Persecution of Christians in Iraq
From Missiopedia
- Iraq is ranked No. 21 among nations that are the worst persecutors of Christians based on Open Doors 2007 “World Watch List.” Although the constitution recognizes Islam as the official religion and states that no law may be enacted that contradicts the established provisions of Islam, it also guarantees freedom of thought, conscience and religious belief and practice.
- There have been reports of Islamic extremists kidnapping Christians, including at least nine priests, for ransom. On July 17, 2006, a Chaldean priest was kidnapped in Baghdad and released after two days. On August 15, 2006, a Chaldean priest was kidnapped in Baghdad. He was reportedly tortured and released after a month. On September 16, 2006, a Chaldean priest was kidnapped in Baghdad and released two days later. On October 11, 2006, Assyrian priest Father Paulos Iskender was kidnapped and beheaded in Mosul one week later. He was reportedly targeted in retaliation for statements that the Pope Benedict XVI made in September 2006. On November 19, 2006, a Chaldean priest was kidnapped in Baghdad. He was released after nine days. On November 26, 2006, Protestant clergyman Elder Munthir Al-Saqa from the National Presbyterian Church in Mosul was abducted after leading a Sunday Service at his church that day. He was found dead on November 29. The kidnappers reportedly demanded $1 million in ransom from Elder Munthir's family using his mobile telephone. On December 4, 2006, a Chaldean priest was kidnapped in Baghdad and released after six days. On May 19, 2007, a Chaldean priest was kidnapped in Baghdad and freed after two days. On June 6, 2007, Chaldean priest Hani Abdel Ahad and five other Christians were kidnapped in Baghdad. The five Christians were released after a day, while Father Hani was released in good condition on June 17, 2007. The Chaldean Church confirmed that the kidnappers demanded ransom but declined to comment on the amount. Christian leaders inside and outside of the country reported that members of their Baghdad community, especially in the district of Dora, received threat letters an ultimatum demanding that Christians – pay the humiliating jizya (an Islamic poll tax on non-Muslims), convert to Islam, leave their homes or be killed.
- There are many in Iraq who are taking advantage of the current lawlessness to try to ‘cleanse’ Iraq of all Christians. It is estimated that 75% of the Iraqi Christian population have fled their homes since 1990.
- Intercessors are needed to step up their prayers for Iraq as persecution has intensified against Iraqi Christians, who are being threatened with “extinction.”
- Two car bombs exploded outside churches in quick succession in the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk on Wednesday, January 9, 2008 in the latest in a wave of attacks on Christian buildings, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported. Police said the attacks, within two minutes of each other, caused damage to buildings, cars and surrounding houses but no injuries. The bombings come after seven bombs were set off at Catholic churches and church-run institutions in Baghdad and the main northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Sunday, January 6, 2008, which wounded four people and damaged buildings, AFP reported. Those attacks came on the day many Iraqi Christians celebrate either Epiphany or Christmas Eve based on some Eastern liturgical calendars, according Donateto Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
- Police told AFP that the first car bomb exploded in the afternoon of January 9 outside the Cathedral of Kirkuk, a Chaldean Christian building in the center of the city. It was followed two minutes later by a car bomb blast outside the Assyrian Christian Maar Afram church, located less than a mile away, AFP reported. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told the Vatican’s ambassador to Iraq, Monsignor Francis Assisi Chullikatt, that his government is committed to ensuring the safety of Christians following the attacks in Mosul. “The Iraqi government is anxious to ensure the safety of Iraqi Christians,” Maliki told the ambassador at a meeting in Baghdad.
- On Monday, January 7, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI expressed concern for Christians in Iraq in his annual speech to Vatican diplomats. Reconciliation in Iraq is “urgently needed,” he said. “Terrorist attacks, threats and violence continue, especially against the Christian community,” the pontiff said, AFP reported.
- The bombings were the first such attacks against Christians in Kirkuk, AsiaNews reported. The city’s Christians had been living in peace, relatively unaffected by the threats of violence that have troubled the Christian minority elsewhere in Iraq, AsiaNews noted. “I received in Iraq accounts of a devastating wave of bombings, beheadings, kidnappings, death threats, vandalism and discrimination against Christians in Iraq, who are persecuted by their own countrymen ― Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish extremists,” said John Eibner, CEO of Christian Solidarity International (USA).
- As a result of this persecution, approximately half of Iraqi Christians ― 400,000 ― have fled the country since 2003, according to CSI, which has launched “Save Iraqi Christians,” a movement calling for greater action against the crisis facing Christians in Iraq. Many of those who remain in Iraq are internally displaced. Prior to the fall of Saddam Hussein, Christians made up approximately three percent of the country’s population.
- Meanwhile, pastors and Christian leaders from all over Iraq came together on Sunday, December 2, 2007 to have a National Day of Prayer for their country. “There has been a growing prayer movement in Iraq over the last few years,” an Iraqi Christian leader wrote in an e-mail received by Window International Network (WIN). “In 2005, the first National Prayer Conference in Iraq’s history was held ― around 640 Iraqis from 17 different churches attended from across the country. This was a significant event, as it brought together believers from almost every existing church and denomination in Iraq. “Six hundred seventy Iraqis from 23 churches attended the second National Prayer Conference in 2006, followed by the third conference this past September 2007, which 604 Iraqis attended from 24 churches and a number of house churches, despite the many challenges involved in traveling across the country,” the leader added. “We praise God for the awesome work He is doing in and through His Church in this country. Still, our brothers and sisters there need our prayers and to see a breakthrough in their nation on every level,” the leader continued.
