Clive Furness on Christians in Iraq

“The number of Christians in Iraq has halved in 20 years but their position could be protected if the actions of the Kurdistan Regional Government are emulated throughout Iraq,” according to Clive Furness, an East London Deacon and Newham Councillor who chairs the Labour Friends of Iraq group and who has visited Kurdistan five times since the 1990s.

Clive Furness said: “Christians who fled their homes in south and mid-Iraq have found both safety and a welcome in the Kurdistan region. With the end of the Saddam dictatorship some from the persecuted Shia community then visited the same persecutions, and worse, on others who fled. Arguably the Kurds have suffered more than any community in Iraq. Nonetheless, they have not sought to visit persecution on others but have sought to offer the security that they were often denied.”

Councillor Furness added: “I was most impressed to hear how the KRG has sought to protect Christians in its borders at a recent meeting at the Commons. It’s true that Iraqi Kurdistan has been free of Saddam for longer and has been better able to develop its politics. Their efforts provide hope that the rest of Iraq could follow such a course.”

Notes

Meg Munn MP Chaired a discussion at the House of Commons on Thursday 17th December under the auspices of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Kurdistan Region in Iraq

Twenty years ago there were 1.4m Christians living in Iraq. Now there are half that number. Many have fled abroad because of persecution, but many have fled to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and are known as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

The speakers were:

Brendan O’Leary: Professor of Political Science, Ethnic Conflict Programme at the University of Pennsylvania, and Adviser to the United Nations on power sharing, who spoke on his research in Iraqi Kurdistan in a personal capacity.

Mokhtar Lamani: former Arab League Special Representative to Iraq, and Senior Visiting Research Fellow at Centre for International Governance Innovation, author of the CIGI Report “Minorities in Iraq: The Other Victims”.

Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman: Kurdistan Regional Government High Representative to the UK

Key Points Raised

Mr Lamani observed that as many as 25-30% of Iraq’s population has been forced to leave their homes because of sectarian violence (most of these are Muslims). Some of these have fled abroad; many have become IDPs, some in the autonomous region of Kurdistan. He noted the comment of an interfaith observer, “when a Muslim flees his home, he expects to return, when a Christian or other minority leaves, he doesn’t expect to come back.”

It was noted that the campaigns to assist Iraqi Christians to leave Iraq, even when they are not under threat, have meant that the Christian community in Iraq is dwindling.

Professor O’Leary and Ms Abdul Rahman both noted the considerable lengths that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) had gone to protect native Christians and to offer support to Christian IDPs.

Much of the credit has gone to Mr Sarkis Aghajan Mamendu, a prominent Assyrian politician within the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Finance Minister within the KRG until October 2009. In fact the finance for the schemes has come from the KRG

This has involved providing financial support for some 11,000 Christian families displaced because of violence in the south. This equates to approximately some 50,000 people.

Professor O’Leary noted that respondents to his research in the region often were unaware that it was the KRG that was financing the rebuilding of Christian villages and churches and this has also been true of international observers. 20 Christian churches have been rebuilt since 1991 with KRG financial support and 105 Christian villages have been rebuilt.

The KRG has been involved in a process of reconstruction and mine clearing of some 4500 villages that were destroyed by Saddam. To date some 3500 have been rebuilt.

Many rural Christian communities are protected by Christian ‘guards’. These are supplied with weapons and support by the peshmergas. The peshmergas were the Kurdish irregular forces that fought Saddam. They have since been incorporated into the Iraqi armed forces.

Support for Christian IDPs

The sudden influx of IDPs particularly in 2008 has put a strain on housing resources. The Dohuk Region responded by building an additional 5000 housing units in 100 Christian villages for Christian IDPs.

The KRG has ensured that all minorities in the region have been able to offer primary education in their mother tongue. This is a particularly sensitive issue when religion and ethnicity are often closely intertwined. Since 1998 some 62 Syriac and Armenian primary secondary schools with 7000 pupils have been constructed in the Arbil and Dahuk governorates. A further 10 secondary schools have been constructed. They are planning a Syriac department of the University of Dohuk.

Christians and the Political Structure in the Kurdistan Region.

There are 111 MPs in the elected Kurdistan Parliament, which sits in Arbil (Erbil/Irbil).

The particular minorities have seats reserved for their communities but additionally Christians are active in the main regional political parties (the KDP-Kurdistan Democratic Party and the PUK- Patriotic Union of Kurdistan). Of the eleven seats reserved for minorities
• five are reserved for Turkomen (ethnic Turks),
• five are reserved for Chaldean, Syriac and Assyrian parties and
• one further place for an Armenian.

This results in an over representation of minorities in parliament, when compared to the general population.

This principle has been extended to local governorate councils following the change to local election laws early in 2009.

Allegations Surrounding the Killing and Displacement of Christians in Mosul in 2008

An Early Day Motion (EDM) was tabled in the House of Commons concerning the deliberate targeting and killing of Christians in the city of Mosul, a city just outside the Kurdistan Region on the Niniveh Plain with a significant Kurdish population. The early day Motion tabled by Edward Leigh MP alleged involvement by the peshmerga forces of the KRG in the killings.

Professor O’Leary had questioned local Christians about this, using Christian translators and without interference from the KRG. He found no support for this allegation within the Christian community in the Kurdistan Region.

He noted that Mosul is one of a small number of northern cities where there are competing claims for sovereignty between Arabs and Kurds. Traditionally the minorities Christian, Turkoman and Yezidi have felt more sympathetic to the Kurds than to theie more populous Arab neighbours.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) visited the region to investigate the allegations of Kurdish involvement. They were unable to find any evidence to support the claim. Indeed, with regard to Mr Usama al-Nujayfi who is mentioned in the EDM, they noted that he had claimed ‘concrete evidence’ of Kurdish involvement. However, they went on, “if Nujayfi has this evidence, he has not disclosed it”.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) also investigated the allegations. They found no evidence of Kurdish involvement but rather found that the perpetrators spoke “fluent Iraqi Arabic” suggesting that they were Arabs. Moreover they wore Arab dress and made it clear that they were attacking Christians on religious grounds.

The KRG believes that the most likely culprits are a group of Sunni terrorists banded together under the title of “The Islamist State”.

Religious Background to Iraqi Kurdistan Region

The majority population are Sunni Muslims following a sufi path. There is a distinct Shia minority (sometimes known as Fayli Kurds). It is the home to the Yezidi religious group.

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq is the home to a number of ancient Christian traditions. Many of the region’s Christian community define their ethnicity by their religion.

The major groups are the Armenians, Chaldean, Assyrian and Syriac Orthodox.
Armenian Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic Church in full union with the Roman Catholic Church. It is in full communion with and accepts the authority of the Pope in Rome

Armenian Apostolic Church (Armenian Orthodox Church) there have been close contacts with the Syriac Orthodox church from which it has received scriptures, liturgy and much of its theology

Syriac Orthodox Christianity found in the Middle East (and Kerala in India) is defined less by its particular theology than by its liturgical use of ancient Syriac, a dialect related to the Aramaic which would have been spoken by Jesus. It separated from the western catholic tradition in 451 AD following the Council of Chalcedon and the dispute over the nature of Christ.

The Assyrian Church of the East known officially as the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East which tradition holds was founded by Saint Thomas the Apostle (and Saint Mari and Saint Addai) in 33 A.D

Chaldeans, a formerly Nestorian denomination, they were united with the Roman Catholic Church in 1553 when a major segment of the Assyrian Church of the East united with Rome while retaining its ancient liturgy. They are now called the Chaldean Church, and it is the largest Assyrian Christian church.

Chaldean Catholics have no direct or absolute lineage with the Neo-Babylonian Empire "Chaldeans", but were designated with the name Chaldean in the 16th century to distinguish from the adherents of the Assyrian Church of the East. They also trace their roots to St Thomas.

Additionally there is a small and relatively young evangelical church movement.