By National Catholic Reporter
by John L. Allen Jr.
Warning that a Middle East empty of Christians would be “just like
the Taliban,” Iraq’s most senior Catholic leader pointedly called on the
West to show greater concern for suffering Christians in the region.
“We feel forgotten and isolated,” said Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako, head of Iraq’s Chaldean Catholic Church.
“We sometimes wonder, if they kill us all, what would be the reaction of Christians in the West? Would they do something then?”
Sako made clear he’s not asking for a mobilization “to protect
Christians,” but rather Western efforts to support “harmonious societies
for all human beings”, based on “a civil state in which the only
criterion is citizenship grounded in full equality under the law.”
Sako said that at the moment, the influence of Western nations in the region seems to be based primarily on self-interest.
“All they do is create problems, sell weapons and take oil,” he said, adding bluntly, “This is a sin.”
In terms of the Catholic response, Sako proposed that the church
produce a new document directed specifically at Muslims to lay out the
case for moving beyond tolerance to “religious freedom and full
citizenship.”
Sako spoke Dec. 14 as part of a conference in Rome organized by the
Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University, part of the Berkley
Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs.
Sako, 65, became the Chaldean patriarch in January, succeeding
Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly. The Chaldean church is one of 22 Eastern
rite churches in communion with Rome, and represents the largest
Catholic body in Iraq.
Sako pulled few punches in describing what he termed a “mortal
exodus” of Christians from the Middle East today, which he said is
fueled by sectarian conflict, rising Islamic extremism, and criminal
gangs that often see Christians as convenient targets.
According to Sako, more than 1,000 Christians have been killed in
Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, while scores of others have
been “kidnapped and tortured.” He said that 62 churches and monasteries
have been attacked.
These realities, Sako said, are driving Christians away in growing
numbers. He cited a recent estimate from the U.N. High Commission for
Refugees that 850,000 Christians have left Iraq since 2003, by some
estimates representing almost two-thirds of the country’s Christian
population.
Sako warned that the same trends are currently gathering force in
both Syria and Egypt, citing estimates that in the last 18 months some
100 churches in Egypt have been attacked, while 67 churches have been
assaulted in Syria and more than 45,000 Christians have left the
country.
In effect, Sako warned, what’s happening puts the survival of Syriac
Christianity at risk, which he described as one of the great early
traditions in the church alongside Hebrew, Latin and Greek.
Amid the violence, Sako said one tendency is to retreat into
sectarian ghettoes, but that poses its own risks. He opposed calls to
carve out an independent zone for Christians in northeastern Iraq, where
the Assyrian population is concentrated.
“The Nineveh plain is largely surrounded by Arabs, and Christians
would serve as a useful and undefended buffer zone between Arabs and
Kurds,” Sako said.
Instead, he called for “working at the constitutional level to
guarantee religious freedom and equal rights for believers of all faiths
throughout the land.”
In part, Sako argued that building such societies is in the interests
of the Muslim majority– because, he bluntly insisted, they need
Christians.
“Christians are important to the Middle East because of their
culture, high levels of education, skills, qualifications, openness,
their spirit of cooperation and their institutions such as schools,
hospitals, orphanages, homes for the aged and the poor, as well as their
economic enterprises and small businesses,” he said.
Sako called the Christian presence in the Middle East “a guarantee of a better future for Muslims.”
In that context, Sako proposed that the Catholic church produce a new
document “addressed only to Muslims,” laying out the case for religious
freedom and a secular state in “language compatible with Islam.”
The idea, as Sako described it, would be to take the vision presented in Dignitatis Humanae, the document of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) on religious freedom, and phrase it in Islamic concepts and categories.
“Such an undertaking can help the church look for a new and more
comprehensible theological language in Arabic to help Christians and
Muslims to understand our faith, and the importance of religious freedom
to every person and every society,” he said.
Sako did not say whether he wants the document to come from the
Vatican or from the local churches of the Middle East, although he
appeared to suggest it should come from the highest level of authority
possible.
“Dialogue is possible among Christians and Muslims, even with the
fundamentalists,” he said. One key, he said, is for Christians to be
“strong” in their views.
“Why are we afraid to claim our rights?” he said. “We can do things
with the Islamists when we are very strong. I’m an Iraqi just like they
are, so why am I a second-class citizen?”
Sako also called on Muslims to embrace “a new reading of their
religion,” arguing that moderates ought to be more outspoken in
challenging “sectarian and provocative” stances within Islam. As a case
in point, Sako cited an Iraqi imam who recently told his followers that
they shouldn’t even shake hands with non-Muslims.
Sako called such a stance “simply unacceptable”.
On the sensitive question of Muslim converts to Christianity, Sako appeared to counsel prudence.
“Personally, as a priest or a bishop, I have no right to refuse
anyone who wants to be a Christian,” he said, “but the situation is
dangerous.”
“We have to find ways to help these people live their faith in a situation in which there’s no freedom,” Sako said.
In turn, he said, the situation illustrates the need for reform at
the “constitutional level” to protect the rights not only of converts
but also of people living in religiously mixed marriages.
