Iraqi Christian Refugees Terrified of Returning to Iraq

According to the Qur'an, Christians and Jews are the "worst of creatures." Surah 98:6 reads:

"Verily, those who disbelieve (in the religion of Islam, the Qur'an, and Prophet Muhammad) from among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) and Al-Mushrikun will abide in the Fire of Hell. They are the worst of creatures."

Muslims, however, are the "best of peoples," as we read in Surah 3:111:

"Ye are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in God. If only the People of the Book had faith, it were best for them: among them are some who have faith, but most of them are perverted transgressors."

It isn't difficult to imagine what a society built upon the Qur'an must be like for Christians.

With numerous attacks against Iraq's Christians in recent weeks — including a Halloween day massacre in a Baghdad church, which left 52 dead — the country's religious minority fears for its survival within the boundaries of the Middle Eastern nation. Yet, a long way from their native land, many Iraqi Christians are also living in terror in a far more serene place: Stockholm.

Swedish immigration officials have been deporting Iraqi refugees to Baghdad on flights about every three weeks, declaring that some of them have no legitimate claim to political asylum in Sweden. That includes Iraqi Christians — a category that does not automatically imply a risk of persecution, according to Swedish guidelines. Of the 80,000 or so Iraqi refugees in Sweden, about 6,000 of them are Christian, according to estimates by the Syriac Orthodox Church in Stockhold. That Swedish interpretation of the main criterion for refugee status under U.N. treaties has spread widespread panic among refugees. "There are hundreds of Iraqis here who are not legal who have simply disappeared," says an Iraqi engineer in Stockholm, a Catholic, who fled Baghdad in 2004 with his family after Islamic militants ordered them to leave their home, or be killed. "The refugees are hiding in churches or basements, working illegal jobs, trying to survive, transferring from place to place."

Sweden is not alone in deporting Iraqis. Under agreements signed with Iraq's government, Britain, Norway and Denmark have also sent back hundreds of Iraqis who fled during the most violent years of the war. Alarmed at the deportations, U.N. refugee officials warned last September that many of the returned Iraqis could face grave dangers back home, or place huge burdens on Iraq's neighbors, where millions of Iraqi refugees have also fled. "Serious risks, including indiscriminate threats to life, physical integrity or freedom.... are valid reasons for international protection," the U.N. refugee spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters last September. (Read more.)