In Jordan, Christians From Iraq Harassed
Pastor Dale Morgan
In Jordan, Christians From Iraq Harassed*
By DALE GAVLAK
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 15, 2007; 1:35 PM
AMMAN, Jordan -- Iraqi sisters Nasrin and Rihab enjoyed a relatively
peaceful life in Baghdad until the night almost a year ago when
militiamen tortured and beheaded their only brother.
Then came threatening phone calls, said the sisters, both members of
Iraq's small Christian community. And not long afterward, armed men
broke into their home and beat them.
They "started hitting us, pulling our hair and pounding on my sister's
stomach with their boots," wailed Nasrin, now 51, in an interview in
their tiny apartment in Amman.
Rihab's gallbladder burst, and blood came out of her mouth, the sisters
recalled. She was rushed to a hospital and when she recovered, with a
large scar still across her middle, the two fled to Jordan.
"We escaped after that. They vowed to kill us," said Rihab, 56, who like
her sister would not allow her family name to be used for fear of more
attacks.
Their story is a chilling reminder of troubles faced by minority
Christians in Iraq amid sectarian fighting between Shiite and Sunni
Muslims. Churches have been bombed, and businesses _ particularly hair
salons and liquor shops _destroyed.
As a result, many Christians have joined the flood of Iraqis fleeing
their country. There are an estimated 750,000 Iraqi refugees in Jordan,
including about 2,000 Christians. An additional 1 million Iraqis have
fled to Syria.
Jordan has been especially worried about the influence of Shiite
refugees, who are seen as a menace to the country's security and
predominantly Sunni character. But Christians _ most are Chaldean
Catholics _ have also faced a tough time here.
Rihab and Nasrin, who have put several locks and deadbolts on the door
of their two-room apartment, say they are haunted by memories of Baghdad.
Militants kidnapped their brother, Muhanna, tied him up in a deserted
house and tortured him, then killed him.
"He tried to call us from his phone, but the line went dead," Rihab
said. "They took his cell phone and made threatening calls to us. .. We
realized that something terrible had happened."
Police later discovered his body.
"Now we have no one at all to care for us and protect us," wept Rihab,
clutching pictures of the bloody body.
The sisters, neither married, can barely afford their $200 monthly rent
here. They have no family left in Iraq. A niece lives in Australia; the
sisters were recently denied permission to settle there.
"I help an old woman. ... I'm tired. ... but we trust in God," said Nasrin.
Rihab believes Christians no longer have a future in Iraq, and thinks
militants targeted her family because of their faith.
"'We will kill you, like we killed your brother,'" she said the
militants threatened, over the phone, after the brother's death. "They
shouted obscenities at us, telling us, 'You are Christians.'"
Afterward, the family home was attacked and they fled.
Leila Salman, a Christian whose two daughters were killed by Shiite
militiamen last year, is also now living in Jordan and is grim about the
future.
Her daughters, Linda and Rita, both in their 20s, were killed when men
fired on a minibus taking workers home from a U.S. military facility in
Baghdad. The two had washed clothes and worked at a dispensary for the
U.S. military.
"We're being persecuted because the allied forces are Christian, and
they think we are collaborators," their mother said.