An organization representing Iraqi Christians today issued a call for the Iraqi government to accept the establishment of an autonomous region for the nation’s Christian minority, carving out part of the Nineveh Province and bordering Iraqi Kurdistan, the first such autonomous region.
Iraqi Christians have an ancient history but have come under growing attack since the 2003 US invasion. As many as half of the nation’s Christians are believed to have died or fled into exile. The region in question includes a large number of Iraqi Christians, but has also been singled out as a target of annexation for the Kurds.
The call underscores a growing splintering of Iraqi society as the national government has become dominated almost exclusively by Shi’ites. Increasingly the provinces dominated by Sunni Arabs have established strongly autonomous (and anti-national government) positions, as of course have the Kurds.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has demanded ever increasing power as the nation’s executive, and the incoming government is expected to also grant Shi’ite clergy the ability to issue binding edicts. While this seems to sit well with the nation’s Shi’ite majority it will undoubtedly increase these calls for autonomy and, after seven years of war which has eliminated most “mixed” neighborhoods, it will be increasingly easy for the communities to exercise independence.
Most people want to run other people's lives. This country is no different. Most people have mental problems and are unhappy. They somehow think they'll feel better if they can exercise control over others.
Religion, politics, drugs, prostitution, what color you can paint your house, not getting over in the fast lane when people want to go faster than you. It is so sad. Irag, Iran the US, it's all the same. I want my own autonomous region. Freedom is so scary to people because they feel alone and powerless over others lives. This country is not free we are owned by the Government and most people are okay with that because they vote mainstream and feel like they are part of the power structure.
The Christian Assyrians MUST have an autonomous region in Iraq to govern and protect themselves.. They have endured torture, murder and beheadings for seven consecutive years, and cannot count on the foreign element which are the Kurds who have confiscated ALL of their homeland and built a so-called "Kurdistan" on top of it, nor can they can count on their Sunni neighbors in Nineveh who have massacred hundreds of Assyrians under the watchful eye of the Nineveh governor, Al-Nujaifi, nor can they count on Al-Maliki's Shiite government who has abandoned the Assyrians and want to impose Sharia'a law on them, which the new constitution will allow. SHAME on all of those who have betrayed the Assyrians, who are the indigenous people of the land, and that includes the new invaders and occupiers, America and England.
I will make one correction. The Christians of Iraq have only 2010 years of history. Those Christians have a name which is Assyrians, and those Assyrians have an ancient history of more than 6000 years. I don't understand, whether you differentiate between religion and nationality. When you address the original people of Iraq (Assyrians), you call them Christians. But when address the Islam of Iraq who live in the North part of Iraq, you call them kurds. Why is this double standard. Either you call all by their religious name, or you call all by the nations name.