More about Christians fleeing Iraq

Doonesbury 01 January 2009

OK, so you are wondering where that 600,000 Christians fleeing Iraq comes from? Well, that is our official government figure! It is not made up. It does not come from some “liberal” website. It is from the U.S. International Commission on Religious Freedom, a body appointed by the USA Congress. If the Christians leaving can afford a plane ticket, they flee to Lebanon because of its high Christian population. But, if they cannot afford to fly out, but must flee overland, the major destination is (drum roll) Syria. At this rate of exodus, in about another five years there will be essentially no Christians left in Iraq, and the USA will have succeeded in turning a secular dictatorship into another Muslim country.

Why are they leaving so fast? Well, here is a sin for which we are fully responsible. Christians are not simply being targeted by jihadists. No, no, no, they are being targeted by both Sunni and Shia. And, we are not pressuring the government to stop the persecution. Christians accounted for 4% of the population before the war, but now account for 16% of the refugees. Moreover, 48% of the Iraquis granted emergency refugee visas into the USA were Christian. By the way, that last figure is the official figure of the USA Embassy in Iraq.

But, is it not quieting down? Was not the surge a success? Well, the surge may have been a military success, but the very few Christians that have tried to return to their homes have been threatened by their neighbors and have ended up fleeing again.

So, read carefully here. Iraq was not a Muslim state. It was a secularist state. Yes, Saddam was an ugly dictator. But, he also would not allow a Muslim state. He did favor the Sunni who were from his home area, but that had more to do with being from his home area. In his government, he used Sunni, Shia, and Christian. In a grossly evil way he was democratic in that he equally terrorized all who might oppose him, with the exception of the Kurds. He had an especial hatred of the Kurds.

Now read carefully again. The current constitution of Iraq was approved in 2005 by a referendum and approved by the USA government during its writing. And, what did we approve?

Article (2):

1st — Islam is the official religion of the state and is a basic source of legislation:

(a) No law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam.

Yes, although, in all fairness, the constitution goes on to declare religious freedom, nevertheless we allowed a Constitution which turned Iraq from a secularist state to an officially religious state. And, not simply a religious state, but a state in which it is guaranteed that no law will pass that contradicts Islam. Can you imagine what this does to public evangelism? But, more than that, from the Christian refugees, from the tales collected from them, it is obvious that their Muslim neighbors certainly think that being an Islamic state is a much more serious matter than our government has taken it to be.

So, where is the outcry from politically involved evangelicals, whether from the left or the right? [I can understand the silence of the major news media, since the have no special love for Christians.] Well, I have a sneaking suspicion that explains the lack of outcry. You see 99% of the Christians fleeing Iraq are either Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, or Roman Catholics. And, to many evangelicals, we are not really Christians, but non-believers who need to be evangelized. I suspect that if 99% of the Christians fleeing Iraq were evangelicals, if megachurches were being shut down over there, if televangelists were losing access to the TV, that the outcry would have been quick and strong. By now, the President would have been forced to step in, as would the military authorities on the ground. But, they are only Catholics and Orthodox, so . . .