Iraqi Christians appeal for religious freedom

Iraq's Christian patriarchs and bishops have appealed for full religious, social and political freedom for the Christian descendants of the prophet Abraham in Iraq's new regime, according to a statement relayed through the Vatican.

Leaders of the Chaldean, Assyrian, Latin rite, Syrian, Armenian and Greek churches issued a joint statement April 29 in Iraq where Muslims make up 90 percent and Christians an estimated 3 percent of the population of 23 million. The largest Christian group in Iraq is Chaldean Catholic, which is under the ecclesiastical umbrella of the Vatican.

Iraq's new constitution must recognize Christians' "religious, cultural, social and political rights," allow all citizens to take part in government, give Christians full citizenship and guarantee them full religious rights, said the statement from the Christian patriarchs and bishops. They called for specific guarantees of "the right to profess our faith according to our ancient traditions and our religious norms, the right to educate our children according to Christian principles, and the right to organize freely, to build places of worship and, when necessary, other spaces for cultural and social activities."

Emphasizing Iraq's ancient culture, the leaders referred to the code that Hammurabi, king of Babylon, etched in stone, making law "the basis of the development of civilization," and to Abraham of Ur, who became "the father of a multitude of peoples." It was in Iraq, they said, that Christianity and Islam met in "a respectful reciprocal coexistence."

The statement, released by the Vatican April 30, came after some Shi'ite Muslim leaders sought to fill a power vacuum in Iraq and some Bush administration leaders hinted that the U.S. might accept a government with an Islamic identity.

But President Bush has talked in broader terms about a democracy for Iraq that represents all religious and ethnic groups. Addressing Arab-Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, April 28, Bush said, "Whether you're Sunni or Shi'a or Kurd or Chaldean or Assyrian or Turkoman or Christian or Jew or Muslim--no matter what your faith, freedom is God's gift to every person in every nation."

On the same day, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom urged Bush to maintain his commitment to religious freedom for all Iraqis. "Now that Saddam Hussein has been ousted, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom believes strongly it is essential to ensure that the Iraqi people can exercise their religious freedom in full accordance with international human rights standards," commission members wrote in a letter to Bush.

The commission expressed its concern that U.S. leadership is needed to prevent ethnic and sectarian violence and other human rights violations against Iraq's diverse religious communities.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said April 24 that the U.S. would not tolerate an Iranian-style Shi'ite government in Baghdad. Also on April 24, Secretary of State Colin Powell asked rhetorically, "Why cannot an Islamic form of government that has as its basis the faith of Islam not also be democratic?" Powell pointed to two other predominantly Islamic nations--Turkey and Pakistan--as examples of Islamic countries that hold elections.

COPYRIGHT 2003 The Christian Century Foundation
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