Iraqi
Christians to Take Role in Elections Amidst Continuing Opposition
Of the some 70
parties that have registered to take part Iraq's first national
elections eight have been identified to be Christian parties.
Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2004
Campaigning in Iraq's first
national elections began Wednesday under the shadow of a rampant
insurgency, news agencies reported. Of the some 70 parties that
have registered to take part in the Jan. 30 elections, eight
have been identified to be Christian parties.
"Eight Christians
political parties registered for January elections hope to be
supported by the Iraqi expatriates," Italy-based Asian News
reported Wednesday.
According to the news agency,
Iraqi expatriates living in 14 countries will join in the Jan.
30 voting to elect a 275-member assembly that will appoint a
government and draft a constitution. Half a million participants
are expected to vote out of the 800,000 eligible voters of more
than 3 million Iraqi expatriates
living in Canada, Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland,
Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Sweden, Turkey, the UK, the UAE, and the
USA.
Many Christians are hoping
that Iraq will become a democratic and free secular state. However,
now as Christians are only a sliver of Iraq's population after
a string of church bombings in recent months prompted Christians
to flee the country, church leaders fear the ongoing exodus could
make it difficult for Iraq to develop into a nation that values
religious pluralism and tolerance.
In recent months thousands
of Christians have left Iraq with estimates ranging from 10,000
to 40,000. "Their links to Americans, often as translators,
have put them under threat," Knight Ridder News reported.
"Some anti-U.S. Sunni
Muslims warn that anyone aiding the Americans should be killed."
As the emergence of a fundamentalist
Islamic government in Iraq could lead to a complete exodus of
Christians, persecution watchdog groups such as Open Doors believe
this 'power move' kind of persecution may be motivated by politics.
"That's really the
goal of the terrorists-to drive out the Christian community which
numbers about 500-thousand from Iraq, so that when they're making
a new government, they will not have any Christians to share
the government with or give religious freedom," said Open
Doors' Jerry Dykstra a few weeks after the United States formally
handed sovereignty to Iraqi officials on June 28.
In August, one Southern
Baptist worker told the Baptist Press News Agency that the coordinated
bombings that killed eleven people and injured dozens in Baghdad
and Mosul was said to be the work of a rag-tag alliance composed
of extreme Muslim "holy warriors" and that they were
aimed on provoking a civil war in Iraq, creating chaos that would
give the "Jihadists" an opportunity to take control.
According to the worker,
extremists who had participated in the bombings on Aug. 1, targeted
the congregations as symbols of a free Iraq and not specifically
because they were Christian. The Jihadists-composed of Islamic
extremists, members of the disposed dictator's Baath Party, criminals
freed by Saddam Hussein just before the fall of Baghdad, and
unemployed former members of the Iraqi army and security forces-are
drawn from many nations and from different sects of Islam, the
worker said.
"They are temporarily
united against anyone who opposes their radical Islamic-republic
views. Members of the Christian minority are being included in
the anarchists' attack against an emerging pluralistic society."
The worker added that the
creation of an Iraqi government and steps being taken toward
democracy have raised the stakes for factions who want to control
the country and its vast oil wealth.
"Jihadists see the
present situation as an opportunity to assert universal control
over Iraq, something they could never have dreamed of achieving
under Saddam Hussein," he added. "This group is opposed
to every form of authority and religion but their own narrow
band of Islamic belief."
The worker also pointed
out that the Jihadists not only attacked Christian churches,
but also Islamic mosques. "The aim of the church bombings
is strictly political, not religious, and like similar bombings
that targeted mosques, they are meant to instigate sectarian
and confessional strife among the one Iraqi people," he
said.
Sources say Interim Iraqi
Prime Minister Eyad Allawi expects an escalation of attacks by
Iraqi fighters in Iraq before and after the Jan. 30 elections.
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