Sociology Talk

Pope About Town · Guest

In Saddam-era Iraq, the country's 800,000 Christians - many of them
Chaldean-Assyrians and Armenians, with small numbers of Roman Catholics -
were generally left alone. Many, such as
Saddam Hussein's foreign minister and deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz,
reached the highest levels of power.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070506/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_threatened_christians

Iraq's Christian minority flees violence

By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD - Despite the chaos and sectarian violence raging across Baghdad,
Farouq Mansour felt relatively safe as a Christian living in a multiethnic
neighborhood in the capital.

As many as 50 percent of Iraq's Christians may already have left the
country, according to a report issued Wednesday by the U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom, a federal monitoring and advisory group in
Washington D.C.

In Saddam-era Iraq, the country's 800,000 Christians - many of them
Chaldean-Assyrians and Armenians, with small numbers of Roman Catholics -
were generally left alone. Many, such as
Saddam Hussein's foreign minister and deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz,
reached the highest levels of power.

But after U.S. forces toppled Saddam, insurgents launched a coordinated
bombing campaign in the summer of 2004 against Baghdad churches, sending
some Christians fleeing in fear.

A second wave of anti-Christian attacks hit last September after
Pope Benedict XVI made comments perceived to be anti-Islam. Church bombings
spiked and a priest in the northern city of Mosul was kidnapped and later
found beheaded.

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Johnny Asia, Guitarist from the Future
http://music.download.com/johnnyasia

Want to know what's really going on in Iraq?
http://www.angelfire.com/co/COMMONSENSE/wakeup.html

"I will make a bargain with the Republicans.
If they will stop telling lies about Democrats,
we will stop telling the truth about them." -

Adlai Stevenson, former Illinois Governor
and democratic presidential candidate.