Tony Blair has helped destroy one of the oldest Churches on earth

Source: Telegraph

By: Ed West

If George Bush and Tony Blair were "crusaders", as Muslims insist, then they were the worst in history. Worst, that is, as in the most ineffective. What other Crusade has resulted in the Christian population of a country being almost totally destroyed?
Now that the Americans are leaving Iraq, the ancient Christian community, who converted in the second century while our ancestors were still worshipping rocks, and who still speak Aramaic, will pay the ultimate price. Nice one, Tony, you've helped to destroy one of the oldest Christian communities on earth and with it the language of Christ. Stick that on the wall of your inter-faith centre.
Iraqi Christians already endured hell. The figures vary, but the best estimates put the Christian population at 1.2 million in 1991, 800,000 in 2003 and less than 400,000 today. At this rate the Assyrians will be extinct before the black rhino; in fact it's a shame they don't have horns or fur or flippers, as their plight would undoubtedly have received more attention in the British media.
The Christian press in Britain has reported the ongoing pogrom - murders, kidnappings, church bombings - with growing horror, but unfortunately the public at large has not shown the same interest. I wonder whether a Christian massacre of Muslims would result in the same media black-out.
It's sad but the ceremony yesterday, at which Pope Benedict addressed 50,000 Christians in Jordan, including many Iraqi refugees, may not be possible in 20 years. Jordan and Syria both treat their Christian populations well, but where they aren't being persecuted the general economic stagnation of the Middle East is driving Christians west. It's certainly the West's gain - Middle Eastern Christians are the new Huguenots, disproportionately skilled and educated - but it's also catastrophic for the remaining liberal Arabs, and for their chances of ever building viable, secular states in that part of the world.
Iraq's remaining Christians and the exiles are divided between those who hope for a return to pre-Saddam, multi-faith Iraq, and those who've given up, and who instead want their own self-run area in the Nineveh Plains. The former are predominantly Chaldean Catholics, urban and Arab speakers who see themselves simply as Christian Arabs; the latter tend to be Assyrian Orthodox from the north, Aramaic-speakers who identify themselves as ethnic Assyrians, descendents of the ancient rulers of Nineveh.
European history suggests the latter group are the more realistic, although the scenario relies on American support, and that's just not going to happen. The US is committed to holding together Iraq, for fear of unleashing a regional war, and also doesn't want to upset its Kurdish allies, who hope to gobble up the Nineveh Plains into their de facto state.
I always thought we had the moral "right" to remove Saddam, a stain on humanity, but the execution of that removal was a disaster. We replaced the country's mustachioed fascist leadership with bearded Islamofacists, which is by most standards a regression.
And the biggest tragedy is that, half a century after that country's ancient Jewish community was destroyed, its Christian population is going the same way.

A day of firsts

Source: The Jordan Times

By Amy Hybels

Fifteen-year-old Peter Mikho stood on his chair, proudly waving the Iraqi flag as soon as he spotted Pope Benedict XVI circling Amman International Stadium in the Popemobile.
His younger sister, Cecil Mikho, stood nearby, waving the Jordanian flag in one hand while clutching the bright yellow and white flag of the Vatican in the other.
Cecil and Peter were among the 40 Iraqi children dressed in white from the Chaldean Catholic Vicariate in Amman who received communion during the Pope Benedict’s historic Mass on Sunday morning.
The Mass also marked Cecil’s First Communion, an important event in the life of a young Catholic. On Sunday morning, she joined hundreds of children in the stadium in receiving the sacrament of the Eucharist for the first time.
The 11-year-old moved with her mother and brother to Jordan shortly after the start of the war in Iraq in 2003.
Her father still works in Iraq, a concern for the fifth grader who said if given the chance, she would ask the Pope to “make Iraq better and safer” so her family could return to their home in Baghdad.
Valentina Manuel, 13, hoisted her Iraqi flag high in the air, posing for pictures before the Popemobile entered the stadium. Manuel moved to Jordan seven years ago with her mother and three siblings. Her father also works in Iraq.
While the two talk by phone, Manuel said she hasn’t seen her father since 2007.
The separation is hard on her family.
Manuel said if she could ask the Pope one question she would ask him, “Would you visit Iraq if you were given the chance?”
The family’s priest, Father Raymond Moussalli is the Chaldean patriarchal vicar in Jordan. He says the 5,000 Iraqi Chaldean Catholics living right here in Jordan face a unique set of challenges.
“A lot of mothers come to the church asking for help in reunifying families,” Moussalli explained.
“We try to support them by providing money or rent or by offering educational programmes for their children, but it’s not enough. We need to find a way to reunify the families.”
Baghdad University professor, Samir Stipho, knows all about the challenges of keeping the family together.
He and his family left the violence in Iraq in 2006. After spending a year in Jordan he resettled his family in Phoenix, Arizona.
This week Stipho flew back to Jordan so that his 12-year-old son Faysal could join the kids from the Iraqi church in receiving his First Communion during the Pope’s outdoor Mass.
Stipho admits the sight of the children waving the Iraqi flags in the stadium Sunday morning was overwhelming.
“It broke my heart,” he said. “The tears started when I saw the flags waving. Nobody can forget his country.”
And the children don’t want the Pope to forget them. Many were allowed to come forward following the Mass for a chance to greet the Pope before he exited the stadium.
While Cecil Mikho didn’t get to ask the Pope any questions, she said she was able to touch his hand, a moment she described as “amazing” on what has turned into a day of firsts for her here in Jordan.