Half a Million Iraqi Assyrians (including Chaldeans and Syriacs) have taken refuge in Syria

Asia News
Dec. 11, 05

The consequences of Iraq's invasion by the US have been disastrous to the christians of the country. They have always lived as second class citizens and subservient to the Islamic culture in their own country. At times during the periods of conflicts they were oppressed by the Islamic fanatics. Their plight today however is on a much grander scale but is less noticed because of the turmoil in the rest of the county. The Christians of Iraq hope that the recent elections will reduce terrorism and perhaps a democratically elected government in a near future would be more willing and able to provide extra security for its citizens including the Assyrians.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees reported that half a million Iraqi Christians are presently registered for temporary asylum in Syria. This is a much larger number than reported by other sources. An exodus of such magnitude by the Christians refugees to Syria is cause for concern for the human rights organizations. Syria so far has been willing generously to reach out and provide temporary refugee status for these Christians.  

Other countries afraid that terrorist might make their way into their country, along with the Iraqi Christians, have opted to refuse most asylum requests.  One has to wonder to what extend these fears are justified or are used as excuse to not allow Christians in their state. The Christians who are unable to flee Iraq often leave their homes and businesses and go into hiding in other cities where they hope they will be subjected to opression but the rest are still trapped and target of the Islamic extremists.

The reasons cited by the refugees for fleeing their country include death threats, attacks against churches in various Iraqi cities, kidnapping, and torture.  They have become a primary target of fund raising by the terrorists. "Our children, wives, and family members are kidnapped every day.  They send us a note telling us to give them fifty thousand dollars or they will kill our family.  They send us their fingers or toes, pictures of them beaten and bruised, and tell us we bring this on our head because we are Christians and collaborate with the Christian Americans," said Halfath Hamama, a refugee held in refugee camp and interviewed by Asia news.

During Saddam's secular regime Christians were protected to worship without fear, as long as they did not proselytize to Muslims. However by the end of his rule he ordered the nationalization of the churches, forbade the Christians from giving their children none-Arab names, and expanded his Arabization campaign to force the none-Arab Iraqis to identify themselves as Arabs. In addition, any Christian child raised by a Muslim or married to a Muslim was forced to convert to Islam and considered Muslim by law.

Since the US-led invasion, growing religious intolerance and sectarian violence has given the terrorists the opportunity to treat the Iraqi Christians as scapegoats.  The terrorists have found an opportune time to kidnap the Christians as a way to raise funds for their operations and attacks against American forces. Christians caught in the cross fire are often beaten to death, raped, or dismembered, even if the family is able to muster the ransom for their loved ones.