"Words cannot describe the extreme fear that we experienced 10 years ago. ISIS tried to eradicate us, but they failed," said Nizar Semaan, the Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Adiabene, in northern Iraq. "The people here are like olive trees. You can cut them, burn them, but after 10 or 20 years they give fruit again. They tried everything, but we remain, and as a Church we do everything to give a sign of hope," he added, during an online conference organised by the international Catholic charity ACN.
Though outright violence has receded in Iraq, the Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil, Bashar Warda, who also took part in the conference, said that the current threat of a regional conflict involving Israel, Hamas, Lebanon and perhaps even Iran has Christians on edge.
Way forward for Iraq
Archbishop Nizar Semaan confirms that ISIS itself no longer poses a serious threat to the Christian community. "We have to focus on education. Iraq needs a modern education system to encourage people to respect others. The second point is to have a constitution built on humanity, not on religion. This will help the Christians to stay in Iraq," said Archbishop Semaan.
Archbishop Warda explained that highlighting education is the key to the future in Iraq, which is why the Catholic Church has invested so much in this field, with the help of ACN.
Rebuilding houses and lives
At the height of the fundamentalists crisis, there was fear that if nothing was done the entire Christian community would leave the Nineveh Plains and perhaps even Iraq. Since then, and thanks to ACN sponsored rebuilding projects, the news is largely positive, according to Archbishop Warda. "In 2014, we had 13,200 families registered as Christians. Thousands escaped out of fear of fundamentalist violence. After the defeat of the fundamentalists, 9,000 then came back to Nineveh. This is something to be thankful for."
Around half the Christians from Qaraqosh, the largest exclusively Christian town in Iraq, whose population fled en masse before ISIS occupied it, have also returned. "Before ISIS we had 50,000 people in Qaraqosh, and now we have around 25,000," said Archbishop Semaan.
For ACN seeing the Christians in Iraq alive and well is a sign of a job well done. Regina Lynch, executive president of ACN International, who also spoke at the conference, said: "When ISIS invaded, the Christians fled to Kurdistan, where they were relatively safe, but most of them had nothing to their name. ACN was the first international organisation to go to their assistance. Over the following years we helped first to secure the basic needs of these displaced Christians, and then the rebuilding of thousands of homes, so that those who wished to return to their towns and villages could do so, once ISIS had been pushed back."
ACN has been running projects for poor Christians in Iraq since 1972. In July 2014, ACN was the first organisation to help on the ground, and since then Aid to the Church in Need has supported nearly 500 projects, from immediate humanitarian assistance to reconstruction projects and scholarships.
National director for ACN (Malta) Stephen Axisa said: "These positive developments for Christians in Iraq are also due to the support of Maltese and Gozitan benefactors, who over the years supported our various projects. We also thank them for their ongoing support for ACN's current projects concerning education of Christian children and youths in Iraq."
For more information phone on 2148 7818, 7999 9969 or send an email on: [email protected]. For emergency donations, to help Christians in desperate situations in other countries like Ukraine, Lebanon and Mozambique, visit: https://www.acnmalta.org/donate/