Gorilla’s Guides

MOSUL — Christians in Iraq have united and formed new militias to protect themselves against what they describe as targeting by Muslim extremists in northern Iraq.

Click the graphic to see full size. Key to the photographs:

1. A Christian priest carries a framed picture of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho as nuns pray during his funeral in the Christian village of Kremlis on March 14, 2008.
2. Iraki Christians carry the coffin of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho during his funeral in the Christian village of Kremlis.  The last census in 1987 counted 1.35 million Christians in Iraq, but nearly half left during the 1990s when economic sanctions were imposed by the UN. Thousands more have left since the 2003 US-led invasion after targeted attacks left hundreds of Christians killed nationwide. According to the local Christians Peace Association (CPA), about 350,000 Christians remain in Iraq from 800,000 prior to the invasion

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“During five years we were victims of the general violence in Iraq but mainly from violence carried by Islamic extremists who want us to follow their religious behaviors, though we are from a different culture and belief,” Priest Michel Youssef, militias supporter in Mosul, told IslamOnline.net.

Few armed Christians started patrolling their areas last year but now there are 250 of them with official approval from the US army base in Mosul.

Armed with heavy machine guns and assault rifles, they receive salaries of around US $250 and are commanded by Father Yusuf Yohannes.

“The idea to form militias was the only way to protect our families and friends from attacks because we are tired of waiting an action from the government which is preoccupied with politics and never look after us,” said Youssef.

Christian women in many parts of Iraq, including Nineveh, still wear Abayas - the traditional full-length cloak - and headscarves to prevent them from being distinguished from Muslims and avoid becoming victims of extremist violence.

“I want to walk wearing what I want and eating when I want,” said Louise Annuar, a 38-year-old primary school teacher and mother of two.

“During years we lived in peace in this land where I was born. All Muslims were happy to be part of our lives, share our thoughts and respect our decisions,” she recalls bitterly.

“Today we are seen as prostitutes for not wearing traditional clothes, our husbands killed for not fasting or wearing shorts, our children out from schools and colleges for security reasons and even our churches closed after constant attacks and threats.”

But few of the other reopened shops have been harassed or attacked. Most are near army or police checkpoints which the stores pay off in beer or cash to secure protection. Rami Aboud, who works with his uncle running a drink shop at the Jordan interchange in the Yarmouk district in west Baghdad, says he gives the police and soldiers 15 cans of beer a night or the equivalent in cash

Alcohol is openly for sale once more in Baghdad. All over the Iraqi capital, drink stores, which closed their doors in early 2006 when sectarian strife was raging, have slowly begun to reopen. Two years ago, al-Qa’ida militants were burning down liquor stores and shooting their owners. Now around Saadoun Street, in the centre of the city, at least 50 stores are advertising that they have alcohol for sale.

The fear of being seen drinking in public is also subsiding. Young men openly drink beer in some, if not all, streets. A favourite spot where drinkers traditionally gathered is al-Jadriya bridge, which has fine views up and down the Tigris river. Two years ago even serious drunks decided that boozing on the bridge was too dangerous. But in the past three months they have returned, a sign that militant gunmen no longer decide what people in Baghdad do at night. “I drink seven or eight cans of beer a day and a bottle of whiskey on Thursday evenings,” said Abu Ahmed, a former military intelligence officer who now makes a living driving a taxi.

Kirkuk (AsiaNews) – The exodus that is emptying Iraq of its two-thousand-year-old Christian community could wipe out its rich cultural heritage which has survived for centuries in this land. If emigration continues at the present rate in just a few years not only will the country be deprived of one the oldest components of its population but the world will lose a great legacy.

What will happen to very ancient churches and monasteries like the Church of Koche on the outskirts of Baghdad, Tahira, Mar Isaiyia, Miskenta, St Thomas, Marhudeini, the Monastery of St Michael in Mosul and Kirkuk’s Red Church (all dating back to between the 5th and the 7th centuries AD)? What will happen to ancient manuscripts and a language—Aramaic—unknown to the rest of the world, if those who have always guaranteed its life and conservation disappear?