IRAQ: Iraq's ancient Christian community is at risk, writes Michael Jansen in Damascus.
Men in suits and ties, women with sleek hair and kerchiefs, and children in Sunday best, sauntered down a narrow street in the Old City and filed through the iron gates and double doors of the Chaldean Catholic church of St Therese.
Three priests in white cassocks conducted the Mass in the ancient Chaldean language and Fr Sermad Yusif Balios delivered the sermon in Arabic, beseeching the faithful to help each other and hold no grudges against their persecutors.
The Iraqis rose and sat with the rhythm of the service, heads bowed with the traumas and trials of exile. Before the US invasion of Iraq two years ago, 100 Syrian Chaldean families wor- shipped at this parish. Today there are 2,000 and more are coming every day, swelling the 700,000-strong Iraqi refugee community in Syria. The ancient Iraqi Christian community is in danger of disappearing.
Like other members of the congregation, Fr Sarmad left Iraq when his life was threatened. "People are forced from their houses. Their furniture is stolen. Christians are fleeing Basra because the Shias don't want them there, and Mosul because the Sunnis are persecuting them. The Americans are considered Christian crusaders fighting Muslims and the [ Muslim] majorities want to have total control. Baghdad is better for Christians because it has a mixed population but there there are criminal gangs who prey on everyone. Many Christians came here after the war but most after the church bombings in August.
"The Syrians allow us to settle. Security is good. They let our children go to their schools and permit us to work. It is much better here than in Jordan and Lebanon. But life is not easy. Most have little money and cannot find jobs. Life is too expensive.
"Many are depressed, suffer psychological stress, have heart attacks. People don't have money for three meals a day, children don't have clothes for school. The [ Syrian] church pays hospital bills but the UN, the Red Cross, and international charitable organisations do not help. The United States puts pressure on the UN to ignore us . . . The [ Chaldean] church authorities in Baghdad won't help because they want Iraqis to return.
"The Iraqi government says we should not be treated as refugees because it wants us to go home." Fr Sarmad refused to return although the church has recalled him. "Embassies treat us very badly when we apply for immigration. They make us stand in line for hours, even days. They regard us as terrorists because we come from a violent country."
Fr Sarmad leant across the desk in his spare office, his face hard with anger.
"The war brought no benefit to Iraq, it destroyed Iraq, there is no society, there are no churches, we cannot return.
"They speak of freedom, we dislike this freedom."
After the service, Saad Khaled Touma, a young businessman dealing in ice cream and nuts, told The Irish Times that some Christians were returning because they had hoped it would get better after the January 30th election. But they go only to the far north where there is reasonable security.
Emar Yusif Younis, who worked as a translator for US forces, left because his life was in danger. His father was kidnapped and held until an uncle paid $30,000 in ransom. "They asked for $200,000," Mr Younis said. "My father was beaten.
"He and my mother are still in al-Kosh, 40 kilometres from Mosul. They want to leave. We all hope to emigrate because we don't expect security and stability for at least five or six years. We can't wait that long."
Sunnis and Shias are also abandoning their country. Akram, a secular Shia lawyer who has lived in Syria for many years, seeks to emigrate with his family because he sees no future for his children in his homeland.
Fuad Takarli, a writer and novelist, left Baghdad four days before the war began two years ago.
"I was thinking of going back but I changed my mind. I cannot take my Tunisian wife and 12-year-old son. It is absurd to make a plan to return, said Dr Takarli. "It is too unpredictable. I can't even find a respectable school for my son."
He observed that Adnan Pachachi, the leading secular Sunni, did not win a seat in the new parliament and the communists have only three.
"I am Sunni but I cannot accept to be ruled by the Muslim brotherhood or that final decisions will be taken by [ Shia Grand Ayatollah Ali] Sistani.
"If Iran asks something from Iraqi Shias, they cannot say no . . . I am not an illusionist. There is no place for me in Baghdad. It is not my Baghdad, not my Iraq."