The Assyrian Democratic Organization
ROME (CNS) — Some Christians in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul have become the victims of extortion as unknown terrorist groups threaten to kill them or kidnap family members if they do not pay large sums of cash, said two Iraqi priests.
One 43-year-old Christian man, married with three children, “was killed last week because he didn’t pay,” said Dominican Father Mekhail Nageeb of Nineveh, near Mosul. He spoke in a telephone interview with Catholic News Service Nov. 2.
After a group of unidentified men went to the man’s workplace to extract money from him, “he tried not to pay and he ran out, so they killed him,” said the Iraqi-born priest, who is the Dominicans’ superior in Mosul.
Father Nageeb said he knows about “more than 10 or 15 people” in Mosul who have been forced to pay exorbitant sums of money to anonymous groups who have threatened to kill the victim or abduct family members.
The amount of money terrorists demand from an individual can run anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000, he said, forcing many to sell their homes, furnishings, properties or beg relatives or neighbors for cash. Others, he said, simply flee Iraq for a brief period in the hopes of escaping the threats.
“It’s a really catastrophic problem now,” he said.
Chaldean Father Sabah Patto, who was visiting Rome, told CNS that Christians are sometimes told they are paying a “protection tax.”
He said the terrorists tell them, “We are protecting you, so you have to pay us.”
Father Patto, who was born in the northern Iraqi town of Zakho, has been responsible for the Chaldean community in Germany since 2002. Though he is based in Munich, he said he often hears news about what is happening to the Chaldean and other Christian communities in Iraq.
He said some Muslim religious leaders in Mosul were telling people to not buy homes or property from Christians “because they will become free (at no cost) for people” after the Christian owners are forced to flee the area.
Muslim elements “are encouraging the Christians to leave their country and to leave their properties and everything, and nobody is buying from them,” Father Patto said.
Father Nageeb confirmed this was happening and said that in the neighborhood of al-Saha in Mosul, “there are more than 20 or 30 homes without people living in them” after the Christian homeowners left the country.
He said Muslim families have asked him to take over the properties since they are empty, but he does not accept their requests. Instead he tells the families the homeowners have just temporarily left and plan to return.
Many, in fact, do return after fleeing to neighboring countries “because it is very expensive in Syria and Turkey” and because “nobody gives them a visa or papers to leave the country,” he said.
Father Nageeb said other anonymous groups sweep neighborhoods, canvassing for cash “because they want to buy guns and explosives to use against the Americans.”
He said these groups try to drum up money by telling people “‘We want to liberate the country, we are against the Americans and we protect you so you must pay us.’ It’s very dangerous.”
When asked why Christians were the target of extortion and forced migration, Father Patto said it is because some fundamentalist Islamic groups fuel the notion that “if they do something against an unbeliever,” that is, someone who does not believe in the Quran, “it’s not a sin or there is no problem in it because the unbeliever is wrong.”
Father Nageeb said some Muslims, too, find themselves ensnared in terrorists’ demands for cash and protection fees, but he said the Christians are more vulnerable because they are a minority community in what he called a lawless country.
The terrorists target people they see as “rich people, and the Christians are without protection (because) there is no government,” no law enforcement, and “no law.”
Father Nageeb said the church in Iraq is not able to do much other than stay in the country and offer spiritual or psychological support for its communities. The church has been unable to help poor people or the unemployed because the churches “are without money and without organization.”
He said he thinks church leaders “are afraid” and reluctant to lead relief projects because terrorist groups might think the bishops have money.
Father Nageeb said the church “can’t say we have money or show we have money” or it might risk being the target of kidnappings for ransom. This is why “legislation and law in Iraq is very, very important, to protect Christians” who are treated “like second-class citizens.”
“All of Iraq is without protection, not just Christians” and many bishops and religious, like most residents, are forced to stay confined in their residences or immediate neighborhoods, he added.
He recalled the January kidnapping of Syrian-rite Archbishop Basile Casmoussa of Mosul who was abducted by unidentified gunmen and freed unharmed less than 24 hours later.
The Vatican had said no ransom was paid for the prelate’s release and that it had been unclear whether the abduction was directed against the Christian community or was part of the general criminality in Iraq.
Father Nageeb said it is “important for the Christian people to see that the bishops and priests stay” in Iraq even though they have nothing to give them to help them.
Father Nageeb urged bishops and Christian communities in Western countries like the United States, Australia or Europe “to help these bishops inside Iraq” who are without protection and resources.
Western church leaders “can help with money and prayers,” he said.
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
