Christians fear the Shariah, attacks of a religious nature.
Baghdad (AsiaNews) While bloody attacks continue, Assyrian and Chaldean Christians in Iraq brace themselves to be the next victims of terror. After bombs exploded in Sunni and Shiite mosques, Christian churches are now in danger of suffering the same fate.
William Warda, head of the Assyrian democratic movement's Department of Culture and Information said: "Many Christian Churches have received anonymous threat letters."
Catholic bishop Rabban Al Qas confirmed the news when he told AsiaNews that certain anonymous public placards had been posted, urging Christians to "convert to Islam" or leave the country.
These threats, initially taken lightly, are now being taken seriously. Catholic bishop Louis Sako said Catholic and Orthodox churches have cancelled evening services in addition to night catechism courses organized for parish youth. Only daytime services are permitted.
Since the end of the war in Iraq many Christians have been mysteriously killed, among them a judge from the northern part of the country and liquor store owners in the south as well as various interpreters and coalition workers accused of "collaborating with the enemy".
On Jan. 21 four female laundry workers were killed by unknown men while on their way to work at the coalition's Aeronautical Military Base in Al-Habbaniyah in northern Iraq. Attacks were also carried out against the Bishop's Palace of the Antiochan Syriac Church in Mossul and against a Christian school.
People who have recently arrived in Iraq told AsiaNews that many fundamentalists call Christians "crusaders" and the "fifth column of the Christian West and the Americans".
In an Islamic society, where there is little distinction between religious and state law, many Iraqis consider the West to be a community of religious states. Religious leaders rarely help to understand that this may be otherwise.
Nonetheless Al Hawsa Al-Ilmiyya, headquarters for Shiite religious leaders from Najaf and presided over by Ayatollah Al-Sistani, condemned the anti-Christian threats. Sheik Abdel Jabbar Menhal, a Hawsa representative in Baghdad, said 4 days ago that "we feel that there a signs of potential attacks (against Christian churches) and we condemn these operations, since Islam respects all sacred places, like mosques, churches, et cetera (i.e. synagogues)."
Iraqi Christians are also quite worried about the Shariah potentially being introduced into the country's future constitution. Iraq's Shiite community (62.5%) is pushing the matter in this direction. Meanwhile, steps are being made to Islamicize society and much has already been done in a quiet and unofficial way.
Paul Marshall of Washington D.C.'s Center for Religious Freedom said the "minister of education has fired all university presidents with the exception of three presidents of northern Kurdish universities, replacing them with Islamicists. The new presidents have issued a memorandum in which they ask women to abide my Islamic dress habits (e.g. wearing headscarves)."
Vice-minister of agriculture, Dr. Sawsan Al-Sharafi, was asked to step down from her position by the Provisional Governing Council in order to appease Islamicists who refused to work for a woman. If Iraq becomes a country based on the Shariah, the Assyrian-Chaldean community the ancient Mesopotamian people living in this region for thousands of years will become a group of second-class citizens. (PB)
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11/08/2020 09:29
