The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> My Response....

My Response....
Posted by pancho (Moderator) - Sunday, March 1 2009, 3:37:13 (CET)
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Dr. Kelly,

Thank you for your response. I would only add that there is no such thing as modern Assyrians or Chaldeans...growing up in this community I well recall that we never referred to ourselves as "Ashuri" or "Aturi", but always as Suyraye...which means Syrian....which is the Greek version of Aramaens. It would be patently absurd to think any direct and lineal descendants of Socretes walk among us now. Or that we woulod do nothing but laught at them if they demanded, on the basis of their paternity, the spot at the foot of the Parthenon where Socretes once lived. This is the modern Assyrian gambit; to use this supposed connection to win oil wells. It will never happen but whenever the idea has been advanced, it has caused our community terrible grief from retaliation....we have never learned that sedition is punished in all countries and that what we think of as "telling the truth about our indigenous rights"....is sedition. Ask Native Americans who formed the American Indian Movement of the 70s.

What we are is Christian....either Nestorian, Jacobite or Catholic....until we split even farther among many later Protestant groups. The Chaldean and Assyrian name was first applied to our Christian communities by Catholic missionaries and then archelogists...but it's all ably discuseed by Dr. Joseph.

As a sculptor who's spent 30 years making Assyrian sculpture, including two public monuments, it hasn't been pleasant or easy for me to recognize this. I see in the national movement merely a method through which Christian sects felt they could convert themselves to a "nation" and reap the benefits they thought were forthcoming as a result of Wilson's promises after WW I.

From my readings I've concluded that Christians have been far more bloody, in fact THE bloodiest, religion this earth has ever known. Islam was a haven for Jews and Christians when Christians were killing Jews, Muslims and each other. Let's never forget that Christians have killed more Christians than anyone ever bothered to...and that if today Islam is inflamed against Christian war-mongering and meddling, they have every right...as we saw fit to attack Iraq for 9/11, supposedly, when not a single Iraqi was involved. If America, a modern, democratic and, let's not forget, Christian country, can lash out at even those who did nothing to us, then we should be prepared to be more understanding of Islam and its bitter resentment towards Christian nations.

Certainly the Assyrian, Babylonian, Hurrian, Hittite and many more ancient heritages have come down through time...I know I feel something like a strong affinity...but as many, if not more, Assyrians converted to Islam as they did to Christianity. All Iraqis recognize and celebrate their Assyrian heritage. It is not something exclusive to one religion. My worry is that under the guise of Assyrian nationalism, bigotry and hatred of Islam, Arabs, Turks and Kurds grows and grows...much the same slanders and lies once levelled against Jews by Christians, which no one dares utter today, are now being spewed forth, with all the same prejudice and fury but with greatb freedom and confidence, at Muslims and Islam....and we know where this kind of thing leads.

To conclude; there are no Assyrians or Chaldeans...and if there were, they would not be exclusively Christians, as my people insist.

Sincerely,

Fred Parhad



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