Iraqi Christians on the Run

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Christians, one of the oldest and most silent minority communities in Iraq, are facing an ever increasing displacement, death and destruction because of sectarian and extremist harassment and violence. Before the US invasion in March, 2003, about a million Christians comprised of 5 percent of the total population. In the last five years their number shrank to less than 3 percent.

According to the Annuario Pontificio 2008, about 66 percent of Iraqi Christians are Catholics belonging to the Chaldean Church. Others belong to the Armenian, Assyrian and Syriac Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

Twenty Percent of All Iraqi Refugees Abroad Are Christians

The Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA), an agency of the Holy See providing humanitarian support to the churches and peoples of the Middle East, reports that around 400,000 or 40 percent, of Christians fled the country and they make up around 20 percent of all Iraqi refugees. From the 600,000 Christians remaining in the country, many are displaced to Northern Iraq.

One Archbishop Killed

Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho

Carl Hetu, CNEWA Canada National General Secretary, writes in its newsletter: "On Easter Sunday 2008, as Christians everywhere celebrated Jesus' resurrection, the Christians of Iraq took no joy in the most joyous day of the liturgical year. Instead, they were grieving for Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, the martyred leader of the Chaldean Church in Mosul, and lamenting the fate of their troubled religious community."

In late February, 2008, religious extremists kidnapped the archbishop and two weeks later his body was found in a shallow grave. Carl Hetu continues: "The martyrdom of Archbishop Rahho is a perfect symbol of the tragedy that has befallen the Church in Iraq. Since Saddam Hussain's fall from power, extremists and criminals have kidnapped and murdered men, women and children. They have burned churches and driven families from their homes. After five years of war, few Christians remain in central Iraq. Thousands have fled to the north of the country and still more are leaving it entirely."

Pope Benedict XVI has called on Catholics to reach out to "our beleaguered brothers and sisters in Christ."

After the US invasion of Iraq, extremists began to suspect that local Christians were in league with the Americans. Consequently, Christians have been facing numerous harassment and violence.

Shoeing in Iraq: The Second "Shock and Awe"

When US President George W. Bush, on an unannounced fourth visit to Iraq, was speaking at a news conference in Baghdad on December 14, an irate Iraqi journalist threw both of his shoes at him. Mr. Bush ducked and was able to avoid the flying shoes coming straight at him one after the other. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki was also standing beside the US President, who was on a farewell visit to Iraq before the end of his second term of office on January 20, 2009.

Muntazer al-Zaidi, 29, a Shia journalist with the Iraqi-owned al-Baghdadiyah TV network in Egypt, yelled at the speaking President and said in Arabic: "This is a farewell kiss, you dog!" The security guards overpowered the journalist and took him in custody. The audience was stunned at the incident, but President Bush vainly tried to brush aside the incident with a humour.

Iraqi and American security services checked the shoes thoroughly to ensure that they did not contain explosives and then destroyed them.

"Shock and Awe"

The unexpected behaviour of the journalist marks another shock and awe after the US invasion and bombing of Baghdad, triumphantly termed as "shock and awe" by Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defense Secretary in 2003. The shoe-throwing incident is a shock because the US President being the head of the most powerful nation in the world faced hurling shoes in the most secured zone in Iraq and an awe because a mere journalist at the risk of his life did the daring.

What the Iraqi journalist did is against the accepted norms and ethics of journalism. A journalist in now way should involve himself in the event that he covers. By actively engaging himself in the event he becomes a partisan and thus he loses his journalistic neutrality, credibility and power of judgment.

Yet Muntazer al-Zaidi acted as he did and vented his anger at President Bush. His action is symptomatic of the general feeling of resentment and rage against the American occupation and presence in Iraq. That's why he was instantly hailed as a hero in the region.

Shoes in a Cultural Context

In most Asian cultures, used shoes are considered to be filthy because they tread on dirt, germs, and animal and human waste on the mud paths and roads. That's why people leave their shoes outside the doors before entering houses, places of worship and the like. Moreover, regular washing of feet has a prominent place in many societies.

Kicking a person with a shoe, throwing a shoe at him, or making someone wear a garland of old shoes is considered an extreme form of insult. Besides, calling a person a "dog" or "child of a dog" is also disparaging. In the Indian subcontinent there is a tradition of making a criminal or antisocial person wear a garland of shoes and parading publicly on streets in face of mockery and even physical abuse of the onlookers. The purpose is to reform him or teach him a lesson for his vile deeds. Indian subcontinental countries also have a common term joota maara (to thrash with a shoe) used when intended to insult or punish a person for his or her unacceptable words or actions. In Bengali, the language prevalent in Bangladesh and the State of West Bengal in India, joota-peta kawra (to repeatedly strike someone with a shoe) is another term used for the same purpose.

I don't think that President George W. Bush could realize this cultural context of shoes. Could he?