Iraq invaded again – by Evangelical Christians

Read Time:4 Minute, 37 Second

Personally I’m not certain who poses a more clear and present danger to the stability of Iraq, the warring indigenous factions, the Allies, or the Krazy Kristians, who have set up shop in this war torn nation.  All these unfortunate folk need in their lives is the confusion that hard right Christianity brings, such as the world is only 6,000 years old, man used to ride dinosaurs, and evolution is more of that “scientific” nonsense.

We have all seen what happens when the preachers start preaching, the pulpits are a’ pounding with Bible banging vitriol and the Evangelical Christian “God” is in the house.  History is filled with the nightmares that are left in the wake of the scourge of the true believer, whether Protestant or Catholic , and it is yet another religious element that has been introduced in a country that is top heavy with it.

Read this disturbing story and let us know what you think:

On a barren hillside outside Sulaymaniyah in southeast Iraqi Kurdistan sits a small compound of buildings clustered behind battered gray and ochre walls. Atop one wall is a large white sign glittering with gold and azure lettering that reads in English and Arabic: Classical School of the Medes. It is one of three new private schools in the region that teach a “Christian worldview,” the handiwork of American evangelicals from Tennessee.

Since the US occupation took hold, American evangelicals have established not only schools, but printing presses, radio stations, women’s centers, bookstores, medical and dental clinics, and churches in northern Iraq, all with the blessings and assistance of the Kurdistan government. Many of these efforts were funded in part by US taxpayer dollars, channeled through Department of Defense construction contracts and State Department grants.

In September 2003, just four months after US forces took down Saddam Hussein’s regime, 350 evangelical pastors and church leaders assembled in Kirkuk, where they were warmly welcomed by Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government. At that gathering, George Grant, a leader of Servant Group International, the evangelical organization in Nashville that set up the chain of Christian schools, declared that “Jesus Christ is Lord over all things; He is Lord over every Mullah, every Ayatollah, every Imam, and every Mahdi pretender; He is Lord over the whole of the earth, even Iraq!”

CENTCOM documents show that between 2005 and 2007, DOD’s Joint Contracting Command Iraq/Afghanistan paid the Kurdish company Daban Group at least $465,639 for the construction of Grant’s School of the Medes. Two years earlier, tens of thousands of dollars from a State Department-funded program called Healthcare Partnerships in Northern Iraq also made their way into a variety of Servant Group evangelical and humanitarian projects.

In return for the Regional Government’s support for this evangelical presence in Kurdistan, Doug Layton, another Tennessean and a Servant Group founder, served as a crucial liaison for the KRG in Washington during the Bush years. There, he ran Kurdish public relations efforts and recruited evangelical businessmen to invest in the region.

“Since the run up to the Iraq War, [Massoud] Barzani and the KRG played to the Bush administration and its right-wing evangelical Christian base,” said Mike Amitay, a Middle East senior policy analyst at the Open Society Policy Center. “That’s where they saw the power and the money. Barzani was going to let them set up schools and churches and get what he needed.” But, Amitay adds, “given the rise of the Islamic parties in Kurdistan and Assyrian Christian resentment of American evangelical exceptionalism and proselytizing, they’re playing with fire.”

In the years since Saddam Hussein’s 1988 assault on the Kurds that culminated in the chemical weapon attack on the village of Halabja, some 14,000 refugees from Kurdistan made their way to Nashville, now home to the largest Kurdish population in the United States. In 1992, a cadre of Nashville evangelicals from Servant Group International, including large numbers of Kurdish believers, trooped out of their base at Belmont Church, a megachurch occupying several blocks on Music Square, and made their way to the mountains of Kurdistan in northern Iraq, where they set up shop. They were packing Kurdish-language bibles, bags of cash, medical equipment and a long-range game plan to establish their “Father’s Kingdom” between the Turkish border and Iran. Since arriving in northern Iraq some twenty years ago, Servant Group has widened its global presence, establishing offices, ministries and schools in Turkey, Central Asia, Indonesia, Germany, and Norway.

After seven years of American dominance in the region, they have burrowed deep inside the Kurdistan Regional Government, the ruling coalition of Barzani’s Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). With help from Layton at the Kurdistan Development Corporation and aided by connections with Republican lobbyists and Congressmen in Washington, they have brokered international business concessions and oil drilling contracts and funneled USAID and DOD money into their missions, setting up their chain of Christian schools. In turn, the KRG has backed Servant Group’s ministries and schools with grants of land, buildings and other favors.

Isn’t it bad enough the Iraqis have to deal with a country that has been besieged by war and occupied by Allah?  Does Jesus really have to be thrown into the mix?  Can you see these different Muslim factions reading the new testament?  Oh those Krazy Kristians!

Many thanks to Alternet for parts of this story.
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Professor Mike

Professor Mike is a left-leaning, dog loving, political junkie. He has written dozens of articles for Substack, Medium, Simily, and Tribel. Professor Mike has been published at Smerconish.com, among others. He is a strong proponent of the environment, and a passionate protector of animals. In addition he is a fierce anti-Trumper. Take a moment and share his work.
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13 years ago

Ahhh Christ on a bicycle. I have a bit of a wicked streak in me I’m told…so with that in mind I hope pushers get theirs. I won’t even protest…

13 years ago

Muslim missionaries are inclined to explode unexpectedly.

Must be the food…;-)

13 years ago

On the other hand, I’d have no problem with Muslim missionaries coming here to try and “save” people. Beats shit out of us going over there to kill or be killed by “them.”

13 years ago

They’re on my ‘religions of the world’ posting hit list….

Can’t wait!!!

13 years ago

The Iraqis thought they had problems with Shi’ite and Sunni infighting, wait till the fundies get under their skin.

13 years ago

God help them.

Oh…er…yeah…he’s the problem…well…not him exactly…oh bugger it. Send the Iraqi’s over here. Every other bugger is here anyway and at least we’ll protect them from Christianity…..

13 years ago

$465k for that crap? Hell, the feds could’ve paid me a cool $100k, passed out some bibles and saved the rest for the guidance on another cruise missile. Dumbasses.

osori
13 years ago

We just can’t stop meddling. Never gonna learn are we?

13 years ago

As if invading and occupying Iraq wasn’t enough, those Xtian A-holes have to go in and try to convert Muslims. More reason for Muslim Middle East to hate America. Well-played, A-holes. Well-played.

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