{"id":1555,"date":"2010-11-20T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-20T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-11-21T04:24:22","modified_gmt":"2010-11-21T04:24:22","slug":"iraq-christian-church-spurns-call-to-head-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/iraq-christian-church-spurns-call-to-head-north\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq: Christian church spurns call to head north"},"content":{"rendered":"
Baghdad, 19 Nov. (AKI) – Christians have lived in Iraq for thousands of years and should not be confined to the northern part of the country as Iraq’s president recently suggested, according to a priest from one of Baghdad’s most important churches.<\/p>\n

"Even though I appreciate his noble intentions, I believe the idea of Iraq’s president Jalal Talabani to move Christians to the northern Kurdish region of the country is wrong," Salim Qiryaqous said.<\/p>\n

He is a priest at the Syriac Catholic cathedral in Baghdad where 58 people died in an attack in October claimed by an Al-Qaeda linked group. Some eighty people were injured.<\/p>\n

"Christians represent the whole Iraqi territory and not only the north. There are Christians who live in the south and in the centre of Iraq," said Qiryaqous.<\/p>\n

Talibani, a Kurd, had "noble intentions" but suggestion that Iraq’s Christian minority take refuge in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, could put country’s social stability at risk, he said.<\/p>\n

According to the Chaldean Christian church in Baghdad, 120,000 Christians have fled to the Kurdistan region. <\/p>\n

There are approximately 500,000 Christians remaining in Iraq but the 31 October attack on Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad and a spate of bombings this month targeting the Christian community have left its members in fear of their lives.<\/p>\n

Talabani’s proposal, which he floated on Thursday, has drawn a mixed reaction from Christians in Iraq. <\/p>\n

"I think Talibani’s plan is a positive one, also to create a special security force," said aChristian member of parliament, Yunadim Yusuf said. <\/p>\n

He said he hoped the new Iraqi government would take office "as soon as possible, to restore security to the country."
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Baghdad, 19 Nov. (AKI) – Christians have lived in Iraq for thousands of years and should not be confined to the northern part of the country as Iraq’s president recently suggested, according to a priest from one of Baghdad’s most important churches. "Even though I appreciate his noble intentions, I believe the idea of Iraq’s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-assyrian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2010\/11\/chiesssa_irrraaaqaqbq_1b--200x150.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555","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=1555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}