Iraq EU: Christians? No, thank you.
There is little hope for Iraq’s threatened minorities. Christians seeking refuge in EU countries are unwelcome.
In the middle of the night, there is a rustling at the house door. Then steps can be heard, but the noise dies down quickly. A Christian family has just again received a written death threat. The authors belong to anonymous group called “Unity and Holy War”. “We have decided to have you choose”, was written below the introduction, “In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful,” “between death and submission”. They made detailed demands: payment of a “protection tax”, a written denunciation of the Bible as “a book that tarnishes and defiles the Koran”, etc.
Such threats have often caused Christians to flee after already having to endure manifold discrimination, the lack of schooling for their children and poor medical assistance. It is above all young people who want to leave their country, since they see no future in continuing to live in Iraq. “Our children, who have enrolled at the University of Mosul, can only enter the city at great risk”, says the mayor of Bartella, Jamal Dinha. “Most students do not even dare to take a step, and several of them have been killed.”
“Ever since my youth, I have been suffering discrimination and insults in the land of my birth”, the Iraqi Salem Gorgies told CSI in an interview. “Muslims have always hated us Christians and called us ‘traitors’, ‘infidels’ and ‘crusaders’. They also accuse us of being allies of the Americans.”
In 2004, after being shot at and badly injured, he fled with this wife and child to Turkey. Until now, the trained agricultural engineer has not found a job. He cannot think of ever resuming his former hobby, bee-raising.
EU denies its roots Yet in April 2008, German Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schäuble announced his intention of making it easier for Christians to immigrate to Germany. In July 2008, he had to withdraw this plan due to pressure from the EU Interior Minister Conference. He thereupon stated that it was not possible to give threatened people preferential treatment just because they were Christians.
Thomas Schmid, the editor-in-chief of the German daily, “Die Welt”, condemned the “shameful” decision by writing that “the EU shows anew how little it knows of the tradition from which its roots are derived”. Moreover, he drew the readers’ attention to the fact that several hundreds of thousands of Bosnian Muslims had found asylum in Germany in the 1990’s.
CSI will continue to stand by Iraq’s Christians, who have been abandoned by the world community. Thank you for lending us your support!
