A reader writes:
Thanks for the story about the Iraqi priest. Funny (sad actually) how you never read about such things in the mainstream media.
In general, what did your Iraqi Catholic friends think about the war?
Also, what did they think about the Pope’s position and statements on the war? (and also the Vatican in general)
And finally, what did they think about Tariq Aziz’ visit to the Vatican and his much publicized praying at the tomb of St. Francis Assisi just prior to the war?
I’m just curious…
I’ve got an unusual amount of data on the Iraqi Catholic perspective on the war, as I was one of two Americans in a class of thirty-something Iraqi Catholics during the run-up to and prosecution of the war.
Basically, they were almost uniformly in favor of it.
I do know one woman who expressed to me that she was very worried about the war and the collateral damage it might cause, but she was the only Iraqi who expressed any hesitation about it. The others were all adamantly in favor of the U.S. overthrowing Saddam.
In fact, during the war itself the class stayed in regular phone contact with their friends and relatives in Iraq and the class was abuzz with joyful reports about whose village had just been liberated by our boys and how soon they might arrive to liberate others’ nearby villages. Class during this period was often punctuated with cries of “No more Saddam!” and “Bush! Bush! Bush!” from various Iraqi class members.
The topic of the pope’s views did not come up in class, but it is my experience from talking with Middle Eastern priests (Iraqi and non-Iraqi) that–though they don’t say it publicly–they uniformly feel that the Vatican has been hopelessly naive on the subject of Islam.
Regarding Tariq Aziz, I don’t have any special info on their opinion of his visit to the Vatican or St. Francis’s tomb, but my impression is that they uniformly regarded Aziz as an evil, hypocritical collaborator with the villain who had raped and slaughtered their people for twenty-five years. They couldn’t wait for that whole regime–Aziz included–to be gone.
Since the war they have been very concerned that Muslims might inaugurate a new era of religious oppression, though they are still very glad and grateful that Saddam is gone.
My experience also is that other Middle Eastern Christians are champing at the bit to have us come in and knock over their oppressive governments. I was at a lunch which was attended by a couple of Iranian Christians (Assyrians, not Catholics). Since some have conjectured that the problem in Iran may be able to be solved without the shedding of blood, I asked them about this and they replied that, no, they felt the regime would only be changed by force. They then went on to speak joyfully as if it was a *certainty* that the U.S. would come in and knock over Fundamentalist Muslim regime controlling their country. I told them, “Uh, guys, don’t speak so quickly about what the U.S. is going to do regarding your country. You may have to sort this one out yourselves.”
My experience is that Lebanese Christians continue to feel betrayed by the West, which sat back did nothing effectual to stop the disintegration of their country and its takeover by Syria and radical Muslims. Their feeling regarding 9/11 has been “We’re sorry that it happened, but now you understand what we were trying to tell you about the threat posed by militant Islam. Now you have suffered as we have suffered for all these years.”
Thank you for the response Jimmy. Fascinating stuff.