Posted by pancho from pool0428.cvx20-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net (209.179.251.173) on Friday, January 17, 2003 at 8:45PM :
There isn't one. Christianity came to Iraq around 50 maybe 70 AD...give or take a lie. It was the dominant religion, and we aren't even sure of that, for maybe 600 years. It had every chance to sink into peoples' minds and hearts
Then came Islam and rapidly spread until it became the dominant religion. It's been that way now for 1300. That's a long time. Obviously Islam is there to stay...it's had a longer run than Christianity and the country is surrounded by other Islamic countries.
When the Ottoman Empire was cut apart and redefined by the Christian West, I don't recall anyone saying they had no right to do it. Warfare does that...it sanctifies theft and murder. The Ottomans have no more claim to a nation in Turkey than the Christian Assyrians do to a reborn Assyria.
Assyria ended 2500 years ago...the region was converted to Islam after a flirtation with Christianity...there is no basis for any demand for national rights for modern Christian Assyrians...none.
If they want a nation...there's one there, it's called Iraq and it was created by the same powers our Christian boys are looking to now to re-create it into an Assyria. This is all outside meddling.
The Arabs conquered the place like the Puritans conquered New England...like the Romans conquered several people. It happens. This calling for a nation for Christians is what gets our "patriots" thrown in jail and hanged...it's what makes life dicey for the diminishing numbers of our Christians there.
Personally I don't care...but it makes us look and sound funny when we say these things...These arguments of ours don't hold water anywhere else...that's also why we're doomed in the West. The more "patriotic" we are, the more fanatically Christian, cause Christians are used to nonsense...most religious types are.
Unwilling to be made complete fools of, we stay in our forums and closets...and soon no one will hear from that branch, and that's a damn good thing.
In the MidEast we'll just have to take our lumps like the rest of the people.
In America and the West the only Assyrian Heritage that will thrive, that's willing to come out in the open, will be the one that ignores religion as a determining factor in who is and is not an Assyrian.
Our Heritage can survive outside of the MidEast, but so far everyone is intent on shoving it down Iraq's throat...no one is really bothering with it where it could grow...no matter what they say, all of these people have one thing in common...they want revenge.
-- pancho
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