While many conservative Christians are ardent supporters of the national war machine and call for even more antagonistic bullying in the Middle East, Christians in the aftermath of our military and religious arrogance in Iraq are suffering tremendously.
Who are these ancient people? The most prevalent misunderstanding is that all the Christians in Iraq are converts from Islam. No! The people in what is now modern day Iraq were the first to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ--hundreds of years before the Europeans!
Only after the Arab Muslim occupations in the 7th century did the people began to lose their ancient languages, including Aramaic (spoken by Jesus). They were forced to adopt more "Arab" ways as well as the language in order to be accepted and make a livelihood. However, their worship remained authentic to their heritage (as much of it does today).
We must remember that the area we call Iraq today is the cradle of civilization, the region many believe to be the location of the Garden of Eden from which the Euphrates, Hiddekel (Tigris), and two other rivers (now extinct) flowed. (Genesis 2:10-14). Out of this ancient land called Mesopotamia, God called out Abraham from Ur to be the Father of the faithful (Acts 7:1,2). Jonah finally obeyed God and preached repentance to the great city of Nineveh (across the Tigris River from the modern day city of Mosul).
The history of Iraq is quite complex, but I've attempted to provide a helpful overview for American Christians to understand the centuries of suffering our brothers and sisters have endured, and gain clarity as to why the removal of Saddam Hussein put the Christian community in tremendous danger.
This region was dominated by autonomous, competing war lords until a great warrior, Sargon, united the tribes and developed the first world empire through expansive occupation. He organized cities, standardized weights and measures, and held the first standing army. However, that army was fed by savagely plundering the people. Subsequent conquering kings and their dynasties followed.
The one remembered most by Christians would be Nebuchadnezzar. The Babylonians were centered in the middle and the south part of Mesopotamia. The Biblical Daniel interpreted the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar, and prophesied his downfall.
The Assyrians were centered in the northern Mesopotamia city of Nineveh. Eventually, the Jewish people were led into captivity for their idolatry. First, the Assyrians took the Northern tribes (Israel), followed by Babylon, which captured the Southern tribe of Judah. Only a remnant from the Babylonian captivity returned to rebuild Jerusalem.The ten northern tribes lost their collective identity and were assimilated into Assyrian culture.
Thirty-two year-old Alexander the Great conquered Iraq in 331 B.C., and died there.
The Sassanid Empire (226–651 A.D.) of ardent Persians were the next invaders to occupy the region. They were determined to restore the ancient culture of Iran without the foreign influences accumulated since the conquest by Alexander 500 years before.
Their religion was the ancient Zoroastrianism, which served as the state religion of a significant portion of the Iranian people for many centuries before it was gradually marginalized by Islam. The conquered people in what we know today as Iraq were rigidly organized into a caste system: priests, soldiers, scribes, and commoners. Religious persecution was prevalent.
Next, The Arab-Islamic Army liberated Iraq from the Persian invaders. The Arab Muslim warriors were welcomed by the Iraqi Christians as liberators from the more oppressive Iranian rule.
Islam swept through Western Asia. Under their Sharia law, Christians and Jews were given certain rights as dhimmis ("protected persons"). Christians became particularly appreciated as translators of Greek philosophy into Arabic and as physicians.
Approximately three years after Jesus' Ascension, the Apostle Thomas carried the Gospel to Mesopotamia, where people widely embraced the Gospel.
Here's a fascinating story from the 4th century A.D.
The Assyrian Sanherib II was upset to learn that his son Behnam, his daughter Sarah, and 40 of the friends of the prince had accepted Christ and were baptized.
It occurred when Princess Sarah developing leprosy. Behnam and his friends decided to take Sarah to Mar Matti, the leader of the monastery near Mosul. Sarah was miraculously healed in the name of Christ.
The king was so furious that he beheaded his son, his daughter and their friends! The king left his palace, pacing in the fields and screaming as loud as he could that his kingdom was falling apart!
The queen was crying for her two children when suddenly Behnam appeared, and asked her to bring Mar Matti to heal his father. The Queen begged and begged the king to grant her request.
Finally, to appease his wife, the king sent his men to bring Mar Matti to the palace to pray for him. The king was delivered from his anger and grief, and asked Mar Matti to baptize him and his family. He then urged his people to turn to Christ. [1]
Early in the 11th century, the once undivided, universal Church formally split between West and East—Rome and Constantinople (modern Istanbul in Turkey). The Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim by-Amar, a prominent Shi’a military and spiritual leader, ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem--traditionally honored as the site of Jesus’ Crucifixion. His successor, after requiring large sums be paid for the right, permitted the Church in the East to rebuild it. [2]
Western pilgrimages were allowed to the Holy Lands before and after the Sepulcher was rebuilt, but Christians were often captured or killed. The Muslim conquerors eventually realized that the wealth of Jerusalem came from the pilgrims; with this realization the persecution stopped. However, the damage was already done, and such violence fueled the passion for the Crusades from the West.
At first, many Christians in Muslim-occupied lands welcomed the Crusades, but these Western knights, fighting under the sign of the Cross, committed egregious acts in the name of Christ that sickened the believing communities. These deeds planted tragic seeds of resentment and hatred that linger to this day!
The Crusades' purpose was more politically motivated than religious; however, soldiers were promised absolution from all sins and direct access into Heaven for their service upon death. Upon return home, they were awarded land and status. [3]
These "promises" fueled their wickedness in this ancient land, which spilled over to the Eastern Christians (simply because they lived in Muslim lands, and their culture and way of worship was different from Rome's). The Muslim warrior Salah a-Din subsequently recaptured Jerusalem from the Christians after 200 years of fighting and the loss of over 200,00 lives.
Again, Christian and Muslim relations were tense due to the years of European slaughter in the name of Christ, but it remained, for the most part, a peaceful tension.**
When the Muslim Turks (Ottoman Empire) first came into power, the Muslim leaders tolerated Christians and Jews, and gave them a degree of self government--provided they acknowledged the empire and paid a tax. This was the "millet" system and created a dreadful segregated status. [4]
At the height of its power (16th–17th centuries), the Ottoman Empire spanned three continents, controlling much of Southeastern Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa. However, various ethnic uprisings and contained wars led to the slaughter of thousands of Christians, and set the stage for World War I.
In 1914-1915, the ailing Turkish Empire joined the German army against the allies in WW1. Britain fought to prevent Germany from getting their hands on oil-rich land in Iraq. They promised the Christians a homeland if they joined with the allies against the Ottoman Empire (the promise of Lawrence of Arabia).
According to Dr. Naima S. Panow*, the horrors of the World War 1 forced scores to flee their homeland. Between 1915-1918, the Ottoman Turks massacred more than 50,000 Christians in Mesopotamia. Thousands died in the Cholera epidemic of 1918. Many others died on the way fleeing from Turkey to Iraq and Syria.
The Assyrian Church of the East suffered the most. Half of their congregation were murdered or died of diseases. Many Christian villages were massacred completely. Since the Christians joined the British and the French during the war, the Muslims distrusted the Christians and called them "pro- west".
When the war was over, the British double-crossed the Christians. They created the new country of Iraq, drew its borders, and took control. Iraq had oil, so it was the best country from which to build military bases to dominate most of the world. The Christians lost their homeland and suffered the consequences of their affiliation with the west. [1]
The Britains did not maintain peace very well in colonized Iraq due to tribal infightings and growing resentment against Western rule. After a massive revolt in 1920, the British set up Faisal I of Iraq as King in a provisional government. He gained independence for his country in 1932. [5]
His son, Ghazi bin Faisal, ruled from 1933-1939. He sympathized with Nazi Germany. Ghazi was also an ardent supported of the Russian Party SNOR, whose generals portrayed Russia as the poor victim of the rich West, and announced a huge pay-back to those who had brought misery to Russia.
Russia's broken national pride had to be restored by the violent reacquisition of every lost territory and severe punishment of those who were considered guilty. They believed the Russian nation had been appointed by God as the savior of the world. Non-Slavic national minorities, on the other hand, were considered a serious threat to Russia's national awakening and therefore severely oppressed.
Another important factor in the SNOR's ideology was Russian Orthodoxy. Even more than the language, it was considered a vital constituent of the Russian national spirit, and as such heavily promoted. The Russian Orthodox Church could highly benefit from this situation and became an ardent supporter of the regime. [6]
Ghazi believed he could transport this ideology to raise up Iraq and its Islamic religion in the world. After an untimely car accident, His only son Faisal II ruled. [7]
Dr. Panow states that during the monarchy period, thousands of Iraqis immigrated to US and Europe. Those who decided to stay in Iraq rushed to join the colleges and universities. The Jews did the same and had no problem with living and working in Iraq. The Christians and Jewish schools and colleges were well accepted.
The Christians had the best formal education and westernized businesses. They were beginning to be accepted by the Islamic community. Later on the Moslem people decided to join these colleges and universities; they even sent their children to Christian schools. [1]
Faisal II, greatly opposed his father’s views. He resisted Pan-Arabism--a movement for unification among the peoples and countries of the Arab world It is closely connected to Arab nationalism, which asserts that the Arabs constitute a single nation. Many believe this led to his murder during the Revolution in 1958 in which army officers, led by General Abdul Karim Qassim, overthrew Faisal II of Iraq. [8]
Qasim's government didn't fare any better.
Qasim began to buy arms from the Soviet Union and put his own domestic communists into ministry positions of "real power”. [9]
A young man by the name of Saddam Hussein participated in the 1959 attempt to assassinate Qassim. The assassins killed Qassim's driver and wounded Qassim, but not fatally. One of the assassins was killed. Hussein was shot in the leg and got away.
After the botched plot, Hussein fled from Iraq. He spent the next four years in Lebanon. While Hussein was in Beirut, the CIA paid for his apartment and put him through a brief training course, The agency then helped him get to Cairo, where he attended law school and is believed to have made frequent visits to the U.S. embassy there. Eric Star, writing in the Star Tribune on February 2nd 2003 (A history of Iraq, the cradle of Western civilization). notes:
The Iraqi Baathists and the CIA had a common interest in getting rid of pro-Soviet Qassim. Several authors believe that Saddam was helping the CIA and the Baathists coordinate a coup.[10]
The Baathists political party is opposed to Western imperialism and called for the "renaissance" of the Arab world and its unity into one state. Its motto is "Unity, Liberty, Socialism". [11]
Arab socialism differs from the European model because it still respects religious law and inheritance rights. It was frequently pictured as a "middle way" between the capitalist West and the communist East, and as a modern expression of traditional Arab values. [12]
In 1963, the Baathists, empowered by the United States, overthrew Qassim. The coup resulted in the return of Hussein to Iraq. He was immediately assigned to head the Al-Jihaz al-Khas, the clandestine Ba'athist Intelligence organization, and eventually became Iraq's President in 1979.
Saddam saw himself as a social revolutionary and a modernizer, not a religious leader. To the consternation of Islamic conservatives, his government gave women added freedoms and offered them high-level government and industry jobs. Saddam also created a Western-style legal system, making Iraq the only country in the region not ruled according to traditional Islamic law (Sharia). Saddam abolished the Sharia law courts, except for personal injury claims. [13]
To Saddam, embracing Arab identity and loyalty to the State mattered more than a citizen's personal religion. One could not enter a university or hold a teaching position unless he or she was a member of the Party. Only Baathists loyalists were allowed to work in any government service. The secular, socialistic Baath Party appealed to intellectuals, and Christians already held high positions in education and other professional fields.
Glen Chancy, author of "Christians for Saddam?", observes that "Saddam Hussein and the Baath Regime have been nasty and oppressive to all Iraqis. However, Saddam has not been particularly oppressive to the indigenous Christians, at least compared to what has been the norm elsewhere in the region.
"By the yardstick of his neighbors and Middle Eastern history, Saddam just doesn't look that bad. In the 1990's Iraq had the most secular government of any country in the Middle East. You could even purchase an alcoholic drink in Iraq." British forces, not Saddam, was the first to gas the Kurdish people (1920's).
"The secular Saddam has neither encouraged nor permitted the type of anti-Christian riots seen in Egypt and Iran. Further, Saddam never engaged in actual anti-Christian genocide of the type seen in Sudan, where 2 million Christian have lost their lives in the past decade.
"Unlike any other regime in the Middle East, Saddam permitted Christians to occupy high public office. This includes the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Tariq Assiz, who is a Roman Catholic. It is said that Hussein trusted Christians more than Muslims.
"In addition, Saddam's regime permitted a degree of free practice for Christians that is positively enviable compared to the situations experienced in such U.S. 'allies' as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Christmas and Easter decorations always abounded, even in Baghdad, and attending church did not require an act of courage." [14]
For the first time since their conversion from paganism centuries ago, Iraqi Christians were elevated to positions of respect, welcomed to serve in their chosen professions, and worship as they pleased.
Yes, they had to join the Baathis Party; but it was a secular political party. It's goals and policies were no different from Christians who live in European countries dominated by socialist and labor parties today.
We are familiar with the history of Christian persecution under various Roman emperors. We've all heard stories of the men and women who faced the lions, crucifixions, beheadings, and burnings. But did you know that many also signed a piece of paper renouncing their faith?
As a matter of Roman public record, these Christians attested to returning to regular sacrifices to pagan gods. The Church referred to it as LAPSI, and there were three degrees:
Sacrificati, those who had actually offered a sacrifice to the idols;
Thuruficati, those who had burned incense on the altar before the statues of the gods;
Libellatici, those who had drawn up attestation (libellus), or had, by bribing the authorities, caused such certificates to be drawn up for them...statingthem as having offered sacrifice (but without ever having actually done so).
The Church came to realize that most of the defecting Christians were in the third category. Nevertheless, the leaders of the Western Church sharply split on whether or not to let these people return to fellowship and receive communion.
Eventually, bishops worldwide agreed that those who had lapsed in their faith due to weakness or fear should be fully reinstated into the Church. [15]
Only God can judge an individual's heart, but I certainly understand the decision of some Iraqi Christians to find refuge in the Baathis Party. As totalitarian as it was, it was also safe. An Iraqi Christian was not called to deny his faith; he just could not publicly exalt it as supreme over the temporal state or over Islam, nor could the church at large speak in opposition to the government.
In 2003, President George W. Bush, claiming to be on a divinely inspired mission, ordered an invasion of Iraq. [16]
No Iraqi was listed as a 9/11 terrorist. Of the nineteen hijackers, fifteen were from Saudi Arabia, four from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon. In 2004 Colin Powell acknowledged that the information presented to the UN to justify the invasion of Iraq which he presented was "flawed." [17]
Already considered "pro-west" sympathizers, Iraqi Christians suffered unparalleled persecutions by Muslims. Churches were bombed, Christians were raped, kidnapped, and brutally murdered.
The genocide continues to intensify! Today, their population has been cut in half. At the current rate, Christians in Iraq could be wiped out within a decade. [18]
Where is our former President in the aftermath of this chilling modern-day Crusade? And more importantly, where is the voice of the American Church?
Our elite statists have a long, appalling history with Iraq. It should shame American Christians who whole-heartedly support our government's foreign policies:
"Not only did the US help bring the Baath Party to power, we openly supported Hussein from 1980-1990, even though it was during this period when the majority of the killings of his own people, as well as the gassing of the Kurds, occurred. The United States supplied chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein in the 1980's.
"According to UN estimates, the US-led embargo against Iraq from 1991 until 1996 resulted in the death of 500,000 Iraqi children.
"In 1996, Secretary of State Madeline Albright stated approval of the sanctions…even with so many children dying as a result. Neither the Clinton nor Bush administration ever disputed these estimates.
"After the 1991 Gulf War, George W. Bush encouraged the Kurds to revolt against Saddam Hussein, but withdrew his support after the revolt began." [17]
American Church, we must repent before God and to our brothers and sisters in Iraq for our ignorance, our apathy, and our silence. Jesus Christ does not recognize natural, earthly distinctions--ethnicity, color, gender, and status. All who are saved by grace are members of God's family and citizens of imperishable kingdom, having been transferred out of Adam and into Christ.
The US government will not help these people, but the Church of the living God must!
"Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, 'Surely we did not know this,' does not He who weighs the hearts consider it?
If you say, 'Surely we did not know this,' does not He who weighs the hearts consider it?
He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?" (Proverbs 24:11-12)
* Dr. Naima S. Panow is a graduate of the Iraq Medical School and has an MB.Ch.B. Upon completion, she attended the Royal College of Surgeons in London-England, Royal College of OB/GYN in London, and Royal College of surgeons of Edinburgh-Scotland. Her practice consists of general surgery and obstetrics/gynecology in the United States.
**Christian Apology for the Crusades:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_cru1.htm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_cru1.htm
1. Christianity in Iraq, Naima Panow:
2. Abd al-Karim Qasim:
3. Forgiveness of Sins to Crusade Knights:
Crusades:
4. Millet System:
5. Faisal I:
6. Russian Party SNOR:
7. Ghazi I:
8. King Faisal II:
9. Abd al-Karim Qasim:
10. Saddam Key in Early CIA Plot:
11. Baath Party:
12. Arab Socialism:
13. Saddam Hussein:
14. Christians for Suddam? Glen Chancy:
15. Catholic Encyclopedia, "Lapsi":
16. George Bush interview:
17. Iraq Quiz, Jim Cox:
18. Facing Extinction: Christians in Iraq:
Additional Sources:
Who are the Chrsitians of Iraq?
Where's the Outrage?
Who Are These Christians of Iraq?
http://www.aramnahrin.org/English/ChristiansOfIraq.html
http://www.aramnahrin.org/English/ChristiansOfIraq.html
Dire time for Iraqi Christians
Christianity in Iraq: Its Origins and Development to the Present Day.
http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol10No1/HV10N1PRWeryho.html
Early Assyrian Churches and Monasteries in northern Iraq:
http://www.christiansofiraq.com/monastery.html
Does Anybody Care About the Christian Arabs?
http://www.lewrockwell.com/barnwell/barnwell75.html
http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol10No1/HV10N1PRWeryho.html
Early Assyrian Churches and Monasteries in northern Iraq:
http://www.christiansofiraq.com/monastery.html
Does Anybody Care About the Christian Arabs?
http://www.lewrockwell.com/barnwell/barnwell75.html
How you can get help:
Iraqi Christian Relief Council
National Organization of Iraqi Christians
Is your Communion or Denomination involved in relief efforts? Let readers know in the comment section! I'd love to pass along how American Christians are answering the "Mesopotamian Call".
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