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ABC News' Terry McCarthy has been reporting on war, peace, and everything in between from all around the world for 20 years. He writes about daily life in the areas he is reporting from.
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ESCAPING NORTH
March 18, 2008 11:12 AM
We flew up to the Kurdish north of Iraq recently – it is always a welcome release for us to go up north, where security is so much better. After a day in Erbil, the main city, we drove across to the town of Zakho, close to the Syrian and Turkish borders, and an area which has long had a Christian presence. Most are Chaldean Christians, who speak Aramaic – the same language as Jesus – and are an Eastern branch of the Catholic Church who still recognize the Pope.
Since 2003 I have been friends with a priest here, Father Mofeed Toma, who has seen Christians in Iraq get pushed out of their livelihoods and homes as religious tolerance has evaporated across much of the country. First in Basra in the south, and then in Baghdad and Mosul, Christians have been targeted by kidnappers (because they often are relatively wealthy and so presumably good sources of ransom). They have also had their businesses attacked, particularly those who sold alcohol. Iraq has always been fairly liberal about alcohol – it has never been illegal, and many Iraqis drink beer and whisky, but the merchandizing has always been left to the Christians. As more religiously conservative Shiite politicians came to power, many of these liquor stores have been burnt out. And the Christians have fled to towns like Zakho in the Kurdish north where they are relatively safe.
Fr Mofeed lives in a small house inside a compound that includes his church and a small garden with orange trees. He has a handyman who digs holes for the sheep’s cheese that they make up here called “jajik” – it is buried in a clay pot under the earth for about 40 days, and when it is disinterred it has a pungent, slightly rotten aroma akin to a ripe gorgonzola – quite delicious.
One night Father Mofeed asked us to come and meet his English class – he teaches English to his parishioners twice a week, and wanted a native speaker to come and enhance his lesson. I stood up in front of about 40 people, most of them adults, and we had a rudimentary conversation about Iraqi politics. At one point I asked the class how many people wanted to leave Iraq – and pretty much everyone in the room raised their hands, amidst much laughter. As if I had asked a silly question.
As we went back to the hotel across the river where we were staying that night, I realized that, almost unnoticed, a significant demographic change was happening in Iraq. Tens of thousands of Christians are emigrating – it is much easier for Christians in Iraq to get visas to Europe, the US and Australia than it is for Muslims – and their absence is changing the fabric of Iraqi society. Of all the Arab countries, Iraq has long been one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse – now much of that is being destroyed, probably irrevocably. There is little to attract Christians back to Iraq as it becomes more strictly Islamic. Friends in Basra tell me horror stories of women being killed for wearing makeup in public. A Christian woman I just met told me how she had to smuggle a small bottle of whisky into Basra last December to put into her Christmas cake last year – if she had been discovered by the local militia she said it could have been very dangerous for her.
We had some nice meals with Father Mofeed, ate his smelly jajik cheese and drank his beer. We laughed a lot, and left on an upbeat note. But soon afterwards we heard that his archbishop in Mosul, Paulos Faraj Rahho, had been kidnapped – and subsequently was found dead, buried in a shallow grave outside the city. The prime minister and others condemned the killing of this wise and respected old man. But the message was clear – nothing is sacred in the new Iraq. That is the real tragedy of Archbishop Paulos…and it is the tragedy of Christians in Iraq. A country that will be poorer off if they all leave.
March 18, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (0)
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