aliveinbaghdad's Content

Evangelicals Celebrate Another Christmas in Baghdad

aliveinbaghdad — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:43:56 -0700

BAGHDAD, IRAQ – When members of the National Evangelical Baptist Church in Baghdad celebrated Christmas at the end of 2007, they were also closing their fourth year of existence in Iraq. While many news stories today focus on the dissolution of Iraq’s 2000-year old Christian communities, today there are few articles examining the activities of evangelicals.

A recent report again denominated the many dangers facing Iraq’s Christians, death, kidnapping, extortion, and torture among them. However, the nearly complete absence of mention of Christians other than Iraq’s traditional Chaldean, Assyrian, and Syriac sects is telling. Although it is clear to any observer that these communities are the largest and thus those most at risk, it is also clear that there continues to be underlying conflict between Iraq’s traditional Christians and newcomers, evangelical or otherwise.

One report gave a 100% breakdown of Iraq’s Christians that included only the three main groups in its numbers: “Of the remaining 800,000 Christians, 65 percent are Chaldeans, 25 percent Syriacs, and 10 percent Assyrians.”

Statements such as this, and the vast disparities in total population of Iraqi Christians quoted by the many reports and articles about the dangers they face further muddy a complicated situation. The estimates of Christians remaining in Iraq since the American invasion range from 800,000 to less than 300,000. Even more dramatic, numbers of Christians living in Iraq prior to 2003 range from 800,000 to 1.35 million or slightly more.

Although there have been many articles in 2008 examining the ongoing struggles of Iraq’s Christian minority, they focus almost entirely on the largest portions of the minority, Assyrians and Chaldeans, as well as examining almost exclusively their future in Iraq’s north and the potential for a protected autonomous area for Iraq’s historic Christians. It appears that Evangelicals and other newcomers have not been investigated in depth since early in the war, between 2003 and 2005. This hole in reporting on Iraq’s Christians is made even more dramatic given the veracity, if infrequence, of reporting on the repression of Iraq’s larger Christian communities.

Alive in Baghdad’s depiction of Iraqi Evangelical Baptists celebrating Christmas mass and discussing their hopes and difficulties does not aim to provide a wide depiction of Christian life in Baghdad or Iraq, but will hopefully provide further insight into one of Iraq’s newest Christian minorities.

Militias Still Threaten Security

aliveinbaghdad — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:16:57 -0700

Damascus, Syria - The Mahdi Army, is an army that was created by the Sadr Movement in Iraq and the name "Mahdi" refers to the Imam Mahdi whom the Shia Islamic texts expect will return before Judgment Day.

The Mahdi Army consists of more then two hundred thousand fighters all over Iraq. They are distributed around Baghdad, Najaf, Karbala, and Basra, as well as elsewhere in the country. The main purpose for the creation of the Mahdi Army is to support Imam Mahdi when he appears. The Sadr Movement established offices all over Iraq and in most of Baghdad's neighborhoods, and some have suggested the main purpose of these offices is to recruit young Iraqis to join the Mahdi Army, in order to increase the control of the Mahdi Army within the capital.

Many Iraqis have been found dead after being tortured, they were found without identification. Many Iraqis have accused the Mahdi Army of killing these Iraqis. The reason for these accusations came after the blasts that destroyed the Imam Askariya Shrine. Many Shia militias related to the Mahdi Army threatened to avenge those explosions, and withing days of the attack, many Sunni Iraqis were kidnapped and found dead.

Some eyewitnesses claimed that the kidnappers wore a black uniform that is similar to the uniform of the Mahdi Army. Muqtada Al-Sadr, the leader of the Sadr Movement and the Mahdi Army declared in early 2007 that the Mahdi army is clean from killing any Iraqi Sunni in Baghdad or elsewhere in Iraq, and there are groups taking the name of the Mahdi Army that have been recruited by a separate force from outside Iraq to keep the security situation unstable.

However, many families in Baghdad living in areas such as Al-Khadar'a, Ameriya, and Karrada have received death threats from groups such as " Al-Hussein Brigades," or "Sraiya Al-Imam Ali " asking them either to leave theor house and move to another neighborhoods or face death, and both of these groups have been connected to the Mahdi Army.

The Iraqi government in the year 2007 asked the Mahdi Army to drop there weapons and become a non-armed group. The Mahdi Army has refused to give up their weapons and they asked the Iraqi Government forces to remove their weapons from Basra in early 2008.

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Sex Worker Program in Mexico City - 06.14.2007

aliveinbaghdad — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 14:46:20 -0700

Sex workers are exploited and abused around the world. The Brigada Callejera, in Mexico City, helps sex workers fight these problems. The Brigada also offers education and many other services to help sex workers find dignity in their work, and develop the skills to find other work.
Trabajadores sexuales son explotados y abusados en todo el mundo. La Brigada Callejera, en la Cuidad de Mexico, apoya a trabajadores sexuales a luchar contra estos problemas. Tambien La Brigada ofrece educación y muchos otros servicios para ayudar las trabajadores encontrar dignidad en su trbajo, y tener tan habilidades para encontrar el otro trabajo.

Alive in Mexico