Help Christians reconstruct Iraq, urges Middle East church leader

by Stephen Brown 
Ecumenical News International

GENEVA — A top church leader from the Middle East on Tuesday urged the international community to help members of Iraq’s Christian community take part in the reconstruction of that country after the US-led invasion. 

      “In Iraq, we had many difficulties, all the churches, including my church,” said Catholicos Aram I of the Armenian Apostolic Church, in an apparent reference to troubles facing Christians since the invasion in 2003. 

      “But in spite of all these difficulties, the Christians are part of the people of Iraq, part of the society,” Aram told a media conference in Geneva, held during a meeting of the World Council of Churches’ central committee, of which he is moderator. 

      “Our churches are deeply rooted in the region. They are in the region, not outside it and they must not leave,” said Aram, who is based in Antelias, Lebanon.  

      Christians account for up to 3 per cent of Iraq’s 25 million people but several Christian churches have been attacked by insurgents since the 2003 invasion and emigration by Christians is reported to be increasingly common. 

      News agencies reported on Monday that the leader of a Christian political party in Iraq was abducted two weeks earlier by kidnappers demanding the withdrawal of US troops.  

      In January, a prominent Iraqi clergyman, Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa of the Syrian Catholic church, was snatched by gunmen in Mosul and then released. 

      Most Christians in Iraq belong to the Assyrian Church of the East, an ancient church rooted in the region and the Chaldean Church, linked to the Vatican. The Armenian Apostolic Church has an estimated 10 000 members in Iraq. 

      “We must encourage Christians and Muslims to strengthen their cooperation,” he urged, after election results published on Sunday showed a predominantly Shia Muslim alliance had won 48 per cent of the votes in Iraq’s 30 January poll.  

      “The Christians must fully participate. They are not foreigners. They should not be on the margins of the political processes in Iraq,” said Aram. “I believe the Christians have fully assumed their obligations but at the same time they must be given their full rights of that country as a community.” 

      Aram added, “The international community should help Christians in Iraq to assume their rights and obligations more fully by participating in the construction of the new Iraq.”