Iraq church bombings leave
empty pews
17,10, 04 The
Associated Press - By
Scheherezade Faramarzi
Bombed church
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - For the first time
in their lives, Widad Mikho and her sister Neshwan will not attend
Mass on Sunday, too frightened after a series of
church bombings across Baghdad.
But fear will not keep Dana George away.
``It would be better to die in church than anywhere else,'' she
said.
Iraq's Christians, increasingly targeted
by insurgents, are fleeing Baghdad for the safety of the Kurdish
north or neighboring Syria and Jordan. After Saturday's
bombings of five churches - which damaged buildings but caused
no casualties - Christian leaders fear more will leave.
But the exodus is temporary, insist
many, because they are not selling their homes and property.
They will wait it out and return when the situation improves.
Pascale Isho Warda, a Christian who
is interim government's minister for displacement and migration,
estimated as many as 15,000 out of Iraq's nearly
1 million Christians have left the country since August, when
four churches in
Baghdad and one in Mosul were blown up in a coordinated
series of car bombings.
The attacks killed 12 people and injured
61 others. Another church was bombed
in Baghdad in September. Saturday's ``explosions will no doubt
push people to immigrate,'' said Father Raphael Qutaimi, acting
bishop of the Syrian Catholic Church. ``But this country has
been ours for thousands of years. Our ancestors shed blood defending
it. We mustn't leave it.''
He and all the dozen Christians interviewed
Saturday said the attacks were not the work of Muslim Iraqis,
but foreigners.
``The foreigner is trying to create
division and enmity between Christians and Muslims. We must stand
hand in hand and heart to heart and not give the
outsider cause to divide us,'' Qutaimi said.
``They want us to leave Iraq,'' said
Surah Samaan, a 25-year-old lab technician,
referring to the attackers, who she believes are Arabs linked
to al-Qaida.
But Yonadem Kana, secretary general
of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, said the general security
situation of the country - car bombings, kidnappings and murders,
which affect all of Iraq's religious groups - had chased away
many
Christians.
``They figure instead of staying and
paying $50,000 to kidnappers for ransom,
they can spend $5,000 in Latakia or Damascus,'' he said, referring
to two cities
in neighboring Syria.
He said more than 100 Christians had
been murdered after the U.S.-led war, including 35 liquor vendors
and others who worked for coalition forces. About 200 more have
died in the general violence that has gripped Iraq. Insurgents
have been targeting many Iraqis who are seen as helping the U.S.-led
forces, and extremist militiamen have often targeted people in
occupations seen as breaking Islamic rules.
Never in Iraq, Kana said, had a church
been attacked, not since the days of the
Mongols, who massacred 800,000 of Baghdad's residents and destroyed
the
city in the 13th century.
Neshwan Mikho, 46, has been cleaning
the Saint John's Church in the working class neighborhood of
Bataween every Saturday for the past seven years undeterred by
rain, sandstorms or even shellings. ``But today, I was afraid
to go when I heard the news,'' she said.
She said she and her sister, Widad,
60, who lives with her, will not catch the 6:30 a.m. bus that
takes them to church every Sunday.
``I am sad in my heart because tomorrow
I will not be attending mass,'' said
Widad, a Chaldean Christian. ``They are denying us what is most
important thing in our lives.''
She has been living in a state of near
paranoia since the August church attacks.
At night, she said, she wakes up four or five times to look out
the window to
make sure no one's standing outside.
``We are targets from both sides - for
being Iraqis like everyone else and for being Christians in particular,''
said Widad, a retired nurse.
She and her sister would like to leave
for good for Australia, where their two
other sisters live. But they cannot afford it.
``What can we do? They are shelling
our church, they might break into our homes tomorrow and the
next day force us to wear the veil,'' said Widad.
Bassem Samir Khouri, a legal adviser
in the interim Education Ministry, will also skip Sunday mass
but is staying put in Iraq.
He said throughout the years, Iraq's
Christians had kept to themselves trying to
keep out of trouble. With the country in turmoil now, Muslims
are asking why the Christians aren't taking sides on the
question of Fallujah or other trouble
spots where anti-American insurgency is strong.
Dana George, 60, would like to leave
the country if only for the sake of her three grown children.
But her husband won't hear of it. So for now, she will continue
going to her St. Matthew's Church despite the attacks.
She feels indebted to God for protecting
her and her family all those difficult
years under Saddam. ``Now I feel it's my duty to pay him back,''
she said. Samaan said Christians
are vulnerable in predominantly
Muslim Iraq.
``There's nobody to help us. Muslims
have the support of their tribe. The
Pope is our only power, but doesn't help us,'' she said.
She said she would like to leave Iraq for
good. Where would she like to go?
``Anywhere - out of the Arab world -
where they all think we are infidels,'' she
said.
|
