Arab Spring Promoting Bloodshed, Says Iraq Christian Leader
The newly appointed patriarch of Iraq's largest Christian community said on Saturday that the Arab Spring had been hijacked by narrow interests and had promoted tension and bloodshed.
Asked about the impacts on Christians of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings across the Middle East that eventually led to the ouster of strongmen in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya and the conflict in Syria, the head of the Chaldean Church Louis Sako said the changes had initially signaled hope.
"But unfortunately, it went in a different direction, and was taken over by a narrow faction," Sako told AFP in an interview.
"We are watching the situation in the Arab Spring countries. Where is the spring? There are fights, there is tension, and there is blood and corruption."
Sako was selected as the new patriarch of the Iraq-based Chaldean Church on February 1, replacing Emmanuel III Delly who retired in December after reaching the upper age limit of 85.
The Chaldean church, which has 700,000 followers and uses Aramaic -- the language that Jesus Christ would have spoken -- belongs to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world.
But along with other Iraqi Christian communities, it suffered persecution, forced flight and killings in the aftermath of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, many thousands fled after 44 worshipers and two priests were killed in an attack on a Syriac Catholic church in Baghdad on October 31, 2010, an atrocity claimed by Al-Qaida.
09 February 2013, 14:07
20
What happened to Iraqi Christians was the direct result of a US invasion that was unfortunatelly supported directly and undirectly by the Gulf state, iran and the current power brokers in iraq.
09 February 2013, 15:15
00
Rafehh,
Christians do NOT need your Analysis to feel safe and secure..
US invasion of Iraq was about OIL. (period)
However, the Iraqi Christians were ethnically cleansed, slaughtered or driven away, in an attempt to Islamize the Middle East.
Please see Lebanon, Egypt and Syria.
09 February 2013, 15:42
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The Christians in Syria will suffer the same destiny if a Moslem oriented fanatics take over. Christians in Iraq were doing very well under Saddam, now Norway, Sweeden, Denmark and Lebanon is full of them. In Stockholm they have their own markets, churches, schools etc. very peaceful and happy citizens. This is the price of the oil $s investement in the US
09 February 2013, 17:40
10
Josh - really! Can you tell us how these "enabler-al-qaeda sunni jihadist" came about and who supported them? A him: the same regime you supported in syria and Iran. Why? To fight the americans who invaded and destroyed the institutions of the nation.
09 February 2013, 17:43
01
Josh - will always insert "Sunni." He is nothing but a bigoted person or employed by either the syrian or the israeli regimes. They both survive on the doctrine of divide and conquer. Pit the minorities against the majorities to insure the survival of the regime.
09 February 2013, 18:44
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Again - the which community dominated the leadership of the party in iraq? Hint: the Sunni Arabs whose "well-documented passion to kill infidels" you proclaim. Josh, please do not defend the Baath party whose original ideals were betrayed by both regimes (to different degrees). It is true that the Baath wanted to modernize arab society and build civil identity. In both countries they failed because the party was hijacked and also faced powerful societal and external enemies. Islamism (whether shia, sunni or alawi - based) is not the answer. However there is a difference between secular sunni, islamists like MB, wahhabi, ahbash and the takfiris. This is the same in all sects. The answer is and has always been to build pluralistic democratic countries. It will be a long way but will not be helped by racist garbage heaped wholesale on different communities.
09 February 2013, 18:48
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That is true and I suggest that you read amnesty international, human rights watch, avaaz and the united nations human rights committee into who is doing most of the killings and to whom and how all of this started. Or are they all part of this world-wide conspiracy.
09 February 2013, 19:48
10
What history? Do you really know what you are talking about? Funny how I hear the same language from those who are against human rights - they be dictatorships, religeous extremists or zionists. All these human right groups are part of a global conspiracy against them!!! Come one, do you really think that rational people believe you?
