What we still refuse to face, two

The ethnic conflicts in Iraq are long-standing, deep, and go well beyond the "Sunni rejectionists versus everyone else" image offered up by our government. (Actually, more recently it's been "foreign terrorists versus everyone else," but even Fox News doesn't seem to take that seriously.)

And what's more, old conflicts can metamorphose into new ones. As an example, consider this, from the Iraqi Crisis Report for June 28:

The small but growing number of Kurds who convert to Christianity say they face discrimination and intolerance from the Muslim majority.

Kurdish Christians - still a tiny minority - say they find it difficult to practice their religion because of public intolerance. ...

The converts are joining new, western-style Christian groups which started growing after the fall of Saddam Hussein, rather than the long-established Christian communities such as the Assyrians and Chaldeans, who do not seek new members from Muslim backgrounds. ...

A 20-year-old man, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said no one in his family knew that he had turned to Christianity. "I'll try to keep it a secret because our community is a Muslim one," he added.

Sirwan Abdul-Rahman, a member of the Kurdish Christian Church Committee from Erbil, said his relatives looked down on him after he converted to Christianity several years ago.

Are these real, general, concerns as opposed to individual anecdotes? Apparently, they are. From the same article:

Many Muslims object to the new churches seeking to win over converts from the Islamic faith. Those who make the decision to become Christian may be shunned - even by relatives. ...

The Kurdistan Islamic League has issued a statement addressed to Christian groups and churches saying it is a "strange and terrible act" and an "unhealthy phenomenon" for a Muslim to convert. ...

The region's religious affairs minister, Muhammed Ahmed Gaznayi, said people who turn to Christianity are "renegades" in the eyes of Islam.

"I consider that those who turn to Christianity pose a threat to society," he added.

Now, I expect that there are those who will dismiss this, who will point out that when US evangelicals first started talking about doing missions to Iraq in the wake of the war, there were those who predicted that it would bring conflict. And yes, the connection is there, as these congregations of converted Iraqis openly acknowledge getting support from US churches. And yes again, the converts undoubtedly knew the risks they were taking.

To which my answer is, so what? Is that supposed to justify religious bigotry? Does it make for approval of discrimination? Does it validate calling them "unhealthy," "renegades," "threats to society?"

My point here is not to raise up Christianity as opposed to Islam - the former has enough sins on its account to dissuade any fair-minded observer from such a foolish notion - but to note another case where our invasion and occupation have resulted not in advance but retreat, not in a more tolerant society but a less tolerant one, not in conflicts resolved but in both conflicts restarted and conflicts begun.