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Irakiske kristne i Syrien: 'Bush brought nothing but killing, violence and mass emigration'
Det er ikke nogen tjeneste, den såkaldte koalition har gjort det kristne mindretal i Irak ved invasionen for snart tre et halvt år siden.
Hvor kristne under Saddam fik lov at være, leve og praktisere deres religion i fred, flygter de i dag i hobetal ud af landet.
I lyset af den stadigt værre situation i Irak har Syrien denne sommer åbnet sine grænser for irakiske flygtninge, som alle får tilbudt asyl og gratis skolegang til børnene (dog ikke arbejdstilladelse).
Og en meget stor del af disse flygtninge er kristne, som forfatteren William Dalrymple skriver i dagens Guardian:
Talk to the refugees in Damascus and you soon find that one group predominates: the Iraqi Christians. Although they made up only about 3% of the population of prewar Iraq - 700,000 people - under Saddam they were a prosperous minority, symbolised by the high profile of Tariq Aziz, Saddam's Christian foreign minister. Highly educated and overwhelmingly middle class, the Christians were heavily concentrated in Mosul, Basra and especially Baghdad, which before the war had the largest Christian population of any Middle Eastern town or city.En tidligere irakisk forretningsdrivende fortæller om sin oplevelse af tiden før og nu:
Now at least half of these Christians - around 350,000 people - have fled Bush's new Iraq and its violence, mass abductions and economic meltdown.
Under Saddam no one asked you your religion, and we used to attend each other's religious services and weddings. After the invasion we hoped democracy would come; but instead all that came was bombs, kidnapping and killing. Now at least 75% of my Christian friends have fled. There is no future for us in Iraq."Men havde de kristne da en fremtid i Irak før invasionen? Var de ikke i forvejen en forfulgt minoritet, et fremmed og "vestligt" indslag i et islamisk land?
His friend Sabah Mansur Nesco told a similar tale when I met him at the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate, where he had come to collect the rent money it provides for its more impoverished laity. He had lived in a wealthy mixed area of Baghdad, al-Doura, he said, until two of his nephews were kidnapped: for the first they had to arrange a $30,000 ransom; for the second $10,000. The boys were returned, having been tortured and beaten. Then some Christian neighbours were killed by jihadis. Five Baghdad churches were bombed, and stories began to circulate that Christian girls were getting raped at the university. The family decided enough was enough, and drove to Damascus.
Nej, sandheden er, at ikke alene var de kristne før invasionen irakere som alle andre, de tilhørte langt fra at være et "fremmedelement" et af de allerældste kristne samfund i verden:
The Christian community in Iraq has existed since the first century; according to tradition it was St Thomas and his cousin Addai who first brought Christianity to the Parthian capital of Seleucia-Ctesiphon soon after the resurrection. At the Council of Nicaea, where the words of the Christian creed were thrashed out in 325 AD, there were more bishops from Mesopotamia and India than there were from western Europe.Og på tre år er alt dette blevet smadret, og næsten halvdelen af de irakiske kristne og stort set alle mandæere er drevet på flugt. Thank you, Mr. Bush!
Later, the region became a refuge for groups considered heretical by the Orthodox Byzantine emperors - such as the Mandeans, the world's last surviving Gnostic sect, who follow what they believe to be the teachings of John the Baptist; and the Church of the East, or Nestorians, who played a key part in bringing Greek philosophy, science and medicine to the Islamic world. It was from the Nestorian school of Nisibis, via Córdoba, that many of Aristotle's and Plato's works reached the universities of medieval Europe.
Men ... kan det så ikke forventes at disse kristne flygtninge også forfølges i Syrien, som trods alt også er et islamisk land?
Næh - Syrien er et ubehageligt diktatur, etparti- og politistat, men det er et sekulært regime, der ikke blander sig i folks religion. Kristne behandles hermed lige som alle andre, og den syrisk-ortodokse kirke anser sig selv for at være verdens ældste kristne kirke, efterkommer af den kirke, apostlen Peter grundlagde i Antiochia i 34 evt.
Men den fred og det fristed, Iraks kristne lige nu kan finde i Syrien, kan hurtigt få ende - hvis det skulle lykkes for "koalitionen" med USA i spidsen at sætte også Syrien i brand, som Dalrymple konkluderer:
It would be tragic if the British now assisted the US in destabilising not just Iraq and Lebanon, but also Syria. As Sabah Mansur Nesco put it: "Bush brought nothing but killing, violence and mass emigration - not just to Iraq but to Afghanistan and Palestine also. Now we just pray he leaves Syria alone. For us it is the last place of refuge."Men man kunne jo også håbe, de har lært den efterhånden meget blodige og tragiske lektie. Irak har mildt sagt ikke været den succes, man havde håbet på.