| Baghdad (Fides Service) - “These attacks on churches clearly aim to frighten Christians and make them leave Iraq” a member of the Chaldean Catholic in Baghdad told Fides. The source said Christians are in fact leaving mainly for Jordan and Syria and already about 40,000 are said to have fled the country.
“This is our country and we will never leave. We are Iraqis. Moreover there were Christians in this region long before the first Muslims arrived” the source told Fides.
Christians in Iraq are of Assyrian ethnic origin the third largest group after Arabs and Kurds. Assyrian Chaldeans descend from the Semitic race which peopled Assyria, Mesopotamia 6,700 years ago. Ninive was the capital city.
They maintained their own identity, culture and Aramaic language despite the arrival of Arabs and were among the first to embrace the message of Christianity brought here about the year 40 AD thanks to the preaching of St Thomas the apostle and his disciples. Despite various Arab invasions in the 7th century and finally conquest by the Ottoman Empire in 16th century, Assyrian Chaldean Christians were faithful to their religion and were also persecuted for it.
During World War I Assyrian-Chaldeans were allies of Gt. Britain and for this suffered violent repression by the Ottoman Empire. Today in Iraq there are about 2 million Assyrian Chaldeans, mostly in Baghdad and Mosul and another 2.5 million in various different countries.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 18/10/2004 righe 31 parole 310)
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