New Shiite militant group threatens Sunnis and Christians
February 28, 2013: Families of a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad in recent weeks have
received warnings and threats from the Army of Mukhtar, a new Shiite Muslim militant
group that is terrorizing the civilian population with slogans such as: "Go away or
your agony will begin." According to observers, the group, that seem to have contacts
with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, intends to rekindle sectarian tensions in the
country that exploded in the aftermath of the arrival of American troops, then has
slowly decreased since 2008, and wants to hit, in particular, Sunnis and other religious
minorities. A similar wave of violence could easily undo the fragile progress that
Iraq has made in recent years, at a political, economic and social level.
The
Sunni minority in Iraq has repeatedly called for public demonstrations, claiming "discrimination
by the government in power," while Sunni extremist groups have increased large-scale
attacks against mainly Shiite targets. The Iraqi security forces, present in different
districts of Baghdad, are trying to provide security to the civilian population, but
many fear the emergence of a genuine sectarian conflict.
In this situation,
Iraqi Christians continue to be the weak link in society: pressed in the conflict
between Shiites and Sunnis, victims of terrorist groups who consider religious minorities
"unwanted guests" in the country. Aware of the difficulties of the moment and the
challenges ahead, Christian leaders, and in particular the new Chaldean Patriarch,
His Exc. Mgr Louis Sako, ask all citizens to "give up personal, partisan, even religious
and confessional interests " and appeal to political, social and religious community
representatives "to work for the good of Iraq and the peace of the Iraqi people."