[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 166 (Wednesday, December 15, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2143-E2144]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   WILL CHRISTIANITY SURVIVE IN IRAQ?

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 15, 2010

  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I submit for the Record a letter I received 
from the Chaldean Assyrian Syriac Council of America regarding the 
plight of Iraq's ancient Christian community, which is increasingly 
under assault and facing near extinction from the lands they have 
inhabited for centuries. The Wall Street Journal just yesterday noted 
on its editorial page that ``some still speak the Aramaic, the ancient 
language of Jesus Christ.''
  The Journal further noted that of ``the 100,000 Christians who once 
lived in Mosul, Iraq, only some 5,000 are still there.''

[[Page E2144]]

  While the situation in Iraq is perhaps the most glaring, it is but 
representative of a larger trend in the Middle East where religious 
minorities face growing discrimination, repression and outright 
persecution. The Journal continued, ``In Egypt, Coptic Christians have 
been brutalized. Assaults on churches increase around Easter or 
Christmas, as worshipers attempt to observe holy days.''
  During this season of Advent as millions around the world anticipate 
Christmas, let us be mindful of the fear gripping these communities and 
commit ourselves to prioritizing their protection and preservation 
throughout the Middle East. We have a moral obligation to do nothing 
less. For as the famed abolitionist William Wilberforce once said, 
``Having heard all this, you may choose to look the other way, but you 
can never again say that you did not know.''
  I close with the solemn warning of the Chaldean Assyrian Syriac 
Council of America to President Obama, in a letter sent this November, 
in which they noted that the current situation in Iraq ``promises more 
innocent Christian blood in Iraq, more turmoil in that country, and 
more shame for America.''

                                  Chaldean Assyrian Syriac Council


                                                   of America,

                                 Southfield, MI, December 6, 2010.
     Congressman Frank Wolf,
     House of Representatives, Cannon Building, Washington, DC.
       Dear Congressman Wolf: We are witnessing a tragic and 
     historic event: The end of Iraq's native Christian community. 
     And, even more tragically, this has happened due in part 
     because of failed U.S. Policy, with the majority of 
     congressional members taking little or no notice of the 
     destruction of an ethnic and religious identity few know 
     about.
       The Christians of Iraq are also known as Assyrians, 
     Chaldeans, Syriacs or Arameans (or even ChaldoAssyrians or 
     Chaldean Syriac Assyrians). They are the heirs of the ancient 
     and pre-Christian civilization of Mesopotamia, the descents 
     of the Assyrians and Babylonians of old. They are also the 
     descents of the first Semitic-speaking Christians, whose 
     churches spanned the entire Middle East and reached China and 
     Japan. At one time, what is today known as the Assyrian 
     Church of the East had more adherents than the Catholic and 
     Protestant Churches combined. Their language is Aramaic, the 
     language of Jesus Christ.
       Mesopotamia holds a special place in Biblical history. It 
     is the land from which Abraham left his home, `Ur of the 
     Chaldees;' where the Hebrew people lived their captivity and 
     survived into the modern era; where the fall of Nineveh was 
     foreseen by the Prophet Nahum, whose grave lies in Alqush, in 
     Nineveh, the ancient capital of Assyria visited by the 
     Prophet Jonah; where Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt the glorious 
     Babylon where the Prophet Daniel lived.
       During the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad (758-1258 AD), 
     Mesopotamia's Christians contributed greatly to the 
     advancement of Islamic civilization through their literary 
     and scientific accomplishments, including the translations of 
     important Greek works into Syriac (Aramaic) and Arabic. It 
     was through such accomplishments that the West came to know 
     of the ``Golden Age'' of Islamic civilization and the 
     Caliphate of Baghdad. Indeed, the very existence of the 
     ``House of Wisdom,'' an institution dedicated to the 
     translation and documentation of all knowledge on philosophy, 
     mathematics, astronomy, and other sciences into Arabic at the 
     time owes itself to the Christians of Iraq.
       As a result of the turbulence caused by a pattern of 
     religious persecution and ethnic intolerance, the Christians 
     of Iraq maintained themselves in the area of northern 
     Mesopotamia or Assyria, also known as the Nineveh Plain. 
     Here, and in the surrounding areas, they maintained their 
     religious and ethnic identity and lived in hundreds of 
     villages that dotted the landscape around the Tigris River 
     until the coming modernity, at which time they suffered 
     massacres and genocides at the hands of the Ottomans and 
     their supporters. The First World War saw the uprooting and 
     destruction of hundreds of Aramaic-speaking Christian 
     villages in what is today Southeastern Turkey, Northwestern 
     Iran, and Northern Iraq. Still, the Christian population 
     survived, with its ethnic and religious identity intact.
       The formation of the Kingdom Iraq resulted in further 
     tragedy for Christians, with the most infamous being the 
     Semele Massacre; where thousands of women, children, and 
     unarmed men were slaughtered in cold blood, after being given 
     assurances of protection by the Iraqi government. Crowds in 
     Baghdad streets jubilantly welcomed Iraqi soldiers in what 
     may be one of the most shameful displays in Iraqi history.
       Despite the tragedies, the Christian population recovered 
     and helped usher in an age of education and enlightenment for 
     Iraq. Christians made up the most prominent doctors, 
     engineers and scientists in Iraq. As any knowledgeable Iraqi 
     would attest, they constituted, as a group, the most valuable 
     human asset Iraq had. And despite the regime of Saddam 
     Hussein, though politically repressed, Christians excelled in 
     business and science.
       Today, this minority may not be so lucky. The massacre that 
     took place in the Lady of Salvation Church on Sunday, October 
     31, 2010, and the subsequent targeted killings afterwards, 
     has many Christian leaders speaking of leaving Iraq for good. 
     Recently, Archbishop Athanasios Dawood of the Syriac Orthodox 
     Church is saying. ``I say clearly and now--the Christian 
     people should leave their beloved land of our ancestors and 
     escape the premeditated ethnic cleansing,'' he told BBC. 
     ``This is better than having them killed one by one.''
       Scholars Eden Naby and Jamsheed Chosky recently wrote in 
     Foreign Policy that the end of Christianity in Iraq is near. 
     In a letter to President Obama, the Chaldean Assyrian Syriac 
     Council of America, an organization serving this community in 
     the United States, noted that the current situation 
     ``promises more innocent Christian blood in Iraq, more 
     turmoil in that country, and more shame for America.''
       As members of the world community, and as Americans, we 
     bear a responsibility not to allow the disintegration and 
     destruction of this community. Clearly, our entry into Iraq 
     has caused consequences that we cannot walk away from.
       Iraq's Christians have a unique heritage whose loss will be 
     mourned by not only Iraq, but the United States and the 
     World. Some have proposed a wholesale evacuation of this 
     community in order to save it. Yet, there are other viable 
     options; such as the recognition of an autonomous zone to be 
     protected and monitored by the United Nations and the United 
     States. It is time to consider the plight of this community 
     seriously and propose action.
           Regards,
                                                      Ismat Karmo,
     Chairman.

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