minority religious groups amid reports of killings and other attacks by Islamists, BosNewsLife monitored Friday, June 13.
"At least two Christian shop owners were shot dead by Shari’ah vigilantes" last month "and there are unconfirmed reports of another owner and a Christian bystander also being killed," said Christian Forum in Support of Persecuted Religious Minorities Worldwide.
"In some areas women are being forced to wear the veil and have been spat upon, vilified and even refused treatment at hospitals when they failed to do so," the organization said in a statement received by BosNewsLife.
Christian leaders in Turkey near the border with Northern Iraq have told BosNewsLife that the Christian minority in the region has been accused by Muslim extremists of supporting the U.S. war in Iraq.
JEWISH COMMUNITY
Even "more vulnerable" is the country’s tiny Jewish population estimated at dozens of people in Baghdad, "who are negatively associated with the state of Israel," Christian Forum explained.
There is also concern that a battle is being waged for control over the future Iraq Government, which churches fear, will be dominated by hard-line Muslim leaders.
"During recent weeks several prominent leaders amongst Iraq’s Shia Muslim population have publicly called for the creation of an Islamic state governed according to Islamic law Shari’ah," confirmed Christian Forum.
It said Sheikh Mohammed al-Fartousi and Hojatolislam Moqtada as-Sadr, two of the most influential Shia leaders in Iraq, have called for the Shari’ah to be applied to the country’s up to one million Christians.
ISLAMIC LAW
"In southern Iraq, where the country’s Shia Muslim majority are mainly concentrated, Islamists have already begun to take the law into their own hands," said Christian Forum, which investigates the situation.
"There are reports of Shari’ah (law) being imposed at street level. Over 100 shops selling alcohol have been burnt down in Basra. Under (Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein’s regime only Christians were permitted to sell alcohol – although the shops had good customers amongst both Christian and Muslims," the organization said.
In addition Christians in Basra say looters "deliberately raided Christian homes" and threatened that next time they will kill the occupants because of their faith, human rights watch-dogs reported.
Christian Forum said "Christian girls in some parts of the city are now afraid to go to school in case they are kidnapped" and that " some Christian families have already begun to leave Basra to the country’s Christian heartland around Mosul" for fear of persecution.
DEATH THREATS
Sources within the Syrian Orthodox Church have been quoted as saying that at least one Christian family in Baghdad has been threatened with death unless it converts to Islam.
Christian Forum claimed some Iraqi Christians fear that tensions may be exacerbated by the impending arrival of western evangelical and particularly American aid agencies intending to engage in missionary as well as humanitarian work.
BosNewsLife has learned however from persecuted Christians in the Turkish-Iraq border area that international support and especially prayers are appreciated.
The big problem, said Christian Forum, is that "coalition forces are too few to effectively police the country, restore order or protect religious minorities and other vulnerable targets from violence," an opinion shared by international organizations which have asked for more police units.
"MILITANTS" KILLED
In a further sign of security difficulties, U.S. military officials said 27 "militants" were killed in Iraq after U.S. troops came under attack Friday, June 13, northeast of Baghdad, the Voice of America network reported.
The military did not say, if there were any U.S. casualties, which have been estimated at one soldier a day since the President George W. Bush declared an end to "major" hostilities.
Christian Forum noted that Rev Nadheer, a Chaldean priest at the oldest and most influential church in Baghdad, visited three times the local American commander, and once General Jay Garner with two bishops to plea for protection for local churches but "with no apparent result."
The leading Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean, Syrian Orthodox, Syrian Catholic, Latin-rite and Armenian Catholic churches have recently called a future Iraq which will "consider Christians as Iraqi citizens with full rights."
"We are seriously concerned about the situation facing moderate Muslims and religious minorities in Iraq" said Christian Forum representative Paul Cook. "It is imperative that action is taken now to protect these groups and safeguard their future rights and freedoms."
