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Kirkuk Christians Fear Rising Violence
17.5.2006
By Samah Samad in Kirkuk (ICR No. 177, 17-May-06)
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Sectarianism and growing
Islamic power concerns Christians in this ethnically
mixed city.
Fadi Alyas, 13, was playing with three friends in
front of the Church of the Virgin Mary in Kirkuk
when the bomb went off.
Inside the Chaldean Christian church, the ground
shook as worshippers, including Fadi's grandmother,
were praying quietly. They ran outside to find the
air filled with smoke and shards of metal from the
exploded car scattered around the church.
Fadi lay on the ground in a pool of blood. He died
later in hospital.
"I can't get his voice out of my mind," said his
brother Nasim Alyas, 23, his eyes welling up with
tears. "I saw him drenched in his own blood,
breathing his last at the hospital."
Fadi was one of three people killed in late January
when five car bombs targeted churches and the
Vatican embassy in Kirkuk and Baghdad.
The anti-Christian violence shook this community in
Kirkuk, many of whose members fear rising
sectarianism and growing Islamic influence amid the
violence that has followed the fall of Saddam
Hussein in 2003.
The coordinated attacks in late January took place
during the controversy over cartoons run in a Danish
newspaper that ridiculed the Prophet Mohammed. They
were the first major attack against a religious
group in 2006, a year that has proven bloody for
Iraq's many religious groups and sects.
Christians in the ethnically and religiously mixed
city of Kirkuk are still practicing their religion,
albeit more cautiously and quietly. While some said
that they maintain friendships with Muslims, others
said sectarian divisions and discrimination were
creeping in even before the bombs exploded.
The Christian community now accounts for an
estimated three per cent of Iraq's population, down
from about five per cent during Saddam's regime. The
United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees
reported last year that of the 700,000 Iraqis who
took refuge in Syria between October 2003 and March
2005, 36 per cent were Christians.
Kirkuk's Christian population is estimated to be
about 12,000 in a province of more than one million.
There are eight Christian sects in Kirkuk, but most
are Chaldean and Assyrian - two closely related
groups who use the Syriac language.
Behra Toma, a 45-year-old housewife and mother of
two, said coexistence between Muslims and Christians
in Kirkuk has deteriorated since the fall of
Saddam's regime.
"My son complains that he has been insulted and
harassed by his classmates more than once because he
is Christian and doesn't belong to their ethnic
group," she said. "This has a huge affect on the
psychology of children because they will grow up
with those ideas."
Kirkuk archbishop Louis Sako, 56, said Christians,
like other Iraqis, fear kidnappings and sectarian
violence because of the breakdown of law and order.
He said Christians are suffering as Islamic parties
take power in Baghdad and as Iraq's Islamic
character, largely oppressed by the Baathist regime,
expands.
"The Christians don't feel affiliated to [Iraq],
because they live in a country dominated by the
Islamic religion," he said.
Sako said many Muslims regard Christians as
"non-believers". "Hostile feelings against
Christians in Iraq have emerged recently, and now
they live with threats to their lives," he said.
As a result, the archbishop said, many want to
migrate to majority-Christian countries.
Odisho Stefan, 42, a father of three and guitarist
at the Kirkuk Legendary Church, said he fears
Islamic rule could take over Iraq. He said he
already feels restricted as a Christian and believes
he cannot practice his religion openly.
Like many other Christians in Iraq and other Middle
Eastern countries, Stefan has family abroad which
could make it easier for him to leave.
"I will be forced to migrate with my family if the
situation gets worse," he said.
Sako said that because of the bombings in Kirkuk,
Christians feel insecure about attending church and
have started to guard their own churches because
police aren't providing security.
A source in Kirkuk’s police force said it is doing
its best to ensure security and does not
discriminate against Christians. "We do our best to
provide security for everyone," he said.
While there is widespread fear of violence among
Christians and other groups in Kirkuk, not
everything is worse than it was three years ago.
Under Saddam, churches were protected, but there was
no freedom to set up Syriac schools or formally
teach the language. Assyrians were obliged to study
in Arabic and were considered to be Arabs.
Eva Lazar, a 29-year-old Christian civil servant,
said fundamentalist Islamic groups which regard
Christians as unbelievers have existed for decades,
but they were held in check by the Baathist regime.
She said that in some ways, life has improved for
Kirkuk’s Christians. “There didn’t use to be many
jobs, but now there are opportunities," she said.
“And our official language [Syriac] is taught in
schools.”
Even though he lost his younger brother, Nasim said
he has faith that Muslims and Christians can live
together in Kirkuk. There are tight bonds between
the communities, he said.
"Most of the people who attended my brother's
funeral were Muslims."
Samah Samad is an IWPR trainee journalist in
Kirkuk.
iwpr.net
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