Signs of Christmas are more visible than ever across Iraq this year, but the needs of its small Christian minority have been overlooked, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church has said.
The government needs to do more to protect Christians and ensure they have equal rights, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako told The National.
The size of Iraq’s Christian population has dropped steadily in recent decades, as many of its members have emigrated to escape a succession of conflicts that have wracked the country, most recently during the war against ISIS from 2014 to 2017.
Thousands of Christians were forced to flee after the extremist group seized large areas of northern and western Iraq. Many of them are still waiting to return to their homes in the northern Nineveh Plains, eight years after Iraq declared victory over ISIS.
Cardinal Sako said Iraqi Christians have been subjected to kidnapping, killing, exclusion, marginalisation and mass displacement from their towns. Over the past two decades, the population has dropped from about 1.5 million to less than a third of that number as people left the country to find better living conditions, he said.
“We have the freedom to pray in our churches but we are not seen as equal citizens to other Iraqis. At the end of the day, we are Iraqis and Iraq is our country, we have been here for hundreds of years,” he said.
“In Canada, they’ve just named a road in Windsor after the Chaldean community, but here we are fighting for our rights and they want to erase our identity.”
While Iraq has achieved stability under Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani’s government, more needs to be done, Cardinal Sako said.
“There are no basic public services, corruption is everywhere, it is tiring for all in general – for Christians and people from other faiths. We don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said.
Mr Al Sudani is seeking a second term in office after the general election last month. However, the formation of the next government is still being negotiated among the Shiite parties and other political groups.
“We hope that Iraqis will unite now, especially after the elections. We need change that comes from within, not from external pressures, to have national unity and to be able to live in peace and harmony,” Cardinal Sako said.
He called for a new road map to attract tourists to religious sites across the country, from the Nineveh Plains to Ur and the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
“I hope that Iraq can be born again; it has all the resources that would grant it to be the richest country in the region. I have friends who visit the country and are amazed by our history,” he said.
Iraq is celebrating Christmas this year on a larger scale than before, with European-style markets springing up in several cities and decorated trees and fairy lights installed in public spaces.
Cardinal Sako praised the efforts made by authorities, and pointed out that the origins of the Christmas tree date back to ancient Mesopotamia.
“The Christmas tree was actually taken from Iraq's culture: in the ancient city of Nimrud you would actually see the Tree of Life,” he said.
It was one of the most important symbols that people have used for centuries to explain the realms of life, he said.
“Iraq is a museum, and we are attempting to highlight our important values and history to all,” he said.
Christianity in Iraq dates back to the first century AD, when the apostles Thomas and Thaddeus are believed to have preached the gospel on the fertile floodplains of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
