Iraq War: A Photographer’s Notebook

Reuters:

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT It’s been 10 years since U.S.-led forces waged war in Iraq. In this collection of some of Reuters iconic images from the conflict, the photographers provide a personal account of the events they captured.

45 photos here.

God have mercy…

 

 

Chaplain Conducting Mass in Northern Iraq

HT

 

Ruins a Memento of Iraqi Christians’ Glorious Past

Iraq (AP) — A hundred meters (yards) or so from taxiing airliners, Iraqi archaeologist Ali al-Fatli is showing a visitor around the delicately carved remains of a church that may date back some 1,700 years to early Christianity.The church, a monastery and other surrounding ruins have emerged from the sand over the past five years with the expansion of the airport serving the city of Najaf, and have excited scholars who think this may be Hira, a legendary Arab Christian center.

“This is the oldest sign of Christianity in Iraq,” said al-Fatli, pointing to the ancient tablets with designs of grapes that litter the sand next to intricately carved monastery walls.

The site’s discovery in 2007 and its subsequent neglect are symbolic of a Christianity that has long enriched this country, and is now in decline as hundreds of thousands have fled the violence that followed the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

At the same time, the circumstances of the find reflect a renaissance for Najaf, a holy Shiite Muslim city. The airport expansion that revealed the ruins was needed because Najaf attracts multitudes of pilgrims.

The ruins left in the baking heat are within the airport perimeter and relatively safe from vandals and looters. The site’s stone crosses and larger artifacts have been moved to the National Museum in Baghdad.

For al-Fatli, it’s all very tantalizing. “I know if we were to work more, we will find more and similar churches,” he said.

But there is no money to mount a proper dig, he laments. In a country where bombings constantly kill people and much of the populace lacks reliable electricity or clean water, archaeological preservation is a low priority.

Today, the Christian portion of Iraq’s population of 31 million has fallen from 1.4 million to about 400,000, according to U.S. State Department data.

Caught in the sectarian violence of 2005 to 2008, massacred by Muslim militias as heretics, “We were in the worst of times,” says Younadam Kanna, a Christian member of Iraq’s parliament. He says the exodus has slowed but the future for Christians remains uncertain.

Still, he says, for those who remain, the discoveries at Hira provide some hope.

“It shows we can live together in peace with Muslims — because we did for centuries before,” he says. “When Islam first came to Iraq, the Christians here welcomed them.”

Legend traces Christianity in Iraq to Thomas, one of the Twelve Apostles who fanned out to spread Christ’s word after the Crucifixion.

Historians believe Hira was founded around 270 A.D., grew into a major force in Mesopotamia centuries before the advent of Islam, and reputedly was a cradle of Arabic script.

Lying 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, it was lost to Iraq’s southern desert for centuries after Christians were driven out of the area by Muslim rulers.

Erica Hunter, a professor of early Christianity at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, says historical evidence shows that by the early third century, the faith was well established in what is now southern Iraq by the Lakhmid dynasty, an Arab kingdom whose final ruler converted to Christianity.

For centuries Hira was an important center of the Church of the East, sometimes known as the Nestorian church, whose modern offshoot, the Assyrian Church of the East, is still followed in Iraq. Hira, also called al-Hirah, lay near the Sea of Najaf, since vanished, and was renowned as an idyllic retreat.

Archaeological finds have been traced in the 1900s, but the evidence is limited.

Hunter, one of the few scholars to explore the other sites linked to Hira, studied the Syriac inscriptions found by a Japanese-led team in the 1980′s. Other traces of Hira include two churches excavated in 1934 by an Oxford University team. Several church sites were mapped by German archaeologists in the 1980s before the 1991 Gulf War curtailed new exploration.

Hunter is cautious about claims the newly discovered ruins are Iraq’s oldest church, but adds, “They certainly must be very, very early,” perhaps dating to the fourth century dating.

What is clear is that Christianity at Hira continued to thrive alongside Islam until at least the 11th century, hundreds of years after the Muslim conquest of the area.

“In fact Muslim historians talk of 40 monasteries in the vicinity of Hira,” Hunter said in a telephone interview from London

Eventually the region’s Muslim rulers began persecuting the Christians, and Hira’s churches were abandoned. Most remaining Iraqi Christians today are clustered in Baghdad, Mosul, Kirkuk and the self-ruled Kurdish north of Iraq.

Al-Fatli, himself a Shiite, thinks of those 40 lost monasteries as he surveys the desert around the abandoned Najaf excavation. For now, though, Christianity’s lost city in Iraq will remain mostly a mystery.

But lawmaker Kanna says there’s still time to uncover it. After all, like the remains, Christians in Iraq have endured for some two thousand years.

“This is our country. We will be here,” he says. “We’ll be here not only for one more century, but for many centuries to come.”

Source (and some more pics are there).

 

The Life of an Iraqi Catholic

 

True Christianity is a Persecuted Christianity

As reported on The Deacon’s Bench:

That’s from Archbishop Bashar Matti Warda, who serves the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil in northern Iraq.  He spoke with Tim Drake of theNational Catholic Register:

What are three things you would like American Catholics to know about Catholics in Iraq?

First, that Christianity has had a presence in Iraq for 2,000 years. It’s a very old community. It has not been converted from Islam. We were there before Islam. Our schools were always the best, even from the sixth and seventh centuries. Second, we’ve been through a very difficult time. We are grateful to the many people who have held out a hand of charity and solidarity with us, the various Catholic charities. However, we would like to leave this path of charity for the path of opportunity. Yes, we are a minority, but we have the capability to stay and build a good future for Iraq. Third, I would like to see more of a commitment by the media to raise the awareness of the issues in Iraq to build schools and hospitals. We are not benefitting from the wealth that Iraq has. We need to find ways to stay and build the community. When we leave Iraq, it’s a big loss. When I visited our communities in Detroit, the second and third generations are no longer speaking the language. Our whole culture is gone.

Do you see a peaceful generation coming?

Yes, that’s what we have to work for. The next generation is not following in the footsteps of their parents because they are tired of the mess. So many voices are asking when, for what and why? These courageous questions are helpful.

What do we miss when we lump the Middle East together as a region?

There are areas of the Middle East that people can safely visit and benefit from. The roots of Christianity are there. We managed to open an international school in Erbil. We had five Americans from Washington and Dallas who are committed to helping us. I depend on them to come back to tell their story, not from a political point of view, but what it’s like to live among the community and in the heart of the community. The more you visit, the more you realize the richness and diversity of what’s there. You also learn about the dialogue between the communities and the lines that you have to respect. More positive articles and reports could help Americans and Europeans know more about the Middle East. We do not want to be on the news only because of violence and killings.

We use the term New Evangelization frequently in America. What does the term New Evangelization mean in Iraq?

For me and my community and the coming Year of Faith, we have prayed for that a lot and have had retreats and workshops to prepare and celebrate with the young people in our parishes. We see it as strengthening our relationship with Jesus who suffered and was crucified. This means reflecting on our wounds and not just bearing them, but taking these wounds with joy that we have participated in the suffering of Our Lord. We believe that true Christianity is a persecuted Christianity. That’s true all over the world. We can reflect on the past 10 years and say that the Lord is telling us something here. We have to deepen our relationship with him and announce the Catholic faith in a new vision which would welcome all those who are at the margins.

One of the bad effects of 2003 is that it’s opened the country for new evangelical groups who have come to steal from our community and churches. They come in ignorance telling us, “We are going to tell you about Jesus Christ.” I respond by saying, “Yes, I know him.” These groups succeed because they have financial ability. I told a group from Dallas, “You are weakening Christianity here. We are weak enough here in number, and you are dividing us. If you want to help Christians, first come to my place, not to places outside my diocese to try to attract others.”

Read it all.

 

The ‘Twilight of Christianity’ in Iraq

Sad and sobering news, from the New York Times:

Iraq’s dwindling Christians, driven from their homes by attacks and  intimidation, are beginning to abandon the havens they had found in the  country’s north, discouraged by unemployment and a creeping fear that  the violence they had fled was catching up to them.

Their quiet exodus to Turkey, Jordan, Europe and the United States is  the latest chapter of a seemingly inexorable decline that many religious  leaders say tolls the twilight of Christianity in a land where city  skylines have long been marked by both minarets and church steeples.  Recent assessments say that Iraq’s Christian population has now fallen  by more than half since the 2003 American invasion, and with the  military’s departure, some Christians say they lost a protector of last  resort.

Their flight is felt in places like the wind-scoured village of Tenna,  which has sheltered dozens of Christian migrants over the past nine  years. The families fleeing Baghdad’s death squads and bombings found  safety here beneath the hulking mountains, but little else besides  poverty, boredom and cold. Villagers estimate that half of the 50 or so  Christian homes are now empty, their families abroad.

Walid Shamoon, 42, wants to be the next to leave. He said he left Iraq’s  capital in January 2011 after a confrontation with Shiite militia  members set off a nightmare of escalating death threats and an attempt  on his life. A brother had already been killed in a mortar attack six  years earlier, so he said he quit his contract job with the Australian  Embassy, giving up a $1,500 monthly salary, and came here.

These days, all he can think about is his application to emigrate to Arizona.

“This is not a life,” he said one recent afternoon, as a blizzard raced  down from the mountains. “There is no improvement. There is no work.”

Many of the people now struggling in Iraq’s Kurdish north came in the wake of a suicide attack in Baghdad at Our Lady of Salvation Church in October 2010. It was the single  worst assault on Iraq’s Christians since the war began, one that left 50  worshipers and 2 priests dead and that turned the church into a charnel  house of scorched pews and shattered stained glass.

Christian families in Baghdad grabbed clothing, cash and a few other  provisions and headed north for the Christian communities along the  Nineveh plain and Kurdistan’s three provinces. They joined tens of  thousands of other Christians from the capital, Mosul and other cities  who traced similar arcs after earlier attacks and assassination  campaigns.

“They traded everything for security,” said the Rev. Gabriel Tooma, who  leads the Monastery of the Virgin Mary in the Christian town of Qosh,  which took in dozens of families.

The Christians in northern Iraq make up a tiny fraction of Iraq’s  legions of displaced people. In all, there are 1.3 million of them  across the country, according to the most recent United Nations  estimates. Many live in garbage dumps, shanty towns and squalor far  worse than anything facing the Christian families in Kurdistan.

Read more.

And for more on the plight of Iraq’s Christians, check out “A New Genesis in Nineveh,” from a recent issue of ONE magazine.

Source

 

Iraq: Midnight Mass Canceled Over Security Concerns

From CNS:

Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk in northern Iraq told the  agency Aid to the Church in Need that Christians will spend Christmas in  “great fear” because of the risk of new attacks.

All services and Masses have been scheduled for daylight hours, he said in an interview with Rome-based AsiaNews.

“Midnight Christmas Mass has been canceled in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk  as a consequence of the never-ending assassinations of Christians,” he  said, citing the Oct. 31, 2010, attack on the Syrian Catholic cathedral  that left 57 people dead in the Iraqi capital.

Archbishop Sako also expressed concern over the growing conflict between  Sunni and Shiite Muslims vying for political power. He said the  conflict has led to growing instability, especially in the days since  the pullout of U.S. military troops in mid-December.

The archbishop’s concerns follow a series of incidents in the northern  province of Kurdistan, which had been considered safe haven for  Christians.

Read more.

Lets us remember the the Church in Need this Christmas.

HT

 

Muslims are Crucifying Christian Children in Iraq

Via The Eponymous Flower:

Edit: found a decent translation on google with some minor corrections.

Muslim militants are crucifying children to terrorize their Christian parents and encourage them to flee Iraq, yesterday was told a parliamentary committee studying the persecution of religious minorities.

Since the beginning of the war in 2003, about 12 children, some as young as 10, were abducted and killed, then nailed to makeshift crosses near their homes to terrify and torment their parents.

The Committee was informed that a child has been snatched, decapitated, burned and left on the doorstep of his mother.

Filham Isaac, speaking on behalf of the Advocacy Committee Nineveh, told the committee of human rights as the Christian churches in Iraq were bombed, clergy murdered and unveiled women were raped or marked the acid.

This is part of a systemic campaign – and very effective it is- of the ethnic cleansing of non-Muslims in the region, he said. Chaldean and Assyrian Christians, known as the Assyro-Chaldeans, were once the largest Christian minority in Iraq. They are also the oldest, being the descendants of ancient Mesopotamians who adopted Christianity in the first century.

The Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syrian Catholic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Eastern Church are among the Christian churches in Iraq.

Today, about 300,000 Christians, or one out of three, fled, he said.

“It’s a crisis point,” said Zaya Oshana later, a colleague of Mr. Isaac. “Christians will be completely destroyed.”

However, the Assyro-Chaldeans do not want to leave their country en masse.

Instead, they seek help to inhabit the plains of Nineveh in the north-western Iraq, where they can have some independence and form their own state. The land is rich, and could also be oil.

There is some support in the U.S. and Europe for the area independently, and international news show that over 700 police officers have begun training to protect Christians in Iraq, but another 4000 would be necessary to secure full region and establish checkpoints on all highways and roads in the villages.

Link to original…

How very evil!

Please pray for these persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus!

 

Iraq Museum to Reopen

In November:

Following a looting spree during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the famous Iraq Museum was shuttered and sealed. But Iraqi and U.S. officials say the Baghdad repository of 5000 years of Mesopotamian history will reopen by year’s end.

That’s good news for archaeologists. “It’s a great idea,” says John Russell, an archaeologist at Boston’s Massachusetts College of Art and Design. “The museum has good security and Baghdad seems fairly stable.”

Founded in the 1920s by British adventurer and archaeologist Gertrude Bell, the museum contains more than 100,000 objects and is considered one of the world’s finest collections of ancient artifacts. But when U.S. troops arrived in Baghdad in 2003, looters ransacked the offices and storerooms, stealing thousands of objects. Many, such as the 5000-year-old stone mask called the Lady of Warka, were returned, and other priceless pieces had been hidden by museum officials before the invasion. But more than a thousand objects, including small and portable cylinder seals, remain at large.

Iraqi officials told media in Baghdad last week that the institution will reopen in November, and U.S. embassy officials there confirmed that the Iraqis intend to allow the public access within the next 2 or 3 months. The United States contributed more than $9 million to renovate a dozen halls in recent years, and the Italian government also contributed to the renovation effort. New climate control and security systems will protect the collection.

 

Yet Another Church Bombed In Iraq

Asia News reports on yet another heinous attack on Christians in Iraq earlier today:

A bomb exploded last night near the St Ephraim Syrian Orthodox Church in Kirkuk, which is just a few hundreds of metres from the Chaldean cathedral, in central part of the city. The device blew up at 1.30 am and there were no victims. The damages to the church were however huge (pictured).

Today’s incident is the latest in a string of attacks against Christians and their places of worship. On 2 August, a car bomb exploded in front of the Holy Family Syrian Catholic Church, wounding 15 people. The bomb had been placed inside a car, parked near the building.

On the same day, another bomb also placed in a car parked near a Presbyterian church was defused before it went off.

Islamic fundamentalists, who remain very active, as well as groups involved in local feuds, have targeted Iraqi Christians.

With a population of 900,000, Kirkuk is located in Iraq’s most important oil fields. For years, it has been embroiled in a political fight among various ethnic groups, most notably Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds. The latter would like to see Kirkuk’s region annexed to Kurdistan, whilst Arabs and Turkmen would like it to remain directly linked to Iraq’s central government.

Again, please, prayers for our severely persecuted brethren there.