http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/01/06/restricted-freedoms-iraqi-christian-green-zone
Restricted freedoms in the Iraqi Christian green zone
By Rhodri Davies in a.. Middle East
on January 6th, 2011.
Photo by Rhodri Davies
The Bishop of the Chaldean Archdiocese of Irbil in northern Iraq denied my
request to talk to him about Christians in the country.
"You can see the life of the community here," he said, before finishing
post-service greetings and embraces with his flock at St Joseph's church in
Ainkawa, a Christian suburb of Iraqi Kurdistan's capital.
He was right. I had just seen a 500-stong Chaldean congregation - an
independent Christian Church that has been in Iraq since the 2nd Century -
attend Sunday evening mass.
It appeared to be a resilient and devout community that conveyed buoyancy and
longevity.
Septuagenarian women in traditional red and black local dress sat alongside
teenage girls adorned in perfume.
A choir of 30 members sang hymns from a balcony, above families who arrived
from the darkness outside to acknowledgements from community members within.
Collection plates were filled and warm interactions conducted post-service.
But the bishop was correct in another perhaps unintended sense about the life
of Iraq's Christian community.
There were also four guards carrying Kalashnikov rifles on the gates to the
church compound. This presence at evening time was up from the two armed men
that patrolled during the day.
The guards were amiable but became anxious when I tried to take photographs of
the church. They told me to leave my bag at the gate.
Iraqi Kurdistan is supposed to be a redoubt for the persecuted of central and
southern Iraq. This is due to the lack of attacks that have occurred there
since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to the autonomous Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG).
Up to 6,000 Christians - 1,000 families - are said by the UN refugee agency to
have fled here from cities such as Baghdad, the national capital, Mosul and
Kirkuk.
Fryad Rwanzi, a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and former
member of parliament in Baghdad, told me that what refuge Iraqi Kurdistan
provides for Christians is constrained.
"The KRG is doing whatever they can do to create a happy atmosphere for their
lives and provide them with houses, apartments and jobs or to transfer their
jobs from other areas to Kurdistan," Rwanzi said.
"And I feel that Christians feel very safe in Kurdistan because Kurdish society
is a Muslim society but a very open society and I don't think that religion is
a priority in Kurdistan.
"At the same time we are worried because of the extremists coming from other
parts of Iraq and infiltrating into the area and committing some terrorist
activity in Kurdistan.
"But fortunately the KRG and security forces are worried, and indeed have put
on the table all the things to protect Christians and to make sure that their
life is going on like any other person in Kurdistan."
Deadly attacks on Coptic Christians in the Egyptian city of Alexandria on New
Year's day and on Christians in Baghdad in November and December show the
gruesome threats faced by these communities in their ancestral homelands.
More recently, Iranian state media reported that that 60 members of the
country's Christian minority had been arrested since Christmas Day for
spreading a hard-line version of their faith, allegedly with the support of the
UK.
Whether that it true or false, it shows the potentially pernicious effects of
discrimination, which can lead to both oppression and retribution.
Iraq's Christian community numbers between 450,000 and 500,000 today, down from
between 800,000 and 1.2 million in 2003, when the US invasion and occupation
provided space for groups such as al-Qaeda to attack them.
But even in a relatively safe enclave such as Iraqi Kurdistan, where tolerance
and safety might be anticipated, their freedom has a specific delineation.
It is one limited to the nature of a persecuted people and defined by the reach
of its would-be oppressors.
Sadly, that is the life you can see in a Christian community there.
Follow Rhodri Davies on Twitter: @rhodrirdavies
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