faith news:Iraqi Christians pray for peace

Iraqi Christians pray for peace

Iraqi Christians pray for peace
Living in privileged positions now, they fear being scapegoats for U.S. war

(12-25) 04:00 PDT Baghdad -- Christmas comes for Iraqis with plenty of tinsel, packed churches and the mournful, mystical tone of millennia-old chants.
A veneer of normality prevailed everywhere in Baghdad on Christmas Eve. Christmas trees were sold on several street corners, and liquor stores -- almost all of which are owned by Christians -- were doing a brisk business as people stocked up for holiday parties.

Beneath the surface, however, is the gut-wrenching fear of war -- and, perhaps worse, what might happen after the bullets stop flying.

For Iraq's approximately 800,000 Christians, today is truly a Christmas like no other.

By any measure, Christians, who constitute 4 percent of Iraq's population, are a privileged minority, and they may have much to lose if the United States invades the country in the coming weeks, as appears increasingly likely. Despite their cultural links to the West -- most Iraqi Christians are relatively wealthy and have relatives living in the United States -- they have been protected by Saddam Hussein from fundamentalist Islam, and they are broadly loyal to his regime.

"This is a very sad Christmas, and we are very afraid of the New Year," said Bishop Constantine Delli, deputy patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, which represents most of Iraq's Christians.

The Chaldean Catholics, who are loyal to the Vatican, trace their roots to the fourth century A.D., when their creed became the official religion of the Mesopotamian region of the Roman Empire.

Delli voiced the widespread concern of Iraqi Christians that if the United States invades, the resulting chaos could cause the Muslim masses to carry out pogroms against Christians.

"Unless the government is able to act with a very strong hand, there could be violence against Christians," he said. "They may be influenced by Saudi Arabia, becoming fanatic."


CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE
Those fears were right below the surface during the Christmas Eve service at Our Mother of Sorrows Church in downtown Baghdad, the country's largest.

The pews were packed, tree boughs were hung overhead, and creches were in the corners. But there was an otherworldly timelessness, too -- as always for Chaldeans, the liturgy and music were in ancient Aramaic, the language Jesus Christ is believed to have spoken.

The location of Our Mother of Sorrows is symbolic of Iraqi Christians' current state of mind. The church is squeezed among narrow streets clogged with handcarts and honking vehicles, hemmed in by the enormous Souk Araby on one side and a large mosque on another.

The Rev. Nidheer Dakko, Our Mother of Sorrows' priest, said: "Some traditional Muslims hate Christians. Not the government, no. They protect us.

"But this time, some Muslims see us as the enemy. Because America is Christian, they say the Christians are bombing Iraq," he added, referring to the sporadic attacks by U.S. and British planes enforcing the no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq. "If there is war now, many, many Muslims will try to kill Christians because of this."

Iraqi Christians note anxiously that 60 percent of Iraq's population is Shiite, the version of Islam predominant in neighboring Iran. If the United States succeeds in overthrowing Hussein's regime, Dakko says, the new government may be dominated by Shiites. Several southern Shiite clerics have recently said that Iraq should adopt Shariah, or fundamentalist Islamic law.

"The Shiites hate the Sunnis and Christians," said Dakko. Sunni is the branch of Islam predominant in central and northern Iraq. "This is a problem. Iran likes the Shiites because it wants to make Iraq part of Iran."

Fears were compounded after the Aug. 15 murder and beheading of a Catholic nun, Cecilia Hanna, in the northern city of Mosul. The motive was later determined to be robbery, not religion, and three culprits were sentenced to long prison terms -- only to be set free when Hussein gave a mass amnesty to thousands of prisoners in November.


CHRISTIANS DO WELL IN IRAQ
Christians have more status in Iraq than in any other Arab nation except Lebanon, and they constitute a large part of the country's merchants and intelligentsia. Prominent Christians include Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, the most powerful man in the regime after Hussein, and the late Michel Aflaq, the Syrian founder of the ruling Iraqi Baath Party, who was the mentor of young Saddam Hussein when he was in exile in Damascus in the 1950s.

Christmas Day and the day after are official holidays for Christians -- Muslims don't get the day off. The Orthodox Christmas, Jan. 6 and 7, is also a holiday for Christians.

Since the Gulf War, the internationally isolated Hussein has increasingly embraced conservative Islam -- a political gambit, his critics say.

In 1994, with his regime becoming imperiled by the economic crisis brought about by U.N. sanctions, he ordered the closure of all nightclubs and bars and banned the sale of alcohol in restaurants.

He has spent large sums in building mosques, including one in Baghdad, that when completed will be the largest in the world outside Mecca. The Muslim call to prayer is broadcast on state television five times daily, after which quasi- Muslim homilies written by the dictator are read.


MUSLIM, CHRISTIAN FRIENDS
A few blocks away from Our Mother of Sorrows, one of many conversations taking place at the same time showed how Iraqi secular tolerance will not die easily.

Gathered around an elegantly appointed table in a 200-year-old house was store owner Amal al-Khedairy and her friends Selwa and Sana Wazir. Al-Khedairy is Muslim; the other two are Armenian Catholic.

"We have never had anything to fear in this country," said Selwa Wazir. "People here are friends. We are all Iraqis, just like the people here in this room."

"But there are plenty of people who keep on saying we are not good Muslims because we are so tolerant," said al-Khedairy. "They keep saying this, and if you Americans come here, they will say it even more, and my friends will be blamed for anything that happens."

"This is the wrong time of year for such thoughts," said Sana Wazir. "Why can't we just love each other?"

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle