Modern-day Exodus: Christians in Iraq Fleeing for Sanctuary

Photo Credit Google Images 

On October 10, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI began the Synod of Bishops’ Special Assembly for the Middle East.


This two week council, made up of 177 Synod Fathers and 69 priests, is working under the theme: “The Catholic Church in the Middle East: Communion and Witness.” This synod, held at the Vatican, will focus its attention on the rising violence in the Middle East against an existing minority group well known for being part of a religious majority in the West: Christians.


According to the UN High Commission for Refugees, since 2003, over 500,000 Christians of Chaldean, Assyrian, and Iraqi descent have fled to neighboring countries such as Syria and Jordan and as far as Europe and the United States to escape the sectarian violence pitted against them by local terrorist groups.

Photo Credit Google Images

These acts of violence, ranging from bombings of church buildings to the raping and killing of young girls, have slowly increased over the past year. Although the motivations for these acts are not clear, many believe that they are political.
A group of Christians was killed in the streets of Mosul, Iraq in February of this year just two weeks before an “inconclusive parliamentary election” according to Arabnews.com, Saudi Arabia’s first English-language newspaper, alluding to political motives. Yet, some believe that the foundation for the killings is purely religious.

One narrative from Muhanned Najif Yusef, a local Christian planning on moving out of Iraq, relates an incident in which Yusef’s neighbor was killed on the street in front of his house due to his religious beliefs.

“The gunmen said: ‘Aren’t you Christian?” said Yusef, retelling the story of his neighbor’s death. “The neighbors said that [he] said, ‘Yes, I am Christian, and I’m an Iraqi like you.’ Then they shot him.”

Photo Credit Google Images

Others believe the increase in violence is related to the efforts of the United States to slowly withdraw from the Middle East. According to Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster, some believe that the extremists responsible for the killings are using the “lapses in security” created by the withdrawal of American forces out of Iraq to conduct acts of extreme violence against Christians living in that area.


Many religious people in the United States, like Sister Donna Markham of Adrian, Mich., fearful of the fate of their brothers and sisters in Christ living in the Middle East, have appealed to the U.S. government to help those targeted in Iraq. Yet despite these grassroots efforts, Christopher Hill, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, told USA TODAY that the violence directed towards Christians in the Middle East “[is] an issue that the government of Iraq has to resolve.”


For now, thousands of Iraqi Christians are establishing residency in countries like Jordan and Lebanon, nations where there is a higher population of Christians and, therefore, more tolerance for those who follow that religion. Yet, the countries welcoming the refugees are somewhat hesitant to accept foreigners for many reasons, one of these being that refugees from other ethnic groups, such as the Palestinians, are inhabiting areas of these countries as well.


In Lebanon, the U.N. has made an agreement that any Iraqi person with official refugee status approved by UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) may stay in the country for one year, a contract that is subject to renewal. Most Iraqis are not legally allowed to work in Lebanon, leaving Iraqi men to perform odd jobs like car washing and forcing Iraqi women into prostitution.

Photo Credit Google Images

Although awareness for the plight of Christians in the Middle East is spreading, many around the world, and especially in the United States, react indifferently whenever issues involving the Middle East are brought up. For that and many reasons, Pope Benedict XVI hopes that the synod will inspire people from around the world, especially those in the Middle East to work toward “creating conditions of peace and justice,” according to Catholicnewsagency.com.

"In spite of the difficulties, the Christians of the Holy Land are called to revive the consciousness of being 'living rocks' of the Church in the Middle East, in the holy places of our salvation,” said Pope Benedict XVI.



For more information and related topics, please explore these websites:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5CM29RvJxc
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/world/middleeast/12briefs-POPE.html
http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c2.html
http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c2.html
http://www.radiovaticana.org/inglese/enindex.html
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/02/23/iraq-protect-christians-violence