- Mary Elizabeth Hansen
The Vatican news agency, Zenit , recently published an interview with the Latin-rite Catholic archbishop of Baghdad, Jean Benjamin Sleiman. In the interview Archbishop Sleiman voiced concerns that, "Christian preachers have arrived.who want to convert the Muslims." The archbishop also complained of U.S. based preachers bothering people in the street and, without notice, opening churches.
Understandably, the prelate is worried about a backlash against Christians by Shiite extremists. But, are the newly arrived U.S. Christian agencies and preachers really the problem, or is the problem within the Iraqi society itself?
Last August, before the arrival of the Coalition forces, a Chaldean Catholic nun, Sister Cecilia Musha Hanna, was abducted by militant Muslims, who tortured her, cut her throat, and beheaded her. Nuns from her convent believed that threats by their neighbors, members of a recently constructed Wahhabi (Sunni) mosque, had undoubtedly played a role in the gruesome murder of Sister Hanna. Since the downfall of the Hussein regime, Iraqi Christians have complained of rapes, home evictions and random acts of violence, all at the hands of their Muslim neighbors. Other non-Muslims also face enormous difficulties in post-war Iraq. The Mandaeans, followers of the teachings of John the Baptist whose presence in what is now the country of Iraq goes back over a thousand years, are experiencing similar acts of violence by Iraqi Muslims. The tiny remnant of Jews left in Iraq continue to keep a very low profile, out of fear that they might be blamed for all issues connected with Israel.
During the time of Hussein's Baathist regime, Christians were allowed to keep their churches open and celebrate Christian holy days, although subdued. However, Christians were not allowed to give their children Christian names. As is common in Islamic-dominated countries, converts from Islam to Christianity were subject to a death sentence. Despite the official stance of the supposedly secular Baathist party, non-Muslims living in Hussein's Iraq survived as dhimmis.
Hopefully, a new age of Western-style democracy will emerge in war-torn Iraq. This cannot happen without an educational process for the Iraqi people, of all religious affiliations. One of the first lessons taught, most urgently to the majority Shiites and their Sunni brothers and sisters should be that democracies allow freedom of religion. And, from that freedom, comes the freedom for individuals to be exposed to other religions and the option to change religions, without fear of death.
Perhaps Archbishop Sleiman needs a refresher course in democracy and the basic freedoms that it allows. Then, instead of complaining about the presence of fellow Christians in Iraq, perhaps he might direct his criticisms to those causing the real problems for his fellow Christians. By speaking the truth, he could set a shining example for all Iraqi non-Muslims. To them and to the world his words and actions would proclaim, "I am a dhimmi, no more!"