Syriac-Catholic Bishop Barnaba Yousif Habash reflects on the
plight of the Christians from his native city, who were displaced by last
year’s Islamic State takeover of their homelands.
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On Aug. 6, 2014, after evening Mass on the feast of the
Transfiguration, the Christian residents of Qaraqosh, Iraq, were threatened by
the Islamic State to convert to Islam, pay a tax or be killed. That prompted
the exodus of the city’s 50,000 Christians, who fled to Irbil, the capital of
Iraqi Kurdistan, with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Qaraqosh, a bed of Christianity since the first century, was
totally Syriac Catholic. Syriac-Catholic Bishop Barnaba Yousif Habash of the
Syrian Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance, based in Bayonne, N.J., is
a native of Qaroqosh. He describes his birthplace as “the biggest island of
Christianity in the Islamic ocean.”
One of the Syriac-Catholic patriarchs, the bishop says,
referred to Qaraqosh as “the right eye of the Church.” In Aramaic, the language
of Jesus, the expression “right eye” means “you are very precious to me.”
Bishop Habash is responsible for the spiritual needs of
Syriac Catholics in the United States and Canada, covering 18 parishes and totaling
approximately 40,000 people.
Bishop Habash traveled to Irbil to spend the holidays with
the more than 100,000 displaced Christians who were uprooted from Mosul and
Iraq’s Nineveh Plain, as well as from Qaraqosh, by the advance of the Islamic
State. The exiled Christians are still camping out in tents and uncompleted
buildings in harsh winter conditions. Among them are priests, nuns and two
bishops.
Bishop Habash’s ancestors from Qaraqosh include 16 priests,
among them a martyred bishop. At 64 years old, he is the oldest of five priests
currently in his extended family, one of whom he recently ordained. In
addition, there is a Habash who is a candidate for the priesthood.
Bishop Habash spoke in early January with Register
correspondent Doreen Abi Raad at the Syriac-Catholic patriarchate in Beirut,
Lebanon, where he stopped after his visit to Irbil before traveling to Rome and
back to his eparchy in New Jersey.
There have been media reports from Irbil; and, most
recently, before Christmas, a delegation of Catholic bishops from Australia
went to visit the displaced in Irbil. But how was it for you, going back to
your homeland and seeing your people in such conditions?
You can’t even imagine. Even a picture cannot express and
show the misery. If you don’t know a person, you cannot really comprehend the
suffering. But when you do know them, then you understand how the misery, the
suffering is so deep.
As a bishop of the United States and Canada, I came to show
solidarity. I came to let them know: You are not forgotten.
I have been born in their midst. I have been raised with
them, so I cannot forget them. And my country, my Iraq, my history, my
education, my civilization means a lot to me, not because it’s mine, but
because I know it’s a very precious and a rich element of the history of the
world.
I was not only shocked, I was not only facing a horrible
scandal; I became paralyzed. My spirit, my mind could not work with what I saw
there: tens of thousands of people not just suffering, but dying, in the most offensive
way.
We have tens of thousands of kids under tents who are not
attending school or university. There are about 1,000 university students who
could have in one year become doctors, engineers and lawyers. They have been
stopped. Why? Why close the paths of the future for Iraqi people just because
they are Christian? What a shame.
Why? The jealousy of the devil is what happened. This storm,
what happened to them, you can easily call it the jealousy of the devil.
They are Christians; they are authentic people. They are
hard workers for peace. They love the others. They love their country. And all
of a sudden, they have been told it’s not allowed for you to continue with
Christianity without paying a tax, although we are in our land 600 years before
Islam, although we were the teacher of the prophet of Islam. We were the
teachers of the language of Islam; we were the teacher of the law of Islam; we
were the engineers of the buildings and cities of Islam, since the beginning,
until recent days. We are their doctors, as we were before; we are their
professors. We taught them everything, until the last hours of our existence.
Their sick were brought to our hospitals, treated by our doctors.
Qaraqosh has 50,000 people, and, until now, there is not one
hotel in the city. Isn’t that amazing? When people visit the hospitals, the
schools, for shopping, they stay in our houses as part of the family. We do it
with pleasure, for them (Muslims). It is part of our Christian education and
morality to accept the others and to give witness to our faith.
But you know what, on the other hand, I found myself
strengthened by their faith. I visited more than 500 families in tents and
uncompleted buildings. They said to me, “You are most welcome, Bishop.” And
they have absolutely nothing. “Oh, you know what, Bishop, yes, we lost
everything, but we still have our faith in the Lord Jesus.” Honest to God,
almost every family said this: “We give thanks to the Lord. We are still
Christian.” And our people were very convinced that, although they had been
through a very evil storm, the arm of God saved them. They understood this very
well.
Imagine: 24 hours for 50,000 people to escape Qaraqosh, and
no one had been lost or injured. That’s why we believe in God, in that we were
protected by the power of God. It’s the third exodus.
The people you met, what did they ask of you?
“Bishop, what do you think? You are close to the sources of
authority (in the West). Please tell us: What do they say? Are we going back to
our home? Please help us, Bishop. Help us.”
What can I do?
My childhood home, I cannot go there. I wanted to go to the
cemetery to visit my dad, to visit my mom. I could not do it.
Most of the people in Irbil were hoping that, after or
during the Christmas season, the Christian cities would be liberated, but they
are shocked that still nothing has happened until now. The local powers in Iraq
are gambling on us. One of the cards in the gambling is the “Christian card” —
the existence of the “problem” of Christianity. So I guess we will have more
waves of immigrants.
Is the Western world really understanding the gravity of the
situation?
Without the role of the Church, the West could not feel that
something happened, with what the Holy Father, the Vatican tried to do, and we
should also say a big thank-you for the conference of Catholic bishops in
Canada, America, in France, Italy and Germany.
But in general, no, they (the West) don’t know what’s going
on. That’s a shame. Because the political West is really very selfish and
uncaring. They don’t care, because it doesn’t affect the economy of their
countries.
I came from Irbil, I saw the miserable people, the
catastrophe, and I have to speak with diplomatic words and to hide the crime,
the crime of the world. Because what happened is truly genocide: uprooting
innocent people of the wonderful and peaceful civilization of Christianity in
this part of the world. But, unfortunately, when you speak about human rights
in Europe or America, it is only for your people inside your country. But concerning
the outside, the other human beings: “No, we don’t care; it’s their problem.”
I say that about the (Western) politicians, not ordinary
people. Americans are the most generous people, the most fine, with their love
and with their respect. But the foreign politics is from hell. Nobody cares
about us.
We are not terrorists. We are not violent. How come no one
cares what happened to us?
When we speak out, we get the routine answer from the
Islamic religious or the Muslim authorities: “They are non-Muslim, the Islamic
State.” How can it be, they are non-Muslim? All of them are Muslim. Or: “They
work outside of the Islamic world.” So who is the financial source of ISIS?
It’s very clear; it’s Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately, no one has the guts to say
that. Who is fighting Syria? Who is supporting and financing the war against
Syria? It’s very clear: Saudi Arabia.
If the West believes in connecting civilizations, there is
no bridge but Eastern Christianity to be the bridge between the civilizations.
But unfortunately, unfortunately, what’s happening is destroying everything,
because the storm is the devil’s storm.
What is the outlook you see for the Christians?
The last hour of my stay there (in Irbil), I spent with the
Dominican nuns. (The 40 nuns of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena
also had to flee their convent in Qaraqosh on Aug. 6 and are still among the
exiled in Irbil, serving the displaced.) The mother general, Sister Maria
Hanna, named (by Our Sunday Visitor) as one of the eight Catholics of 2014: I
met her with the nuns.
I told the sisters my strong belief: that we should not
count on the political leaders; they will do nothing for us. Because they look
only for their own interests.
We should look for the one who helps us. This is the witness,
the truth of history. We should look to the holy Eucharist. Nothing is stronger
than prayer. All the weapons are killers. The only weapon that we believe is
the life-giving and peace builder: Not one weapon is stronger than prayer.
Without prayer, there is no reconciliation between the Kurds
and Arabs, between the Shiites and the Sunnis. So if they don’t have peace
between themselves, how can we expect to have peace for them or through them?
The only thing that we can and must count on is prayer.
Please go and pray: in front of the holy Eucharist; in front
of the tabernacle with the silence of Jesus, we could hear the voice, “My peace
is given to you.” This is my essential and strong belief that the map of work
is prayer.
I tell them: Go pray with people, for the people. Jesus is
strong enough to resolve our problems. Even if problems take a long time, we
should not be afraid. Pray: The one who prays doesn’t fall down.
For me, Iraq is not just a country; it’s not geography; it’s
not just history, but it is the history of my love with God. It’s a spiritual
geography. I can see the Christianity of Iraq as one of the French historians
said, the most holy piece of land on earth after Golgotha. Because this land
has been watered with the blood of the thousands and thousands of martyrs and
very strong lovers of Jesus Christ. That’s why I say it’s the jealousy of the
devil, what happened.
But no matter what, we are strong, because we know in whom
we have put our trust and in whom we believe.
Please pray for our people. They do need prayer. And these
prayers will save us, surely, surely. All the iron gates made by politics, by
religion, will be broken; all the Christians will be liberated like Peter, when
he was in prison and the angel brought him (to safety).
I told them: If a Christian hurt a camel in Saudi Arabia, it
would be a big problem. A small wall in Israel destroyed by the Arabs is a
horrible thing, but if Christianity is uprooted, nobody cares. What is the
media today? What is the politics? False witness. Why? Why doesn’t Israel say
anything? Why doesn’t Saudi Arabia say anything? Why doesn’t Iran say anything?
Why doesn’t America say anything?
It’s a storm of the force of the evil. But as Jesus was
condemned and sent to die, we are an extension of Jesus. I’m sure God will show
his arm one day.
I told them in my homily, “I came here to help you, but I
became stronger because of you. I smell God here.”
Doreen Abi Raad writes from Beirut, Lebanon.