Guest Comment: The vanishing Christians of Iraq

Iraq mirrors the problems facing Christians in many Muslim nations.

During the Saddam era, Christians in Iraq numbered nearly one million, making up to 3 percent of the population and represented a significant element of the professional and academic classes.

Today, their number is closer to 300,000 because of persecutions, including the burning of churches, abductions, kidnaping, rape and murder.

Some weeks ago a Catholic Bishop was doused with gasoline, set on fire and left to die.

Fears are rampant that as the U.S. completes its pullout, Christians will be in ever greater danger, when left at the mercy of the American stooge, President Al Maliki, and his Shiite led so-called army.

Since the start of the U.S. invasion in 2003, Christians living in major urban centers have been exposed to some of the worst sectarian terror and insurgent violence.

In the Saddam days, Christians in Iraq felt very secure, certainly more than their counterparts in Egypt, Israel, Sudan, or elsewhere among Middle East nations.

For example, Saddam’s Foreign Minister, Tariq Aziz, was a Christian, as were other prominent members of the Baathist Party (strictly secular).

The party was outlawed when U.S. authority was established in 2003. This had the effect of leaving the Christians without official protection, giving Al Malakis’ Bashi-Bazouks free rein in their effort to exterminate the Christian minority.

For instance, the largest Christian community, the Chaldeans, has fallen from 400,000 members during Baathist rule, to an estimated 120,000 today, mostly migrating to Christian nations of Europe.

The few Christian Iraqis in the north speaking Aramaic, the language spoken by Christ are already nearly extinct.

The really disturbing element in the foregoing situation is the virtual absence of expressed solicitude by American Christians!

Where are the Catholic protests, or a strong condemnation by our Evangelical Mullahs?

The silence of the American ecclesiastical establishment is without precedent.

The spineless shirkers masquerading as “leaders” of Christianity should be utterly ashamed of themselves.

Their total silence only encourages the religious zealots among the Moslems (mostly Shia) to continue their persecution, the ultimate goal being the total elimination of all traces of Christianity in Iraq.

William Maratos is a graduate of the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Glendale, AZ, with a degree in Foreign Trade and International Finance. During 40 years in the export business, he visited more than 60 countries establishing distribution and licensing arrangements for American corporations in diverse markets like Spain, South Africa, Iraq, Greece, Japan, Turkey, Egypt, Nigeria, Iran, etc. He still travels abroad on behalf of U.S. commercial interests. He has been a resident of Green Valley for 10 years with his wife, Sandra

The views expressed above are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of this newspaper.