Why Can't Assyirans Be Terrorists?

I bumped into the Top 10 Reasons Assyrians Cannot Be Terrorists while browsing through a discussion forum under Chaldean Online. The reasons apply to Assyrians as much as to Chaldeans. It makes more sense if you got to know a Chaldean or an Assyrian personally. It would not make sense for people who know me. After I moved to Australia, I became a calmer person -- more like a koala.

Here are the top 10 reasons why Assyrians or Chaldeans can't be terrorists.

1. 8:00 A.M. is too early for us to be up.


2. We are always late, we would have missed all 4 flights.


3. Beautiful girls on the plane distract us.


4. We would talk loudly and bring attention to ourselves.


5. With food and drinks on the plane, we would forget why we're there.


6. We talk with our hands, so we would have to put our weapons down.


7. We would ALL want to fly the plane.


8. We would argue and start a fight with each other in the plane.


9. We can't keep a secret, we would have told everyone a week before doing it.


10. We would have put the Assyrian flag on the windows.

Reasons 4 and 5 are very true. I spent last Easter with my family in Detroit. It was only a few weeks after the collapse of Saddam's regime. My sister's house was full of family members. Each person in the living room wanted to express his/her opinion loudly. ADDITIONALLY, everyone was talking at the same time. The only silent periods were when lunch was served. Unfortunately, it gave them more energy afterward. So, everyone returned to the same loud discussions while having their tea and Easter sweets.

We're so loud. We're more like the Italians. This may explain why we get along with the Italians, and there are many marriages between the two communities in Australia. I'm not sure if this is the case in America. So, I can't comment.

Chaldean Online includes good information for the people who wanted to know where to find Chaldean churches in America. It also includes photos from North Iraq. The photo quality is not very good, but good enough for you to have an idea about this small community in Iraq and around the world.

One other Web site worth mentioning is American Aid for Children of Nineveh, Iraq (thanks to the reader who sent me this link). There is a lot of worthy information at this site. It answers many questions I receive by e-mail regarding Assyrian and Chaldean communities.

For the people who asked about the difference between the two communities, I'm not the right person to answer this question. For me, I don't differentiate between the two communities. In my mind they're one community with a few theological differences.

Fear Among Christians in Southern Iraq

A reader sent me this story, published on Reuters web site this morning. It's about the killing of an Iraqi-Christian in Basra, Iraq on Christmas Eve.

I would have never mentioned this article if I didn't feel it's becoming a real concern to most Iraqi-Christians living in Basra. Most of the Chaldean Catholics in Basra worked in the liquor, hotel and restaurant businesses. Most of them had to sell their businesses when Basra's economy started to die at the edge of Iran-Iraq war. At the time, the city became a picture of a German city during WWII.

In Basra and other parts of the country, Christians and Muslims always lived together in peace. To be honest to the old regime, our rights were protected. We didn't have all the rights the Christians have in the Western countries, but we had enough rights to practice our religion without fear of anyone killing us on the streets of Iraq.

I have a feeling the extremist outsiders (not Iraqis) are planting seeds of hatred among different sectors of Iraqi society. Sunnis against Shiias, Muslims against Christians, Kurds against Arabs. This reminds me of what my Lebanese friends told me of how The Civil War started in their country during the seventies.

For Iraqi-Christians, they would not fight or get a revenge. They will just leave the country like they have done for many years.

To the American administration: Please don't let what happened in Lebanon and Yugoslavia to happen in Iraq. Don't let what happened to the Iraqi-Jews many years ago to happen to the Iraqi-Christians now.

Happy New Year everyone.