Matthew Fisher
With extremists flying the black flag of the Islamic State of Iraq
and Al-Sham less than an hour down the road, the future of one of the
last Christian communities in the Middle East is at grave risk of
assimilation or annihilation.
An estimated 100,000 Iraqi Christians fled the Plain of Mosul in
several panicked waves that began in June as ISIS swept east from the
Syrian border, murdering, raping and kidnapping as it went. Every place
ISIS conquered, it immediately issued an ultimatum to Christians that
repeated the stark choice they had given to Syrian Christians when they
seized large parts of that country during the past two years. Christians
had to either pay a huge ransom for their freedom, convert to Islam or
be killed.
“After being here for more than a millennium, this is the Christians’
last stand in Iraq,” said Safa Jamel Bahnan, who used to work as a
truck driver at the Mosul airport. “Over the centuries we have faced the
sword so many times for our beliefs. In two, three, four years
Christians will not be here because Daesh (ISIS) kill us. We will
probably be living in the U.S., Canada or Australia. Otherwise, we will
be erased from this Earth.”
Father Rian, who celebrated one of the masses, was equally grim about Christianity’s future in the Middle East.
“What we are living is the last chapter of an ancient story,” the
Chaldean Catholic priest said. About half of the Christian refugees —
whom the UN regards as internally displaced persons — are jammed into
the Kurdish capital, Irbil. Many of them attended the four masses
offered Sunday at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. The masses were celebrated in the Chaldean and Assyrian
dialects of Aramaic which are related to the language that was spoken by
Jesus Christ.
Those packed into the grounds at St. Joseph’s were astonished when
they were told that two of Canada’s three main political parties have
opposed the Harper government’s plan to send half a dozen warplanes to
the Middle East to join the U.S.-led bombing campaign to drive ISIS back
from Mosul and other Iraqi cities that they have captured.
“If the U.S. airplanes had not been here at the right moment, Irbil
would have fallen and ISIL would be here. Everybody knows it,” said
Shoban Kunda, who attended Father Rian’s mass with his wife. “So we know
that air power can help to stop them.”
What Canadians need to understand is that “someone has to stop Daesh,
even if it takes years, because they want to destroy everything and
bring us and the rest of the world back to the Middle Ages,” said Elid
Matte, who like Bahnan, had escaped from the town of Qaraqosh, which is
97 per cent Christian.
“It was a good beginning to start with airplanes. If ISIL had reached
Irbil, they would have done to us what they did to Christians in
Mosul.”
It wasn’t difficult for many worshippers to get to St. Joseph’s.
Thousands of Catholics have been camped out in UNHCR tents or sleeping
under blankets for weeks in the small church compound or in the shells
of derelict buildings across the street.
“It’s
OK now but the rainy season begins in one month and when winter comes
and it won’t be good for anyone here,” Shobhan Kunda said. “Irbil is
suffering with traffic jams. There is trash everywhere. Housing costs
have gone way up.”
Safa Jamel Bahnan had found a place to stay with his sister who has
lived in Irbil for some time. Joining them were 60 members of their
extended family. The living quarters were so tight that Bahnan, who is a
big man, sleeps in a space that is two-metres long and one-metre wide.
“We’ve lost everything. Many of our people now try (to) emigrate.”
Canada comes up as one of the most favoured destinations to settle
in. Ayman Abdul Aziz Majid made the point by proudly showing a Canadian
flag that is the screen saver on his mobile telephone. The image of the
Maple Leaf also served as a link, connecting him to a Canadian
government website in Arabic that explains how to emigrate to Canada.
But more than anything those attending mass wanted to return to the
homes they had abandoned. To get from here to there they were in
unanimous agreement that it would take Canada and other western
countries to send infantry and tanks, which not one of them has yet
agreed to.
“Bombing is not so efficacious. There will have to be troops on the
ground to retake Mosul and end this very dark period,” said Father
Zuhir, who joined 20 Syriac Catholic priests and 60 Syriac Catholic nuns
who fled Qaraqosh. One of Zuhir’s parishioners agreed. "There must be
soldiers, too,” said Sonia al-Shorahchy. “Otherwise immigration is our
only future because it is impossible for me or any of us to become
Muslims.”