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Father Habib Hermiz of the Saint George Chaldean Church in Baghdad says Christians are becoming targets of extortion as the country's security situation continues to unravel.

In July, a band of criminals threatened to kill members of Saint George unless the church paid $10,000. The church refused and American forces sent extra patrols, but officers told Hermiz they couldn't provide 24-hour security. Despite offers of help from a local mosque, Hermiz began advising church members to move out of Baghdad to safer ground in northern Iraq.

This summer street crime in Baghdad has gone from bad to worse, for Muslims as well as Christians. Mel Lehman is a veteran of seven trips to Baghdad in his ministry, the Children of Iraq, associated with the Mennonite Central Committee.

"Back in the old days when Saddam was in power, I had no trouble whatsoever walking along the streets at night," Lehman told CT. Lehman said he was shocked by the dangerous situation during a July fact-finding mission. Now he is thinking of calling off an effort to bring in a team of doctors.

Mark Smith of Convoy of Hope, a faith-based group from Springfield, Missouri, was in Iraq in May and again in early July. He said the security situation has forced his group to make adjustments.

"We have been warned by security people within the larger [humanitarian aid] community that it appears to possibly be a significant risk" for any Westerner, said Smith. So Smith's group is pushing ahead with projects using Jordanian and Iraqi nationals. Smith is telling inexperienced American church volunteers to hold off.

"At this point we're just saying, 'It's not the time to come yet.' And we're not sure when that time will be," Smith said.

Christians enjoyed relative freedom under the violent and cruel regime of Saddam Hussein (CT, Nov. 18, 2002, p. 34). Baghdad's churches are distinguished and well-kept buildings in the heart of the city. They operated for decades with no special security or restrictions on who came or went.

Some members of the minority Christian community publicly identified with Saddam's brutal reign. "Many Christians were members of the Baath Party," Hermiz said, including Tariq Aziz, the foreign minister familiar to many Westerners.

Ikram Mehanni, a senior pastor of the John Calvin Presbyterian Church, said many people, including his own daughter, signed up solely for the economic and social benefits. Then there were those who were "born into the party," he said. "They can never be changed. Even if they ask for forgiveness, deep down they will stay a Baath member."

"None, so far" have spoken to him of repentance, Hermiz said. "Maybe alone, with themselves, they have done it. We need repentance."

Mehanni said Iraqis are casting out religious officials linked to Saddam's regime. He said all of the Muslim clerics he knew in Baghdad who held power during that period have been removed.

Among those recently ousted is one of Iraq's most prominent church leaders. Georges Hormis Sada, 63, former chairman of the Assembly of Evangelical Presbyterian Churches-Iraq and a former air vice marshal in Saddam's air force, was dismissed from leadership, although he remains a member of the John Calvin Presbyterian Church (also known as National Presbyterian Church).

Mehanni and several church members said Sada, who was also church president, was dismissed because he went abroad for eight months, and thus missed three consecutive meetings of the church council, a violation of church bylaws. Sada has relatives in the United Kingdom. Church leaders declined to elaborate on the reasons for Sada's dismissal. Sada was unavailable for comment.

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September 2003, Vol. 47, No. 9