Christians of Iraq

The Christian of Iraq are approximately 636.000 in 2005, accounting for 2% of the population of the country. They were still a million in 1980; their survival is compromised. It is one of the oldest Christian communities of the the Middle East.

Christian communities

Churches of Eastern syriaque rite

Catholic church chaldéenne

The majority of the Iraqi Christians belongs to the Catholic church chaldéenne and represents 350.000 people.

Assyrian apostolic Church of the East

Old Church of the East

Churches of Western syriaque rite

orthodoxe syriaque Church

syriaque Catholic church

Churches of Armenian rite

Armenian apostolic Church

Armenian Catholic church

The January 26th 2007, in Iraq, the pope Benoît XVI confirmed the election of the Armenian archbishop of Baghdad, Mgr Emmanuel Dabbaghian, was born in Syria, with Alep, in 1933, which was ordered priest in 1967. It was before cleaned catholic Armenian parish of Tbilissi, in Georgia.

Other Churches and communities

orthodoxe Church (melkite)

Roman Catholic church (Latin)

History

Current location

Libre Belgique, of the May 19th 2006, p.15, evokes a dark table of the fate of the Christians of this country. In Iraq, the Christians are persecuted and often constrained with the exile according to the declarations of Amine Gemayel. They must face a wave of fundamentalist, in particular following the Moslem extremism. In October 2006, an orthodoxe syriaque priest is removed and decapitated and young a 14 year old boy is crucifié by integrist Moslems. The nuns are maltreated and the Christian women are violated.

Relations with nonthe Christians

An article of the chiesa, June 2nd 2007, explains the situation of the Christians, in particular in the district with Christian majority of Gilded with 10 kilometers in the south-west of the capital. “Of the groups related to Al Qaïda founded claimed a " Islamic state in Irak" ” and the " takes; jizah" , the tax of the infidel, who rises to 200 dollars per annum, that is to say what to provide for the need for a family of 6 people during 1 month. Certain Christian families are forced to give to one their girls in marriage to a Moslem to remain. “A prohibited fatwa to carry the cross to the neck. As for the churches, it is with blows of grenades that they were forced to remove the crosses of their cupolas and their frontages. Mid-May, the Assyrian church of Saint-Georges was burnt. ”

See too

External bonds

Situation of the Christians in Iraq - Gerard-François Dumont

Site ChristiansofIraq.com
Site ChristianIraq.com
ZindaMagazine - Earliest Churches
ChaldoAssyrian Churches in Iraq
the Exodus towards Kurdistan of the Christians of the Arab cities of Iraq

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