{"id":1302,"date":"2004-07-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-07-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-10-01T20:26:50","modified_gmt":"2010-10-01T20:26:50","slug":"the-forgotten-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/the-forgotten-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"The Forgotten Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span>W<\/span>
\nFor some reason almost completely ignored in the current discussions are 2.5
\nmillion Assyrian Christians. Scattered throughout Iraq, but primarily near the
\ncity of Nineveh currently known as Mosul these remnants of the great Assyrian
\nEmpire are frozen in time.<\/p>\n

It is their history that is little known. It was to them that Jonah came to
\nbring the message of repentance and they repented. It was to them that the
\nApostle Thomas came and their King Addai repented for his people and Assyria in
\nthe first century became the first Christian Nation.<\/p>\n

The Assyrian Empire ended in 612BC and the Assyrian Monarchy was abolished in
\n300 AD. <\/p>\n

It is them that according to Kenneth Scott Lautorette became `The largest
\nMissionary Force in History,` carrying the gospel as far as China and Japan,
\nwith recent discoveries confirming a presence as early as 86AD in China.<\/p>\n

It is the Assyrians that still speak Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke.<\/p>\n

But the Assyrians, because of their Christian Faith, have suffered greatly in an
\narea that is almost completely Muslim. Oppressed by the Persians, Mongols,
\nTurks, and Arabs in World War II, nearly 2\/3 of the Assyrian population died.<\/p>\n

Currently, the majority of the Assyrian Christians are in Iraq with
\napproximately 100,000 in the Northern No Fly Zone, approximately 1 million in
\ncentral Iraq, and another 100,000 scattered in the south, along with a
\npopulation of approximately 4 million Kurds and 800,000 Turkomans – all Muslim.<\/p>\n

Another approximately 1.8 million Assyrians are outside of Iraq primarly in
\nIran, Syria and in the US, Australia and Europe.<\/p>\n

According to Wilfred Alkhas, who edits a Magazine for the Assyrian Diaspora,
\n`One of the little known facts concerning the Middle East is the role of the
\nChristians. Previous to the rise of Khomeni in Iran, Islam was generally a
\ntolerant religion. Large groups of Christians, Jews, Zorasterians and others
\nlived peacefully in majority Muslim populations for generations.<\/p>\n

Following the radicalization of Islam, though, nearly 90% of the Christians in
\nthe Middle East have left finding it impossible to live under the opression of
\nradicalized Islamic states.<\/p>\n

The reality of the current situation in the Middle East is in many ways more
\neconomic than political, as the economic system has basically collapsed, giving
\nrise to young men with no hope for a job and a future, willing to give their
\nlives for radical ideas that in normal economic times would be unheard of.<\/p>\n

The reason being is that it was the Christians that ran most of the small
\nbusinesses in the Middle East, which kept the local economies growing. Their
\ndeparture was, in many ways, what triggered the present economic collapse.<\/p>\n

Running small grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, the Christians exerted
\nleadership in an area that, with its prohibition of even the charging of
\ninterest, has not been able to be taken over by the Muslim majority.<\/p>\n

Currently the Assyrian Christians are in a extremely precarious situation.
\nSandwiched between the Kurds who are Muslims and supported throug the United
\nNations weapons for peace program, the Turkomans, also Muslims supported by
\nTurkey, they are a minority of Christians in a region that is, with the
\nexception of Israel, exclusively Muslim.<\/p>\n

Grudingly allowed to participate in the local Kurdish Parliement, the Assyrian
\nChristians have five seats out of 105 they are extremely fearful of any post-Sadaam
\ngovernment.<\/p>\n

Currently, the State Department is attempting to put together a coalition of
\nIraqi Nationalist Groups to decide on a future Government, but the Assyrian
\nChristians as the only non-Islamic group in the mix are at a decided advantage.<\/p>\n

Iraq, for all its fault, is a secular nation governed by a secular Baathist
\nParty. The Vice President, Mr. Tarig Aziz, is a Christian and the Church is
\nallowed the most freedom of any country in the Middle East, with the exception
\nof Egypt.<\/p>\n

The Assyrian Archibishop for Iraq, Mar. Gewargis pleads for help for his people
\nand Church. `We understand the concern and support of the Christians in the West
\nfor Israel, but find it hard to understand why the Church does not have the same
\nconcern and support. For all its faults, the Iraqi government has built Churches
\nfor the Christians`.<\/p>\n

In response to the current situation, The Keikyo Institute, an organization
\nassisting Assyrians particularly in Asia, is asking Christians throughout the
\nworld to first pray for the Christians in Iraq, then to contact their
\nlegislators to request that the Christians be represented in the post-Sadaam
\nIraqi government.<\/p>\n

According to Wilfred Alkhas, who represents the younger generation of the
\nAssyrian Disaspora, `It has been our prayer for generations that we will be able
\nto regain our country – Assyria- which was promised to the Assyrian people under
\nthe treaty of Lasuanne in 1923, and at the very least to have an autonomous zone
\nin the area previously promised to the Assyrians.`<\/p>\n

At the very least, the Assyrian Church is calling to the Church at large to
\nsupport their status in the land that is historically theirs as the first
\nChristian nation in the world.<\/p>\n

The next few months are extremely critical as the plans for a post-Sadaam Iraq
\nare put together and the government and divisions of authority are being
\ndecided. Anything other than, at the very least, autonomy for the Assyrian
\nChristians in their traditional homeland in Northern Iraq, centered around the
\ncity of Nineveh, present day Mosul, could very well result in another bloodbath
\nthat could see the last of the only major Christian presence in the Middle East
\ngone forever.
\n
\n  <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/span>
\n
\nAbout Ken Joseph Jr.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nܢܗܪܝܐ<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

W For some reason almost completely ignored in the current discussions are 2.5 million Assyrian Christians. Scattered throughout Iraq, but primarily near the city of Nineveh currently known as Mosul these remnants of the great Assyrian Empire are frozen in time. It is their history that is little known. It was to them that Jonah …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-articles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}