By Baghdadhope
"We will pay all efforts to keep our Christian brothers honored and respected in Iraq for they are an essential component of its society"
Fine words, aren't they? Surprising, if you know that they have been said by the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki during the first Muslim Christian conference in Baghdad organized by the Union of Muslim Scholars and attended, for the Christian part and among the others, by the Apostolic Nuncio in Jordan and Iraq, Msgr. Francis A. Chullikat and by the Latin bishop of Baghdad, Msgr. Jean B. Sleiman.
Words the beauty of which was obscured by the moment they were pronounced. The same day in which the Iraqi Parliament had almost more than halved the seats reserved for the minorities in the upcoming elections for provincial councils, hitting mainly the Christian one that, if the law of July 22 had passed, could count on 13 seats in 6 provinces but that now must be content with only 3 seats in 3 provinces.
Is this the way Iraqis show honor and respect for their “Christian brothers"? Can the Christians still be defined as such, or is it time to admit that the attempt to make them disappear from the country is following a dual track: the violence from which a defenceless minority cannot defend itself even if it wanted, and the erosion of their rights by a "democratically legal” way?
Maybe is it the approach of minorities to be wrong? Maybe, as Mahmoud Al Mashhadani, spokesman for the Iraqi Parliament, stated yesterday to Awzat Al Iraq, “Christians in Iraq do not need a quota, because they acquire love and respect by all” and, he continued, "there is no danger on them, because they are Iraq’s original residents,”
Respect, love. Fine words these ones too.
Words the beauty of which was obscured by the moment they were pronounced. The same day in which the Iraqi Parliament had almost more than halved the seats reserved for the minorities in the upcoming elections for provincial councils, hitting mainly the Christian one that, if the law of July 22 had passed, could count on 13 seats in 6 provinces but that now must be content with only 3 seats in 3 provinces.
Is this the way Iraqis show honor and respect for their “Christian brothers"? Can the Christians still be defined as such, or is it time to admit that the attempt to make them disappear from the country is following a dual track: the violence from which a defenceless minority cannot defend itself even if it wanted, and the erosion of their rights by a "democratically legal” way?
Maybe is it the approach of minorities to be wrong? Maybe, as Mahmoud Al Mashhadani, spokesman for the Iraqi Parliament, stated yesterday to Awzat Al Iraq, “Christians in Iraq do not need a quota, because they acquire love and respect by all” and, he continued, "there is no danger on them, because they are Iraq’s original residents,”
Respect, love. Fine words these ones too.
But for how long the Iraqis Christians will have to repeat them to themselves every time they will remember the dead, the threats, the flights, the bombs that hit them, to become convinced that they "really" have a value?