According to reports from Iraq
originating on Radio Sawa and passed on by Omar at Iraq the Model,
the people and government of Kurdistan are setting an example of
religious tolerance that is in sharp contrast to the recent story of
a man faced with the death penalty for converting to Christianity in
Afghanistan.
According to reports from Radio Sawa and confirmed in a recent
statement by General Georges Sada, there have been substantial
numbers of Kurds converting or reverting to Christianity since the
fall of Saddam Hussein. Sada himself was born an Assyrian Christian
and converted to Islam during the reign of Saddam and later
converted back to Christianity, a pattern that many seem to have
followed.
Kurdistan has a history of religious diversity, with a fairly large
Christian minority, but unlike Iran and Syria, which have gone to
great lengths to purge their religious minorities, Kurds are
embracing theirs. They even openly tolerate the Yezidis and
Zoroastrians, who have been heavily persecuted elsewhere in the
region.
Rather than condemning these conversions, Muslim Kurdish Prime
Minister Nechirvan Barzani commented "I'd rather see a Muslim become
Christian than to see him become a radical Muslim," a uniquely
enlightened viewpoint in these times and in that part of the world
where extremism and intolerance often seem to be out of control.
This is yet another reminder that there is at least one third of the
cobbled-together nation of Iraq which seems to have its head screwed
on straight and isn't being torn apart by factionalism and
fanaticism.
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