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Kurds and Christians: Brothers through
Thick and Thin
22.10.2008
By Mustafa Salih Karim
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October
22, 2008
When the prominent Kurdish leader Sheikh Mahmud
assumed authority as the first King of Kurdistan in
the 1920th, it was essential for him to fill his
government with knowledgeable, efficient, and
reputable ministers.
One of them was a Christian renowned for his
generosity and integrity: Abdul Kareem Alaka, who
was the finance minister for the first government in
Kurdistan. Sheikh Mahmud made this appointment
without paying any heed to what may be said about
him by the people of Sulaimani, who regarded Sheikh
Mahmud as a devout Muslim since he was descendent
from the line of Kak Ahmedi Sheikh. |
Mustafa Salih Karim |
This appointment had a
profound meaning since although the brotherhood of
Kurds and Christians had been established for some
time, this decision became a solid foundation for
the warm relations between Kurds and Christians. In
times of hunger, we shared bread and roasted acorns
together in Sulaimani, and we picked olives from the
orchards of Hermuta near Koya. These relations
extended throughout Mosul and its surroundings,www.ekurd.net
and Christians were like
dear brothers for us. When a Christian dies, the
Church is filled with Muslims offering their
condolences, and sometimes the bereaved families
have more Muslim visitors than Christian ones.
The Christians of Kurdistan shared in the
imprisonment and resistance; and during the time of
revolution, Christians fought nobly in the trenches
against dictatorship and tyranny.
And when they were victims of the barbaric attacks
of Al-Qaeda and the Ba'athists, we stood beside them
in their suffering. We opened our hearts and our
doors to them, and we promised to remain steadfast
in the defense of their humanitarian struggle. They
should return to their homes, full of dignity,
defiant of all Ba'athists—old and new.
What is so confusing is those who insist on fishing
in the polluted waters—those Ba'athist (old and new)
have made the Kurds into a scapegoat for their
crimes, accusing the Kurds of hunting Christians
down in an attempt to acquit the so-called Islamic
state of Iraq and the Ba'athists who are involved in
these crimes. But they forget that the sun can't be
hidden by a single sieve,www.ekurd.net
and that there is no
impartial judge among the Christians who would
believe these unfounded accusations spread via
satellite stations.
In addition to these, there is one man who has gone
so far as to earn the designation of a world record
holder for irresponsible statements. He has
exploited his position as a Member of Parliament to
attack Kurds and accuse them of expelling
Christians. This MP, through his attempts to sow
division in the national unity through false
accusations, will soon lose his immunity as an MP. A
Kurdish Parliamentarian has recently demanded this
stripping of immunity, and we fully support him in
this constitutional demand.
The key point is this: What is the position of the
head of the Iraqi Bloc regarding the circus
performance of his own MP? The question is
particularly important given that the head of the
Iraqi Bloc is supposedly a friend of the Kurds. But
talk is cheap, it is his stance that counts.
Translation: Barzan Wahab from PUKmedia /Arabic
edition
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
pukmedia com
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