Church, Attacked Twice, Reopens in Baghdad, But is it Too Late for Assyrian Christians?

Church, Attacked Twice, Reopens in Baghdad, But is it Too Late for Assyrian Christians?

By Michael Ireland, Senior Reporter, ASSIST News Service, answritermike@gmail.com

BAGHDAD, IRAQ (ANS, November 7, 2015) -- After enduring two attacks, St. George Assyrian church in Dora, a formerly Assyrian neighborhood south of Baghdad, was reopened last week by the newly consecrated Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East.

The Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) www.aina.org, reports the event was attended by religious and secular leaders, including Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III, Armenian, Yazidi and Muslim leaders and government officials.

According to its website, AINA reports also attending was Iraq's Deputy Minister of construction, housing and public utilities, who said his agency intends to continue to work on a set of measures for the reconstruction of destroyed churches in Iraq, and in particular in Baghdad.

St. George Church was firebombed on May 18, 2007. On April 14, 2007 an Islamic group forcefully removed the Cross from the church.

Related: Church Bombings in Iraq Since 2004 (See: http://www.aina.org/news/20080107163014.htm)

AINA explained that Dora was a predominantly Assyrian neighborhood, with a population of 20,000 Assyrians.

In 2004, Islamists began a terror campaign against the Assyrians. Dozens of Assyrians were killed in bombings, 500 Assyrian shops were burned in one night, churches were bombed. Muslims demanded jizya (poll tax) from the Assyrians. Muslims also demanded that Assyrian maidens be surrendered to them to be married off to Muslims.

Related: Attacks on Assyrians in Dora, Baghdad (See: http://www.aina.org/releases/20151102200500.htm)

The attacks caused nearly all of the 20,000 Assyrians who lived there to flee and never return. Only a few hundred Assyrians remain there.

AINA stated the events in Dora mirrored the events in the rest of Iraq, where a low-grade genocide of Assyrians began in 2004. In August of 2014 ISIS drove into the Nineveh Plains in north Iraq, the last stronghold of Assyrians, causing nearly 200,000 Assyrians to flee from their homes and villages. Most have not returned.

Related: Incipient Genocide: The Ethnic Cleansing of the Assyrians of Iraq (See: www.aina.org/reports/ig.pdf)

Related: Timeline of ISIS in Iraq (See: http://www.aina.org/news/20140729115702.htm)

AINA reports the Assyrian population has decreased from 1.5 million in 2004 to about 300,000 today. Most have fled to Syria, Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. The majority of the refugees in those countries desire to emigrate to the West. The majority of Assyrians remaining in Iraq share the same desire, as they see no hope or future in Iraq and the Middle East.

Image One: The exterior of St. George Church, Dora. (Ankawa.com via AINA.)

Image Two: Worshippers gather outside St. George Church. (Ankawa.com via AINA.)

Bio Image: Michael Ireland.

About the Writer:Michael Ireland is a Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, as well as a volunteer Internet Journalist and Ordained Minister who has served with ASSIST Ministries and ASSIST News Service since its beginning in 1989. He has reported for ANS from Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Israel, Jordan, China, and Russia. Click http://paper.li/Michael_ASSIST/1410485204 to see a daily digest of Michael's stories for ANS.

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