Iraqi Christians Flee To Sweden

Sister Mary Clara in the comments, called to my attention this article from the New York Times on the destruction of small Christian communities in Iraq. Now when Sister gives me a push, I dare not refuse to follow through. However, I have previously expressed my concern about Christians in the Middle East and linked to a story about the Christian communities in Pakistan that are disappearing.

Our president, who took us into the war on the basis of lies and deception, claims to be a Christian who prays to God every day. The Iraqi Christians are fleeing the country under threat of death, kidnapping, and forced conversion to Islam. And where do they go? For the most part, not here in the US. Does the plight of Iraqi Christians break through the bubble that our Christian president lives in?

The citizens of one small Swedish town, Sodertalje, are living out the compassion that Jesus called for in the Gospels:

Walking down the carpeted aisle of Sodertalje’s low-slung St. John’s Church on a recent morning, Anders Lago’s broad, blond features looked out of place among the crowd of hundreds of black-clad Iraqi mourners at a memorial service.

Mr. Lago is the mayor of this scenic Swedish town of 60,000 people, which last year took in twice as many Iraqi refugees as the entire United States, almost all of them Christians fleeing the religious cleansing taking place next to Iraq’s anti-American insurgency and sectarian strife.

So the mourners are now part of Mr. Lago’s constituency, and their war is rapidly becoming Sodertalje’s war — to the mayor’s growing chagrin. Sodertalje, he says, is reaching a breaking point, and can no longer provide the newcomers with even the basic services they have the right to expect.

Imagine! A small town in Sweden welcomes more Iraqi refugees than the whole of the US, the country responsible for the conditions that force the Iraqi Christians to flee.

Mariam, a 36-year-old teacher from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, came to Sodertalje in late March. She told of being grazed by a gunman’s bullet while trying to leave Mosul with her family, and seeing one of her sons shot in the stomach.

“We left everything to be safe, and we came here to start a new life,” said Miriam, an Assyrian Christian who did not want her full name used because her husband and two of her three sons had not yet managed to leave Iraq. “In Iraq, we were deprived of even the simple right to go to church, and we want to hold on to our religion.”

So. The US went to Iraq to "spread freedom and democracy," and one of the consequences is the destruction or displacement of ancient Christian communities. But how can this be? I have heard so often that the US is a Christian country.

According to a survey done by the University of Michigan, in the late 1990s, weekly attendance at religious services in the US stood at 44%, while in Sweden the number is 4%. Yet, which country seems to be living the Christian Gospel message? Why its the Swedes, who have so often been held up as examples of a godless way of life by the ultra-right religious groups in the US.

Sweden grants asylum to all Iraqis except those from the relatively stable Kurdish areas, and the immigration authorities do not even register their religious affiliation.

Not that it's all rosy once the refugees arrive in the town:

Most who make it here were relatively affluent — almost all have paid $10,000 to $20,000 to get the papers they need to get out of Iraq — and they are often highly educated. But work in Sodertalje is scarce, especially for those with little knowledge of Swedish, and Iraqis who arrive now will have to wait several months to start regular Swedish classes.

....

And even here, 2,000 miles from Iraq, the war continues to make its presence felt, as with Hazim, a wealthy, 50-year-old businessman who fled from Baghdad in March. Sitting among a group of compatriots in the Ronna apartment recently, he received a threatening cellphone call from Baghdad.

“For us, Iraq is a never-ending story,” he said. “We came here, and we are still followed by the war.”

And then there are Swedes like Mr. Lago, who learn about the horrors of Iraq as a part of their job.

The service in St. John’s Church, where Mr. Lago was a guest, was held in memory of the Rev. Ragheed Ganni, 35, a Chaldean Catholic priest from Iraq who worked at the church until last fall. In November, he decided to follow the tracks of those leaving Iraq for Sodertalje, but in the opposite direction.

On June 3, Father Ganni was shot to death, execution style, after celebrating Mass at the Holy Spirit Church in Mosul.

From the BBC:

Christians have inhabited what is modern day Iraq for about 2,000 years, tracing their ancestry to ancient Mesopotamia and surrounding lands.

Theirs is a long and complex history.

Before the Gulf War in 1991, they numbered about one million, but that figures is now put at about 800,000 and falling.

Under Saddam Hussein, in overwhelmingly Muslim Iraq, some Christians rose to the top, notably Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, and the Baathist regime kept a lid on anti-Christian violence.

....

The secular government of Saddam Hussein largely suppressed anti-Christian attacks, but it also subjected some communities to its "relocation programmes".

For Christians, this was particularly marked in the oil-rich areas, where the authorities tried to create Arab majorities near the strategic oilfields.

Christians live in the capital, Baghdad, and are also concentrated in the northern cities of Kirkuk, Irbil and Mosul - once a major Mesopotamian trading hub known as Nineveh in the Bible.

Most Iraqi Christians are Chaldeans, Eastern-rite Catholics who are autonomous from Rome but who recognise the Pope's authority.

Chaldeans are an ancient people, many of whom still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus.

....

The other significant community are Assyrians, the descendants of the ancient empires of Assyria and Babylonia.

After their empires collapsed in the 6th and 7th Centuries BC, the Assyrians scattered across the Middle East.

They embraced Christianity in the 1st Century AD, with their Ancient Church of the East believed to be the oldest in Iraq.

Assyrians also belong to the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Chaldean Church, and various Protestant denominations.

Once again, I am reminded of Arthur Miller's words from Death of a Salesman, spoken by the character, Linda Loman, Willy's wife, "So attention must be paid."

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.