Iraq's Christian Assyrians: Living in Fear
Marion Callahan has written an interesting article that you can find on the Assyrian International News Agency's website.
This article discusses a 30 year old woman by the name of Mary Josef (not her real name) who is living in fear, as an Assyrian Christian. She has an 8 year old son, who is also living in fear, and they fear her husband is dead. She wants to come to the United States...however...
But living a threatened existence as an Iraqi Assyrian Christian in a Muslim world is not enough to grant her passage to the United States. Too many other Iraqi asylum-seekers like Josef wait.
A United Nations survey reports that more than 200,000 Assyrian Christians -- members of an ancient form of Christianity born in the Holy Land of the Mesopotamia -- have fled Iraq since the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, leaving only 20,000 remaining in the country, according to the U.S. State Department. Their exodus sped up in August 2004, after the start of the terrorist bombing campaign against Christian churches and a hike in kidnappings and assassinations.