Hans Rustad De første kristne ved siden av armerne og koptere, de assyriske kristne i Irak, er i ferd med å bli terrorisert til å forlate Irak. En tredel av alle flyktninger er kristne, både de 1,8 millioner som har flyktet ut av landet, og de internt fordrevne.
Jihadistene driver klappjakt på de assyriske kristne, som ikke har noe milits til å beskytte seg slik shiaene og kurderne har.
A militant Islamic group in Iraq recently issued a fatwa, or religious edict, to the Assyrian Christian residents of the Baghdad suburb of Dora: Convert to Islam within 24 hours, or face death. At the same time, Muslim neighbors were instructed, over the loudspeakers of local mosques, to confiscate the property of Christians and enforce the edict.
The response was as swift: The majority of Assyrians remaining in Dora immediately gathered whatever they could carry and fled the city.
Iraq’s Assyrian Christians know quite well that these latest threats are not empty promises. Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, over 25 churches across Iraq have been bombed, in highly symbolic and coordinated manners. The Islamic group claiming responsibility for the bombing of four churches in August 2004 issued a warning. «To the people of the crosses: Return to your senses and be aware that God’s soldiers are ready for you. You wanted a crusade and these are its results.»
De kristne er forsvarsløse. Det virker å anspore jihadistene til brutalitet.
Several priests have been abducted and beheaded, one in apparent retribution for the pope’s public musings about Muhammed and the nature of Islam in October 2006. In March, two elderly nuns were reportedly stabbed to death in Kirkuk. Several Christian women have been beheaded or doused with chemicals for failing to wear the veil. And last October a 14-year-old Assyrian boy was crucified near Mosul.
For the Islamists, the violence has certainly had the desired effect: The massive exodus of Assyrian Christians from Iraq. The UN High Commission for Refugees estimates that as many as a third of the 1.8 million refugees now outside Iraq are Christian.
A similar percentage of the 1.6 million internally displaced within Iraq are likely Christian, many of whom have fled Baghdad, Basra and Mosul to the relatively stable Northern Iraq. The Catholic Bishop of Baghdad, Andreos Abouna, recently stated that as many as half of Iraqi Christians, perhaps half a million people, have fled the country since the 2003 invasion.
De assyriske kristne representerer en ubrutt linje tilbake til den opprinnelige befolkningen i det daværende Mesopotamia.
Av redsel for å virke partisk har amerikanerne avholdt seg fra å gripe inn for å hjelpe de kristne, med katastrofalt resultat.
In a case of tragic irony, the «liberating» international forces have done nothing to protect Iraq’s Christians. Not wishing to admit the catastrophic security failure nor be seen as intervening on a religious basis, U.S. officials have simply stood aside and watched. The State Department’s recent offering of 7,000 visas for refugees is not only woefully inadequate but will merely encourage the flight of Assyrians from Iraq.
The United States has been complicit with the destruction of an entire people and should be held liable for the rectification of this misfortune.
Men man kan også spørre: hvor mye har norske medier skrevet om en av verdens eldste kristne?
De assyriske kristne ønsker seg nå et selvstyrt område på Ninive-slettene, hvor de fremdeles utgjør et flertall. Men det begynner å haste.
