Imam al-Husainy Laments Exchange of Iraqi Christians for US Troops

In a story today by Detroit News reporter Gregg Krupa, (“Metro Chaldeans welcome refugees”), Metro Detroit’s large Chaldean population—the largest outside of Iraq—greeted as welcome news that the US State Department will allow an additional 7,000 refugees from Iraq over the next year.

Chaldeans are a semitic people who have been in Iraq since before the time of Abraham. Today they are mostly Eastern Rite Catholics. Under the mostly secular regime of Saddam Hussein Chaldeans enjoyed some protection from persecution by Iraq’s Muslims; but since Hussein was deposed and Shia and Sunni leaders have had more opportunities to impose their view of the world on their neighbors, the situation in Iraq for Chaldeans has been deteriorating.

According to the New York Times, (“Iraq’s Christians Flee as Extremist Threat Worsens”), the situation worsened “because many Muslim Iraqis framed the American-led invasion as a modern crusade against Islam, and second because Christians traditionally run the country’s liquor stories, anathema to many religious Muslims.

"Over the past three and a half years, Christians have been subjected to a steady stream of church bombings, assassinations, kidnappings and threatening letters slipped under their doors. Estimates of the resulting Christian exodus vary from the tens of thousands to more than 100,000, with most heading for Syria, Jordan and Turkey.”

Anti-war critics have tried to spin the exodus as a result of the coalition war in Iraq. But what is happening with the Chaldeans is mirrored by growing pressure throughout the Arab world on Christian minorities, including Lebanon and Egypt: (“A Christian Exodus from the Arab World”). After the Muslim fury following Pope Benedict's critical remarks about Islam last year, Iraqi Muslim groups threatened Christians and many church services were canceled, many for good.

In effect, it is the dhimmi status of Christians in Iraq that is making their lives more difficult, and quite insecure, not the fact of the Iraq war. In January Der Spiegel said that “[t]here were only 500,000 Christians still living in Iraq until recently, compared to 750,000 after the 1991 Gulf War.” A seminary student, who was himself “fleeing to Kurdistan, estimates that half of those remaining Christians have emigrated since the 2003 US invasion, most of them in the last six months.”

One problem with their exodus is that “[t]hose who leave are primarily members of the elite: doctors, lawyers and engineers.” Many worry that the rebuilding of Iraq will be more difficult without their skills and talents.

Detroit News reporter Krupa asked Imam Husham al-Huisany, director of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center in Dearborn about “the wisdom of more Iraqis leaving at the same time more American troops are arriving.” The question is quite bizarre, implying as it does that the emigration of Christians from Iraq is some kind of exchange program correlated with the sending of additional troops to Baghdad, rather than the voluntary decision of (now) free Iraqis who are seeking refuge from religious persecution for themselves and their families.

Imam al-Husainy, whose wisdom was on prominent display on the Sean Hannity’s radio program recently, ("Is This the Voice of Dearborn?"), wanted to know “’What message does this send?...For humanitarian reasons, yes, we favor this. It is necessary. But the country needs people to stay, to help rebuild."

Does Imam al-Huseiny believe the Chaldeans should be forced to remain in Iraq in dhimmitude to help rebuild Iraq? And isn't is it his co-religionists who have given the Chaldeans their motive for leaving their homeland?