By Al Arabiya
“The faces of the men around us were very stiff and their looks were
as cold as the stone; whenever they would look at me with their frigid
faces I would be afraid and their frowns made me feel terrified and
frightened. I would run to my father at the sight of their motionless
beards.”
Thus spoke Chahd, the 19-year-old
Iraqi citizen to Al Arabiya. Chahd was displaced with her parents and
her brother, who is seven years younger than her from Al-Hamdaniya in
Mosul to Baghdad. She witnessed a lot of violence because of the
oppression of ISIS and the destruction of the city as a result of the
war.
“I want to go back to my home and my
hometown, but life there is unbearable; when I remember their voices
that killed all hope, and their smell that drove the spring out of Mosul
I do not want to go back. My father was forced to sell our house and
car at a cheap price to save enough money to escape ISIS. Now he is
thinking of leaving Iraq and travelling to any European country where we
can find security and stability.”
The
military war on ISIS is over, but extremist ideology is growing and
poses the greatest threat to the lives of thousands of Iraqi Christians
and religious and sectarian minorities. Between murder, displacement and
kidnapping, hundreds of Christian families in Baghdad are living under
constant anxiety.
The thumb is still store
after the assassination of Dr. Shatha and her family a few days ago in
Baghdad. The deputy head of the Evangelical Church in Baghdad declined
to give any statement about the dreams of Iraqi Christians living in the
Iraqi capital to protect what is left of them in Mesopotamia.
Paying fees to work in Baghdad
Paying fees to work in Baghdad
Nabil
is a Christian merchant who was displaced after ISIS occupied Mosul and
returned to it after its liberation. But he found that his house and
his factory which he had inherited from his father, was a pile of ruin.
But Nabil's suffering increased after he fled to Baghdad, and was
surprised when he thought of opening his own project to support his
family.
Nabil recounted his continued
suffering in Baghdad to Al Arabiya English, saying that after he opened
his project, some gunmen came and asked him to pay the fee, as they put
it, otherwise he could not continue to work. He refused to pay the money
and filed a complaint with the security authorities. However, it was
useless and things took a turn to the worse when they kidnapped his
5-year-old daughter, as a result he had to sell his car to pay the
ransom and the fees for one year.
Nabil
said that these gunmen are walking in the steps of ISIS referring to
their actions in the Nineveh plains, pointing out that he is now looking
for asylum in one of the European countries to live his life freely and
safely.
The churches of Iraq are in danger
As
for Father Fadi Ragheed, he told Al Arabiya that “the churches of Iraq
are in danger,” expressing his deep sorrow and pain at what is happening
to the Christians, who constitute the infrastructure of Iraqi society.
“We
are doing our utmost to guide the Christian people to stay in Iraq and
to continue their work. We have also urged the central government to
protect them from gangs and gunmen and to take all the necessary
measures to prevent the eviction of the Christian community from Iraq,
which proved its good intentions by living with all members of Iraqi
society.”
Father Fadi Ragheed said that
after 2003, the situation worsened for the Christians and al-Qaeda was
their biggest threat. After 2014, the threats increased and the
Christians suffered from ISIS on the one hand, and the gunmen who demand
the fees and extremists on the other.
He concluded by saying that they will overcome the crisis and that security and stability will reign in Iraq.
