constitution Monday, March 8, which human rights watchdogs hope will guarantee Christians and other minorities at least some rights in Iraq’s volatile society amid reports of a Christian revival.
In a boost for Christian churches, the constitution cites Islam as "a source" of law rather than "the source" as Muslim hardliners wanted, although critics point out that the document still recognizes Islam as the nation’s "official" religion.
The new constitution also acknowledges the basic rights of all segments of Iraqi society calling for democracy and pluralism in the new federal republic of Iraq. Women will be represented in government and Kurds will retain basic autonomy in the north.
"I want to cry because of happiness. Everything will go smoothly from now on. The attacks will not affect us," said Shiite council woman Rajaa Habib al-Khuzai minutes after she and others inked the milestone document.
TURBULENT TIMES
Headed by the council’s current president, Shiite cleric Mohammad Bahr al-Uloom, the lawmakers stepped up one by one and put their signatures to the document as it lay on a wooden table, covered with green baize, using individual pens provided.
The ceremony, graced with singing children costumed in the tribal wear of Iraq’s rich ethnic tapestry, marked the end of two turbulent weeks as the country’s Shiite and Sunni Muslims, Kurds, Turkmen and Christians made a pointed show of unity, the French News Agency (AFP) commented.
On the eve of the event, at least 10 rockets were fired toward the nearby Green Zone where the United States-led authority is based in an apparently failed attempt by guerilla’s to prevent the signing of what council members described as "a historic document." Apparently expecting a new season of more freedom under the new constitution, evangelicals also emerged with new boldness, Baptist Press (BP) reported.
BP said that the first Baptist church ever established in Iraq was dedicated in January with more than 700 people in attendance. The National Evangelical Baptist Church in Baghdad will be "the cornerstone upon which future Baptist work in Iraq will be built" BP quoted church leaders as saying.
MORE PEOPLE
"We anticipated and originally planned for around 550 persons, figuring that this would show our Lord that we were serious about being a bold witness for Christ though we really didn’t expect that many people to attend," Muthafar Yacoub, moderator of the Baptist Union of Iraq told BP. "About 15 minutes before the service started, all the chairs under the tent were taken, so we went next door to the headquarters of a local political party and asked to borrow more chairs."
Iraqi Christians have told ASSIST News Service (ANS) they have noticed a revival in Iraq, and an unprecedented interest in the Gospel of Christ, amid ongoing bloodshed and suicide attacks linked to Muslim militants, including remnants of the old regime and terrorists from neighboring countries. Christians race through the streets amid gun fire to attend often overcrowded church services, ANS observed.
"Before the war, our church was very small — less than 50 people — and we had to meet in secrecy," confirmed another pastor in Baghdad who was once imprisoned for leading an underground church. "Now our new church building seating 450 is almost completed, and it’s already too small for our growing congregation," he told BP.
BIBLICAL LEADERSHIP
John Hull, president of EQUIP, an Atlanta-based organization founded by John Maxwell to provide leadership development for Christians worldwide, said the greatest need of the church in Iraq is for biblical leadership training and resources. The challenge that has followed Iraq’s liberation is a lack of church leaders, Christian materials and facilities to accommodate the growing number of people wanting to practice their faith openly, Hull told BP.
EQUIP reported that in Baghdad there are only 12 pastors for the 5 million residents. And in Basra, a city of 2.5 million, there is only one Evangelical congregation.
"Saddam drove us underground, but he couldn’t stop us — even with imprisonment and torture," Farid Hana, a pastor in Baghdad, told BP. "Now, our lack of Christian leadership is stopping us from developing urgently needed churches."
BAPTIST VOLUNTEERS
Several teams of Baptist volunteers are supporting Iraqi Christians and have also worked in various regions of Iraq, "distributing food and Bibles and sowing seeds of interest in what God wants to do in the nation," BP reported.
A group of 10 Southern Baptists from Kentucky was among the volunteer teams traveling to Iraq to initiate interest in the Gospel entering a region of the country where other Baptist volunteers had not been. The team distributed some 2.4 million pounds of food donated by Southern Baptists across America last summer, they told people the food was a gift from the American people to help them in their struggle for freedom, BP said.
A tribal leader who met with the Kentucky team reportedly said "We are not friends, we are brothers," before embracing a team member and receiving a New Testament. Christian leaders hope that under an interim constitution it will become easier to evangelize. But human rights watchdog Barnabas Fund says that although it welcomes aspects of the interim constitution, the wording of the document gives too much room for Islamic rule in the troubled nation.
There are up to 1 million Christians in Iraq, but most of the roughly 25-million strong population is Muslim.
