A Christian Childhood in Iraq
A principle mission of mine while in the Middle East is to take an in depth look into the lives of the local people; one that doesn’t focus on car bombs, military raids or the numerous other violent episodes they have to endure on a daily basis. I want to find out what they are doing when they aren’t digging through the rubble of a charred vehicle’s undercarriage searching for the remains of their relatives or friends. Although it is often a daunting task, most Mid-Easterners are conducting their daily lives as routinely as possible and finding ways to cope with their challenging environment. Many continue to attend educational institutes, from elementary aged school children to college students; internet cafes and computer gaming shops are popular with the young adult crowd and a significant portion of Baghdad’s working middle-class rise every morning and head off to their respective places of employment. Each group makes their way through an obstacle course of car bombs, IEDs, suicide attackers, military convoys, check-points and random small arms gun fire resulting from clashes usually between security officials and local rebels. The majority continues to strive for a more peaceful existence and battles for a tranquil society, but many have simply adjusted to what has now become the norm and are numb to the turmoil they encounter in their daily lives.
I considered the childhood for the average Iraqi to be quite dismal and depressing, both today as well as throughout the past several decades, and I could only imagine how difficult it was to be a Christian on top of everything else. The Iraqi youth of the 1980’s progressed through there Cub Scout years while their country was in a bloody grid locked war with neighboring Iran; with the front lines merely a few hundred kilometers from Baghdad. The 1990’s offered little relief due to the Gulf War, and today’s children are enduring Gulf War Part II and a bloody civil war combined. For a first hand account of an Iraqi childhood experience, I simply turned to the man who has been by my side practically every waking moment throughout my time in the Middle East – my translator *Rahmi. I sat with Rahmi and asked him a few simple yet burning questions regarding his childhood in Iraq as a Christian.
Rahmi, currently 24, grew up in Baghdad as a member of the Christian minority. His parents are Catholics from northern Iraq who relocated to Baghdad before Rahmi was born and opened their own business. Aside from the random schoolyard taunting and snickers that Rahmi and his younger brother and sister received in school from their Muslim classmates, Rahmi has no memory of his family ever being harassed due to their religious orientation.
Rhami age 7, (right) with his
I considered the childhood for the average Iraqi to be quite dismal and depressing, both today as well as throughout the past several decades, and I could only imagine how difficult it was to be a Christian on top of everything else. The Iraqi youth of the 1980’s progressed through there Cub Scout years while their country was in a bloody grid locked war with neighboring Iran; with the front lines merely a few hundred kilometers from Baghdad. The 1990’s offered little relief due to the Gulf War, and today’s children are enduring Gulf War Part II and a bloody civil war combined. For a first hand account of an Iraqi childhood experience, I simply turned to the man who has been by my side practically every waking moment throughout my time in the Middle East – my translator *Rahmi. I sat with Rahmi and asked him a few simple yet burning questions regarding his childhood in Iraq as a Christian.
Rahmi, currently 24, grew up in Baghdad as a member of the Christian minority. His parents are Catholics from northern Iraq who relocated to Baghdad before Rahmi was born and opened their own business. Aside from the random schoolyard taunting and snickers that Rahmi and his younger brother and sister received in school from their Muslim classmates, Rahmi has no memory of his family ever being harassed due to their religious orientation.
Rhami age 7, (right) with his
younger brother;
Baghdad, Iraq - circa 1988
“Kids in school would sometimes pick on us and say such things as, ‘You are going to hell because you worship the wrong God,’ but adults didn’t dare to mess with the Christian families.”
According to Rahmi, Saddam Hussein declared that all religions worshiping one God were to be accepted and not discriminated against or persecuted in any way. “If a Christian family was being treated badly all they had to do was report it to the local Ba’ath Party office and they would go after whoever harassed the Christians and f**K them up,” Rahmi explained with a grin.
Rahmi’s account was completely opposite to that which I expected. I imagined all Iraqi Christians as being shunned outcasts living in the shadows of Saddam’s tyrannical regime struggling to survive and exercising their religious beliefs in out-of-sight shacks and private homes, but this was far from reality.
“We, as Christians, had more privileges than Muslims. We were trusted more and were allowed to work in areas of government that Saddam did not even allow Sunnis. His private cook was a Christian and many of the members of his personal security detachment were Christians.” One of Saddam Hussein’s right hand men, Tariq Aziz, who held numerous high ranking positions within the Ba’ath Party including the vice presidency and is depicted on the eight of spades in the famous Iraqi Most Wanted deck of cards, is a Catholic Christian.
Although the most popular, Catholicism is not the only denomination of Christianity practiced within Iraq. Rahmi recalls that while growing up there were about 60 Christian churches scattered throughout Baghdad alone including Baptist, Protestant and Orthodox churches. The extreme minority of Jewish residents, approximately 10 families in Baghdad according to Rahmi, were also protected under Saddam. There were a couple of Temples in Baghdad where the Jewish families were allowed to worship freely without persecution, or the offenders received the same treatment that those who harassed the Christians received.
I asked Rahmi if he and his family attended church regularly, he smiled and let out an exasperated sigh that reminded me of many American kids I knew while growing up who cringed when reminded of the days when their parents drug them to Sunday school. “We had to go every week and attend special religious classes at night too.”
Rahmi was very young during the Iraq-Iran War, which began before he was born and ended when he was seven, but Rahmi maintains a few memories from that era. “The Iranians bombed several schools in Baghdad so this made my parents very weary, but my father was the kind of man who believed in fate and felt that if you are destined to die there is nothing you can do to avoid it. So I went to school everyday.”
Rahmi was eight when the Gulf War erupted. His memories of this war are much clearer and more engrained in his mind. His family managed to continue a relatively calm and normal existence throughout the Iraq-Iran War but they were unable to escape the life altering destruction of a war with America. “We had to leave Baghdad when the Americans got crazy and were bombing many civilian areas because Saddam moved his security forces and government agency employees into civilian homes after the Americans destroyed the government buildings. So my family went to Mosul and lived in my grandfather’s house for 45 days. But this wasn’t so bad because all the schools were cancelled and we didn’t have to take our final exams,” Rahmi finished with a sideways grin.
As young boys, Rahmi and his friends spent their free time similarly to children in the U.S. They had extensive marble collections, rode their bicycles everywhere and took advantage of every opportunity to play soccer. American movies were popular and the famous kick boxing champion Jean Claude Van-Dam was Rahmi’s idol. When they entered their teens, Rahmi’s interests progressed into the technological era; marbles were replaced with video games and the time spent riding bicycles was traded in for internet surfing – soccer, however, remained a constant in every Iraqi’s life, no matter what his age.
Rahmi was no stranger to mischievous behavior either. “We did a lot of stupid things too, like staying out all night and getting drunk. There weren’t any bars but we could buy liquor in stores, which is something that isn’t allowed anymore.” The United States intended to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq but plans have backfired and, in many ways, just the opposite has resulted. The Al-Mahdi Army and Al-Mujahadeen have been controlling substantial areas of Iraq and have implemented and enforced strict Islamic laws since the fall of Saddam’s regime.
Currently, the future of the Iraqi youth is quite hazy and dim but the opportunity and potential for a bright outcome is still very much alive. Many Iraqis who initially supported the U.S. and the overthrow of Saddam have since changed their tune. They feel their lives were better with their former president and even wish for Saddam or a similar leader to return to power. But reorganizing a country and building a new government is no easy feat and there is no quick fix. Ultimately, only time will tell. The situation has hit rock bottom but, like many circumstances in life, the forest often gets darker before it gets lighter.
* Names have been changed as a security precaution.
“Kids in school would sometimes pick on us and say such things as, ‘You are going to hell because you worship the wrong God,’ but adults didn’t dare to mess with the Christian families.”
According to Rahmi, Saddam Hussein declared that all religions worshiping one God were to be accepted and not discriminated against or persecuted in any way. “If a Christian family was being treated badly all they had to do was report it to the local Ba’ath Party office and they would go after whoever harassed the Christians and f**K them up,” Rahmi explained with a grin.
Rahmi’s account was completely opposite to that which I expected. I imagined all Iraqi Christians as being shunned outcasts living in the shadows of Saddam’s tyrannical regime struggling to survive and exercising their religious beliefs in out-of-sight shacks and private homes, but this was far from reality.
“We, as Christians, had more privileges than Muslims. We were trusted more and were allowed to work in areas of government that Saddam did not even allow Sunnis. His private cook was a Christian and many of the members of his personal security detachment were Christians.” One of Saddam Hussein’s right hand men, Tariq Aziz, who held numerous high ranking positions within the Ba’ath Party including the vice presidency and is depicted on the eight of spades in the famous Iraqi Most Wanted deck of cards, is a Catholic Christian.
Although the most popular, Catholicism is not the only denomination of Christianity practiced within Iraq. Rahmi recalls that while growing up there were about 60 Christian churches scattered throughout Baghdad alone including Baptist, Protestant and Orthodox churches. The extreme minority of Jewish residents, approximately 10 families in Baghdad according to Rahmi, were also protected under Saddam. There were a couple of Temples in Baghdad where the Jewish families were allowed to worship freely without persecution, or the offenders received the same treatment that those who harassed the Christians received.
I asked Rahmi if he and his family attended church regularly, he smiled and let out an exasperated sigh that reminded me of many American kids I knew while growing up who cringed when reminded of the days when their parents drug them to Sunday school. “We had to go every week and attend special religious classes at night too.”
Rahmi was very young during the Iraq-Iran War, which began before he was born and ended when he was seven, but Rahmi maintains a few memories from that era. “The Iranians bombed several schools in Baghdad so this made my parents very weary, but my father was the kind of man who believed in fate and felt that if you are destined to die there is nothing you can do to avoid it. So I went to school everyday.”
Rahmi was eight when the Gulf War erupted. His memories of this war are much clearer and more engrained in his mind. His family managed to continue a relatively calm and normal existence throughout the Iraq-Iran War but they were unable to escape the life altering destruction of a war with America. “We had to leave Baghdad when the Americans got crazy and were bombing many civilian areas because Saddam moved his security forces and government agency employees into civilian homes after the Americans destroyed the government buildings. So my family went to Mosul and lived in my grandfather’s house for 45 days. But this wasn’t so bad because all the schools were cancelled and we didn’t have to take our final exams,” Rahmi finished with a sideways grin.
As young boys, Rahmi and his friends spent their free time similarly to children in the U.S. They had extensive marble collections, rode their bicycles everywhere and took advantage of every opportunity to play soccer. American movies were popular and the famous kick boxing champion Jean Claude Van-Dam was Rahmi’s idol. When they entered their teens, Rahmi’s interests progressed into the technological era; marbles were replaced with video games and the time spent riding bicycles was traded in for internet surfing – soccer, however, remained a constant in every Iraqi’s life, no matter what his age.
Rahmi was no stranger to mischievous behavior either. “We did a lot of stupid things too, like staying out all night and getting drunk. There weren’t any bars but we could buy liquor in stores, which is something that isn’t allowed anymore.” The United States intended to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq but plans have backfired and, in many ways, just the opposite has resulted. The Al-Mahdi Army and Al-Mujahadeen have been controlling substantial areas of Iraq and have implemented and enforced strict Islamic laws since the fall of Saddam’s regime.
Currently, the future of the Iraqi youth is quite hazy and dim but the opportunity and potential for a bright outcome is still very much alive. Many Iraqis who initially supported the U.S. and the overthrow of Saddam have since changed their tune. They feel their lives were better with their former president and even wish for Saddam or a similar leader to return to power. But reorganizing a country and building a new government is no easy feat and there is no quick fix. Ultimately, only time will tell. The situation has hit rock bottom but, like many circumstances in life, the forest often gets darker before it gets lighter.
* Names have been changed as a security precaution.
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