The plight of Iraq's Christians : attack on Lady of Salvation Church and conditions of refugees to Lebanon

Abstract

This research has contributed to an increased knowledge of the difficult circumstances Iraq’s Christians are undergoing on the humanitarian, political, socio-economic and social levels, whether in their homeland or in diaspora. Ten years after the 2003 United States-led invasion of Iraq, Christians continue to be targeted by a wave of violence, threats, and intimidations executed by extremist Islamist military groups. They also face religious discrimination, political underrepresentation, and infringement of their fundamental rights. The main theoretical orientation of this study is based on the provisions of the Spiral of Silence theory constructed by German political scientist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann. Also, the methodology employed includes a purposive sample of 128 Iraqi Christian refugees in Lebanon and a series of interviews conducted with Iraqi and Lebanese politicians, Iraqi religious figures, and United Nations officials. The case of the assault on Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad in late 2010, which led to the killing of 58 and injuring of 75 others, was a turning point in terms of media coverage, since it has generated a large scale of international, regional and local media attention to the plight of Iraqi Christians. The analysis of the major results collected by the survey, throughout the course of this work, showed that 78 percent of Iraqi Christian refugees in Lebanon are likely to return home, which supported hypothesis two that addressed this assumption, but they stressed that such a move is to be associated with a major improvement in the security situation. In addition, this requirement has been strongly linked to the accomplishment of a true political reconciliation between all Iraqi rival parties, as stated by all interviewed political figures. On other hand, the first hypothesis was moderately supported by the limited percentage of refugees who want to resettle in Lebanon (6%) or a third country (16%).