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</div> </form> </div> </div> <hr/> <div id="content" class="span-13 append-1"> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-12671"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/03/07/you-only-need-a-few-fanatics-and-it-all-falls-to-pieces/#respond" title="Comment on You Only Need A Few Fanatics And It All Falls To Pieces">No Comments</a></span> Posted on March 7th, 2011 by Burhan Aydin</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/03/07/you-only-need-a-few-fanatics-and-it-all-falls-to-pieces/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to You Only Need A Few Fanatics And It All Falls To Pieces">You Only Need A Few Fanatics And It All Falls To Pieces</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/andrew-white/" rel="tag">andrew white</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/canon-andrew-white/" rel="tag">Canon Andrew White</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/christian-minority/" rel="tag">christian minority</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/christianity/" rel="tag">Christianity</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/christians/" rel="tag">Christians</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/christians-persecution-of/" rel="tag">Christians - persecution of</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/ethnic-cleansing-of-christians/" rel="tag">Ethnic cleansing of Christians</a>, 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href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/press/" rel="tag">Press</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/reconciliation/" rel="tag">reconciliation</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/religion/" rel="tag">Religion</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/saddam-hussein/" rel="tag">Saddam Hussein</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/streets-of-baghdad/" rel="tag">streets of baghdad</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/terry-jones/" rel="tag">terry jones</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a5%d8%b3%d9%84%d8%a7%d9%85%e2%80%8e/" rel="tag">الإسلام‎</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/%d8%a8%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b3%d9%8a%d8%ad%d9%8a%d9%8a%d9%86/" rel="tag">بالمسيحيين</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <div style="border-right: black 1px solid; padding-right: 5px; border-top: black 1px solid; padding-left: 5px; float: right; padding-bottom: 5px; margin: 5px 0px 5px 15px; border-left: black 1px solid; width: 300px; padding-top: 5px; border-bottom: black 1px solid"> <p><font size="3"><strong>The Monday Interview:</strong> With his 30 armed guards, Andrew White, ‘Vicar of Baghdad’, lives on Christianity’s front line. Jerome Taylor meets him:</font></p> <p> <a title="20100307_canon_andrew_white_in_baghdad by Gorillas Guides, on Flickr" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.flickr.com/photos/gorillasguides/5506077910/" class="external" target="_blank"><font size="3"><img style="display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto 5px" height="381" alt="20100307_canon_andrew_white_in_baghdad" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720im_/http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5252/5506077910_55e027241d_o.jpg" width="280"/></font> </a> </div> <p>Canon Andrew White leans over his desk and – with a mischievous glint in his eye – prepares to deliver what I now suspect is a signature move when greeting new guests. Handing over a copy of one of his books, his face breaks into a wide grin as he asks: "Would you like me to sign that for you? I tell you what, I’ll use this pen. It was the same one used to sign Saddam Hussein’s death sentence." </p> <p>Such a macabre piece of historical memorabilia might appear an unusual keepsake for an Anglican priest but then Canon White – the so-called Vicar of Baghdad – is no ordinary clergyman. As pastor to St George’s, the only Anglican church in Iraq, Canon White has been on the front line of the most violent and barbaric persecution of a Christian minority in living memory. </p> <p>Cut off from the streets of Baghdad by blast-proof barriers, razor wire and round-the-clock security, St George’s is one of the few churches still able to operate weekly services for the Iraqi capital’s rapidly diminishing Christian congregation. Scores of his worshippers have been kidnapped or murdered, and militants have routinely tried to storm the complex which lies outside the comparative safety of the Green Zone. </p> <p>Canon White, 47, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, has been shot at and kidnapped but still he returns, making sure to spend at least three weeks of every month with an embattled congregation that refer to him as their abouna (father). </p> <p>The 6ft 2in, bowtie-loving priest spoke on a brief visit back to his picturesque home in a quiet Hampshire village which he shares with his wife and two boys (for security reasons he asks us not to give their names or location). The stopover was part publicity tour for his new book Faith Under Fire, part a chance to catch up with the family. </p> <p>The Hampshire house is a pretty, single-storey family home in a quiet curving cul-de-sac, containing a theologian’s study filled with books and crucifixes from across the world. Work is a war zone 3,000 miles away, where Canon White is protected by 30 security guards. A place of sandbags and terror, particularly for Iraqi Christians, whose population has plummeted in the past 20 years from 1.4 million to just 300,000. </p> <p>The fountain pen, which Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki borrowed for a couple of days and used to sign Saddam’s death warrant, is a way of breaking the ice before talking about a subject that will inevitably be gruesome. We meet just days after Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s only Christian cabinet member, was gunned down in Islamabad and it is inevitable that the conversation quickly turns to violent persecution of Christians. "All over the world there are increasing threats against Christians," Canon White says. "Bhatti’s death is deeply disturbing. But when you’re living in the midst of the fire like in Baghdad, it’s really what happens there that concerns you. We have had 123 people killed in Baghdad since November." </p> <p>Last year in fact was a particularly brutal year for Iraq’s Christians and 2011 looked like it was going to be no different. But in the past few weeks the killings have stopped. </p> <p>As head of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, Canon White has built unparalleled relationships with Iraq’s senior Sunni and Shia clerics. In late January he gathered them in Copenhagen to issue a joint fatwa (religious edict) condemning any attacks on minority communities. "Until then Christians were being killed every day," he says. "After the fatwa the killings stopped. It’s crucial to remember that the vast majority of Muslims we work with, they are our friends. We can only do what we do with their help." </p> <p>When he is not administering to his flock, it is these kinds of delicate negotiations between Iraq’s religious power players that occupy much of Canon White’s time in Baghdad. He has been a key negotiator in kidnappings including that of the IT worker Peter Moore, who was released, and Ken Bigley, who was killed. He has himself been taken hostage, held in a room where freshly severed fingers and toes littered the floor, and has negotiated for the release of countless Iraqis. The violence he has seen is harrowing. Does he ever lose his faith? "Never," he says. "If anything, my faith has got stronger." It’s a reply you often hear from religious people in conflict zones – but how can religion be a force for good when it does so much harm in these situations? </p> <p>"I remind myself that if religion is a force for bad it is also a force for good," he says. "If religion is the cause of this horrific violence then it is also the cure. The only way you will be able to stop this violence is engage with Iraq’s religions in a religious way. The best thing we can do is work with the Islamic leaders as most of them are not terrorists." </p> <p>Canon White places the blame for the violence against his congregants squarely at the feet of al-Qa’ida in Iraq, the primarily foreign militant network inspired by Osama bin Laden. "Those who instigate violence are mainly from outside," he says. "There are certain people you simply can’t work with and the al-Qa’ida people fall into that category." </p> <p>But he is equally infuriated by Christian bigots and publicity seekers – such as the American pastor Terry Jones, who threatened to burn the Koran. "Pastor Terry Jones is directly responsible for the murder of some of our people," Canon White says. "They have no idea how terrible it was. Throughout the time he threatened to burn the holy Koran, they were warning us that our people would be attacked. Four of my guards were killed throughout that time. He can try and say from the safety of Florida he was trying to make an important point. But it was an important point that killed our people." </p> <p>Canon White was himself a supporter of the American-led invasion of Iraq, but after all the killing, the mutilations, the kidnappings and the mass exodus of Iraq’s Christians – does he still think it was worth it? </p> <p>It’s the first time he seems unsure of himself. "I had one day in the whole of my life when I thought to myself, why did we do this," he says. "But I remember what it was like in Iraq before the war, the fear people lived under." Yet he adds: "But at least you could walk down the street." </p> <p>I press again, was it really worth it, so much violence, so many deaths? </p> <p>"I had seen the terror of the Saddam regime and I knew there was absolutely nothing the Iraqis could do to remove that terror," he replies. "It’s been hell. So many people killed. I still say the regime had to be removed but we should have done things differently afterwards." </p> <p>Regrets are a luxury Canon White cannot afford. He has a flock in Iraq to attend to. While a semblance of peace has returned for Baghdad’s Christians thanks to the joint fatwa, Canon White knows it is temporary. "From my years and years in Palestine, Israel and Baghdad I know that the majority of people can live together," he says. "But you only need a few fanatics and it all falls to pieces." </p> <p><b>Christianity under fire</b></p> <p>IRAQ In the past 20 years, the flight of Christians has reduced the community’s population from 1.4 million to 300,000. </p> <p>EGYPT On New Year’s Day, 21 Copts were killed in a bomb in Alexandria. </p> <p>PAKISTAN Shahbaz Bhatti, the country’s only Christian cabinet member, was assassinated last week. </p> <p>NORTH KOREA Christianity is vehemently prosecuted in North Korea, where any expression of religion in the totalitarian state is viewed as open insurrection against the Communist regime. </p> <p>NIGERIA Sectarian conflict between Muslims and Christians in central Nigeria has broken out with horrendous violence over the past two years in and around the city of Jos. </p> <p><strong>Source:</strong> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/andrew-white-the-vast-majority-of-muslims-are-our-friends-2234252.html" class="external" target="_blank">Andrew White: ‘The vast majority of muslims are our friends’ – Profiles, People – The Independent</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-12264"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/01/25/%d8%a8%d8%b9%d8%b6-%d8%b1%d8%ac%d8%a7%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%86-%d8%b9%d8%b2%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b3%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%b3%d8%a9-%d8%b9%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%86-%d8%ba%d9%8a%d8%b1/#respond" title="Comment on بعض رجال الدين: عزل السياسة عن الدين غير ممكن في بلد مثل العراق">No Comments</a></span> Posted on January 25th, 2011 by Harith</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/01/25/%d8%a8%d8%b9%d8%b6-%d8%b1%d8%ac%d8%a7%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%86-%d8%b9%d8%b2%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b3%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%b3%d8%a9-%d8%b9%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%86-%d8%ba%d9%8a%d8%b1/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to بعض رجال الدين: عزل السياسة عن الدين غير ممكن في بلد مثل العراق">بعض رجال الدين: عزل السياسة عن الدين غير ممكن في بلد مثل العراق</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/category/iraq/" title="View all posts in News" rel="category tag">News</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/islam/" rel="tag">Islam</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/politics/" rel="tag">Politics</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/religion/" rel="tag">Religion</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/secular-vs-religious/" rel="tag">Secular vs. Religious</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a5%d8%b3%d9%84%d8%a7%d9%85%e2%80%8e/" rel="tag">الإسلام‎</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p dir="rtl" align="right">يقف دعاة المدنية في العراق اليوم امام مرحلة تمثل تحدّ لإثبات الوجود، فما يصفونه بالمدّ الديني الحكومي ومحاولات فرض مفاهيم إسلامية تقضم الحريات وتسمح باضطهاد الآخر ستسهم بأفغنة العراق، الذي يؤمن دستوره بالتعددية. <br/>محمد حسن السلامي / ناشط / هنالك الكثير من الانتهاكات التي حصلت خلال الفترة السابقة منها ما حدث من مطالبات للخدمات في البصرة وسقوط شهيدين على اثرها وايضا اغلاق النوادي الثقافية الليلية كاتحاد الادباء هذه تثير مشكلة في المجتمع هل نحن دولة دينية ام علمانية ؟؟ سوف نقف بالضد من هذا باشكال مختلفة عبر الكتابة بالصحف والاعتصامات والتظاهرات. <br/>مفيد الجزائري: قيادي في الحزب الشيوعي <br/>/ عندنا ديمقراطية وعدنا دستور وعدنا اسس ارسيت لنظام جديد ولكن هذا بناء النظام الجديد لم يستكمل وثانيا هذا البناء يتعرض الى هجوم من هنا وهناك ومحاولات قضم وتضييق .. <br/>لكن رجال الدين .. او بعضهم على الاقل يرى ان عزل السياسة عن الدين غير ممكن في بلد مثل العراق، بينما يرى اخرون ان الحكومة الدينية لا يمكن ان تنسجم مع المعايير المدنية محذرين من تحول العراق الى افغانستان اخرى. <br/>احمد القبانجي / مفكر إسلامي / حكومة دينية لا يمكن ان تنسجم مع المجتمع المدني ولا يمكن ان تنسجم مع حكومة مدنية اذا اردنا بالاجبار ان نقيم حكومة دينية يعني حكومة طالبان او حكومة الصومال او ايران وكلها اثبتت فشلها وتحولت الى استبداد والى صراع واقتتال بين الاحزاب <br/>علي الشرع / رجل دين / لانستطيع نحن ان نعزل الدين عن السياسة الدين هو منبع السياسة الدين هو محرك السياسات كلها فلا يجوز اطلاقا وغير ممكن ان نعزل الدين عن السياسة نحن دولة اسلامية وتربيتنا اسلامية وتعاليمنا اسلامية <br/>ومع ان المرجع في حل اختلافات كهذه يفترض ان تكون مواد الدستور العراقي، إلا ان مختصين يؤكدون ان مطاطية البنود الدستورية تجعلها تتحمل أكثر من تفسير وبحسب رغبة ومصلحة الاطراف التي تتسلم السلطة. <br/>ابراهيم المشهداني / محلل سياسي / المواد التي صنع منها الدستور كانت مواد فضفاضة بحيث كانت تقبل الاجتهاد والتفسير من اي طرف الدستور الان يحتاج الى تعديلات اكو دراسات كثيرة واكو مسودة تعديلات للدستور لكن لم يتم الاتفاق عليها السبب في ذلك توجد بعض الاطراف التي تريد ان تجير الدستور لصالحها. <br/>وبينما يؤكد انصار شرعنة السياسة على ان النصوص الدينية مصممة لكي تناسب كل الازمان يشير مختصون الى ان اختلاف تفسير تلك النصوص بين المذاهب والتيارات الدينية المختلفة الى حد تكفير بعضها البعض احيانا يجعل من غير الممكن فرض نمط محدد وناجح للدولة الدينية في هذا العصر. </p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-12169"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/01/10/occupation-of-iraq-destroys-womens-lives/#respond" title="Comment on Occupation of Iraq destroys women’s lives">No Comments</a></span> Posted on January 10th, 2011 by Fatima Jameel</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/01/10/occupation-of-iraq-destroys-womens-lives/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Occupation of Iraq destroys women’s lives">Occupation of Iraq destroys women’s lives</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/category/features/" title="View all posts in Features" rel="category tag">Features</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/category/human-rights/" title="View all posts in Human Rights" rel="category tag">Human Rights</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/category/women/" title="View all posts in Women and Children" rel="category tag">Women and Children</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/al-jazeera/" rel="tag">al-Jazeera</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/america/" 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href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sanctions/" rel="tag">Sanctions</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sectarian-violence/" rel="tag">sectarian violence</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sectarianism/" rel="tag">sectarianism</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sex-trafficking/" rel="tag">sex trafficking</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sexual-abuse/" rel="tag">sexual abuse</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sexual-slavery/" rel="tag">sexual slavery</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sons-of-iraq/" rel="tag">Sons of Iraq</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/statistics/" rel="tag">statistics</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/torture/" rel="tag">Torture</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/unemployment/" rel="tag">unemployment</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/unemployment-levels/" rel="tag">unemployment levels</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/unhcr/" rel="tag">UNHCR</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/unicef/" rel="tag">UNICEF</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/war-crimes/" rel="tag">War Crimes</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/widows/" rel="tag">Widows</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/wikileaks/" rel="tag">Wikileaks</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/womens/" rel="tag">women's</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/womens-rights/" rel="tag">Women's Rights</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p>More than seven years after the US- and UK-led invasion of their country, Iraqis continue to endure an occupation that has systematically violated their rights to life, dignity, self-determination and economic development. The occupation has been and continues to be so destructive and so violent that one in four Iraqis are estimated to be dead or displaced. One in five Iraqis has been made a refugee or an internally displaced person (IDP). </p> <div style="border-right: black 1px solid; padding-right: 5px; border-top: black 1px solid; padding-left: 5px; float: right; padding-bottom: 5px; margin: 5px 0px 5px 15px; border-left: black 1px solid; width: 300px; padding-top: 5px; border-bottom: black 1px solid"> <p>Serene Assir, <i>The Electronic Intifada,</i> 10 January 2011 </p> <p><em>Serene Assir is a Lebanese independent writer and journalist based in Spain.</em></p> <p>Source: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11723.shtml" class="external" target="_blank">ei: Occupation of Iraq destroys women’s lives</a></p> </p></div> <p>In particular, the role and situation of women and girls has declined precipitously compared to prior to the invasion. From torture to rape to assassination, from forced separation for mixed couples to women and their children enduring the death of their husbands and fathers, from a loss of educational rights to expulsion from the workplace and public life, and from sexual slavery to forced flight or enforced disappearance, for the past seven years Iraqi women and girls have endured the most terrifying of fates. They are living at the mercy of an occupation that both seeks to terrorize them into submission, and to use them as objects for the terrorization of the whole of Iraqi society. </p> <h3>No security </h3> <p>Dr. Souad al-Azzawi, who authored a study on Iraqi women entitled "Deterioration of Iraq women’s rights and living conditions under occupation," published in January 2008, told The Electronic Intifada: "The most significant loss that Iraqi women have suffered is a complete and total loss of security." She explained that the loss of security entails both the loss of physical security and "the economic, social and civil securities Iraqi women were so accustomed to prior to the occupation." </p> <p>In fact, it appears that the loss of physical and other aspects of security have a Catch-22 effect on the lives of women. The lack of legal and institutional support for women by an Iraqi puppet government which is at best ineffective has meant that in the vast majority of cases the criminals, mafias, militias, death squads, US occupation forces and Iraqi police and army forces committing crimes against women are not held accountable for their actions. This has in turn encouraged the development of a situation characterized by lawlessness and criminality, in which women are prime targets. As such, many women have been forced to leave their jobs and quit their education, for fear that they may be the next victim of rape or assassination. </p> <p>According to al-Azzawi, Iraqi women have had to resort to "the relative security of their homes," often taking their children out of school too if they were the only parent able to accompany them there and back. </p> <p>Echoing al-Azzawi’s words, an Iraqi refugee speaking on condition of anonymity said that she was forced to leave Iraq precisely because of death threats issued against her by militias who had found out she was actively working as a journalist seeking to expose the injustices taking place against women. Had she stayed in Iraq, the threats likely would have been fulfilled. </p> <p>"Not only was I being targeted, but I was also without protection, given that Iraq has no government to speak of," she explained. She added that "I could have been killed at any moment, and no one would have been held accountable for it. It was for one reason alone that I fled: because I had no choice." </p> <h3>Criminal levels of poverty </h3> <p>The figures speak for themselves. According to a dossier on Iraqi women published by the BRussells Tribunal, prior to the invasion 72 percent of working women were government employees. The dismantlement of state institutions immediately after the invasion meant that these women became unemployed. Instability and ineffective institutions in Iraq render it impossible to pinpoint the total rate of unemployment today, but estimates range from 15 percent to 70 percent. The few stable jobs that exist, according to the dossier, are usually given to men, though a growing number of female-headed households means that many women need to take extraordinary risks in order to try and cater for their children ("<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.brussellstribunal.org/pdf/Women.pdf" class="external" target="_blank">Iraqi Women Under Occupation</a>" [PDF]). </p> <p>The same economic insecurity affects Iraqi refugee families. Aseer al-Madaien, the Protection Officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) – Syria, says that out of 139,000 registered Iraqis in Syria, 28 percent are households headed by women. In total, estimates for the total number of displaced Iraqis, including both refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), range up to almost five million, according to the international organization Medecins Sans Frontieres, which believes that there are 2.5 million Iraqi IDPs and 2.3 million refugees. </p> <p>IDPs suffer both extreme vulnerability and insecurity, as they seek refuge in the homes of relatives and friends, said Hana Al Bayaty, member of the Executive Committee of the BRussells Tribunal. Many of them are the victims of ethnic cleansing, whereby a country once free of sectarianism is increasingly witnessing the targeting of persons on the basis of their religion or ethnicity. Mixed marriages in these conditions are all too often broken up by force, according to a report published by the UN-affiliated IRIN humanitarian news agency ("<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=26268" class="external" target="_blank">Mixed Marriages confront Sectarian Violence</a>," 6 April 2006). </p> <p>The majority of Iraqi refugees have headed to neighboring countries Syria and Jordan, where they are not allowed to work, as they are legally considered "guests." In 2007, the UNHCR reported that an estimated 40 percent of Iraq’s middle class had fled the country. Not only have almost half of those with the qualifications and experience to help rebuild Iraq left the country, but they are also suffering from the most extreme form of disempowerment, according to Al Bayaty. </p> <p>Al-Azzawi explained that "For the educated middle class, this situation is shattering as everything we have worked so hard to earn and build up over decades of war and sanctions is being brought down by military force before our very eyes." </p> <p>Unable to work legally, it is often refugee women who take upon themselves the burden and the risk of working as they are less likely to be asked for documentation on the streets of Amman, Damascus and beyond, and they thereby hope to be less likely to be deported. </p> <p>Unemployment levels in Syria and Jordan, however, mean that even illegal work is hard to come by. It is because of this that the phenomenon of forced prostitution is becoming increasingly rife. The growing problem of sex trafficking is partly caused by poverty. </p> <p>According to al-Azzawi, the lack of work permits, qualifications and opportunities "leads some women to prostitution in order to feed their children and their families." In other cases, the sheer lack of protection faced by some women push them into prostitution. Problems in such cases include threats of kidnapping issued against women should they not accept to prostitute themselves. These threats are issued especially against women whose husbands are dead or missing. "The women of Iraq live in a very fragile situation as a result of the American occupation’s crimes," al-Azzawi said. </p> <h3>Death, torture and enforced disappearance </h3> <p>No statistical reference can adequately convey the sheer suffering experienced by the people of Iraq, as a whole, from the genocidal sanctions period through the invasion and ensuing occupation. Current estimates place the number of dead at anywhere between 1.5 million and 2.5 million. </p> <p>According to Iraqi human rights analyst and advocate Asma al-Haidari, "Up to one million Iraqis have been forcibly disappeared." Behind the enforced disappearances are the US army, Iraqi government forces including the army and police, and al-Qaeda and other militias that operate freely across the country, according to a presentation given by Dirk Adriaensens, member of the BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee, at a London conference organized by the International Committee Against Disappearances on 9-12 December 2010. According to calculations by Adriaensens, based on UNHCR statistics, 20 percent of internally displaced Iraqi families have reported cases of missing children ("<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.brussellstribunal.org/pdf/Disappearances_missing_persons_in_Iraq.pdf" class="external" target="_blank">Enforced Disappearance. The Missing Persons of Iraq</a>" [PDF]). </p> <p>It is also understood that, given that there is a very real and justified fear of retaliation against families who report the disappearances of their loved ones, many others suffer in silence. Thousands of detainees, some of them in secret, illegal prisons, according to al-Azzawi, are women. Estimates published in 2008 by the Iraqi Parliamentary Women’s Committee and the Iraqi Ministry of Women’s Affairs indicate that between one and two million Iraqi women are widows. </p> <p>Inside Iraq’s jails, legal or not, cases of torture and sexual abuse have been widely reported. Revelations by WikiLeaks published on 22 October 2010 were described by Iraqi activists such as Sabah al-Mukhtar, president of the Arab Lawyers’ Union, as just "the tip of the iceberg," as he said on an Al-Jazeera English interview on 24 October. According to al-Azzawi, women are usually jailed on trumped-up charges of terrorism, where there is no proof and while there is no adequate legal system to ensure their right to a fair trial. "Many are awaiting execution," al-Azzawi added. </p> <p>Further, when it is the man who disappears, whether he is dead or missing, women and their families have to fend for themselves in a hellish situation. Out of this horror comes forth one of the more obtuse trends, inexistent in Iraq up until 2003, of families giving their daughters away in early marriage for fear of being unable to adequately support them. </p> <p>One immediate effect of this phenomenon is the fact that girls aged 13, 14 and 15 sold into early marriage lose their right to education. As figures currently stand, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report published on 1 September 2010, for every 100 boys in school, there are only 89 girls ("<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MCOI-89RD6Y?OpenDocument" class="external" target="_blank">Girls Education in Iraq 2010</a>" [PDF]). </p> <p>"Lots of those little girls are very bright and are willing to finish their education if they are allowed to," said al-Azzawi. </p> <p>Worse still is the flourishing of what are known as "pleasure marriages." These are short-term marriages conducted out of court, whereby separation is also very simple. It is a practice that Iraqi women’s rights advocates describe as linked to prostitution, because of the wrongful abuse of the practice by men in power, often blackmailing fathers into giving their daughters away in a "pleasure marriage," and also because once a girl or a woman has married in this way and has received alimony for her short-term commitment, she will find it very difficult to reintegrate back into her family. </p> <p>"Many girls are forced into prostitution and ultimately sex trafficking this way," al-Azzawi added. </p> <h3>Forced Islamization of society </h3> <p>It is deeply telling that Iraqi society is becoming forcibly Islamized by militias tied to the Iraqi puppet government, which is dependent upon the United States for its survival. Meanwhile, Washington claims to be fighting a war on Islamic terrorism. The reality, as is frequently the case, is the precise opposite. Previously a secular state, Iraqi society is becoming forcibly transformed into a theocracy. In such systems, women and girls inevitably lose. </p> <p>The results of the proliferation of fundamentalist militias are varied. While reports of Christian women veiling in order to avoid attacks are troubling in the Iraqi context, what is potentially much worse is that the notion of an Iraqi state for all its citizens is fast disappearing. Not only does this mean that Iraqi girls are no longer safe on the streets; it also means that if the occupation fulfills its goals, Iraqi "career women" may be a thing of the past. </p> <p>Al-Azzawi notes that "Economically the country has lost a huge, skilled working force, which is exactly what the occupation planned to do, and the lives of millions of working women and families were shattered." </p> <p>Considering that there is not a single right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that the US occupation has not violated — as the International Initiative to Prosecute US Genocide in Iraq team found when working in 2009 to bring a legal case for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against four US presidents and four UK prime ministers — it is amazing yet encouraging that the US occupation’s goals have failed. </p> <p>Not only is the US administration under President Barack Obama still battling to maintain control over a country whose people resist in the name of their dignity and their love for Iraq, but many of the most outspoken and brilliant advocates for Iraqis’ rights in general are in fact women. </p> <p>"I have much hope for Iraq," said human rights advocate Asma al-Haidari, "Nothing will make me lose hope." </p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-12120"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/01/05/iraq-muslim-solidarity-towards-iraqi-christians/#comments" title="Comment on IRAQ Muslim solidarity towards Iraqi Christians">1 Comment</a></span> Posted on January 5th, 2011 by Harith</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/01/05/iraq-muslim-solidarity-towards-iraqi-christians/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to IRAQ Muslim solidarity towards Iraqi Christians">IRAQ Muslim solidarity towards Iraqi Christians</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a 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<p>A delegation of Arab tribal chiefs visit the archdiocese of Kirkuk following the attacks against Baghdad cathedral and Egyptian Copts in Alexandria to voice their concern and express their closeness to their Christian “brothers”. A Christian woman who survived the slaughter in Baghdad’s Syriac-Catholic cathedral on 31 October is murdered.</p> <p>by Layla Yousif Rahema</p> </p></div> <p> Baghdad (AsiaNews) – At a time of escalating tensions and violence, Muslims leaders have expressed their solidarity with Iraqi Christians. Yesterday, some 20 sheikhs from Arab tribes in Nassiriyia, Kerbala, Diwaniyia, Imara, and Basra visited the Chaldean Archbishop’s Residence in Kirkuk to present their best wishes for the New Year, but also and especially to express their solidarity with Christians as well as voice their concern over mass Christian migration, particularly after the attack against Baghdad’s Syriac-Catholic cathedral on 31 October, and a Coptic church in Alexandria (Egypt) on 31 December. <p>During lunch with Archbishop Louis Sako, the Muslim leaders expressed their outrage and condemned the attacks against Christians. “Iraq without Christians would not be Iraq,” one of the sheikhs said. Another noted that his tribe was Christian before the arrival of Islam in the 7th century, adding that “we cannot forget our roots.” Others highlighted the need “to strengthen the spirit of brotherhood because we are all children of Adam and Abraham.”</p> <p>The sheikhs gave Mgr Sako a gift, a sword to symbolise their offer of protection to Christians. The archbishop thanked them but said that “the Christian sword is love”.</p> <p>“As the Pope said, the attack against innocent people offends God and humanity. If we want to build life together and in harmony, we must educate our children to respect those who are different from us in terms of religion, culture or ethnicity, and respect the human mosaic that God created,” the Chaldean archbishop said. “Destroying it is to destroy not only peace but life itself.”</p> <p>After the meal, the entire Muslim delegation visited Kirkuk cathedral and listened to Mgr Sako explain the Christian prayer and how, within the church, men and women praise God.</p> <p>In the meantime, Christians are still losing their lives in Baghdad. On Sunday night, Rafah Butros Toma, a 44-year-old unmarried Christian woman, was murdered in her home. She was one of the worshippers who survived the al-Qaeda massacre at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cathedral on 31 October. She worked at a local university and lived alone after her old father moved to a village in northern Iraq. She never stopped going to church.</p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Muslim-solidarity-towards-Iraqi-Christians-20419.html" class="external" target="_blank">IRAQ Muslim solidarity towards Iraqi Christians – Asia News</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-12029"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/12/28/we-will-resist-and-we-will-remainmgr-sako/#comments" title="Comment on We will resist and we will remain–Mgr Sako">1 Comment</a></span> Posted on December 28th, 2010 by Hussein Al-Bayati</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/12/28/we-will-resist-and-we-will-remainmgr-sako/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to We will resist and we will remain–Mgr Sako">We will resist and we will remain–Mgr Sako</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/category/human-rights/" title="View all posts in Human Rights" rel="category tag">Human Rights</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/category/religion/" title="View all posts in Religion" rel="category tag">Religion</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/archbishop-louis-sako/" rel="tag">Archbishop Louis Sako</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/asianews/" rel="tag">asianews</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/baghdad/" rel="tag">Baghdad</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/basrah/" rel="tag">Basrah</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/christianity/" rel="tag">Christianity</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/christians/" rel="tag">Christians</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/christians-and-muslims/" rel="tag">Christians and Muslims</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/christmas/" rel="tag">Christmas</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/churches/" rel="tag">churches</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/ethnic-cleansing-of-christians/" rel="tag">Ethnic cleansing of Christians</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iraqi-christians/" rel="tag">iraqi christians</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/martyrs/" rel="tag">Martyrs</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/middle-east/" rel="tag">Middle East</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/mosul/" rel="tag">Mosul</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/religion/" rel="tag">Religion</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/security-measures/" rel="tag">security measures</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/turkmen/" rel="tag">Turkmen</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/%d8%a8%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b3%d9%8a%d8%ad%d9%8a%d9%8a%d9%86/" rel="tag">بالمسيحيين</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <blockquote><p>" We live in Iraq today, a painful experience, culminating in the massacre of Our Lady of Deliverance, which have shocked Christians and Muslims together, but we are determined to withstand the ordeal. We will not give in to temptation and frustration because life is a gift from God and it is greater than the hands of evil can destroy it".</p> <hr/></blockquote> <p>Many liturgical functions called off, no Christmas decorations, and no celebrations after dark. The Iraqi prime minister calls attacks on Christians "a crime against national unity". An appeal for peace and solidarity among ethnic groups and religions, and a message of hope from the archbishop of Kirkuk.</p> <p>Kirkuk (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.asianews.it/news-en/A-gloomy-Christmas-in-Iraq.-Mgr-Sako:-we-will-resist-and-we-will-remain-20350.html" class="external" target="_blank">AsiaNews / Agencies</a>) – A Christmas of fear and sadness for Iraqi Christians, in memory of the martyrs killed Oct. 31 in the Syrian Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad. Many masses were called off across the country, and security measures heightened. But in the midst of this also the determination expressed in a message also sent to <i>AsiaNews </i>by Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk. According to <i>Middle East Concern</i>, the celebrations were cancelled as a result of threats posted on Web sites of Islamic groups. "The decision was taken after the threats were repeated on Tuesday, December 22. The churches in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk have decided not to put up Christmas decorations and called off ceremonies after dark”.</p> <p>Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has called on Christians not to leave Iraq. "Attempts to keep Christians away from their homeland and their land, which clung to them through the centuries, is a great crime against national unity," al-Maliki said in a statement marking the Christmas holiday. But many churches in Mosul did not hold celebrations while in Basra the roads leading to churches were cordoned off with barbed wire, and the buildings were surrounded by security forces.</p> <p>In this gloomy picture, the archbishop of Kirkuk, wants to talk about hope. "As long as we get back to each other: Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, Muslims and Christians, we resist and we stay, because Iraq without us loses its beautiful multi-identity. We remain because are committed to love and to return to each other. This is the road to resurrection, life and renewal".</p> <p>Archbishop Sako recalled Oct. 31: " We live in Iraq today, a painful experience, culminating in the massacre of Our Lady of Deliverance, which have shocked Christians and Muslims together, but we are determined to withstand the ordeal. We will not give in to temptation and frustration because life is a gift from God and it is greater than the hands of evil can destroy it".</p> <p>"If we go back to the essence of religion and to our common human roots, inevitably we will meet tour national fraternity in equality, justice, solidarity. Then risk will vanish and life will reflect abundantly This is good news of Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ with his message of hope: Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace. "</p> <p>The Archbishop of Kirkuk concluded his message with an appeal for peace: "Peace is the base of all goods: we ask it in prayer and implement it with mutual love and solidarity. Then the miracle happens and we will have peace on earth for human beings and the glory of God in the highest. We both believe that God is the Lord of the impossible".</p> <p></p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.asianews.it/news-en/A-gloomy-Christmas-in-Iraq.-Mgr-Sako:-we-will-resist-and-we-will-remain-20350.html" class="external" target="_blank">IRAQ A gloomy Christmas in Iraq. Mgr Sako: "we will resist and we will remain" – Asia News</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-11986"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/12/24/christian-exodus-from-iraq-gathers-pace/#respond" title="Comment on Christian exodus from Iraq gathers pace">No Comments</a></span> Posted on December 24th, 2010 by Nur Hussein Ghazali</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/12/24/christian-exodus-from-iraq-gathers-pace/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Christian exodus from Iraq gathers pace">Christian exodus from Iraq gathers pace</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, <a 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href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a5%d8%b3%d9%84%d8%a7%d9%85%e2%80%8e/" rel="tag">الإسلام‎</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/%d8%a8%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b3%d9%8a%d8%ad%d9%8a%d9%8a%d9%86/" rel="tag">بالمسيحيين</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p>Their cathedrals stand silent and their neighbourhoods are rapidly emptying. Now <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/iraq" class="external" target="_blank">Iraq</a>’s Christians face two further unthinkable realities: that Christmas this year is all but cancelled, and that few among them will stay around to celebrate future holy days.</p> <p>It has been the worst of years for the country’s Christians, with thousands fleeing in the past month and more leaving the country during 2010 than at any time since the invasion nearly eight years ago. Christian leaders say there have been few more defining years in their 2,000-year history in central Arabia.</p> <p> <a title="20102412_captioned_memorial_murdered_christians by Gorillas Guides, on Flickr" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.flickr.com/photos/gorillasguides/5287899085/" class="external" target="_blank"><img style="display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto 5px" height="276" alt="20102412_captioned_memorial_murdered_christians" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720im_/http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5245/5287899085_689e1097d8_o.jpg" width="460"/></a> <p>The latest exodus follows a massacre led by al-Qaida at a Chaldean Catholic church in central Baghdad on 31 October, which left about 60 people dead, almost 100 maimed and an already apprehensive community terrified. Since then, the terrorist group has targeted Christians in their homes, including family members of those who survived the attack.</p> <p>In Baghdad, as well as the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, Christmas services have been cancelled for fear of further violence. Church leaders said they would not put up Christmas decorations or celebrate midnight mass. They told families not to decorate their homes, for fear of attack after al-Qaida reiterated its threat to target Christians earlier this week.</p> <p>"Now more than 80% of Christians are not going to the churches," said the head of Iraq’s Christian Endowment group, Abdullah al-Noufali. "There is no more sunday school, no school for teaching Christianity. Yesterday we had a discussion about what we would do for Christmas. We took a decision just to do one mass. In years before we had many masses."</p> <p>Noufali’s church was closed and barricaded in 2005 when violence was consuming Baghdad. Many others had stayed open since then. Until now. In the wake of the attack on the Our Lady of Salvation church, at least 10 churches are believed to have been closed. At others, congregations are down to a handful.</p> <p>Iraq’s Christian population has halved since the ousting of Saddam Hussein. But in the past two months, the rate of departure has soared. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees is reporting high numbers of registrations by Christians in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. And in Iraq’s Kurdish north, the number of refugees is overwhelming.</p> <p>Christians have been arriving since the president of the Kurdish regional government, Massoud Barazani, offered them protection and refuge days after the massacre.</p> <p>Kurdish officials say at least 1,000 families have taken up the offer. Noufali believes the number is far higher. He says the Kurds have been warm and welcoming, but fears that moving there does not offer his community a long-term solution.</p> <p>"We have seen in Kurdistan that they have no ability to accept the Kurdish students in the universities," he said. "There are not enough chairs in the university for them. They must have opportunity to learn and work. The problem is not just security."</p> <p>In Lebanon, the plight of Iraq’s Christians is being carefully scrutinised. Father Yusef Muwaness, of the Council of Catholic Churches in the Middle East, said: "We understand the shock [the Iraqis] are enduring. We want them to know that they won’t be left alone.</p> <p>"There are ancient issues at work. These people [al-Qaida] are killing because of a fatwa. There has not been a mufti who has stood up and said this is wrong."</p> <p>Lebanon’s Christians once held a demographic majority. Emigration and a brutal civil war has whittled numbers away. Amin Gemayel, a former Lebanese president and now patriarch of many of the country’s remaining Christians, believes far more could be done by Muslim leaders to ensure that the exodus is not total.</p> <p>"The Christians were very nationalistic," he said. "They are part of the foundations of this area. We can’t understand such extremity then passivity from the leaders. When the region is completely cleansed of other religions (apart from Islam) it will be a surrender to the fundamentalists."</p> <p>In the Chaldean archdiocese in Baabda, above Beirut, Father Hanna has been receiving Iraqi families fleeing their homeland. "I would go back there to give a service in front of one person, if I had to," he said. "But even that may not be possible now. Since 1 November, we have seen 450 families register here. Many more have gone to the UN."</p> <p>Among those who have stayed in Iraq and tried to build a new life in the north, there are mixed feelings. "Three days after the church attack I left my house (in Baghdad) and came to the KRG," said Georges Qudah, 30, a pharmacy assistant. "At the main checkpoint I said we are a Christian family, and they said we are welcome to stay as long as we want. I feel safe and comfortable here, but the problem is how to live. The council here has given us blankets and beds, but housing is very expensive."</p> <p>In Baghdad, there are few signs of the joy of Christmas.</p> <p>"There is no hope here anymore," says Noufali. "No one can believe they [the Christians] will stay. Christmas came with two messages, peace in the world and hope for the people and we need these two things for our life in Iraq. If there are no more Christians here, I am certain Iraq will become a more dangerous country."</p> <h3>Christianity in the Middle East</h3> <p> Freedom of worship for Christians varies greatly across the Middle East. <p>In Lebanon, where about half the population are Christian, believers are allowed to practise their faith without fear of persecution. The Maronite Church is the largest, most politically active and influential denomination, holding 34 of the 64 Christian seats in the Lebanese parliament.</p> <p>In Jordan, Christians are free to profess their faith, build churches, schools, hospitals and universities. They attend mass and there are public celebrations of religious festivals and ceremonies. They experience less discrimination and more freedom than fellow believers in Egypt and Iraq. There is a similar portrait of stability and freedom in Syria, where Christians comprise up to 10% of the population.</p> <p>Evangelising bvy Protestants in Jordan has prompted a crackdown on churches, visas and summer camps. Attempting to convert Muslims is illegal, but there is no law against proselytising to other Christians and some Catholic and Orthodox groups have complained of energetic wooing from Protestants. It is this evangelising that has offended authorities, keen to avoid religious zealotry of any sort.</p> <p>What Saudi Arabia lacks in violent persecution it makes up for in outright intolerance. There is no religious freedom in Saudi Arabia, which counts a million Catholics in its population. The country allows Christians to enter for work purposes but severely restricts the practise of their faith.</p> <p>Christians worship in private homes and there are bans on religious articles including Bibles, crucifixes, statues, carvings and items bearing religious symbols. The religious police bar the practice of any religion other than Islam. Conversion of a Muslim to another religion is considered apostasy and carries a death sentence if the accused does not recant. Still, Christians in Saudi Arabia are positively blessed compared with those of Iraq. <strong>Riazat Butt</strong></p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/23/iraq-christian-exodus-christmas" class="external" target="_blank">Christian exodus from Iraq gathers pace</a> | by Martin Chulov in Baghdad |  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.guardian.co.uk/" target="_blank" class="external">The Guardian</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-11951"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/12/15/is-free-iraq-becoming-a-more-islamic-state-reuters/#respond" title="Comment on Is free Iraq becoming a more Islamic state? | Reuters">No Comments</a></span> Posted on December 15th, 2010 by Nur Hussein Ghazali</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/12/15/is-free-iraq-becoming-a-more-islamic-state-reuters/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Is free Iraq becoming a more Islamic state? | Reuters">Is free Iraq becoming a more Islamic state? | Reuters</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/category/analysis-briefings-commentary/" title="View all posts in Analysis Briefings Commentary" rel="category tag">Analysis Briefings Commentary</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/category/features/" title="View all posts in Features" rel="category tag">Features</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/alcohol/" rel="tag">alcohol</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/alcohol-ban-on/" rel="tag">alcohol - 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She had no idea who they were but complied because she feared for her life.</p> <p>"Can you just tell me who will pay the rent of my shop for these two months? What shall I do to support my family? What is the relation between hair dressing and religious events?" Zubaidi, 40, asked furiously.</p> <p>"This is a new dictatorship. They want Iraq to be an Islamic state. But this is not right. Iraq includes a variety of religious factions … These are alien ideas, not Iraqi."</p> <p>Recent efforts by authorities, clergy and unknown bands of neighborhood enforcers to police morals by shutting nightclubs, bars and other establishments has heightened concerns among academics and intellectuals that Iraq, now emerging from war, is displaying the tendencies of a hard-line Islamic state.</p> <p>Baghdad’s local government this month re-activated a federal order from last year to close down the capital’s nightclubs and liquor shops due to concern the venues were undermining morals.</p> <p>Last week, anti-American Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr issued a strongly worded statement calling for Iraqis to take a stand against "corruption, intoxication and addiction."</p> <p>The crackdown in Baghdad was preceded by similar actions in some Shi’ite-majority provinces in the south.</p> <p>"What is going on are normal consequences when religious parties take over power. They start with such practices, and end the way the Taliban in Afghanistan ended, or other parties in <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.reuters.com/places/iran" class="external" target="_blank">Iran</a>," Baghdad political analyst Hazim al-Nuaimi said.</p> <p>In September, local authorities in Babil province prevented an arts festival that has been held yearly since before 2003. Security forces told organizers a day after the festival started to end it because it included dance shows.</p> <p>In the southern city of Basra, the government shut down a foreign circus a few days after it opened last month. It was the first circus the province had hosted in decades.</p> <p>Basra authorities said the government department of Shi’ite endowments held that the land on which the circus was set up could not be used in a way that violated Islamic Sharia law.</p> <p>The new measures sparked protests by some Iraqis who said the government is trying to kill freedom more than seven years after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein and paved the way for majority Shi’ites to take power.</p> <p>RADICAL CONCEPTS</p> <p>"What is going on, in fact, is an attempt to impose the radical concepts of the Islamic fundamentalist parties who dominate the political scene in Iraq…that’s what we are afraid of," said Qasim Mohammed, a journalist who protested with dozens of others in Baghdad’s main square Sunday.</p> <p>Kamel al-Zaidi, head of the Baghdad provincial council, described the protesters in televised comments as "paid people who want to turn Iraq into a community of atheists."</p> <p>But the crackdown, alongside a series of attacks on Iraq’s minority Christian community, raised questions about freedom of religion and expression in mainly Muslim Iraq.</p> <p>In the worst of the attacks, dozens died after Sunni insurgents took hostages at a Baghdad cathedral on October 31. Hundreds of Christian families have since fled for the relative safety of the Kurdish north, and abroad.</p> <p>During Friday prayers last week, many Shi’ite clerics supported the Baghdad provincial council and called on the government to show more determination.</p> <p>"The decision of the government and the provincial council is right," said Sadr al Din al Qubanchi, a prominent cleric in the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a Shi’ite political bloc.</p> <p>"Those who condemn it must realize that the Iraqi identity is Islamic, and the government is responsible for practicing this identity," said Qubanchi in a speech in the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf.</p> <p>Sabbar al-Saeidi, the head of the legal committee of the Baghdad provincial council, defended the new measures.</p> <p>"The measures are aimed at fighting anything against moral and public discipline, whether it is a circus or not," Saeidi said.</p> <p>Overt and illegal acts of religious intimidation may have been worse three years ago, when Shi’ite militias and Sunni insurgents roamed Iraq freely.</p> <p>Now, bands of loosely organised, unknown men are carrying out threats quietly against liquor shops, schools and other establishments, and with groups like Sadr’s movement claiming a share of political power, critics say the government is closing its eyes to the intimidation.</p> <p>NAKED STATUES</p> <p>Residents of Baghdad’s mainly Shi’ite Shaab district say many alcohol shops have been attacked in recent weeks.</p> <p>At a government-run fine arts institute in Baghdad, unknown men showed up this week and ordered the removal of all statues from the yard, an official of the facility said.</p> <p>They said "it is not good to show such statues. Some of them are naked," said the official, who asked not to be named because he feared for his safety.</p> <p>The music program at the school was shut down. Students are not allowed to wear short skirts, short sleeve shirts or makeup, according to a female student.</p> <p>"(A school official) told us it is Haram (forbidden). Some teachers consider any girl who does this as absent," she said. "A top official once put an X on my classmate’s leg as she was wearing a short skirt."</p> <p>Protesters on both sides have taken to the streets. On Friday hundreds responded to Sadr’s call.</p> <p>"Stand against those who want to disseminate corruption, intoxication, and addiction (to alcohol), to make Iraq drift toward ignorance, degeneration, lewdness, to make our society rot like the West," Sadr said in his statement.</p> <p>Political analysts said the coming era could see an escalation of intimidation as Sadr’s fundamentalist religious movement plays a larger role in government.</p> <p>Sadr won 39 seats in a March parliamentary election and then pledged support for incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a key step in an agreement between political blocs that end a months-long political impasse.</p> <p>"What is going on is a new tendency of a new culture that wants to take us backward," said Haider Munaathar, a well-known actor and head of Iraq’s theater union. "We must not keep silent toward those who want Iraq to wear a robe of their choosing."</p> <p>(Editing by Jim Loney and Samia Nakhoul)</p> <ul></ul> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BE30N20101215?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%20reuters/worldNews%20%28News%20/%20US%20/%20International%29" class="external" target="_blank">Is free Iraq becoming a more Islamic state? | Reuters</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-11864"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/12/05/saudi-arabia-rated-a-bigger-threat-to-iraqi-stability-than-iran/#respond" title="Comment on Saudi Arabia rated a bigger threat to Iraqi stability than Iran">No Comments</a></span> Posted on December 5th, 2010 by Abdus-Samad</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/12/05/saudi-arabia-rated-a-bigger-threat-to-iraqi-stability-than-iran/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Saudi Arabia rated a bigger threat to Iraqi stability than Iran">Saudi Arabia rated a bigger threat to Iraqi stability than Iran</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/ali-khamenei/" rel="tag">ALi Khamenei</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/ali-larijani/" rel="tag">Ali Larijani</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/ambassador-christopher-hill/" rel="tag">ambassador christopher hill</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/america/" rel="tag">America</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/analysis/" rel="tag">Analysis</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/ayatollah-akhbar-hashemi-rafsanjani/" rel="tag">Ayatollah Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/brigadier-general-qasem-soleimani/" rel="tag">Brigadier-General Qasem Soleimani</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/economic-development/" rel="tag">Economic development</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/elections/" rel="tag">Elections</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/feridun-sinirlioglu/" rel="tag">Feridun Sinirlioglu</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/foreign-interference-accusations-of/" rel="tag">foreign interference - accusations of</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iraqi-resistance/" rel="tag">iraqi resistance</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/irgc/" rel="tag">IRGC</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/jalal-talibani/" rel="tag">Jalal Talibani</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/mahmoud-ahmadinejad/" rel="tag">Mahmoud Ahmadinejad</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/national-alliance/" rel="tag">National Alliance</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/nouri-al-maliki/" rel="tag">nouri al maliki</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/press/" rel="tag">Press</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/regional-influence/" rel="tag">regional influence</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/religion/" rel="tag">Religion</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/resistance/" rel="tag">Resistance</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/resources/" rel="tag">Resources</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/saudi-arabia/" rel="tag">Saudi Arabia</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/saudi-hostility/" rel="tag">Saudi hostility</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/state-department-cables/" rel="tag">state department cables</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/tehran/" rel="tag">Tehran</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/turkey/" rel="tag">Turkey</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/water/" rel="tag">Water</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/wikileaks/" rel="tag">Wikileaks</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p>Baghdad says it can contain influence of Shia neighbour, unlike powerful Gulf state that wants a return to Sunni dominance</p> <p>Iraqi government officials see <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/saudiarabia" class="external" target="_blank">Saudi Arabia</a>, not <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/iran" class="external" target="_blank">Iran</a>, as the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/226620" class="external" target="_blank">biggest threat to the integrity and cohesion of their fledgling democratic state</a>, leaked US state department cables reveal.</p> <p>The Iraqi concerns, analysed in a dispatch sent from the US embassy in Baghdad by then ambassador Christopher Hill in September 2009, represent a fundamental divergence from the American and British view of Iran as arch-predator in <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/iraq" class="external" target="_blank">Iraq</a>.</p> <p>"Iraq views relations with Saudi Arabia as among its most challenging given Riyadh’s money, deeply ingrained anti-Shia attitudes and [Saudi] suspicions that a Shia-led Iraq will inevitably further Iranian regional influence," Hill writes.</p> <p>"Iraqi contacts assess that the Saudi goal (and that of most other Sunni Arab states, to varying degrees) is to enhance Sunni influence, dilute Shia dominance and promote the formation of a weak and fractured Iraqi government."</p> <p>Hill’s unexpected assessment flies in the face of the conventional wisdom that Iranian activities, overt and covert, are the biggest obstacle to Iraq’s development.</p> <p>It feeds claims, prevalent after the 9/11 attacks, that religiously conservative, politically repressive Saudi Arabia, where most of the 9/11 terrorists came from, is the true enemy of the west.</p> <p>Hill’s analysis has sharp contemporary relevance as rival Shia and Sunni political blocs, backed by Iran and the Saudis respectively, continue to squabble over the formation of a new government in Baghdad, seven months after March’s inconclusive national elections.</p> <p>Hill says Iraqi leaders are careful to avoid harsh criticism of Saudi Arabia’s role for fear of offending the Americans, Riyadh’s close allies. But resentments simmer below the surface.</p> <p>"Iraqi officials note that periodic anti-Shia outbursts from Saudi religious figures are often allowed to circulate without sanction or disavowal from the Saudi leadership. This reality reinforces the Iraqi view that the Saudi state religion of Wahhabi Sunni Islam condones religious incitement against Shia."</p> <p>Hill reports the Saudis have used considerable financial and media resources to support Sunni political aspirations, exert influence over Sunni tribal groups, and undercut the Shia Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) and Iraqi National Alliance.</p> <p>Hill adds that some Iraqi observers see Saudi aims as positively malign. "A recent Iraqi press article quoted anonymous Iraqi intelligence sources assessing that Saudi Arabia was leading a Gulf effort to destabilise the Maliki government and was financing ‘the current al-Qaida offensive in Iraq’."</p> <p>Hill and his Iraqi interlocutors are not alone in their suspicions of Saudi policy. At a meeting in Ankara in February this year a senior Turkish foreign ministry official, Feridun Sinirlioglu, told an American envoy that "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/250705" class="external" target="_blank">Saudi Arabia is ‘throwing around money’ among the political parties in Iraq</a> because it is unwilling to accept the inevitability of Shia dominance there".</p> <p>Returning to more familiar ground, Hill asserts that Iranian efforts in Iraq are also "driven by a clear determination to see a sectarian, Shia-dominated government that is weak, disenfranchised from its Arab neighbours, detached from the US security apparatus and strategically dependent on Iran". Such an outcome is not in the interests of the US, he notes drily.</p> <p>But he passes on to Washington the arguments of Iraqi officials who say they know how to "manage" Iran. "Shia contacts … do not dismiss the significant Iranian influence but argue that it is best countered by Iraqi Shia politicians who know how to deal with Iran." These officials also maintain Iranian interference "is not aimed, unlike that of some Sunni neighbours, at fomenting terrorism that would destabilise the government". They predict Tehran’s meddling will "naturally create nationalistic Iraqi resistance to it, both Shia and more broadly, if others do not intervene".</p> <p>The difficulties encountered by Iranian-backed Shia parties in coming together to form a new government, despite much urging from Tehran and the co-opting of the hardline Iran-based cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, could be seen as evidence that Iran’s overall influence has been exaggerated and that public "resistance" to Iran’s role is indeed growing.</p> <p>All the same, American officials continue to blame Iran principally for instigating and fomenting much of the sectarian and insurgent violence that has disfigured Iraq since the 2003 invasion. James Jeffrey, Hill’s successor as US ambassador, claimed in August that about one-quarter of all US casualties in Iraq were caused by armed groups backed by Iran.</p> <p>A Baghdad embassy cable from November 2009 says Iran continues to view Iraq as "a vital foreign policy priority for the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/234583" class="external" target="_blank">Iranian government’s efforts to project its ideology and influence in the region</a>". At the head of this effort, it says, is the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods (Jerusalem) Force, or IRGC-QF, led by Brigadier-General Qasem Soleimani, whose authority is "second only to supreme leader [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei".</p> <p>Soleimani has close ties with prominent Iraqi government officials, including the president, Jalal Talibani, and prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, the cable reports. "Khamenei, President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad, Speaker [Ali] Larijani and former president [Ayatollah Akhbar Hashemi] Rafsanjani consult regularly with visiting GOI [government of Iraq] officials as part of the IRIG’s [Islamic Republic of Iran government] broader ’strategic’ council of advisers seeking to influence the GOI."</p> <p>The cable continues that Iran’s tools of influence include financial support to and pressure on a cross-spectrum of Iraqi parties and officials; economic development assistance, notably to religious organisations; lethal aid to selected militant Shia proxies; and sanctuary to Iraqi figures fearful of US government targeting, or those seeking to revitalise their political-religious credentials, most notably Moqtada al-Sadr.</p> <p>"This leverage also extends, to a lesser extent, to select Sunni actors, including such public figures as Iraqi speaker [Iyad al-] Samarra’i, whose September visit to Tehran included meetings with several senior IRIG officials."</p> <p>The cable comments that Iran is watching the US troop withdrawal schedule closely as it tries to make permanent its "strategic foothold". All US troops are expected to leave Iraq by the end of next year. But the cable’s American author also injects some welcome historical perspective.</p> <p>"Iran will continue to flex its muscles to ensure its strategic outcomes are met. This should not lead to alarmist tendencies or reactions on our part. The next Iraqi government will continue to cultivate close ties with Iran, given longstanding historical realities that precede Iraq’s ties with the United States.</p> <p>"On the other hand Iran’s influence should not be overestimated. As the GOI continues to gain its footing, points of divergence between Tehran and Baghdad become increasingly evident on such sensitive bilateral issue as water, hydrocarbons, maritime borders and political parity. Some prominent Iraqi leaders, including those with ties to Iran, are increasingly sensitive to being labelled Iranian lackeys."</p> <p>A visit last December by US diplomats to the Iraqi holy city of Najaf, the "epicentre of Shia Islam", finds further evidence of Iraqi public resentment of foreign meddling from whatever quarter. One local leader "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/239665" class="external" target="_blank">singled out Saudi Arabia and Iran as the biggest culprits</a> but noted that a ‘mental revolution’ was under way among Iraqi youth against foreign agendas seeking to undermine the country’s stability".</p> <p>Iraqi sources also tell the visiting Americans that the Iranian government and the IRGC cannot match the "social and political clout" that Iraq’s Shia establishment, led by the Shia world’s most senior cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, wields among the ordinary citizens of both Iraq and Iran.</p> <p>Sistani, it is noted, rejects the fundamental tenet of Iranian clerical rule – the unchallengeable "custodianship of the jurist" adopted by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to justify his de facto dictatorship. Seen this way the entire Iranian Islamic revolution is illegitimate.</p> <p><strong>Source:</strong> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/05/wikileaks-cables-saudi-meddling-iraq" class="external" target="_blank">WikiLeaks cables: Saudi Arabia rated a bigger threat to Iraqi stability than Iran | World news | guardian.co.uk</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-11830"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/12/01/children-indulging-in-iraqi-violence-to-the-level-of-suicide-aswat-al-iraq/#respond" title="Comment on Children indulging in Iraqi violence to the level of suicide : Aswat Al Iraq">No Comments</a></span> Posted on December 1st, 2010 by Hussein Al-Bayati</div> <h3><a 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align="right"> <div style="border-right: black 1px solid; padding-right: 5px; border-top: black 1px solid; padding-left: 5px; float: right; padding-bottom: 5px; margin: 5px 0px 5px 15px; border-left: black 1px solid; width: 300px; padding-top: 5px; border-bottom: black 1px solid"> <p>Armed groups brainwash them, exploiting their poverty, inclination for revenge and family disintegration.</p> <p>By: Milad Al-Jabbouri</p> </p></div> <p>BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Assa’ad and Omran are almost the same age of eighteen. They share a cell at the Juveniles’ prison in Baghdad, away from their families that live in Dawrah, south of the capital. Both boys joined armed groups and participated in bloody acts of violence in 2006. What distinguishes them is that they are members in opposing groups that kill based on identity.</p> <p>Prison may be the best destiny for the two boys. Hundreds of their peers were killed in battles or were blown to pieces in suicide bombings for which they were recruited by armed organizations.</p> <p>Asa’ad Husam Eddin prefers to stay in jail so that he does not become subject to a tribal judgment that condemns him to death for participating in four members of one family. During his childhood, Asa’ad was known by the name “Al-‘Allas”, a term in Iraqi dialect describing children recruited as informers for armed groups. Among his duties was to select a target and monitors its movements so that the armed group could abduct and execute him.</p> <p>According to his confessions, Asa’ad was active in monitoring people in his neighborhood, and informing Al-Qa’eda elements about their moves, in return for $200 per person.</p> <p>Omran Abbas has a similar record, except that he used to work for the opposing group. He is spending a sentence of 15 years in jail after being convicted of committing acts of violence in Abu Dsheir area, one street from Al-Daourah. Residents of the two areas belong to two different confessions. Abbas was fourteen when he joined armed groups opposing Al-Qa’eda. He participated in acts of violence during the peak of confessional violence in 2006. Shortly before that, his father was kidnapped by Al-Qa’eda, and was later found beheaded in the ‘no-man’s-land” separating the two “fighting” areas.</p> <p>As an act of revenge for a lost relative, or to follow in someone’s footsteps, many boys whom we met at the Juvenile Prison, such as Nathem Jabbar, Mahdi Hassan and Sa’doun, and hundreds of others, fell victim to the phenomenon of recruiting children by armed groups that emerged after the battles of the spring and summer of 2004 in Al-Fallujah and Al-Najaf.</p> <p>A number of armed groups emerged in Iraq after those brutal battles, and spread between Sunni and Shi’ite affiliations. Most of these organizations, however, participated in battles over time, but the major part ended after the spring of 2008. <br/>The most dangerous organization, which continued practicing violence with a steady methodology, was Al-Qa’eda that concentrated its operations after 2003 in Al-Anbar region. It then managed to control a number of cities and governorates such as Salaheddin, Ninewa, South Kirkuk, South Baghdad and North Babel.</p> <p>The phenomenon of recruiting children by Al-Qa’eda developed form training them in monitoring, collection of information and transferring messages among combatants, to planting explosive devices and participating in killings, to carrying out suicide bombings, in the peak of sectarian violence between 2006 and 2007.</p> <h3>Suicide, Revenge and Kidnap</h3> <p>Before that, recruiting children in suicide bombings was rare and rather erratic. The first operation was carried out by a child of ten years in the fall of 2005, targeting the chief of Kirkuk police (250 kilometers north of Baghdad). After about two months, two children carried out two suicide bombings against the American forces in Al-Fallujah, Al-Anbar province (110 kilometers northwest of the capital, and Al-Huwijeh of the Kirkuk governorate. In the summer of 2008, a child of ten years, disguised as a peddler, followed one of the most prominent leaders of Al-Sahwah in Tarmiyyeh area, Sheikh Emad Jassem, for three consecutive days, after which he succeeded in detonating himself near the Sheikh, whose leg was amputated as a result of the explosion. In the same year, a girl of thirteen carried out a suicide bombing in Ba’quba, the central city of Deyala governorate (57 kilometers east of Baghdad) resulting in the death of a number of Al-Sahwah followers.</p> <p>The military leader who investigated that operation, as well as a number of child suicide bombings in Deyala, points out that most operations carried out by children are “revengeful” in nature and mostly take place in areas where Al-Qa’eda influence has subsided in favor of Al-Sahwah.</p> <p>The Media official in Al-Anbar police headquarters, however, sees that “some suicide bombings were not vengeful in nature. The last of these operations were carried out by two children, one of whom had been sedated and the other was mentally unstable.”  The two children were fit with explosive belts and sent to checkpoints. However, a mistake in the timing of the explosive belts enabled the security forces to dismantle them, according to the media official. He further explains that “fitting explosive belts around children’s bodies is a tactic used by Al-Qa’eda over the past years.”  Another method used was to send closed explosive packages by hand with children, and to detonate them from a distance the minute the children are in close proximity to security forces or when they board civilian cars or arrive in markets.”</p> <p>The father of the mentally deranged suicide bomber child says that his son Ghazi was kidnapped from in front of the family house in Al-Khaldiyyah area of Al-Anbar, a former stronghold of Al-Qa’eda. His fate was unknown until he was found near the checkpoint with an explosive belt around his waist. Ghazi’s father is now very worried because his younger son was also kidnapped at the beginning of last October, and might be used in the same manner unless he pays the ransom the kidnappers demand.</p> <p>Dirgham, a mongoloid child was booby-trapped by elements from Al-Qa’eda after he was tempted to buy sweets from a shop near a security center where elements from the police force shop during their break. The child was killed, and with him a number of policemen and shoppers. Despite this, the child’s father refuses to criticize Al-Qa’eda in fear that they might return one day.</p> <h3>Fathers Fear Children</h3> <p>Fear from Al-Qa’eda’s revenge is not restricted to Dirgham’s father, but extends to many people with whom this report-writer talked. They refrained from telling their experiences with the process their children were recruited.</p> <p>A high-ranking officer from Al-Anbar says that sleeping Al-Qa’eda cells become active during certain periods, then go back to sleep, which indicates that risking the exposure of details may not be liked by the organization, and may mean paying with lives. This officer tells the story of three children who burnt their father to death.  The father was a moderate religious man. They placed him between old rubber tires and set them on fire, simply because he criticized Al-Qa’eda.</p> <p>We asked one of the fathers if he had made any effort to prevent his children from joining Al-Qa’eda. He answered: “I lived for years hesitating to take any step such as this, afraid that they may kill me if I went too far.”Although the son left Iraq to a neighboring country after the defeats Al-Qa’eda received, the father continues to be careful that the son may one day return.</p> <p>Faris Al-Obeidi summarizes children’s motives in joining armed groups in two words: “poverty” and “revenge.”</p> <p>An official in research at the Juveniles’ Prison, however, believes that “unemployment and family disintegration” are the main reasons, in addition to some sort of “ideological thought” that prevails at home, as the first incubator that attracts children to the circle of violence. Iraq is “eligible for its children to pursue violence, because it lived for decades in a state of conflict and continuous wars.”</p> <p>Fawwaz Ibrahim, the social researcher relates this phenomenon to the period preceding 2003; the date of the American invasion of Baghdad. Years before that date, “children, named ‘Saddam’s Cubs’ participated in operations of killing and cutting hands and tongues in many areas. Militarization of children was part of the militarization of society which the last century witnessed.”  At that time, “Al-Tala’e organization, which was part of the Ba’ath party used to recruit children in groups affiliated with the authority, to monitor the neighbor, street, the school and even the home, reporting periodically about anybody suspected of opposing the regime.”</p> <p>The researcher connects between the practices of the followers of Al-Tala’e and the specialty of most recruited children in reporting to armed organizations about all details going on in their vicinity.</p> <p>He is joined in this rhetoric the researcher Al-Obaidi: “For a person to be a hero in an ideological army is something like a dream that children have when living in a society dominated by violence.”  Hence, Al-Obaidi sees that “recruitment will not be difficult in a society where children boast about flaunting their power, that starts with carrying plastic toy weapons and forming groups to launch imaginary attacks from one street to another, declaring allegiance to armed groups that have a strong grip on areas, attending their events and military parades.”</p> <h3>Going Along with the Party in Power</h3> <p>Ali Al-Massoudi, the activist specializing in armed groups’ thought has documented a number of the features of children joining armed groups. He sees that recruitment depends basically on “the recruited child’s environment”. In most cases, the child gets carried away with the prevailing beliefs prevailing in his home, street and neighborhood where he lives. Al-Massoudi divides this phenomenon into four levels: Information collection or monitoring (less than ten years), carrying firearms, participating in guard duties and checkpoints (13 – 18 years) and getting involved in violent operations such as kidnapping, killing and participating in street fights (15 – 18 years). The more dangerous level, according to Al-Massoudi, is carrying out suicide operations, normally connected to Al-Qa’eda organization.</p> <p>The first level prevails in “areas that are closed ideologically, especially during the period of confessional violence when armed groups enjoyed the sympathy of the area residents.”  Children grouping t crossroads were active in informing armed men about the arrival of American troops, preparing to detonate explosives near them.</p> <p>One specialist at the Ministry of Interior says that recruiting children is not restricted to one armed group and not the other, “despite variation in the level of their concentration.”  This specialist saw for himself large numbers of children carrying arms at the “Jund El-Sama’a (Soldiers of Heaven) camp in the Zarka area, 13 kilometers north east of the holy city of Al-Najaf, holy to Shi’ite Muslims (160 kilometers south of Baghdad), during confrontations that took place between them and Iraqi forces in early 2007. But he believes that the more dangerous organization for children is Al-Qa’eda, which established organizations specializing in enticing children under soft names like “birds of heaven, youth of heaven and cubs of heaven.”</p> <p>The expert mentioned that the “Birds of Heaven” organization, which was active in Al-Anbar and Deyala when Al-Qa’eda controlled them was for the “children of the leadership and elements of Al-Qa’eda in Iraq.”  The Cubs and Children of heaven organizations were used to “lure children with certain specifications that qualify them to indulge in battles and carry out suicide bombings.”</p> <h3>Camps for Brainwashing</h3> <p>After a raid in November of 2006 on a ‘hideout’ for Al-Qa’eda north of Baghdad, the American forces discovered an electronic storage device that had information on children’s sleeping cells, in addition to details regarding recruiting them and training them for armed operations.</p> <p>The Director of Operations at the Ministry of Interior Colonel Abdul Kareem Khalaf asserts that Al-Qa’eda organization is “the major party that depended on child recruitment from poor families, and those who were subjected to intellectual changes towards extremism through religious training courses organized in mosques without censorship.”</p> <p>The most important areas where Al-Qa’eda trained children on armed operations is Al-Mukhaiseh remote area, which falls within the Humrain hills band in Deyala governorate, according to Colonel Khalaf. “Hundreds of children from both genders were exposed to brainwashing and continuous training under the supervision of experts from Al-Qa’eda, some of whom arrived from outside Iraq for this purpose.”</p> <p>According to Colonel Khalaf, recruitment did not target poor families and those transformed to extremism only. There were remnants from those who were known as Saddam’s Cubs. These form a large group that entered continuous training camps until 2003.</p> <p>The most dangerous children who were involved in armed operations and the most vicious were the children and brothers of activists in Al-Qa’eda. All these, according to Colonel Khalaf, were trained in areas with winding roads and orchards with thick trees and vegetation that are difficult to access, in addition to the remote areas extending deep into the desert.</p> <p>Child training camps spread in areas under the control of Al-Qa’eda for years. There are camps in Deyala, Al-Anbar and Al-Mada’en south of Baghdad, in addition to border areas adjacent to Syria in the west and Iran in the east.</p> <h3>A New Generation of Al-Qa’eda</h3> <p>One of the former Al-Qa’eda theorists told the report writer at a detention center run by the Ministry of Interior that recruiting children “is carried out</p> <p>A New Generation of Al-Qa’eda</p> <p>One of Al-Qa’eda’s former theoreticians tells the report writer from his Interior Ministry prison cell that the recruitment of children is “done under the direct supervision of Al-Qa’eda leaderships.”  The first step begins by “encouraging the children to take Quran memorization classes,” especially those who have specific characteristics, such a good build and excessive obedience.  Hikmat adds:  “We take into consideration the family they belong to, whether it is known for radicalism or not.  Then we join them to groups older of age to nourish them intellectually in preparation for giving them assignments, like moving cash and publications for the organization’s members.”  After that, “they are assigned to transport explosive devices and sometimes planting them in certain areas, then we put them in armed operations that sometimes require them to engage in direct confrontations.”</p> <p>One of the dissents of Al-Qa’eda gives an expanded description of the stages of building the children’s networks by specialists in Al-Qa’eda who succeeded in brainwashing the brains of a large number of children whose fathers or brothers had been killed.  Abul Waleed is a nickname that a man in his late forties gave himself who previously worked with Al-Qa’eda, then moved to Al-Sahwah forces before he ultimately abandoned both and secluded himself in a house he rented in a area on the outreaches of southern Baghdad.  Abul Waleed says:  “The first cells specializing in child recruitment launched after the battles of 2004 south of the capital city and included nearly 100 children who were carefully selected to ensure that they fulfill dangerous duties, foremost suicide bombings.”</p> <p>Abul Waleed summarizes Al-Qa’eda’s strategy for recruiting this youth by saying that children are registered in religious classes that focus on “Quranic verses and sayings by the Prophet that encourage fighting the enemies, the infidels and the renegades.”  After that, says Abul Waleed, they are shown videos of suicide operations previously executed by the organization’s members in Iraq and Afghanistan against foreign forces.  Experts seek to convince the youth that they can do this to preserve the faith and that they will be heroes of Islam and remembered by future generations.  This thought in particular “was the obsession that the experts use to influence the thoughts of most of the youth and ensures that the spirit of bravery and courage is raised within them.”</p> <p>The majority of those selected for the child recruitment cells, Abul Waleed discloses, are the offspring of Al-Qa’eda members or who known for their hard-line tendencies at an early age.  Some “begin the recruitment stage with enthusiasm but soon try to backtrack, and therefore Al-Qa’eda is forced to make them continue by threatening to tell their parents or the authorities about their participation in the training or threaten to kill them or liquidate their families if they change their minds.”</p> <p>The most dangerous, says Abul Waleed, are “those that have lost their parents at the hands of the American or Iraqi forces or even as a result of internal strife.”  These “do not need much effort to be encouraged to execute combat and even suicide operations.  It is enough to concentrate on the idea that they will be avenging their murdered family if they execute suicide operations.”</p> <p>Child recruitment serves four purposes: </p> <ul> <li>Ensuring that there are new combatant generation that expand the presence of the organization, increase its power and assault and make up for the deficit of combatants, which the organization suffered from after losing the areas near Syria to Al-Sahwah forces and the security forces. </li> <li>Taking advantage of children’s easy movement and that the security authorities do not pay attention to them or doubt them when they cross check points. </li> <li>Maintaining the momentum of suicide operations that kill more people and give the organization attention in the media, thus increasing the terror it spreads. </li> <li>Bring in more combatants by promoting the idea that children are braver than men who failed to join Al-Qa’eda to fight for the sake of God.</li> </ul> <p>Abul Waleed states here that the leader of Al-Qa’eda in Iraq, Abu Mos’ab Al-Zarqawi, who was killed in American air raid in mid 2006, addressed an audio message chastising the men who did not join the organization after a woman executed a suicide operation in Deyala (see link 2).</p> <h3>The Young Instead of the Old</h3> <p>A high level security source in Al-Anbar province adds a fifth reason that he says he had seen up close and personal.  The majority of children’s suicide attacks were directed at Al-Sahwah men, which means that Al-Qa’eda wanted to terrorize the Al-Sahwah men and tell them they are “killed at the hands of their children.”</p> <p>Researcher Faris Al-Obeidi confirms what Abul Waleed says and adds that Al-Qa’eda did not keep the recruitment of children secret, but rather promoted them and featured trainings on websites and YouTube.</p> <p>Al-Obeidi refers to a videotape of children between 10-12 years of age wearing black clothes and covering their faces with masks as Al-Qa’eda members do, and training on weapons, make-belief kidnapping, breaking into a house after climbing its walls.  The videotape was shown extensively (see link 3) after Al-Qa’eda lost much of its popularity in its home environment, believes Al-Obeidi, and after the process of recruiting local combatants became difficult and bringing in foreign combatants even more difficult because of the control of the Iraqi forces on most of the border line with Syria.</p> <p>The sheikh and speaker of one of the mosques in the city of Ramadi in the center of Al-Anbar province pointed to a “jurisprudence dispute about the dividing line between childhood and manhood”, and believed that “this dispute helped Al-Qa’eda penetrate into the minds of targeted people and facilitated the consideration of children’s recruitment as a legitimate matter.”</p> <p>The sheikh, who is considered one of the leading moderate men of religion in Al-Ramadi city, reminded that Islam “banned the use of children and women in the execution of any acts that anger God and their recruitment for the purpose of executing suicide actions that lead to the killing of innocent people, whether civilians or even policemen, and it is prohibited.”</p> <p>While religious scholars agree that Jihad is a duty of every Muslim, but it is “within conditions specified in the Islamic Sharia Law, most important of which that it must be based on wrong jurisprudence, such as rendering another an apostate or deciding that he has violated religion because he disagreed on jurisprudence issues, as Al-Qa’eda does and which has rendered everyone an apostate, including the followers of the Sunni sects that do not support it.”</p> <p>The sheikh expresses regret that hard-line ideas calling for killing are spreading mostly in the rigid tribal communities, where the level of education is low and the culture of violence is prolific, unlike the moderate environment that is considered strongholds for moderate men of religion who cannot guarantee the security of their lives if they propose their ideas outside of this environment.</p> <p>The word “Jihad” captivated the young boy, Yaser Thanoun, and encouraged him to work with Al-Qa’eda.  His elder brother was killed in Al-Fallujah battles in 2004.  Yaser completely believes that resisting the occupation is a duty for every Muslim, and says:  “I did not join Al-Qa’eda in search of money, as some of my friends have.”  He settled for an income of 70,000 to 100,000 Dinars (around $80) to cover his expenses after blowing up every explosive or carrying out a combat operation against the government forces.  After the death of his combatant brother, Yaser had to join the organization on a full time basis and left his work as a smith that was providing for his family.  “The money was not my objective, but rather the Jihad against the occupiers,” says Yaser, who was captured after he engaged in battle against Iraqi police personnel in Fallujah in 2008.</p> <p>The situation is different for Nuseir.  His belief in the necessity of Jihad was not the thing that pushed him to join the armed groups.  His friends were the ones that convinced him to take part in the armed operations with them under the command of Al-Qa’eda.</p> <p>Nuseir’s father spoke proudly with a tone of sadness of his son.  After Nuseir trained to use weapons and launch rockets, his father says, “he participated in the bombing of American forces in Al-Mazra’a area in the east of Fallujah, then the joint check point at the city’s entrance.”  After that, Nuseir joined the armed factions in battle in the city, and was arrested in 2007 and was transported to Boca prison.  He remained in prison for one year and a half until he was released under the general pardon.  He was soon killed by an unknown group when he was walking in the city.</p> <p>The bereaved father refuses to talk about his son’s movements after he got out of prison.  Yet he confirms that “he received threats from groups that the opponents of the group he belonged to,” in an indication that he was back with his initial group.</p> <p>The mourning father criticizes “the government for releasing so many of the prisoners before they were able to reform them and convince them to abandon the violence.”  He demands the government to monitor “the mosques which have become in their majority lairs that attract the youth.”</p> <h3>The responsibility of the family</h3> <p>Senior Secretary General of the Interior Ministry, Adnan Al-Asadi, however, accuses the children’s families of being the first to bring harm to them because they left them unobserved.</p> <p>Al-Asadi says:  “The boys who got involved in armed groups found the easy money and social influence an earning worth the risk by working with Al-Qa’eda members.”  Al-Asadi however believes, and according to the results of investigations with a large number of the “Birds of Heaven” children and “the boys of heaven”, that the number of suicide operations executed by children is “small” compared to other types of operations such as “monitoring and logistical support for the militants.”</p> <p>The idea of killing, believes Al-Asadi, “is no longer receiving response from the children, especially after the decline of the influence of Al-Qa’eda’s and the armed groups that have lost their strongholds in Al-Anbar, Deyala, Salaheddin, Ninawa and areas south of Baghdad.”</p> <p>Researcher Faris Al-Obeidi believes that rehabilitating hundreds of children who engaged in militant work requires “a great deal of social and government effort and this is difficult to achieve in view of the economic, security and political instability in Iraq.”</p> <p>In the final outcome, these are part of a mobile social system, and if they do not have a sound environment to help them integrate in their societies, “they will definitely go back to the armed groups that had provided them with a sense of belonging.”</p> <p>Juvenile rehabilitation plans currently adopted are not convincing to the prison director, who complains that the building cannot accommodate “the large number of juveniles, given that the current building is a temporary alternative for the original prison that was overtaken by refugees refusing so far to leave it despite all official attempts.”</p> <p>The juvenile prison building is similar to an elementary school.  It is nothing more than a yard surrounded by four prison cells and a few small rooms for the guards, as well as a caravan for the prison director to do his job.</p> <p>The research unit chief in prison that the lack of entertainment facilities and training workshops have not helped the prison staff to lower the number of medical cases that usually accompany imprisonment, such as the depression that many prisoners suffer from because they feel neglected by their own families.</p> <p>The research chief believes that terrorism prisoners are inherently “good” people, but have been exploited and taken advantage of because of their difficult life conditions.</p> <p>A field study by a researcher in the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs indicates that family disintegration is responsible for half of the reasons that lead children’s integration in registered organizations.</p> <h3>Field study shows the reasons behind children joining armed groups.</h3> <p>“Family disintegration was the cause that led to the recruitment of 47% of child prisoners into armed groups.”  The researcher attributes this to their residing outside the family home with relatives or friends or in workplaces.  The study found that 63% of those convicted of terrorism have engaged in armed work under influence of friends.</p> <p>The study, which was based on a sample of 80 prisoners convicted of terrorism according to Article 4, indicates that murder represents 56% of the types of crimes committed by children, while 18% of the sample planted and exploded explosive devices, and 15% executed kidnappings.</p> <p>The low educational level was prevalent among the sample.  Half of them did not pass elementary education, and 55% of the sample justified their engagement in armed operation with their belief in the resistance.  Meanwhile, political convictions and affiliations were the cause of 28% joining the armed groups.</p> <p>More than half of the children convicted of terrorism according to Article 4 and are imprisoned in the juvenile prison were sentence to more than ten years.  These are “major” sentences, believes the researcher who criticizes the fact the judges rely on Law number 111 for 1996, which places terrorism crimes under the definition of crimes, stipulating sentences to be five or more years.</p> <p>Indications however show that the rate of children’s engagement in armed groups receded a great deal in the past two years because of improving security conditions in many areas that were previously considered “hot zones.”</p> <p>This improvement, according to researcher Faris Al-Obeidi, “led to economic movement in the country, which in turn contributed to the movement of the majority of youth towards profitable professions and abandoning armed organizations where the work has become dangerous with the increase of the power of security forces.  Moreover, the ideas on which the armed groups were based “receded in a major way and do not have a standing except with religious hard-liners.”</p> <p>Interior Minister Jawad Al-Bolani confirms that Al-Qa’eda’s influence in Iraq was “broken and it has lost control over its old strongholds, which put it in a critical situation that prevents from continuing to recruit children in the manner it has been doing in past years.”  The stage of recruiting children, Al-Bolani says, “is over now, and although there are a few sleeper cells, the intelligence efforts will continue to pursue them and eliminate them in the end, sooner or later.”</p> <p>Researchers Al-Obeidi, Fawwaz Ibrahim, and Al-Massoudi, along with the research chief at the juvenile prison and the researcher in the Labor Ministry, believe that the receding phenomenon of child recruitment is not the end of the story, and that intelligence efforts, no matter how strong it is, will not be able to eliminate this phenomenon completely.  There is always a chance for it to come back if rehabilitation plans that can fortify children and protect them against extremist thinking, which continues to look for an opportunity to prevail once again in Iraq, are not implemented.</p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=139409" class="external" target="_blank">Children indulging in Iraqi violence to the level of suicide : Aswat Al Iraq</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-11700"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/10/26/exodus/#respond" title="Comment on Exodus">No Comments</a></span> Posted on October 26th, 2010 by Ali</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/10/26/exodus/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Exodus">Exodus</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" 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style="padding-right: 5px; padding-left: 5px; float: right; padding-bottom: 5px; margin: 5px 0px 5px 15px; width: 360px; padding-top: 0px"> <div class="container"> <div class="shadow"> <div class="frame"> <strong>From Israel to Iraq, a Christian flight of Biblical proportions has begun.</strong> <p><a title="20100913_cross_with_lights_Arbil by Gorillas Guides, on Flickr" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.flickr.com/photos/27086036@N02/5117481728/" class="external" target="_blank"><img height="238" alt="20100913_cross_with_lights_Arbil" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720im_/http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1189/5117481728_113dc0d2e6_o.jpg" width="350"/></a></p> </p></div> </p></div> </p></div> </p></div> <p>In the centre of the rebuilt Beirut, the massive old Maronite Cathedral of St George stands beside the even larger mass of the new Mohammad al-Amin mosque. The mosque’s minarets tower over the cathedral, but the Maronites were built a spanking new archbishop’s house between the two buildings as compensation. Yet every day, the two calls to prayer – the clanging of church bells and the wailing of the muezzin – beat an infernal percussion across the city. Both bells and wails are tape recordings, but they have been turned up to the highest decibel pitch to outdo each other, louder than an aircraft’s roar, almost as crazed as the nightclub music from Gemmayzeh across the square. But the Christians are leaving.</p> <p>Across the Middle East, it is the same story of despairing – sometimes frightened – Christian minorities, and of an exodus that reaches almost Biblical proportions. Almost half of Iraq’s Christians have fled their country since the first Gulf War in 1991, most of them after the 2004 invasion – a weird tribute to the self-proclaimed Christian faith of the two Bush presidents who went to war with Iraq – and stand now at 550,000, scarcely 3 per cent of the population. More than half of Lebanon’s Christians now live outside their country. Once a majority, the nation’s one and a half million Christians, most of them Maronite Catholics, comprise perhaps 35 per cent of the Lebanese. Egypt’s Coptic Christians – there are at most around eight million – now represent less than 10 per cent of the population.</p> <p>This is, however, not so much a flight of fear, more a chronicle of a death foretold. Christians are being outbred by the majority Muslim populations in their countries and they are almost hopelessly divided. In Jerusalem, there are 13 different Christian churches and three patriarchs. A Muslim holds the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to prevent Armenian and Orthodox priests fighting each other at Easter. </p> <p>When more than 200 members of 14 different churches – some of them divided – gathered in Rome last week for a papal synod on the loss of Christian populations in the lands where Christianity began, it was greeted with boredom or ignored altogether by most of the West’s press.</p> <p>Yet nowhere is the Christian fate sadder than in the territories around Jerusalem. As Monsignor Fouad Twal, the ninth Latin patriarch of Jerusalem and the second to be an Arab, put it bleakly, "the Israelis regard us as 100 per cent Palestinian Arabs and we are oppressed in the same way as the Muslims. But Muslim fundamentalists identify us with the Christian West – which is not always true – and want us to pay the price." With Christian Palestinians in Bethlehem cut off from Jerusalem by the same Israeli wall which imprisons their Muslim brothers, there is now, Twal says, "a young generation of Christians who do not know or visit the Holy Sepulchre".</p> <p>The Jordanian royal family have always protected their Christian population – at 350,000, it is around 6 per cent of the population – but this is perhaps the only flame of hope in the region. The divisions within Christianity proved even more dangerous to their community than the great Sunni-Shia divide did to the Muslims of the Middle East. Even the Crusaders were divided in their 100-year occupation of Palestine, or "Outremer", as they called it. The Lebanese journalist Fady Noun, a Christian, wrote a profound article from Rome last week in which he spoke of the Christian loss as "a great wound haemorrhaging blood", and bemoaned both Christian division and "egoism" for what he saw as a spiritual as well as a physical emigration. "There are those Christians who reach a kind of indifference… in Western countries who, swayed by the culture of these countries and the media, persuade eastern Christians to forget their identity," he wrote.</p> <p>Pope Benedict, whose mournful visit to the Holy Land last year prompted him to call the special synod which ended in the Vatican at the weekend, has adopted his usual perspective – that, despite their difficulties, Christians of the "Holy Land" must reinvigorate their feelings as "living stones" of the Middle Eastern Church. "To live in dignity in your own nation is before everything a fundamental human right," he said. "That is why you must support conditions of peace and justice, which are indispensable for the harmonious development of all the inhabitants of the region." But the Pope’s words sometimes suggested that real peace and justice lay in salvation rather than historical renewal.</p> <p>Patriarch Twal believes that the Pope understood during his trip to Israel and the West Bank last year "the disastrous consequences of the conflict between Jews and Palestinian Arabs" and has stated openly that one of the principal causes of Christian emigration is "the Israeli occupation, the Christians’ lack of freedom of movement, and the economic circumstances in which they live". But he does not see the total disappearance of the Christian faith in the Middle East. "We must have the courage to accept that we are Arabs and Christians and be faithful to this identity. Our wonderful mission is to be a bridge between East and West."</p> <p>One anonymous prelate at the Rome synod, quoted in one of the synod’s working papers, took a more pragmatic view. "Let’s stop saying there is no problem with Muslims; this isn’t true," he said. "The problem doesn’t only come from fundamentalists, but from constitutions. In all the countries of the region except Lebanon, Christians are second-class citizens." If religious freedom is guaranteed in these countries, "it is limited by specific laws and practices". In Egypt, this has certainly been the case since President Sadat referred to himself as "the Muslim president of a Muslim country".</p> <p>The Lebanese Maronite Church – its priests, by the way, can marry – understands all too well how Christians can become aligned with political groups. The Lebanese writer Sami Khalife wrote last week in the French-language newspaper L’Orient-Le Jour – the francophone voice of Lebanon’s Christians – that a loss of moral authority had turned churches in his country into "political actors" which were beginning to sound like political parties. An open letter to the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, warning him to try to turn Lebanon into a "front line" against Israel, was signed by 250 Lebanese. Most of them were from the minority Christian community.</p> <p>Nor can the church ignore Saudi Arabia, where Christianity is banned as a religion just as much as the building of churches. Christians cannot visit the Islamic holy cities of Mecca or Medina – the doors of the Vatican and Canterbury Cathedral are at least open to Muslims – and 12 Filipinos and a priest were arrested in Saudi Arabia only this month for "proselytism" for holding a secret mass. There is, perhaps, a certain irony in the fact that the only balance to Christian emigration has been the arrival in the Middle East of perhaps a quarter of a million Christian Filipino guest workers – especially in the Gulf region – while Patriarch Twal reckons that around 40,000 of them now work and live in Israel and "Palestine".</p> <p>Needless to say, it is violence against Christians that occupies the West, a phenomenon nowhere better, or more bloodily, illustrated than by al-Qa’ida’s kidnapping of Archbishop Faraj Rahho in Mosul – an incident recorded in the US military archives revealed on Saturday – and his subsequent murder. When the Iraqi authorities later passed death sentences on two men for the killing, the church asked for them to be reprieved. In Egypt, there has been a gloomy increase in Christian-Muslim violence, especially in ancient villages in the far south of the country; in Cairo, Christian churches are now cordoned off by day-and-night police checkpoints.</p> <p>And while Western Christians routinely deplore the falling Christian populations of the Middle East, their visits to the region tend to concentrate on pilgrimages to Biblical sites rather than meetings with their Christian opposite numbers. </p> <p>Americans, so obsessed by the myths of East-West "clashes of civilisation" since 11 September 2001, often seem to regard Christianity as a "Western" rather than an Eastern religion, neatly separating the Middle East roots of their own religion from the lands of Islam. That in itself is a loss of faith.</p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-exodus-the-changing-map-of-the-middle-east-2116463.html" class="external" target="_blank">Robert Fisk: Exodus. The changing map of the Middle East – Robert Fisk, Commentators – The Independent</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="navigation"> <div class="alignleft"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/religion/page/2/">« Previous Entries</a></div> <div class="alignright"></div> </div> </div> <div id="sidebar" class="span-10 last"> <div class="span-10" id="tabs"> <ul> <li class="ui-tabs-nav-item"><a href="#featured-articles">Featured Articles</a></li> <li class="ui-tabs-nav-item"><a href="#latest-articles">Latest Articles</a></li> </ul> <div id="featured-articles" class="widget"> <ul> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/06/02/iraq-protest-organizers-beaten-detained-human-rights-watch/">Iraq: Protest Organizers Beaten, Detained | Human Rights Watch</a></li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110602191720/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/06/01/iraqi-sects-pray-together-for-peace/">Iraqi sects 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