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| MAN OF ACTION The shock of Nadan Yonadam’s death still lingers in the minds of those of us who had the fortune of knowing him, working with him, and hearing his counsel on the Assyrian national movement. I met Nadan 15 years ago in Modesto, California where he lived with his family. During all these years he continued to profess his singular belief in progress through action and not words. “Enough words of who did what and how glorious our past was. Let’s pick up the pieces and move on,” was the last statement he made during a late night visit to my residence where a group of us were delving into the efficacy of today’s political parties in Iraq and in the Diaspora. On 19 August Nadan was killed in action, while delivering his final words. An attack on a military convoy in Tikrit, Iraq ended the life of a true Assyrian patriot whose simple but powerful message echoed in every aspect of his life. Nadan was a former Assyrian Universal Alliance Secretary and a current member of the Assyrian National Organization. Soon after the liberation of Iraq, Nadan returned to his birthplace and took part in the rebuilding of his devastated homeland. Working as a civilian translator for the occupation force, he took his message of action knowing very well the risks involved with joining the infantary division he was aiding. The U.S. forces were conducting a raid in search of the Baathist attackers and were acting on tips given by Tikriti citizens. Nadan and two wounded soldiers were traveling in the Tikrit market district. Nadan was a no non-sense kind of a fellow. You either are or are not an Assyrian, Nadan would say, and you either help your fellow Assyrians or stay off my path. He disliked the two-faced politicians and behind-the-microphone warriors. “If you really mean what you say, come with me to Bet-Nahrain and help me rebuild OUR homeland.” Let us remember Nadan’s dedication and love for his people with more than just a few words of praise. His friends have already suggested the naming of the Assyrian Heritage Room at California State University in Stanislaus as the Nadan Yonadam Room. He would have liked this. Let’s do more by eulogizing the do-ers like Nadan and ignoring the ineffective chanters he avoided at all cost. Our mournful staff at Zinda Magazine offers condolences to Nadan’s wife, Juliet, and their two sons – Atouraya and Khouyada. Everytime a thought becomes a word and a word transforms into a constructive deed, Nadan will be sorely missed. Wilfred Bet-Alkhas
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| NADAN YOUNADAM August 19, 2003, Tikrit, Iraq. Special Ops forces are sent in to investigate shooting and gunfire that took place the day before. The US soldiers are ambushed and attacked with a grenade launcher. Machine gunfire hoses them down as they try to take cover. The soldiers are wounded. They sustained one fatal casualty, their interpreter, Nadan Younadam. August 24, 2003, Mar Odisho Church in Chicago. Juliet, Nadan’s wife of 30 years, and his sons, Khouyada, 24 and Atouraya, 21, were comforted by friends, family and dedicated compatriots in a heart wrenching wake that mourned the loss and, at the same time, celebrated the admirable life of a noble Assyrian that served his nation till the very end. Nadan pristinely believed in and dedicated his life to the Assyrian Cause. He did not have to contemplate about volunteering to aid the Coalition Forces, particularly the US military, in the war to topple the Iraqi dictator. For him it was a golden opportunity to return to his homeland and contribute to cleansing the region of the inhumane government notorious for its disregard of human life and rights and its continuation of the legacy of persecution towards Assyrians in the Middle East. Nadan was born in Nouhadra (Dohuk), North Iraq on September 21, 1946. He graduated Dohuk High School in 1964 and served 2 years in the Iraqi Army. In 1973 he married Juliet Toma in Lebanon and immigrated to the United States. Nadan had two sons, whom he named after the two most important elements required for national survival, Khouyada (Unity) and Atouraya (Assyrian). In 1973, upon arriving to the U.S., he joined the Assyrian Universal Alliance (Khoyada Teeweelaya Atouraya). From 1976 to 1980, Nadan served in the U.S. Navy. He was a member of the AUA Central Committee from 1988 to 1989. He was an AUA Executive Board Member from 1988 to August 19, 2003. Nadan’s love for his Omta was clearly portrayed in his actions and efforts in life. In 1984 he traveled to Washington, DC to protest the arrival of Tariq Aziz and his intentions of establishing an Iraqi Embassy in the U.S. In 1992, Nadan traveled to Northern Iraq following the uprising to transport aid to the Assyrians of that region. In 1994, he was one of the founders of the political arm of the Assyrian Universal Alliance. In 2000, he organized the first Congress of the Assyrian National Organization (Mtakasta) in Northern Iraq. Between 2000 and August 19, 2003, he was a member of the political bureau of the Assyrian National Organization as well as its secretary to Canada and the United States. The importance of grassroots community involvement was not overlooked by Nadan. In 2000, he organized the first Kha B’Neesan parade in Stanislaus, CA. In 2003, prior to his departure for Iraq, he organized the construction effort of an Assyrian Library in the Urhai Club of Stanislaus, CA. To Nadan Younadam the prime directive was simple and consisted of two parts: 1) preserve and perpetuate the Assyrian culture and 2) the nation or “Omta Atoureta” is above any and all organizations, institutions, individuals and groups. Nothing demonstrated Nadan’s dedication to his convictions and his people more, than his decision to go and risk his life side by side with the Coalition Forces for the sake of establishing democracy in Iraq and thereby securing the future of the Assyrian people in the Assyrian Homeland. Nadan Younadam went to Iraq knowing full well that he may die. He left his family and embarked on his mission for the sake of justice and freedom. The Assyrian Nation did not lose a patriot, it gained a martyr. For Martyrs make the ultimate sacrifice to advance a belief, cause and principle. Nadan had requested to be laid to rest in Nouhadra, North Iraq should anything happen to him. May God rest His Soul and bless his family and friends for their loss. Sheren Jasim MOST ASSYRIANS ARE CHRISTIAN. WHAT WILL THEIR FATE BE? Ambrose Bierce wrote: "War is God's way of teaching Americans
geography." A quip too true to be entirely funny. Iraq's Assyrians claim direct descent from the original inhabitants of Iraq, who built the tower of Babel and enthusiastically received Jonah's grudging call for repentance at Nineveh. They have names like Sargon, the king described by Isaiah, or Nimrod, the "mighty hunter before the Lord" portrayed in Genesis. They are an ancient ethnic group distinct from the Arabs, who invaded their land in the seventh century. In one respect, though, they are very different from their forebears:
The large majority is now Christian (though there are also Sabean
Mandeans, who believe that John the Baptist was the Messiah, and
Yazidis, who put great stress on angels). According to tradition,
they first became Christians through the mission of the apostle
Thomas ("doubting Thomas"), and the church is old enough
for it to be true. They continue to speak a version of Aramaic,
the language Jesus spoke. The Ancient Church of the East, often called "Nestorian," responded to this persecution by becoming one of the greatest missionary churches in history, establishing 250 dioceses and 1,000 monasteries from Iraq to India and China. In 1552, many members entered into communion with the Roman Catholic Church, which led to the formation of the Chaldean church, which now includes the majority of Iraq's Christians. Since Assyrians are geographically hemmed in by Persians, Turks, Kurds and Arabs, they have suffered terrible persecution in the modern era. In 1915, many were slaughtered by the Ottomans and the Kurds. In 1919, they sought their own state. When the British took over Mesopotamia after World War I, they judged the Assyrians' situation so desperate that they considered moving them to Canada. In 1930, there were proposals to transfer them to South America, in 1932 to Syria. Following massacres by the Arabs in 1933, the British flew the patriarch to Cyprus for safety while the League of Nations debated moving them to Brazil or Niger(!). Under Saddam's censuses, they were not allowed to register as Assyrians, only as Arabs or Kurds. Now many Assyrians have fled to southern California and Chicago, and Chaldeans to Detroit. Middle East scholar Mordechai Nisan has written that the "cutting edge of modern Middle Eastern statehood was a cruel portent for certain minority peoples, specifically Christian ones like Armenians in Turkey and Assyrians in Iraq." The "tyranny of the majority" was, he notes, "a formula in the East for repression and loss on a grand scale." And today? Interviewing Assyrian leaders recently in Baghdad, I found the lessons of this history crystallized in their continuing fear of such a tyranny. They worry that America will yield to demands for Islamic law from the Islamist bloc in the new Iraqi governing council and that they will once more become a barely tolerated and often despised minority. If the U.S. treats them as the British did, as one more inconvenient minority in the Middle East who must be sacrificed to the greater good of mollifying Arab and Muslim sentiment, then Chicago and Detroit, and America as a whole, will gain from these talented immigrants. But we will have presided over the demise of one of Iraq's, and the world's, most ancient religions and peoples. Paul Marshall [Z-info: Mr. Marshall
is a senior fellow at Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom.] CONSEQUENCES OF THE ABSENCE OF AN ASSYRIAN AGENDA IN BAGHDAD
I am keen in understanding politics but fail to understand the daily occurring in Baghdad ever since an American tank pulled down the dictator’s statue in central Baghdad. We waited long for that day to happen and our expectations were surely high that after the deluge the Assyrian march will be unstoppable but for our dismay we the genuine Assyrian masses feel that our march has halted. We have too many political organisations worldwide and on the ground Zowaa Democrataya Ashuraya catapulted itself to the front of Assyrian politics especially the years following the first Gulf war but after the second Gulf war and the demise of the Aflaqite regime Zowaa nearly monopolised the Assyrian politics by regarding itself as the sole speaker and representative for our oppressed nation. I am for Zowaa in the past but after the current developments in Baghdad Zowaa has terribly failed to hold high the banner of the Assyrian uprising and the Assyrian liberation and the Assyrian permanent revolution. It has seriously lost the confidence of our masses in conveying the demand of every Assyrian-the nationhood. With the American forces closing in from all fronts bashing the petty regulars, semi-regulars, irregulars and mercenaries of the shabby regime the Kurds moved quickly to consolidate their presence in our Assyrian heartland without a whistle blowing from our Assyrian spokesmen. The only thing the Assyrian leadership did was just opening offices alongside the Kurdish offices. The Kurdish intruders now have offices in every Assyrian town despite the absence of Kurdish grassroots and persist to claim that the entire land is part of the Kurdish equation. This is in fulfilment of an outcry by the Kurdish warlords before the war that some parts of the ‘Kurdish’ lands are still beyond their control-the Assyrian Nineveh. What role has Zowaa or any Assyrian party played in rebuffing and forcing the Kurds out of our heartland or asking the Kurds to retreat from our beloved lands in Duhok and Arbil provinces? Zowaa has achieved nothing for the Assyrian nation since April 9 beyond opening of party offices, interviews with anti Christianity CNN and the likes and a negligible membership of the current reactionary council of Baghdad. If any Assyrian raises a question, the instant reply is that Zowaa has participation in other committees for re-writing and re-organising Baghdad. What veto has a single Assyrian in a council with other 24 Muslims? Zowaa will approve what the rest decides. What veto has a single Assyrian in a committee for re-writing Baghdad? Can a single Assyrian force a giant body of elephants to endorse an Assyrian governorate in the plain of Nineveh our heartland and force the Kurds to retreat from parts of Dohuk and Arbil? Why should Zowaa accept one seat among the council? The minorities together should have at least 5 seats out of the 25, representing Assyrians, Yazidis and Mandeans. Zowaa never evolved such thought and was happy to grab the chair before it was gone. This is our weakness that we fail to assert the Assyrian agenda and almost in the end we will get what we already had before from rights to go to church, to go to university, to have mayors and diluted presence in our towns and to have a single seat in the future cabinet. The signs of doom are very visible from the current council and I can see the nature of Baghdad tomorrow. What do you expect from such a miserable council where the Assyrian party is without Assyrianism, the Communist party without Communism and Chadirchy without Chadirchism? This council is a myth and the reality is that out of this council will emerge a government in the future that will turn the clocks back to the times of 1933 (the Simel year). A man in this council who returned to the country on American tank after he left it as boy is preparing the way for a Hijazi to rule who returned to Baghdad in private plane after leaving it as a toddler via Saudi embassy. It is the Biblical way of John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus to come. Zowaa does not have a say in the nature of future government
in Baghdad and will approve what is decided by others. In 1968 Saddam was given power and did not take it himself and his role was to wipe out many republican generations and in 35 years he did so with much blood up to his eyes. How did such regime survive such long stay without the support provided from outside? It is impossible. How could such regime withstand eight years of bloody war with a formidable neighbour? At that time the world over stood by the dictator especially the west. I have been living in Britain for many years and during all these years Saddam’s agents never stopped strolling the streets of Britain even up to the demise of the regime on April 9 and beyond. This was not with the knowledge of Britain only but indeed was coordinated, programmed, guided and sustained by Britain. I am a witness and I am ready to testify and I will testify. In return for that service Saddam relinquished power on April 9 the same power that was given to him to be replaced by direct rule from outside and now we are back to the 1933 the year Arabic Baghdad killed our people while the colonialists watched. Why should we fail again to assert our Assyrian agenda after 100 years of hard struggle and sideline our cause for the sake of a country that is ungovernable? Why should we base our action on begging while the other communities are bent on grab and control? There is no future for us in a community founded on RPG, grenades, human bombs and car bombs to achieve its objectives. Saddam already has relatives in Britain and presently has many grandchildren who will later move to join others and in 20 to 30 years they will form a government in exile to retake Baghdad and the cycle of bloodshed repeated. Shall we continue to burn ourselves in the smouldering fire of others? In the eight-year war with neighbour we the Assyrians sacrificed 40,000 souls for the sake of keeping the heathen despot in power and the reward was he turned Islamic by making the country an Islamic state as a punishment for Christianity. We suffered too much and no genuine Assyrian can stand anymore the self destruction at home and the life of misery in exile. We all need a homeland and we all want to return to our towns and villages forcing the occupiers out and build our young nation. We ask our Assyrian representatives and Zowaa in particular to adopt the following points for the sake of our oppressed people: 1. A government be established based on technocrats and this
government should be representative but not proportional. Proportional
representation is a myth and does not apply to us because we are
the indigenous people, always under populated and mostly live
in the north and in Baghdad area. The rest of the country is nearly
empty from Assyrians. The Assyrians with Yazidis and Mandeans
should have 5 seats in a council of 20-25 members. 2. Re-structuring the country by creating an Assyrian province in the Assyrian triangle and ask for the Kurdish retreat from our lands. The Assyrian presence in Baghdad may no longer be tenable and therefore this requires the transfer of our people to the north and the creation of many new Assyrian towns and villages. And for us Assyrians in exile it is meaningless to continue the Assyrian politics if no longer wish to return but most of us will return provided that the establishing of a secure Assyrian entity in the north is guaranteed. From this restructuring of the country, a federal system may evolve for each ethnic group with its sovereign borders 3. The unity of our people who constitute to our one Assyrian nation must be based in the participation of all the constituents. Here in this case members of the Chaldean church be given higher role to play in Assyrian politics due to the demographic factor without compromising in the national issues of our politics. Zowaa can not take this task alone and must coordinate with other Assyrian groups, and all together must never fail to shake Baghdad to its foundations and make our voice heard. We have to see signs to believe and so far there is no such sign that we Assyrians have achieved anything after April 9 comparing with the arrogant rampant elephants. As I watch news daily and as some who conveyed news to us from Baghdad we can see nothing real for Assyrian optimism but there is only one thing real in Baghdad and that is a ‘mobile’ British embassy, an omen that we Assyrians, Americans and all humanity continue to suffer. Dr. George Habash
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| PATRIARCHAL STANDSTILL IN BAGHDAD (ZNDA: Baghdad) The world's Chaldean Catholic bishops gathering in Baghdad, under extremely difficult conditions, have reached a standstill in electing the new Patriarch for their church. Following the death of Patriarch Raphael I Bidawid on July 7, the leaders of the world's 20 Chaldean Catholic dioceses have been gathering in Baghdad since August 19 for a synod at which they elect a new leader for their Church. As with most Eastern Catholic churches, the leader of the Chaldean Catholic Church is elected by the bishops of that rite, and then "recognized" by the Holy See in Vatican. With communications between Baghdad and the outside world suffering because of the chaotic state of the city, which is suffering from recurrent electrical failures and sporadic violence, very little news of the Chaldean synod has been made available. However, reliable sources to Zinda Magazine explain that the behind-closed-doors assembly of bishops reached a standstill by last Friday when no bishop received a required two-thirds vote. According to these sources, Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo, Syria received 12 votes and Bishop Sarhad Jammo from U.S. a total of 8 votes. One bishop abstained from voting and Bishop of Istanbul failed to attend the synod. A minimum of 14 votes was needed to secure the position of the next Chaldean Catholic Patriarch. In the event of such standstill the Holy See in Vatican, according
to the canons of the Church, is expected to intervene and select
the next Patriarch. A decision is expected as early as this week.
ASSYRIAN APPOINTED TO IRAQI CABINET POSITION (ZNDA: Baghdad) Most of the 25 newly selected Iraqi cabinet appointees took the oath of office before Mr. Ahmad Chalabi, the current president of Iraq's Interim Governing Council. The cabinet ministers will report to the Council, which in turn reports to the U.S. chief administrator in Iraq, Mr. Paul Bremer. The cabinet positions were divided on 1 September among the country's ethnic communities -- 13 to Shiites, 5 to Sunnis, 5 to Kurds, 1 to Turkomans and 1 to Assyrians. Mr. Behnam Zayya Polis was appointed as the Minister of Transportation. The following is a breakdown of the cabinet positions held by various ethnic groups: Shiite-held Cabinet Positions: Sunni-held Cabinet Positions: Kurdish-held Cabinet Positions: Turkoman-held Cabinet Position: Assyrian-held Cabinet Position: ASSYRIANS IN SYRIA MOURN AL-HAKIM With special thanks to Mr. Salym Abraham reporting from Syria (ZNDA: Sayda Zeinab) Some 5,000 Iraqi Shiites marched down the
main street of Sayda Zeinab near Damascus on Beating their chests and shouting, “Allahu Akbar” or
God is great, “Al-Hakim has passed away” the mourners |
| NEW INDUSTRY IN BAGHDAD: KIDNAPPING FOR RANSOM Courtesy of the New York Times (26 August); by Robert F. Worth (ZNDA: Baghdad) One morning last month, Martin Shukur was standing outside his family's home when a gray Mercedes-Benz sedan rolled up to the front gate with four well-dressed men inside. "Are you Adnan's son?" one of them asked. Martin, a tall, baby-faced 17-year-old whose father is a wealthy businessman, said yes. One of the men pulled out an AK-47 and demanded that Martin get into the car. It was the beginning of a 16-day ordeal that ended only when Martin's father paid a $30,000 ransom — a vast sum in Iraq. Martin was returned alive, though badly beaten. He is the latest reported victim in a wave of kidnappings, Iraqi officials say, by members of Saddam Hussein's security and intelligence services. The kidnappers are well armed and organized, and often use torture techniques similar to those used against political prisoners under the old government. The kidnappers seem to have access to information about the capital's wealthiest families and have been paid as much as $100,000 in ransom. American officials working with the Iraqi police say the vast majority of the kidnappings are not being reported, though, because the families either are too frightened or simply lack any faith in the new police force, which is still small and ill equipped. "This is happening all the time," said Adnan Shukur, as he sat with Martin and other relatives in the family's elegant living room. "They took him on the street, with people watching. We believe nothing will stop them from taking him away again." Only four kidnappings since the war have led to full-scale investigations in which the criminals were arrested or identified, said Nouman Shubbar, an Iraqi-born Philadelphia police sergeant who is advising the police. It is unclear whether others might have been reported without an adequate response by the police. Based on reports from victims, though, the number of kidnappings over the past three months appears to be at least 40 in Baghdad alone, said Emad Dhia, the director of the Iraq Reconstruction and Development Council, a group of former dissidents who provide intelligence to the United States military and the Iraqi police. In most cases, though not all, the kidnappers seem to have been members of Saddam Hussein's government, Mr. Dhia said. In many respects, Martin's experience was typical. Three days after abducting him, a kidnapper called his terrified parents and demanded $250,000, saying that if they did not pay, their son would be killed and another of the Shukurs' five children would be taken. Mr. Shukur called the police, he said, and was told there was little they could do. "We were neither dead nor alive," said Mr. Shukur, as he sat, stone-faced, recalling the time when his son was gone. "Those were terrible days." As the family waited, Martin lay blindfolded and tied to a stairwell somewhere in Baghdad, he said. During the first several days, the kidnappers punched him repeatedly in the face and beat his back with electrical cables. At times he heard at least three other hostages in nearby rooms, and he heard the kidnappers talking about one who had managed to escape. Later Martin was moved to another house. There, he said, he heard the kidnappers recalling an attack on American soldiers in June and making plans to buy shoulder-launched missiles to fire at American helicopters. "Don't worry, your father's money will not go in vain," one of them told him. "We will use it to continue our attacks against the Americans." Kidnapping was rare in Iraq before the war, Mr. Shubbar said. But in a way it is not surprising that members of the former government should turn to kidnapping, Mr. Dhia said, because Mr. Hussein's security agents abducted tens of thousands of people for political reasons. "They've lost their jobs, they've lost power, and this is what they're trained to do," he said. About a week after Martin's abduction, a local priest came to see the Shukurs, who are Christian. He told them that a man had told him where Martin was being held, and how to find the house. The family went to a local American military post. An Army captain agreed to go with Martin's uncle and father to the house, but after breaking down the door, he and his soldiers found no one there, said the uncle, Majid Ameen Saleem. Later, the man who had spoken to the priest said the kidnappers had just moved Martin to another house when the soldiers arrived. One official at the development council said there were indications that the police might be working with kidnappers in some cases. Eventually, the kidnappers agreed to free Martin for $30,000. A man calling himself an intermediary came to the house, warning that he would shoot at any sign of the police or American soldiers. He drove a friend of the Shukur family to an alley in the northern part of Baghdad, where he disappeared with Mr. Shukur's $30,000 in cash, and returned 15 minutes later with Martin. Martin and his parents were delirious with relief and joy when they
saw each other. But Mr. Shukur said he had decided there was no safety
in this country. He and Mr. Saleem plan to move their entire extended
family to the United States. 60 CUNEIFORM TABLETS FOUND AT KULTEPE (KANESH) IN KAYSERI, TURKEY Courtesy of Zaman Newspaper; 21 August 2003 (ZNDA: Turkey) Sixty cuneiform tablets were found at a site in Kultepe (Kanesh) in Kayseri. The site is considered to be one of Turkey's most important historical sites, once used by Assyrian merchants. Prof. Dr. Tahsin Ozguc, in charge of the Kultepe (Kanesh) excavation, said: "These tablets are the results of one week work. Although we have begun working late, we found 60 cuneiform tablets that belong to Assyrian trade colonies." "This year we have found earthenware pots, potters, tools from different times, and also well- preserved clay tablets in our excavations. These tablets were made just before the foundation of Hittite Empire around 1730-1800 B.C. I think these tablets will help our understanding and shed light on this period of history." Ozguc explained that excavations have reached the floor of the first layer. Ozguc added that if they have the opportunity, they would dig to the second layer, which is considered to be the richest period of the Assyrian colony. Prof. Dr. Tahsin Ozguc has been excavating continuously at the Kultepe
site for 55 years. Berlin, Munich, and Gent Universities have awarded
Tahsin Ozguc honorary doctorates, and he is a member of the British,
Munich, and Turkish Academy of Sciences. GERMAN SCHOLAR CHALLENGES THE QURAN: ORIGINAL LANGUAGE WAS ARAMAIC, NOT ARABIC Courtesy of the Newsweek International; article by Stefan Theil (ZNDA: New York) In a note of encouragement to his fellow hijackers, September 11 ringleader Muhammad Atta cheered their impending “marriage in Paradise” to the 72 wide-eyed virgins the Qur’an promises to the departed faithful. Palestinian newspapers have been known to describe the death of a suicide bomber as a “wedding to the black-eyed in eternal Paradise.” But if a German expert on Middle Eastern languages is correct, these hopes of sexual reward in the afterlife are based on a terrible misunderstanding. Arguing that today's version of the Qur’an has been mistranscribed from the original text, scholar Christoph Luxenberg says that what are described as “houris” with “swelling breasts” refer to nothing more than “white raisins” and “juicy fruits.” Luxenberg—a pseudonym—is one of a small but growing group
of scholars, most of them working in non-Muslim countries, studying
the language and history of the Qur’an. When his new book is
published this fall, it’s likely to be the most far-reaching
scholarly commentary on the Qur’an’s early genesis, taking
this infant discipline far into uncharted—and highly controversial—territory.
That’s because Islamic orthodoxy considers the holy book to
be the verbatim revelation of Allah, speaking to his prophet, Muhammad,
through the Angel Gabriel, in Arabic. Therefore, critical study of
God’s undiluted word has been off-limits in much of the Islamic
world. (For the same reason, translations of the Qur’an are
never considered authentic.) Islamic scholars who have dared ignore
this taboo have often found themselves labeled heretics and targeted
with death threats and violence. Luxenberg, a professor of Semitic
languages at one of Germany’s leading universities, has chosen
to remain anonymous because he fears a fatwa by enraged Islamic extremists.
ANCIENT MEDIEVAL CITY OF HASANKEYF THREATENED BY DAM CONSTRUCTION Courtesy of MSN-TV (20 August) (ZNDA: Ankara) One of the world’s only intact medieval cities’ Hasankeyf, faces a dark fate of being inundated beneath the waters of a dam. Archaeologists have resumed excavations on the ancient city of Hasankeyf, located in the south eastern Turkish province of Mardin, fighting against time before construction of a dam on the nearby Tigris River threatens to flood the site. This year’s dig began well behind schedule, according to the
head of the archaeological team, Professor Olu? Ar?k, who blamed the
Culture and Tourism Ministry for the three months long delay. This
season, there will be a team of 40 technicians and 120 workers taking
part in the one month long dig.
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| URGENT APPEAL FOR WORLDWIDE SUPPORT The Assyrian Christian Community worldwide is opting out a worldwide appeal for assistance to the Christian Community worldwide and organization and individual committed to freedom of thought, democracy and the rule of law. As the indigenous, original people of Iraq, the Assyrian Christians, with a worldwide population of 6 million and a population in Iraq set at 2.5 million by the previous government of Sadaam Hussein, the community is appealing for help in attaining the following, all under serious jeopardy at this time: 1. Secular Constitution - The community demands that the constitution of Iraq be secular, as under the previous administration, with a strong prohibition against any religious involvement by the government with religion, in line with the Japanese Constitution of 1947. 2. Autonomy - The community demands autonomy and local self-government in its original and historic land, as the only guarantee that as a minority, their rights, culture and religion will be preserved. 3. Intimidation - The community demands an immediate end to constant intimidation, including use of loudspeakers for the call to prayer, the banning of the veil, all of which are currently banned in other Muslim countries, including Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, etc. 4. Land - The community demands an immediate return of all lands confiscated by force by the previous regime. 5. Citizenship - The community demands an immediate restoration of citizens taken away by the previous administration to allow for participation in government. 6. Representation - The community demands immediate representation under a formula that takes into account the special rights as indigenous peoples and long years of persecution. The Assyrian Christian Community calls on all representatives of the press to assist the community in getting a message out seeking assistance with the above, as their condition is becoming desperate with the rapid "Islamization" by force which is taking place throughout the country and, if continued, will leave the community no other choice than to immigrate en masse. Rev. Ken Joseph, Jr.
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| LETTER FROM BAGHDAD Courtesy of the United Press International (3 September) I have been shocked at the difference between the Baghdad I found
on my return and all the bad news from the city. At night the streets are full of pedestrians, many families with children. I am at a loss to reconcile what we see on the ground with what is being reported. The "regular people" are much better off than they were. Security has improved with Iraqi police everywhere, telephones are starting to work, electricity, while off and on, is relatively stable, the stores are full of food, and, little by little, people are getting jobs back. Pensions have been paid on time. The schools are working and people for the first time have hope and a future. When I was here before the war what was most awful for people was that they had no future -- nothing to look forward to. For us who have never experienced that situation, it is difficult to understand, but it is akin to being in prison without the possibility of parole. They would look at me and say, "Sure we have food, a place to live, a job. But can you understand what it is to live with no tomorrow? It is like living in prison." Now -- for the first time in 35 years -- they have a hope and a future. What most impressed me was to see Iraqis really hustling. They are thinking of starting companies and importing goods. People, especially young people, say that for the first time in their lives they can travel overseas, surf the Internet, make international calls, and watch satellite TV. It is a wonderful time for the average Baghdadi. What is really happening is the movement of Iraq from a "police state" to a "normal" country. During Saddam's time, life in many ways was stable, crime was low, prices were low. But we are in a time of dramatic change. People have to learn to adjust to the "fringe benefits" of a free society. These changes include higher prices, the need to work, room for creativity, having choices, basic street crime, locking doors -- and a range of TV channels. It is shocking for some -- especially the older people -- but the very old and the young are excited. The very old because they remember the good old days; the very young because they're excited about all the new things, such as MTV and the Internet. Those who naysay everything are very interesting. The people are very clear on who they are -- they all were connected to Saddam. For the first time in their lives, they are going to have to work; no more handouts. The easy life is over. But the numbers are staggering. People estimate nearly 20 percent or more of the population was in some form on Saddam's gravy train, some by choice, others by force. And nearly all of the population had been getting free food, tea and sugar. As for the crime, they emptied the prisons so nearly 50,000 hard-nosed criminals are on the streets. Another problem is just as it was before the war -- the outsiders. I cannot understand why the United States has not done two basic things: sealing the borders and setting up a TV station. Iraq Magnet There is no border check so Iraq is becoming the magnet for every one that wants to get a chance to fight with Americans. This is a great puzzle to me. What is happening, including the bombings, as far as people who I talked to are concerned, is the work of foreign nuts -- the same people who were the only ones to fight for Saddam at the later part of the war. They are coming from all over the world like they did in Afghanistan to get a chance to fight Americans. I always remember how in Jordan everybody loved Saddam, whereas in Iraq everybody hated him. The Iraqi people, in spite of all that is said, love the Americans. They are deeply grateful and are giving the United States the benefit of the doubt. What has happened as far as the general population is concerned is what I term "the great letdown." People tend to make the United States Superman. They think the United States is all-powerful, the bastion of freedom, democracy, strength. They thought that the United States would come in and with superhuman power overnight transform Baghdad into New York and Mosul into San Francisco. It is traumatic to realize that America is not God and is very, very human. There is this gap between godlike perceptions of Americans and the realization that they have limits and cannot do everything overnight. That is why it is critical to get basic services up -- electricity, water, and transportation. With all due respect, people in Iraq in general hate radical Islam. They are secular. They do not want to see an Islamic state. They do not want to become like Iran. At the same time, money and people from Iran, Saudi Arabia and other places are flooding the country using intimidation to accomplish what they cannot do by any other means. And average Iraqi is concerned at what seems to be a U.S. position, that is soft on Islam. The problem for Christians is very different. The Americans do not appear to be requiring a secular constitution as they did in Japan or a limited regional autonomy. This is a serious problem for us. They are already giving their blessing to the dual system so common in Muslim countries: the recent citizenship changes allow for a 2-year wait for Arabs (read Muslims) and a 9-year wait for non-Arabs. We are beginning to feel that if the United States will not demand that the constitution be secular with a strong prohibition against religious involvement by the government and limited autonomy, then we will have to pull Assyrian Christians out of the country. Rev. Ken Joseph Jr., an Assyrian, who initially was against the war, was so shocked at his experiences while in Iraq before the war as one of the few allowed in without government "minders," he changed his mind. Following the war, Rev. Joseph brought in the first post-war refugee truck with 20 tons of water, food, medicine and satellite telephones, and continues to assist on the ground in Iraq. Rev. Ken Joseph, Jr. WHAT WOULD JESUS SPEAK? Probably no film in history has been written about as much before its public debut as Mel Gibson's new movie about the last days of Jesus. Many of the critics and scholars who have seen it screened in advance have accused it of both antisemitism and historical ignorance — an ignorance all the more appalling in light of its pretensions to be cinema verité. One commonly cited illustration of this is the movie's choice of Aramaic and Latin as the two languages spoken by its characters — the former by Jesus, his disciples and other Jews, and the latter by non-Jews. In fact, as has been pointed out, the language of most non-Jews in the Palestine of Jesus' time was Greek and not Latin, which would have been spoken only by Roman officials and soldiers conversing among themselves. And to Jews like Jesus, such men, too, would have spoken in Greek, since this was the lingua franca of the country. In the early centuries C.E., Greek and Aramaic were indeed the two languages most widely spoken throughout the entire eastern Mediterranean world; Latin, though the official language of the Roman Empire, was rarely used east of Italy. It was a newcomer to the Levant, having arrived only with the Roman military occupation of the region in the first century B.C.E. Greek, on the other hand, had been around since the fourth century, when it was spread as far east as Persia and Afghanistan by Alexander the Great's conquering army, which left behind ruling elites that Hellenized vast stretches of territory — especially along the Mediterranean littoral from Syria to Egypt, where it was, by the time of Jesus, the language of the educated and urbanized classes. Aramaic — a more ancient Middle-Eastern lingua franca originally disseminated by the expansion of the Assyrian Empire hundreds of years before Alexander — remained the tongue of the uneducated, the peasantry and minority groups like the Jews that refused to be Hellenized. (Apart, that is, from the large Jewish community of Egypt, which went over to Greek entirely, perhaps because the language of the Egyptian countryside was not Aramaic but Coptic.) And yet, even among the Jews of Palestine, who knew no Latin at all, a knowledge of Greek was widespread in Jesus' day. Anyone wishing to know just how widespread it was can do no better than to consult Saul Lieberman's classic Greek And Hellenism In Jewish Palestine, which, though published over 40 years ago, remains the definitive work on the subject. Lieberman was by training a Talmudist, a great one, and he approached the subject by analyzing many Greek words and calque expressions found in the Hebrew and Aramaic rabbinic literature of the Hellenistic period. (A calque expression is an idiom or construction translated literally from one language into another, as when, for instance, the German Weltanschauung becomes the English "world-view.") He found an enormous amount of these, enough to convince him that even members of the rabbinical establishment, which led the opposition to Greek culture, often knew Greek well. Lieberman didn't bother with the hundreds of well-known Greek words in Hebrew that entered it in this period, many of them still everyday Hebrew terms, such as prozdor, a corridor, from the Greek prothyron, "vestibule"; delpek, a counter, from delphikhe, "three-legged table"; sanegor, a defense counsel, from synegoros, "attorney"; kumkum, a kettle, from khoukhoumion; or apotropos, a legal guardian or court-appointed administrator, from epitropos. Rather, he concentrated on instances where a rabbinic knowledge of Greek is less obvious yet is the clue to understanding the meaning of a rabbinic text. Here is one example. There is a Talmudic legend about a pious Jew who, hearing of a famous courtesan in Italy who charged the astronomical sum of 400 gold coins to spend a night with her, could not control his curiosity and traveled to her with the money to find out what she charged so much for. Yet his religious inhibitions got the better of him and at the crucial moment he was impotent — which made the courtesan, no less curious herself, react by saying, "By the limb of Rome [gapa shel Romi, in Hebrew], I will not let you go until you tell me what is wrong with me." What is "the limb of Rome"? Lieberman convincingly shows that the Hebrew word gapa, "limb of," is actually a later corruption by scribes who no longer understood Greek of the Greek word agape, "love," and that in the original story, as told and understood by Jews in Palestine, the courtesan swore by "the love of Rome." There is no evidence that Jesus himself understood Greek, and his few statements in the New Testament that purportedly appear in the language in which they were originally spoken are all in Aramaic. Still, he may have known enough Greek to use it in his contact with non-Jews, or with Roman officials like Pontius Pilate, and if he didn't, there would always have been someone available to translate. As for Latin, viewers of Mel Gibson's movie will probably hear more of it than Jesus did. Philologos for Forward.com PRESERVE HISTORY, THEN MANIPULATE IT Earlier this month, just as the American authorities in Iraq were finally releasing photographs of 30 major treasures missing from Iraq’s National Museum, a different controversy erupted in New York over the looted history of the Middle East. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art opened a major exhibit, Art of the First Cities, containing artifacts from ancient Mesopotamia. Many had a shadowy provenance and had probably been looted years before. With the thefts in Iraq still fresh in everyone’s mind, questions naturally arose: Didn’t handsome museum displays of such artifacts encourage plundering? Weren’t such exhibits ultimately immoral? Western curators have long justified their holdings Nineveh’s winged bulls, Babylon’s Gate of Ishtar, the Parthenon marbles, etc. on such grounds as superior preservation and security. But listen to this defense offered by David Owen, an archaeologist who oversees a large Mesopotamian collection at Cornell University: “The fault (of looting) is not ours,” Owen recently told a New York newspaper; “These (Middle Eastern) countries are in their infancy when it comes to teaching people to respect their past.” That’s a large accusation. It implies that the value of “the
past” is a known and agreed-upon constant, and that Middle
Easterners have been ignorant of it. In fact, the peoples of the
Middle East have always protected the past that they deemed important,
though it is also true that the region has not always agreed with
the West on which aspects of antiquity deserved respect. But then,
the West has repeatedly changed its own views on precisely the same
issue. On the other hand, such sites as Nebi Yunis, which were believed to have Koranic associations, were jealously protected from excavation (and often remain so). That is of course an issue of sacred Islamic history, though Islam has not been the only factor at work. Western scholars of the 19th century were as shocked to learn that the region’s Christian monasteries were burning their ancient manuscripts to gain shelf space as they were to learn that magnificent Assyrian artworks had been intentionally smashed. “The past” has long been expansively defined in the West, but many of the same issues of “respect” have arisen. The Catholic Church used ancient, pagan Rome as a quarry until it lost temporal power in the 1870s. A mountain of statuary was burned for lime and everything not associated with the Christianizing Emperor Constantine was in jeopardy. Italy’s Fascists, on the other hand, valued ancient Rome for its imperial past, but sought to destroy the city’s medieval and Renaissance remains because, in Mussolini’s words, they were so much “picturesque filth.” Britons, in the meantime, had been dismantling Hadrian’s Wall to build their barns, while Americans plowed through the ancient mounds of the prairies, and left trinket hunters to destroy the remains of the cliff-dwelling Anasazi Indians. The destruction and looting of the unvalued past is a long, unhappy tale. Until fairly recently, the West had no respect for the Middle East’s past, either, and was interested less in history than in museum pieces. Indeed, evidence of Iraq’s ancient history was often destroyed in the frenzied search for big statues, many of which went to adorn private homes. So, too, in Egypt, where Westerners once explored the Great Pyramid using dynamite, and established a consumer market in mummies. So, too, throughout the region. Westerners did show a historical interest in Biblical sites, but, like Iraq’s Nebi Yunis, that was a matter of sacred history. In fact, antiquity has been increasingly celebrated in the modern Middle East, though often for political reasons. Different politics, to paraphrase historian Bernard Lewis, require different pasts. Witness the Baathist reconstruction of Babylon, the various nationalist exploitations of Egypt’s pharaohs, Lebanon’s Phoenicians, Syria’s Aramaeans and Jordan’s Nabateans. Nor is politicized history unknown in the West, where the issue involves cultural power, so that “mainstream” history has been under sustained assault from numerous aggrieved groups. It is obviously sensible to encourage people to “respect their past.” But we can’t reach a consensus on its value before we decide on what that past is. Charles Paul Freund [Z-Info: Charles Paul Freund is a senior editor at Reason magazine and writes a regular commentary for the Daily Star.]
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I was born in 1981 in Baghdad, Iraq. I Came to America in 1989. I have 2 younger sisters. I've been involved in the fine arts at an early age. All throughout
high school, my artistic skill started to develop into something
more personal. After leaving high school I attended Oakton Community
College and then later Loyola University Chicago. I Graduated
from Loyola in summer of 2003 with a Bachelors in General and
Integrative Studies (BGIS) with a concentration in the fine arts.
Ideas that don’t provoke society have little or no need for a presence within the artistic intellect. You come closer to ideas that spark the intellect. Rabel [Z-info: Visit Rabel’s Art at http://www.rabelsart.com/gallery.html. ]
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