted Christians, said World Relief’s Jenny Yang.

Hundreds of refugees – unable to return home because of fears for their safety – have been denied entry to the U.S. as authorities seek to weed out potential terrorists, Yang said.

The clampdown began after two Iraqis were arrested in Kentucky in May and charged with aiding al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Beefed-up background checks have clogged the refugee pipeline, preventing Iraqi Christians and others from receiving clearance to come to the U.S., said Yang, the agency’s advocacy director.

Refugee admissions into the U.S. have nosedived in recent months since the enhanced U.S. Department of Homeland Security checks were introduced, according to David Mills, World Relief’s refugee program manager, who said the agency’s caseload was slashed by a third.

U.S. refugee admissions fell drastically following the 9/11 attacks, but picked up in recent years, approaching pre-9/11 levels.

Iraqi refugees escapting the violence, but still in the Middle East

Nearly half of all Iraqi refugees – 47 percent – were being denied entry to the U.S. because of the new security measures which block anyone with “irregularities” in their case review, Mills said. Irregularities – such as gaps in documentation – are common because many refugees flee their homes at a moment’s notice, often with no official papers. Many Middle Easterners, Iraqis in particular, have similar names and a refugee can be mistakenly confused with a name on a terror watchlist.

“We’ve heard of an 80-year-old grandmother being denied (entry),” Mills said.

The precise reason why individuals are refused refugee status in the U.S. is unclear, Yang said. “When we’ve raised these cases, we’ve not gotten any clear reasons yet,” she said. “It’s causing a lot of confusion.”

Julian Lukins on a reporting trip to Cambodia

Victims of persecution include those who are harassed or discriminated against and those threatened with physical violence or imprisonment because of their religious beliefs.

The clampdown is especially hurting Iraqi Chaldean Christians, according to Rafat Ita, a social worker in the Detroit area where 160,000 Chaldeans live – the largest settlement outside Iraq.

“These (Christian refugees) cannot go back to Iraq because they could be killed,” he said. “Now they are stuck in neighboring countries where they cannot work, cannot go to school and cannot worship freely. The only hope they have is to come to America and now that hope is in ruins.”

Ita, an Iraqi Chaldean immigrant who works with Lutheran Social Services, said refugee admissions had slowed to a trickle and he does not see the situation changing any time soon.

Iraqi Christians living in the Detroit area are desperate to be reunited with close family members stranded overseas.

“We’re not a violent group,” Ita said. “We’re Christians who believe in peace.”

Meanwhile, Christians and others fleeing religious persecution in Iran have hit a stumbling block to beginning a new life in America, traditionally a place of refuge for Iranian evangelicals fearful for their lives.

Hundreds of persecuted Iranian Christians are in limbo in Austria after the sudden halt of a U.S. program aimed at protecting religious minorities. Since 1989, the U.S. program has given asylum to 440,000 persecuted Christians and others from Iran, as well as Christians and Jews from the former Soviet Union.

More than a hundred members of the U.S. Congress are pushing for the program to be re-started, calling it “a critical safety valve.”

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Julian Lukins, a former daily newspaper reporter in the UK, is a writer and journalist based in Washington State. He has reported extensively on Christian persecution and other issues affecting Christians worldwide. He can be contacted by e-mail at: jlukins@msn.com

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The Double Lives of Iraq’s Christian Children

Converts from Islam find persecution is tolerable until it affects their little ones.

By Damaris Kremida

 

Surush and his sister

ERBIL, Iraq, October 11 (Compass Direct News) – Little Nuria and her sisters love singing songs about Jesus. But when people Nuria doesn’t know ask her if she’s a Christian, she doesn’t know what to answer; instead, she looks questioningly at her mother or father.

 

She is 6 years old and goes to a Christian school in Kirkuk, Iraq. When her aunts and uncles visit, her mother purges the house of anything that points to their Christian faith: the cross on the wall, the Bible, her Christian storybooks. Nuria knows her relatives are Muslims, but sometimes she forgets and she or one of her sisters starts to hum a Christian tune.

 

The relatives don’t like this and tell the parents to teach them Muslim songs.

 

“When our relatives come from Baghdad, we need to move everything that is Christian,” Nuria’s mother said. “In short, we are living two lives. It is very hard on children. We are adults, and it is hard for us to live double lives, but for children it is worse. Even their personality will be affected.”

 

Nuria and her family, whose names must be withheld for their safety, are Iraqi Arabs who converted from Islam to Christianity. Whereas Assyrian Iraqis are accepted as Christians by ethnic identity, Iraqi Muslims believe Arabs have no business becoming Christians; it is not possible, according to society and the constitution.

 

Nuria’s parents, like many converts in Iraq, struggle to raise their children as Christians in a society that will only accept them as Muslims. If the children say they believe in Jesus, they face beatings and scorn from their teachers. Because their identification cards say they are Muslims, they cannot enroll in Christian schools, and they must take Islamic religion classes. Likewise, because of their identity cards they later would only be able to marry another Muslim under Islamic rites.

 

In an Iraq torn by national and religious divides, there is no safe haven for Nuria’s family or other Arab families who convert from Islam. Generally big cities are good places for Christians like them to hide, away from extended families who would detect strange behavior like visits to church on Sundays. Even then, however, Muslim neighbors or employers who discover they are converts can make their lives unbearable.

 

Nuria’s parents became Christians seven years ago. Life was easier for her parents before she and her sisters went to school. Her dad, a carpenter, used to speak openly about his faith. These days he is not so brave; he has had to change jobs one too many times because his employers discovered his faith.

 

“The first years of my faith, I brought so many people to church, because I was motivated, so excited,” he said. “Now I don’t encourage anyone to be a Christian, because in my experience it is very hard.”

 

These days his landlord, in a mixed Kirkuk neighborhood where mostly Kurds and Assyrians live, has also figured out he is a Christian. The Muslim landlord is offering him either a rent raise or eviction; there’s also the option of “going into business” with the landlord by sharing his carpentry work profits with him. Such extortion is all too common.

 

This is the fifth house they have lived in since 2003, when the family came to faith.

 

Complications

Matters for converts get more complicated when children enter in. Nuria’s parents want to freely train her and her siblings in the ways of Christianity, but the Iraqi constitution makes it practically impossible for them to make any peace with their new identities.

 

Nuria’s older sister just finished elementary school at an institution for Assyrian (Christian) children in Kirkuk. But before the new school year began, the principal of the school called in her parents to tell them he could not take responsibility for their daughter being able to finish the school year.

 

He had to report the names and identifications of the school’s students to the ministry of education, he explained, and if authorities saw he had a “Muslim” student in attendance, he could face criminal charges. Fortunately for the family, her “Muslim” ID went unnoticed.

The family, however, withdrew her from the Christian school to register her in a private school with a state-approved curriculum that includes religion classes on Islam so she can finish her schooling.

 

“My children are suffering,” Nuria’s father said. “We are moving from neighborhood to neighborhood, but my children are suffering from this. I will put my two daughters in private school. The church will pay for one, and I will pay for the other.”

 

Nuria’s father said that the next step for the family is to look for a new house, but he knows that this won’t solve the problem of his children’s identity, nor the conflict he feels with his chosen faith.

 

“Some people tell me it’s my fault we have troubles because I tell people I am a Christian,” he said. “I am so confused. Even some Christians tell me it’s my problem. I am reading the Bible, and it says that whoever denies God in public, God will also deny him, so what can I do?”

 

Just 87 kilometers (54 miles) north lies the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which is administrated by the Kurdistan Regional Government. Checkpoints and patrols along the road ensure the relative peace the Kurdish region has seen in the last eight years. They also ensure that Arabs cannot enter the north. Nuria’s family was held at Erbil’s checkpoint for two hours on their way to meet Compass, while Assyrians with crosses dangling over their dashboards were cleared for entrance into Erbil in just minutes.

 

Kirkuk, where Nuria’s family lives, is one of Iraq’s most ethnically diverse cities, a reflection of Iraq’s larger ethnic, political and religious fragmentation. Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen, along with a shrinking Assyrian Christian community, populate oil-rich Kirkuk. The disputed city has seen much violence as political opportunists try to tip the scales of power. Bomb blasts, killings and kidnappings are common fare here.

 

On the city’s outskirts on the road to Baghdad, authorities on Oct. 1 found the body of a Christian, Hanna Polos Emmanuel, 60, according to Asia News. No one knows why he was killed. On Sept. 21, unidentified gunmen kidnapped three Assyrian Christians and one Turkmen Iraqi on a hunting trip south of Kirkuk, according to Alsumaria TV. They were released after their families paid ransom.

 

In the previous two months, the Protestant church Nuria’s family attends has seen two attempted bombings. There have been at least three bombings against other churches in the city since the beginning of August.

 

What first attracted Nuria’s parents to Christianity was the freedom it offered. But as Arabs in Kirkuk, the family feels trapped.

 

“In the beginning we didn’t think about these problems, because we didn’t have the problem with schools,” Nuria’s father said. “But now I feel more depressed. Our responsibility is more pressure and work.”

 

His wife explained that as Arab converts to Christianity, moving to Baghdad where their family lives is not an option, but neither is moving to the Kurdish part of Iraq. Though Christians there enjoy some freedoms, as Arabs they will always be looked at with suspicion. As a result, it would be difficult to find employment.

 

“Even if it seems easier to run from this situation, we cannot,” she said. “It is easier to leave Kirkuk, but we cannot.”

 

Fight for a Better Future

A Kurdish convert to Christianity, Majeed Muhammed, is fighting for his children’s right to not have “Muslim” written on their IDs. He lives in the Kurdish Region’s capital, Erbil, just over an hour’s drive north of Kirkuk.

 

In Iraq, children automatically take the religion of their father. For the last five years, Muhammed has been fighting for his eldest to have the right to choose his own religion. Next year the boy is due to begin first grade with identification card in hand, but he has none. Majeed never recorded his sons’ births in the municipality because he didn’t want them to grow up with “Muslim” stamped on their identification cards.

 

“My son, he has a right – not only to study, but a civil and personal right, [yet] he can’t even have a passport,” Muhammed said. “If I wanted or needed to travel with my family, I cannot take them.”

 

Muhammed has also tried to change the religious designation on his own ID card – he is the only Christian convert in Iraq who has tried to do so. Every lawyer he has asked to take on his case has flatly refused to represent him. In 2008, with the legal counsel of a friend, Muhammed went to an Erbil personal cases court to submit his petition, typing his request that his identification state “Christian.”

 

“As declared clearly, I am requesting to change the column of religion from Muslim to Christian on my identification card by virtue of the mentioned articles declared in Iraq’s Federal Constitution, which is confirmed as the highest law,” Muhammed wrote in his statement.

 

Iraq’s Federal Constitution says each individual has freedom of thought, conscience and belief, but there is no article on changing one’s religion. This makes it legally impossible to apply freedom of belief in the cases of converts, said a Christian Iraqi lawyer on the condition of anonymity. 

 

The judge refused to accept or deny Muhammed’s request, telling him that the case was “impossible” and could not be tried in Iraqi courts.

 

This is the last year Muhammed has to advocate not only for his sons but for all Kurdish Iraqis who have converted from Islam to Christianity. The senior pastor of the Kurdzman Church of the Kurdish region, Muhammed said there are up to 2,000 Kurdish converts to Christianity, but only 200 of them would be brave enough to sign a petition for their IDs to state “Christian.”

 

This year he plans to tell as many people as he can about the struggle of Kurdish Christian converts.

 

“I’m living in Iraq, I’m living in Kurdistan, so I should have the rights of any citizen in Kurdistan just like they do,” Muhammed said. “I didn’t ask the government to treat me the way European citizens are treating their citizens. What is possible? What is reasonable?”

 

Kurdish Christians are asking for only basic religious freedom, he said.

 

“The government said, ‘We will not support you financially,’ and we said, ‘OK, no problem.’ They said, ‘Don’t evangelize in the street publicly;’ we said, ‘OK, we won’t do that. But you should give us another chance. We want to register [as Christians].’”

 

Muhammed’s 6-year-old son, Jeener, is attending a private Christian kindergarten this year, and last year he asked his father if he could send him to one of the government schools; Muhammed refused. He told Compass that sometimes when his son hears the mullahs begin the call for prayer with the words, “Allahu Akbar [God is the greatest],” Jeener asks what they are saying.

 

“I tell him that some people are talking about God,” Muhammed said. “He says: ‘Why are they not coming to our church?’ [I say], ‘Because they don’t believe in Jesus.’ He says: ‘I hate them.’ I say, ‘No, don’t hate them.’”

 

When his son asks why he can’t go to their school, he replies, “Because they are talking about ‘Allahu Akbar,’” Muhammed said. “He says, ‘OK, I will not go there.’”

 

Next year Muhammed needs to send his son to first grade, and he said that if he doesn’t issue an ID for him by then he could face criminal charges, and the possibility of a prison sentence and fine, for not registering his son with authorities.

 

It is impossible for him to explain to his son the efforts he is making for him, he said, and even more unlikely that he will succeed in them.

 

Children with No Friends

Surush Bidookh has been beaten and insulted for his Christian faith, yet he is only 9 years old. His family fled to Iraq from Iran for political reasons before he was born. They came to Christianity in Iraq.

 

Surush’s parents, seeing what their children have to bear for their choice, are weary and wonder if their children’s lives would be easier in a Western country where so many Christian converts have already fled.

 

His father, Siyamand Bidookh, has a story similar to that of other converts to Christianity: the persecution was tolerable until it started to affect his children. Bidookh, a pastor among the Iranian community in Erbil where he is known as Pastor Said, and his wife have received numerous death threats in Iraq for being converts to Christianity.

 

Their IDs state they are “Muslim,” and so do their children’s. Authorities and neighbors assume they are Muslim because they come from an Islamic country and are infuriated when they hear that these foreigners have turned their backs on the national religion of Iran.

 

When Surush started first grade in Erbil, a teacher beat him in front of the class and told him he was a “kafir” (infidel) like his father. Bidookh spoke to the principal, who let the boy stay out of religion classes. This year, before Surush was to start third grade, however, the new principal of the school called Bidookh and his son to his office and told them that if Surush did not pass the religion exam, he would hold him back a year.

 

Last year Bidookh’s daughter, Sevda, who was in kindergarten, came home from school and asked why her teacher said their family was going to “burn” for being Christians. After this she was too afraid to go to school and stopped attending for the rest of the year.

 

“When my kids go to school and say hello to the teachers, they don’t respond,” their mother said. “I say to them, ‘What kind of an example are you setting for these kids?’”

 

The Bidookhs say their children have no friends in the neighborhood. Most play time ends with their children’s toys stolen and their children either beaten or scorned. They don’t let them play outside anymore.

 

“How can a 9-year-old not have friends?” Surush’s mother said. “What kind of a man will he grow up to be?”

 

These days they wonder if escaping to a different country is a better solution for their three children. 

 

“I never went to God, and I didn’t look for Him,” Bidookh said. “He came to me and turned me into a pastor to serve the Iranians here. My life is in His hands. I will go where He sends me.”

 

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END

 

*** A photo of Surush and Sevda is attached for subscribers, to be used with credit to Compass Direct News. A high resolution photo is also available; contact Compass for transmittal.

 

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Copyright 2011 Compass Direct News