Ancient Mesopotamia was religiously diverse and polytheist.? Some of its history is recorded in the Old Testament.? Nineveh, near the modern city of Mosul, was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, which conquered Israel in 722 BC.? Approximately a century later? the Assyrians were themselves conquered by the Babylonians whose King Nebuchadnezzar expanded his empire still further to include Judah.???

There are many biblical references to events and places in the Tigris-Euphrates area.? Firstly, the Garden of Eden itself appears to have been located there (Genesis 2:10-14), likewise the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11).? Ur of the Chaldeans, birthplace of Abraham, was also in the region.? Nineveh was of course the city to which the prophet Jonah was sent, and Babylon the city to which Daniel was taken in captivity.

The first modern world religion to impact the country was Christianity.? There were ?residents of Mesopotamia? present at the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:9) and the earliest churches were established in the first century.? By the seventh century a large indigenous Assyrian Christian culture was firmly established and thriving.? Today Assyrian Christians, who speak a modern version of Aramaic, are the oldest ethno-religious group in the country.? ?

The oldest denomination in Iraq is the Ancient Church of the East (sometimes erroneously called the Nestorian Church) which forms a separate branch in the family tree of churches, equivalent to much better known entities such as the Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant.? The Ancient Church of the East gave rise to a huge missionary movement in the first eight centuries AD which took the Christian message as far as India, Afghanistan, China and even Japan.? There are thirteen other denominations present in modern Iraq. ?While the majority of Iraqi Christians are ethnic Assyrians, there are also a minority of Armenian Christians and a small number of Arab Christians.?

In the seventh century the region was conquered by the Muslim Arab armies and the gradual conversion to Islam of most of the population began.? In 1534 it became part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire.? Many of the originally Sunni Arab tribes were gradually converted to Shia Islam over many centuries, and from the nineteenth century the majority of the population has been Shia.?

At the end of the First World War the region passed into British hands.? In 1921 Ahd Allh Faisal was appointed as monarch, and in 1932 modern Iraq became nominally independent.? However, British influence remained strong until the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958.? In 1968 Saddam Hussein?s Ba?ath Socialist Party seized power in a coup.? In 1980 border disputes and Iranian backing for Iraq?s rebellious Kurds led Saddam Hussein to unleash the devastating Iran-Iraq war which did not end until 1988 with little gain and the deaths of 1.5 million people.? Two years later Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in an attempt to seize its oil fields, leading to the 1990/1 Gulf War.

Throughout the 1990s there was a massive decline in the standard of living of this formerly advanced and modern nation, accompanied by the death of half a million Iraqi children, according to UNICEF.? This was due to the United Nations sanctions (which continued in place because of Saddam Hussein?s resistance) and to the continuing ruthless policies of the Iraqi regime itself.? Rebellions amongst the Kurdish population in north Iraq, and Shia Muslims in the south, in the years following the Gulf War have meant that the country has effectively reverted back to its three traditional ethno-religious zones, which were previously held together under Saddam Hussein?s regime.? These are: a northern Kurdish autonomous region, a central region where Saddam Hussein?s Sunni regime remains in strong control, and a Shia south under nominal central authority.

DEMOGRAPHY
??????? Geographically Iraq is dominated by the Euphrates and Tigris rivers which flow from the northwest though the centre of the country down to the Persian Gulf in the southeast.? The majority of the population live within 50 miles of these rivers.? The western province of Anbar is mostly desert.? The northern part of the country starts to rise to fairly mountainous country on the Iraq-Turkey border and the northern part of the Iraq-Iran border.

??????????? The population of Iraq is about 23 million.? There are also some 3 million Iraqis living abroad, many in refugee camps and towns in Jordan and some in Syria.? The population is fairly evenly split between urban and rural populations.? The main urban concentrations are in Baghdad (5 million), Basra (800,000), Mosul (800,000), Erbil (400,000), Suleimaniyah (700,000), Najaf, Hillah and Kirkuk (300,000 each).

The heaviest concentration of population is in the region running southeast from Baghdad with the Tigris and Euphrates rivers towards Kuwait.? The population to the north of Baghdad is less dense, whilst the western desert provinces of Anbar, Najaf and Muthanna are very lightly populated.???????

?ETHNIC DIVISION
??????????? Ethnically the country is approximately 82% Arab, 14% Kurdish, 3% Assyrian and 1% Turkomen.? The Turkomen are mainly centred around Kirkuk.? The Kurds are located in the north, part of the Kurdish people group which are found in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.? In total Kurds number around 40 million, and their mountainous homeland is sometimes referred to as ?Kurdistan?.? They are an ancient people and the largest ethnically homogenous group in the world which does not posses a national homeland of its own.?

Traditionally Kurds have been dominant in the five northern provinces of Dohuk, Erbil, Suleimaniyah, Ta?mim and Nineveh.? The first three of these provinces have gained a certain degree of autonomy from the central government in the years following the Gulf War and now form a Kurdish autonomous zone protected by a coalition no-fly zone, following UN Security Council Resolution 688.? In Ta?mim and Nineveh the central government has retained control and followed a brutal policy of Arabisation whereby Kurds and Assyrian Christians have been forcibly removed from the major cities of Kirkuk and Mosul, and Arabs moved in, in a major transfer of population.? The displaced Kurds moved further north deeper into the Kurdish heartlands, whilst most of the Assyrian Christians moved south to settle in and around Baghdad.? In urban areas Arabs now form the largest ethnic group.? However, in the more rural parts of the two provinces Kurds remain in large numbers.? The aim of this policy is to secure the oil fields.? This has been resisted by the Kurds who openly declare their intention to regain their position at a later date.

Living amongst the Kurds and Turkomen in the north of the country are around 300,000 Assyrian Christians.? They are also found in central Iraq, but the more northern areas are their traditional homeland.? On the whole they have good relations with the Kurdish majority, although since the Gulf War they have suffered anti-Christian threats and violence.?? When the central government was actively campaigning against the Kurds in the early 1990s Assyrian villages and churches were often targeted because of suspicions that they had Kurdish sympathies.

The centre and the south are predominantly Arab with a number of small minorities.? Whilst deeply divided along religious lines this group is ethnically homogenous.? Nevertheless, there are numerous tribal, clan and family groupings within this population which are of paramount importance at a local level, particularly in local politics.? Also present amongst this Muslim Arab population are Assyrian Christians.? They are mainly found in and around Baghdad (400,000).? A significant proportion moved to the region following the regime?s attacks on Assyrian villages in the north in the early 1990s, but other Assyrian Christian families were already resident in the Baghdad area.?

RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS?
? ????????? The majority of the population (approximately 97%) is Muslim, divided into Sunni (32%) and Shia (65%).? The remaining 3% is Christian.? The Shia, over 15 million, are found mainly in the central and especially the southern regions of the country.? However, crucially, political power lies with the Sunni religious grouping.? The Sunnis are divided between the Arab Sunnis (17%) who are concentrated in the central region of Baghdad and surrounding provinces, and the Kurds and Turkomen (15%) who mostly live in the north.? The divide between the Kurdish north and Saddam Hussein?s Arab regime in the centre is political and ethnic rather than religious.? There are some minor differences within all groupings within the country.? Within the Sunni Arab population there are diverse traditions and schools of Islamic law (Shari?ah).? The majority, over 80%, follow the Hanafi tradition.? Smaller numbers follow the Shafi?i and Hanbali schools.?

The south of Iraq, and particularly the densely populated region southeast from Baghdad to Kuwait and east to neighbouring Iran, is the real Shia heartland, where 95% of the population are Shia.? Here the city of Basra (population 800,000) is a major Shia city.? Three towns, Najaf, Karbala and Samarra, 50 and 100 miles south of Baghdad and 100 miles north respectively, are important religious centres for all Shia.? Najaf is home to the shrine of ?Ali ibn Abi Talib, the son-in-law of Muhammad, Islam?s fourth caliph and a major figure in Shia Islam.? Karbala is the burial place of both Hussain, the son of ?Ali and the third Shia Imam (supreme leader), and ?Abbas, Hussain?s half brother known to Shia Muslims as the ?prince of martyrs?.? Samara contains the tombs of the tenth and eleventh Shia Imams.? There was particularly violent fighting in Najaf and Karbala when the central authority suppressed the Shia revolt in 1991 that followed the Gulf War.

??????????? A mention should be made of the ?Marsh Arabs?.? These were about 2 million Shia who live in the marshy areas between the two rivers in the south of the country, between the cities of Diwaniyah, Antara and Nasiriyah.? Many Shia rebels fled into this area in 1991 and others fled across the border into Iran.? Drainage and a military clearance programme have reduced their numbers significantly.

??????????? In the army many of the rank and file come from the Shia population, and their loyalty to the regime is doubtful.? The Republican Guard units and the officer corps have a much higher percentage of Sunnis, although the regime seems to be having some difficulty finding enough reliable manpower to fully staff these units.?

??????????? Iraq has an estimated 0.7 million Christians (3% of its total population) and there are about as many again who have fled the country, mostly in the years since the Gulf War.? They are collectively referred to by their ethnic identity as Assyrians and divide evenly between the Assyrian and Syrian Orthodox (52%) and Chaldean Catholics (48%), who accept the authority of Rome.? There are also a few Protestant churches.? More than half the Christians are found in Baghdad itself and the region immediately to the south of the city (400,000).? Historically they have moved there from the traditional Assyrian areas of the north where they still remain in large numbers (300,000), especially in and around Mosul, Dohuk and Erbil.?

The main Christian denominations in Iraq

Date of origin	Name	Notes
1st century	Ancient Church of the East (?Nestorians?)	The original church in Iraq, made up of Assyrians
c. 1000	Syrian Orthodox Church	Split from the Ancient Church of the East, made up of Assyrians, patriarchate in Syria
1620	Chaldean Church of Babylon	Split from the Ancient Church of the East, made up of Assyrians, in communion with Rome
19th century	Presbyterian	The officially accepted title ?Presbyterian? embraces a range of Protestant and evangelical denomination resulting from the work of western missionaries who first arrived in 1820.? Includes some Arabs as well as Assyrians.
1964	Assyrian Church of the East	Split from Ancient Church of the East over the issue of the calendar, made up of Assyrians

In the south, where Shia Islam has traditionally been more conservative and hard-line, the Christian presence is quite small.? There used to be a fair sized Christian community around Basra working for western oil companies.? However in the years since the nationalisation of the oil industries this number has declined and now few remain.

Until 1991 the situation of Christians in modern Iraq was relatively favourable, at least in comparison with some other Arab countries.? They suffered discrimination but not as much as in many Muslim contexts.?? However a serious exception to this occurred in 1933 when the Assyrians tried to demand more equal treatment, but were brutally suppressed by the army.? Over a period of months thousands were killed, others expelled into Syria, and many Assyrian women were thrown naked to the soldiers.? Since 1991 the Christian community has faced greater violence from some sections of the population seeking to retaliate against the sanctions imposed by the ?Christian? West.?

In the far north there is also a small sect called the Yezidis whose communities are scattered in an arc west to northeast of Mosul.? Theirs is a syncretistic faith derived from elements of Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Zoroastrianism.? There are today believed to be only some 750 Yezidi families in Iraq.

POLITICAL DIVISIONS
? ????????? Saddam Hussein?s Sunni-based Ba?ath Socialist Party remains in very firm control in the centre of the country from Baghdad north to Mosul.? The higher echelons of government and the Ba?ath political party are filled with people from the Tikriti clan who come from the town of Tikrit north of Baghdad. ?This is Saddam Hussein?s hometown and clan.? The officer corps of the army are mainly Sunni Arab with the higher posts entrusted to loyalists and members of the Takriti clan.

The regime is nationalist and autocratic and not particularly Islamic, extremist or religious in nature.? Although originally Pan-Arabist and socialist in ideology, Saddam Hussein has openly said that since the early 1980s the party stands for whatever he wants it to.? The Ba?ath Party has banned all other political parties and there is no effective opposition to its rule in central Iraq.? Most opposition political groups exist amongst the country?s 3 million refugees and are based in the West.? They mainly represent Sunni Arab, rather than Shia, interests, and are deeply divided.

In the last year or so, the regime has begun to target Christians in various ways.? In 2002 Saddam Hussein issued a bizarre ruling that all babies born in Iraq must be given an Arabic or Islamic name.? When the Christians protested and pleaded their case to be allowed to give their babies Assyrian, Armenian and Christian names, the ruling was somewhat relaxed.? In the same year Saddam?s son Uday published some virulently anti-Christian material? in his newspaper Babil (meaning ?Babylon?), stirring up more hostility towards Christians.? Babil had a regular page which carried anti-Christian articles.?

In the strongly Shia south the regime has delegated a large degree of local power to the hundreds of sheiks.? Their power is mainly tribal and local.? The regime?s strong authority does not extend very far south of Baghdad except where military units are stationed.? Ba?ath Party officials do not dare to walk the streets at night.

The Shia population has two main political groups, the Hezbut Daawa (Islamic Party) and the Majlis el Islami (Islamic Conference).? Hezbut Daawa are seeking an Islamic Iraq under Shia control.? They used to be supported by Iran.? Majlis el Islami is run by Ayatollah Al Hakim from Tehran and has its own military forces, Al-Badr, equivalent to several brigades of militia.? This group is strongly under Iranian influence and wants a Shia military ?liberation? of Iraq using its own people and Al-Badr coming in from Iran.? The failure of these two groups in 1991 was obvious and many Arab Shia do not want an Islamic Shia state under Iranian control.

The Kurdish autonomous region in the north is nominally governed by a Kurdish Regional Government but is in effect divided into two main groupings.? The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) under Masoud Barzani dominates the provinces of Erbil and Dohuk (on the border with Turkey).? They come mainly from the Bahdinani people (a language group).? Relations with Turkey are frosty because of Turkey?s problems with its own Kurdish population.? The second group is the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) led by Jalal al Talabani.? They come from the Sorani people and are concentrated in Suleimaniyah province.? They have good relations across the border with the Iranians.? The two groups are currently at peace but are mutually antagonistic and have fought each other in the past.

ISLAMIC EXTREMISM
??????????? The ruling Ba?ath Socialist Party is specifically not an Islamic regime, although in the years since the Gulf War it has played the Islamic card in an attempt to garner support from the Islamic world against its western enemies.? It will no doubt continue and, probably massively intensify, this policy in the coming months.? The Kurdish groups in the north are similarly nationalist and political rather than religious in identity.

While many Sunni Arabs are conservative Muslims, few could be described as militantly extremist.? However, the Saudi Arabian backed Wahhabin movement is active in the Sunni community.? Wahhabism is the extreme puritanical Islamic tradition dominant in Saudi Arabia.? At present followers of this tradition are few, but, with the strong backing of Saudi Arabia, the size of this movement is growing.? Amongst the Shia population support for extremist elements is stronger and groups like Majlis el Islami have a clearly defined Islamic extremist agenda.?

In the northern Kurdish areas there is a small extremist Islamic movement called Ansar al-Islam in the east of Suleimaniyah Province on the border with Iran.? Formed in 2001 and consisting of under a thousand fighters they have clear links with al-Qaeda and have an international make-up including Arabs, Kurds, Afghans and Chechens.? They are said to control some 16 villages where they have imposed Shari?ah law.? Both the KDP and the PUK oppose them, and they are in open conflict with the PUK, in whose area they are found.? Ansar al-Islam is led by Mullah Krekar who is based in Norway.? They may have some support from both Iran and Saddam Hussein?s regime, which is believed to be using them as a militia against the Kurds.?

POINTS OF CONFLICT

The tensions between the Kurdish autonomous region and the central Arab regime are well documented.? The Kurds (and Turkomen) are pulled in different directions by the attractions of autonomy within Iraq or full independence.? In any case, there is a desire to resist and reverse the Arabisation of Kirkuk and Mosul, and stake the Kurdish claim to control over the northern oil fields.? An American/British invasion may well increase the conflict and tension between Kurds and Arabs and even between Kurds and Kurds in the north.? The strong opposition of Turkey in particular, but also Iran and Syria, to any possibility of an independent Kurdish state may complicate matters and lead to further tensions in this zone.? The Kurdish Regional Authority?s conflict with Ansar al-Islam will continue and may intensify.

There is a clear desire on the part of Iraq?s Shia population to throw off the long Sunni domination of political life and to establish a Shia authority.? An American/British invasion could lead to increased tensions, conflict and uprising of Shia Muslim directed against Sunnis, and particularly the ruling class, in the south.? Conversely in Sunni majority areas, and particularly in central Iraq, Shias could be victimised.? There will be educated and urban Sunni elements both inside and outside the ruling regime who will be desperate to see a retention of Sunni power and dominance.

The Assyrian Christian community is largely peaceful.? It has no specific political aims of its own and has generally enjoyed good relations with both Kurds in the north and Arabs in the centre of the country.? Nevertheless, Christians across the country have suffered some discrimination at the hands of local Muslims who identify them with the ?Christian? West.? In the Kurdish areas, Christians and their homes and churches have been attacked by Muslim Kurds.? In the south, one of the Shia leaders has threatened to push the Christians out of Iraq into the sea.? As anti-Christian/western sentiment increases there is a danger that extremists will turn on local Christians and churches.? If this happens it is possible that the less extreme majority will go along with such violence as they release pent up fears and aggression.? This could happen in either the Kurdish north or Arab central areas.? The few isolated Christian communities in the Shia south will be particularly vulnerable.

Islamic extremist elements such as Ansar al-Islam, Majlis el Islami and Hezbut Daawa will be militating for an Islamic state in Iraq governed by the Shari?ah.? They will seek to exploit the opportunities provided by any conflict in Iraq to further their aims.

OBSERVATIONS
??????????? If there is war in Iraq, plans should be made for the rapid deployment of forces to protect vulnerable ethnic, religious and political groups who may become targets of internecine violence once any military intervention has begun.

At present the strong control of the one-party dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and the Ba?ath Party maintains a lid on tensions between Iraq?s diverse and competing ethnic, religious and political factions.? The main danger period will be while Saddam?s control is disintegrating but before any western military authority is established.? Groups may fight to capture or recapture territory, gain revenge, establish bargaining positions or in pursuit of political, personal or religious goals.? It is essential that authority is rapidly restored to prevent widespread outbreaks of ethnic, religious and political violence and to prevent Islamic extremist groups exploiting the situation to establish themselves in power.

The UN sanctions have brought a crippling poverty to the country, whose infrastructure has been never recovered from the damage sustained in the Gulf War.? Approximately 60% of the population is completely dependent on the government for its basic needs and survive only because of the monthly government food ration.? The rations are distributed efficiently by a system which also enables the government to keep track of those receiving rations, but they are insufficient, and generally cannot be stretched to last more than 20 days.?? Although conditions have improved a little since the oil-for-food programme was established in 1996, UNICEF estimates that nearly a quarter of under-fives are suffering from malnutrition, some of them acutely. ?The UN calculates that in war 5.4 million Iraqis would need food from outside.

Barnabas Fund has been funding a programme of food distribution to Christians since 1999.? It is one of very few Christian agencies bringing such aid to the central (Sunni Arab) section of the country.? Food is distributed through 72 local churches to the neediest Christian families.?

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PRAYER POINTS

Pray for stability in the tragically divided country of Iraq, whose people are beset by fear and mistrust.? The population live out their lives under the ever-present eye of a tyrannical regime which has no scruples about killing anyone considered to have let it down.?? Pray for just and fair governance at national and local level.?

????? Join with Christians in Iraq in praying that there will not be a war.? Pray for the decision-makers in the West, and for Saddam Hussein who makes the decisions in Iraq, that a way may be found to avoid outright war and the terrible suffering that would be entailed.? If war does come, pray that it may be short.?

????? Pray that Iraqi Muslims will understand that their Christian compatriots are not responsible for the actions of the West, and that the Muslims will not take out their anger and frustration on the Christians.? Pray that Islamic leaders will guide their people towards a compassionate and accepting attitude to Christian Iraqis. ??Pray specifically that Christians will be kept safe from violent attack.

????? Pray for the protection of the courageous Christians who regularly visit Iraq to buy and distribute the Barnabas Fund?s food aid.? Pray also for strength and stamina for the distribution team, and that the food will be effective in sustaining Christians in Iraq who are desperately needy.?

????? Pray for Christians in Iraq that at this time of crisis they may be able to find hope and consolation by looking in faith to Christ.?

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http://www.barnabasfund.org/Projects/Iraq_Crisis/iraq_briefing.htm

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5-11-2004


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