The Chaldeans between religion and politics

Abstract

The "Chaldeans" are commonly defined as an Aramaic-speaking Christian Catholic minority from the ancient land of Mesopotamia. One result of the Homeland Security and Homeland Defense actions of the US in response to international efforts in Iraq and the Middle East is a distinct shift in the identity and relationship of this ethnic minority to the US and its national and global security activities. The Chaldeans are in strong contrast to the Islamic and Arab discourses associated with the contemporary Middle Eastern and Iraqi ethno-religious majorities (Sunni and Shiite Arabs and Kurds) and far more closely related to the Christian West, particularly of the United States. Chaldean nationalists argue that Chaldeans are the only indigenous people of ancient Iraq, and hence its first inhabitants. Moreover, they argue that the Chaldean appellation "ethnically and nationally" unified all the inhabitants of the region despite their racial differences, and therefore was the most prominent and the only identity that could have survived the blurring of racial lines and the collapse of the administrative units after the fall of the Babylonian Empire. In contrast with Chaldean nationalists, Assyrian nationalists single out the Assyrian identity as distinct and culturally superior. The modern use of the term "Assyrian" was introduced to the Western World in the late 19th Century by Protestant missionaries and has been employed since 1886. The term is mainly used today to refer to the followers of the Nestorian Church. These newly defined (in the 19th century) Assyrians from the Hakkiari region of the Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey) were used by the British to serve their political purposes within the region. The British relocated the Assyrians to Iran, and eventually to Iraq, where most of them have remained. For political reasons, the various Iraqi regimes indiscriminately lumped Chaldeans and Assyrians together as a single "religious minority" during the bulk of the twentieth century. In recent years, the identity issue has become an enormous political and ideological concern among Iraqi Christians. This linkage of historic Chaldeans with Assyrians is still alien to most people from the individual groups as they follow their individual churches and beliefs, since they are functionally separate despite being labeled the same by outside groups. The international and US focus on nation building, law and order, and economic development in Iraq largely ignores the distinction between these different groups who consider themselves distinct. Their individual interactions with the US government in security and nation building issues are thus relatively fuzzy and much less effective than they could be, including for counter-terrorism and political stability reasons as the US seeks toboth exit from the Middle East and respond to terrorist threats from that region as they impact the rest of the world and particularly the US. As members of the Catholic Chaldean minority initiated their immigration to the US around the turn of the twentieth century, some began to strongly assert their Chaldean identity, promote their Aramaic language, and disfavor affiliations with Arabs and Arab culture. Another tendency among a large number of Chaldean immigrants was their growing eagerness to assimilate into American society as Americans distinct from Arabic groups from the Middle East, including Iraq. The assertion of identity became a mode of denouncing Arabic-Islamic heritage ties as well as an exercise in linking the Chaldean community to a reconstructed past of a homeland whose ancient civilization and glory outshine those of contemporary Iraq. Major religious, social, and political setbacks have been experienced by the Chaldeans in Iraq in the last two decades. There has been a concerted effort to target Christians since the fall of the Ba'athist regime in 2003, thus internally displacing thousands of families in Iraq and causing many more thousands to flee the country entirely. Chaldeans and Christianity in Iraq have been deliberately targeted for many years and especially after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Rather than bringing religious freedom, the fall of the Ba'th regime in April 2003 set free various Islamic fundamentalist groups. For Christians, the days of officially preached religious tolerance during Saddam's rule are now gone. The once limited freedom of worship has now given way to major religious persecution and fear about an impending complete Islamization of Iraq. The irony in today's Iraq is that during Saddam's dictatorship, Chaldeans were relatively safe. Now, they are reduced in number and displaced internally within Iraq or are fleeing Iraq altogether. What has happened and is happening to Iraq's Chaldeans since 2003 exceeded the former regimes' actions toward religious minorities. The new identity of Chaldeans as members of the American community in the US offers unique and powerful opportunities for the US to benefit from this remarkable group of people, including in Homeland Security and Homeland Defense, especially with their profound understanding of the Middle East, its cultures and peoples, and potentially workable solutions that have eluded Western diplomats who understandably have far less knowledge of the cultures, people, history, language, and positive interactions of the people of the Middle East than many in the Chaldean community. TS - WorldCat