Holy Smoke

by Damian Thompson
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Damian Thompson is editor-in-chief of the Catholic Herald.
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The Christian victims of Iraq

Posted by Damian Thompson at 31 Mar 07 16:08 
Tags: Islam, Iraq, Assyrian Christians, The Syrian Orthodox Church, Religious Persecution

Holy Week is a time when Christians think of the crucifixion of Jesus. This year, they should also be meditating on another crucifixion: that of a 14-year-old boy, nailed to a cross by Islamists in Iraq.


Good Friday Mass at a Syrian Orthodox Church in Baghdad

This diabolical crime was part of a campaign by jihadists to extinguish one of the most ancient Christian Churches in the world, that of the Assyrians. Thanks to the indifference of the West, the campaign is going jolly well.

Assyrian Christians, who belong to the Syrian Orthodox Church and a number of other small, ancient Churches, worship in (and sometimes speak) the mother tongue of Jesus, Aramaic. A few weeks ago, I had the honour of attending the liturgically rich and strange Syrian Orthodox Vespers in Westminster Cathedral.

I don't know if the Christian teenager who was crucified in Basra last October knew Jesus's language, but by the time the Islamists had finished with him he certainly knew a great deal about his suffering.

The West's lack of interest in the fate of the Assyrians is disgusting, as you can read in this brilliant article by Ed West in the Catholic Herald. Here is how the piece starts:

"When they cook a dish in the Middle East, it is traditional to put the meat on top of the rice when they serve it. They kidnapped a woman’s baby in Baghdad, a toddler, and because the mother was unable to pay the ransom, they returned her child – beheaded, roasted and served on a mound of rice.

"The infant’s crime was to be an Assyrian, but this story, reported by the Barnabus Fund, went unnoticed in the West, like so many other horrific accounts of Christian persecution in Iraq. Since the invasion of Iraq, Muslim militants have bombed 28 churches and murdered hundreds of Christians. Last October, Islamists beheaded a priest in Mosul in revenge for the Pope’s remarks about Islam at Regensburg."

The botched Allied intervention in Iraq has made the plight of the Assyrians infinitely worse - let us be in no doubt about that. But Western apologists for Saddam Hussein should note that it was his vile dictatorship that began the ethnic cleansing of Assyrians.

"Saddam destroyed over 200 of our towns and villages, but with our very limited resources, we have rebuilt hundreds of homes," says a spokesman for the Assyrian Aid Society.

But, unless the conscience of Western Christians is diverted from facile gestures such as apologising for the slave trade, the charity's efforts will be in vain.
Posted by Damian Thompson at 31 Mar 07 16:08