Iraqi Christians Struggle With Fear After Slayings

Lamia Sheet looks at the coffin of her husband, the Rev. Youssef Adel, an Assyrian Orthodox priest shot this month. (Khalid Mohammed - AP)

The Rev. Dawood Ougin heads a small Church of the East parish in Baghdad that now has 120 families, down from 250.

He said every Christian business executive he knows has been threatened, kidnapped or attacked. "The Christian is weak. He has no tribe," he said.

"If you kidnap one person, everybody in the family will leave," Ougin said. One man's son, a toddler, was kidnapped for two weeks, he said. The family had to pay $30,000 ransom to get the child back. "After that, 18 people left to Jordan, fled," he said.

"They sell everything to live in horrible conditions in Syria, Jordan and Turkey," Ougin said. "It was better for them to stay here in Iraq and to build a new Iraq."

Ougin said Christians from his community immediately reached out to American officers after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and sat on U.S.-backed neighborhood councils. But he said Americans had little understanding of Iraq, an ignorance that has led to problems.

"We have tried to help build our country; instead it's a disaster," he said. "This is my country. This is my culture. This is my place."

Abdal also blames Americans for the sectarian problems in Iraq.

He said the U.S. government's early emphasis on allocating power in Iraq along ethnic and sectarian lines only heightened tensions.

Abdal, a tall 29-year-old, said six months ago he received a phone call from a man with an Egyptian accent.

The man said he was with a group that wanted to meet Abdal and asked if he was a priest. Abdal, in fear, told the man he was a church cleaner.

The caller said to Abdal, "One day Peter will come and take you."

Abdal said the would-be kidnappers threatened to put him on a cross and crucify him. "At that moment I don't say I was frightened. At that moment I said I must face my faith. I asked his name," Abdal said. The caller said his name was Malak, Arabic for angel.

Abdal said he peered deeper into his faith.

"Jesus Christ, at the last meal before they put him on the cross, said it's true that the body is weak but the soul is strong," Abdal said. "As the people's servant, I believe that one day I will suffer the same fate as the teacher. That doesn't mean this church is thirsty for blood. But we have a real principle. We want to announce to the people that the church is existing. It has existed and it will exist."

Abdal's telephone call came at the start of a major kidnapping campaign targeting priests. Many of those kidnapped were his friends and had his name in their cellphones.

"Now there is no kidnapping," Abdal said. "There is killing."

Special correspondent Naseer Nouri and other Washington Post staff in Baghdad contributed to this report.