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Missionaries find oasis of peace in
Kurdistan Region
7.11.2006
By Linda Leicht |
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November 7, 2006
Chuck and Helen Todd hope
to start a Christian school in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Chuck and Helen Todd believe there are many stories
in Iraq that are not being told. The most important
one, they say, is the peace that can be found in
Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Todds are missionaries who have been trying for
three years to open a Christian school in Baghdad.
Violence and the persecution of Christians in the
Iraqi capital have thwarted that effort.
Then, their Iraqi director in Baghdad suggested
moving operations to the Kurdistan region.
"He said, 'It is like
America there,'" Helen Todd said.
The area of Iraq that is controlled by the Kurds may
not be exactly like Springfield, but the relative
peace and security, the district's democratic
government and economic development make it a
welcome oasis in the middle of a nation that is
tired of war and violence.
It is also a place where Christians are welcome and
safe, said Chuck Todd. He hopes to open a school
there in the spring.
The Todds are the founders of World Missions
Alliance, headquartered in Branson West. They
traveled to China during the SARS scare and to Iraq
just as the insurrection began, determined to reach
out to people who are in danger and fear.
But the Christians they hoped to help in Iraq have
had to flee the country, the Todds said. Since Pope
Benedict XVI's comments in September that
characterized some of the teachings of Islam's
founder as "evil and inhuman," Christians in Iraq
have been under increased persecution, they said.
Many Iraqi Christians have fled to Iraqi
semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region and other countries
in search of safety.
"In the meantime, in the rest of Iraq, the
persecution of Christians is escalating," said Helen
Todd. "Christian ministers are being kidnapped,
churches bombed," and Islamic leaders have
encouraged Muslims to take the property of
Christians, she said.
Todd found a different story among the Kurdish
leaders.
"They are inviting everyone who comes in peace," he
said.
Todd has met with the leaders of the two major
political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan, the Kurdistan
Democratic Party, or PDK, and the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, the PUK. Both leaders offered support,
and the PUK even offered to provide land for the
ministry to start a church and school.
Education unifies
Abraham Karim left his home in Baghdad in 1979, when
he was only 18 years old, after dozens of family
members were killed by the Saddam Hussein regime.
As a Kurd whose family is ethnically Iranian, Karim
realized that Iraq was no longer safe. Now, he would
like to return as a linguist with the U.S.
government. He recalls a time when his Kurdish
neighborhood in Baghdad included Sunni and Shiite
Muslims, as well as Christians.
"My next-door neighbors were Christians," said
Karim, who is a Shiite Muslim. "Now they live in
Michigan."
Education is an important and unifying force, Karim
said. He went to a Catholic school through the
eighth grade. There, he said, his own religion was
respected.
Jeff VanDenBerg, a history and political science
professor at Drury University, said that for Kurds,
the more powerful identity is ethnic, not religious.
"I doubt that many Kurds in Iraq have ambitions to
have a theocracy," said VanDenBerg, who specializes
in Middle East politics. "Kurdish pride is really
the motivating ideology."
Kurds divided
The "untold story" of the Kurds dates back to World
War I, VanDenBerg said. The Western allies divided
up the world into nations, but most of the people in
the Middle East had no input into the decisions. The
Kurds were partitioned into four countries — Turkey,
Iran, Iraq and Syria.
After the first Gulf War in 1991, the United States
helped to secure the northern, Kurdish area of Iraq
by establishing a "no fly" zone, keeping Saddam's
troops away.
The Kurds in the region have been able to spend the
past 15 years working toward stabilization and
developing institutions and security, VanDenBerg
said.
Having that head start has helped the Kurds, but
their sense of separateness has also kept them out
of the "civil fray in Iraq that's plaguing the
Sunnis and Shia," he said.
The United States' support of Iraqi Kurdistan is a
sticky subject, said VanDenBerg. While acting as a
"state within a state," it is still part of the
sovereign state of Iraq. Also, neighboring Turkey
has opposed any sovereignty for Kurds in the region.
For the Todds, the politics that have been at play
are less important than what they see as God's plan.
"The Kurds are the Medes of the Bible," Chuck Todd
explains. When the Israelites were in captivity in
Babylon, it is Cyrus, the leader of the Medes, who
defeats the Babylonians and allows the Israelites to
return to Jerusalem.
Now, he believes, it is the Medes — the Kurds — who
may be doing the same for the Christians of Iraq.
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