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The visit of Pope Francis to Iraq, concluded in the beginning of this week, has led to speculation about its possible motives and urgency. Most agree on one thing: It is not politically calculated. Taking cues from his earlier gestures, one can safely say that the current Pope wouldnt do a Pope John Paul II, whose political interventions during the Cold War in many ways served the interests of the Western Bloc led by the US. This visit, though, is a culmination of a series of failed efforts of the last two decades to bring a Pope to the birthplace of Abraham, that were initiated during the tenure of Pope John Paul II in 2000.

The theory that connects the visit of the head of Catholic Church to one of the major theatres of the US-Iran rivalry with the attempt of the US President Joe Biden to patch up the USs strained relationship with Iran appears to be flawed. More likely is the analysis by historian Ibrahim al-Marashi, who compares Pope Franciss visit to the journey that St. Francis of Assisi, a Catholic preacher and mystic, made some 800 years ago to the Middle East to heal the wounds that Crusade-induced violence caused in both Christian and Muslim societies. One of the highlights of St. Franciss trip was his meeting with Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil, nephew of Saladin, who led the Muslim army against the Crusader states in the Levant. Pope Francis, on his part, began his journey with meeting one of the worlds leading Sunni clerics, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in 2017 and making a historic call for a cross-faith commitment to human fraternity.

St. Franciss journey in the 13th century, though partially successful in terms of promoting peace and reconciliation between two warring communities, resulted in re-orienting policies of various missionary groups, including his own Franciscan order, towards a peaceful coexistence with Muslims.

Today, there is hostility and mutual distrust between the people of two major faiths. The rise of cultural Christianity, a proxy for Islamophobia and hostility towards migrants, makes the situation worse in parts of Europe and the United States. The crisis in the Islamic world deepens with the emergence of movements with a sectarian vision. The Popes interventions at this critical time, therefore, have more than a symbolic value.

With his efforts to reach out to various sects of Christianity in the East, the Pope intends to present a different, though not new, version of Christianity, which is more inclusive, non-denominational, non-sectarian and non-Europeanised. What one can reasonably assume from this move is his wish to make Christianity more appealing not just to Christians in the east, but to the followers of all Abrahamic religions. That is perhaps why Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, found a pivotal position in his itinerary.

What figured recurrently in the pontiffs speech was the necessity of reviving an Abrahamic tradition for the common future of the communities. In Ur, the Pope said, we seem to have returned home. At many places, he greeted gatherings from different Semitic faiths with slogans such as You are all brothers, the words of Matthews gospel. This can be read as a significant move to create a counter-narrative to the theses presenting Islam as the other, alien to the Judeo-Christian tradition in the West.

Prior to visiting Iraq, the Pope travelled to Jordan and Palestine in 2014, Egypt in 2017 and the UAE and Morocco in 2019. He met many prominent Muslim scholars for initiating interfaith dialogue. All his positive gestures have created resonances in the Muslim world so far. But the fact remains that the sectarian violence in Iraq is intimately associated with the colonial past of the country; and the cynical use of religion by colonial forces to protect their own interests. A move which does not address this past, therefore, may not yield the desired result.

This article first appeared in the print edition on March 12, 2021 under the title The Popes message. The writer is professor and director, School of Gandhian Thought and Development Studies, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala.

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The Pope in Iraq: Fraternity between all faiths - The Indian Express

Baghdad, 10 March 2021. Today, the Minister of Planning H.E. Dr. Khalid Batal Najim Abdullah, and the Humanitarian Coordinator Ms. Irena Vojkov-Sollorano, released the 2021 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) to assist 1.5 million vulnerable people in Iraq.

The HRP will complement the Government of Iraqs own initiatives to help the people of Iraq recover from the setbacks they have experienced in recent years, said H.E. Dr. Abdullah. The Government of Iraq and the United Nations will continue to work in partnership to help all Iraqis achieve and maintain a dignified standard of living.

The people of Iraq should be commended for their resilience in the face of relentless hardships, said Ms. Vojkov-Sollorano. COVID-19 added extra challenges for all of us in 2020. We are happy through the 2021 HRP to renew our commitment to assisting the most vulnerable Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and returnees in Iraq.

Iraq continues to face a complex humanitarian situation, despite the ongoing joint efforts of humanitarian partners, the Government of Iraq, and local authorities and communities to improve circumstances. The post-conflict humanitarian situation in Iraq remains fragile, with approximately 1.3 million IDPs, and deepening socio-economic vulnerabilities brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2021 Humanitarian Needs Overview found that 4.1 million Iraqis are in need of humanitarian assistance. The 2021 HRP focuses on 1.5 million of the most vulnerable IDPs living in camps and in out-of-camp locations, as well as returnees, who continue to face significant humanitarian and protection needs.

This unified appeal represents the activities of 166 operational partners national NGOs, international NGOs and UN agencies involved in the humanitarian response in Iraq, in coordination with the efforts of the Government of Iraq. It seeks $607.2 million to carry out humanitarian programming across nine sectors.

In 2020, the humanitarian community was able to assist approximately 1.4 million people thanks to the efforts of partners and the generosity of donors.

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The 2021 Humanitarian Response Plan for Iraq will provide assistance to 1.5 million vulnerable people. A budget of US$607.2 million is required to...

Monday, 15 March 2021, 10:17 amArticle: Gordon Campbell

Asan exercise in global symbolic politics, it would be hard totop last weeks meeting in Iraq between Pope Francis andthe most respected cleric in Shia Islam, the Grand AyatollahAli al-Sistani. Both men have strong liberal credentials.Francis has led a welcome break from his policies of his twoarch-conservative predecessors. In fact, you would have togo all the way back to the early 1960s, to the widely lovedliberal reformer Papa Roncalli (aka John XXIII) to find aPope who seems more in tune with socially progressiveforces.

The 94 year old al-Sistani is a more complexfigure. His credentials as the most learned religiousauthority in Shia Islam are undisputed. From his humble homein Najaf, Iraq, al-Sistani condemned the disastrous USinvasion of 2003 at the time. In 2014, he famously issued afatwa that called on all able bodied Shiite volunteers tojoin the militias fighting against Islamic State. In theprocess, he urged tolerance towards all religiousminorities, including the Christian and Yazidi populationsthat Islamic State and other Sunni fundamentalists had beentargeting. He also supported the 2009 Green Revolution inIran that eventually failed to expand the role of seculardemocracy in that country. Consistently, al-Sistani hasopposed the involvement in politics by the mullahs in Iran.Correctly, he pointed out that the blurring of the linesbetween religious authority and political power wouldeventually end up discrediting religion in the eyes of thepublic.

Like Pope Francis though, al-Sistani is not afigure without controversy. Last year, the popular Iraniandissident and blogger Ruhollah Zam was lured out of hisrefuge in France on the (bogus) promise of a meeting withal-Sistani. Once in Iraq, Zam was seized by Iranian securityforces, takenback to Iran and executed. While al-Sistani was not anaccomplice in the trap, he has been criticised for notappealing (even only symbolically) to his fellow Shiaayatollahs in Teheran to spare Zams life. Many Iraniansbelieve that the office of al-Sistanis son-in-law JavadShahrestanii (who is al-Sistanis representative in Iran)wasinvolved in the Zam plot

In similar vein,,al-Sistani has never condemned the harsh retribution carriedout against the supporters of the 2009 Green Revolution.Hundreds of young Iranians were executed in the aftermath ofthat social movement. Having supported the attempt atopening Iran up to greater democracy, al-Sistani remainedsilent while those who believed in it were hunted down,tortured and eliminated. Pope Francis has also had hiscritics. Some Catholic conservatives feel he has strayed toofar from the path of orthodoxy, while some liberal criticsfeel that (a) his reforms have not gone far enough, and (b)have not been entrenched in ways that will survive hispapacy. (Francis replied to some of his critics in this memorablestatement in September, 2019.)

All of that aside, what did Francis andal-Sistani talk about in Najaf? Part of their conversationwas private. Their joint public statement made the expectedcalls for tolerance and mutual understanding. Francis was inIraq partly because of the steep decline in IraqsCatholic congregation which had flourished under the secularreign of Saddam Hussein. Since the 2003 invasion, theCatholic congregation has shrunk from 1.5 million to barely250,000 believers today. Sectarian conflict sent manyCatholics fleeing into exile abroad, while many of thosethat remained inside Iraq were systematically persecuted anddriven underground during the hey-day of the IScaliphate.

By meeting with al-Sistani and issuingcalls for mutual tolerance and respect, Francis was hopingto convince Catholics in Iraq that they had not beenabandoned. For al-Sistanis part, there might have beensome hope that Pope Francis might have greater sway with theCatholic president now occupying the White House. Pointedly,the joint communique urged the lifting of economicblockades throughout the region. Exactly one year ago,Iranian clerics haddelivered a letter to Pope Francis asking for his helpin ending the US economic sanctions against Iran that haveinflicted so much harm on ordinary people, especially duringthe Covid pandemic:

On March 22 [2020] an IranianShiite leader, the Ayatollah Seyed Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad,delivered a letter to Pope Francis imploring hisintervention to end economic sanctions against Iran as itendures one of the worlds worst Covid-19outbreaks.

The Iranian people, he wrote, arestruggling painfully with the loss of loved ones caused veryoften by the serious lack of medical resources due to theconsequences of sanctions imposed by the United States.Suspending the sanctions regime he called a humanitarianaction proper to those who believe in Jesus, who forthe whole world is a universal symbol of peace andlove.

So far,the lifting of US sanctions against Iran has proved to bemore difficult than Biden had originally supposed. Bidenclearly wants to lift the sanctions against Iran, if only tore-balance US policy towards Saudi Arabia, and to stop Iranfrom being driven into the arms of China. Yet at the sametime, Biden has felt the need to avoid a domestic backlash fromlooking soft on the mullahs, so. any steps to normaliserelations apparently will have to be done by both sides,simultaneously. Thats not an easy dance to co-ordinate.Also, the mullahs clearly dont want to hand a politicalvictory to the relatively liberal administration of HassanRouhani, only months before the next general elections inIran, due mid year.

So the mullahs have been playing aspoiler role. Thats something they can economicallyafford to do, since they control the smuggling trade thathas flourished under the US sanctions, while ordinaryIranians have suffered. As al-Sistani correctly predicted,the political strategizing by the mullahs has had anextremely corrosive effect on religious authority. Caughtbetween mindless US hostility and the iron rule of themullahs, Iranian society has simplyimploded.

Footnote: Ironically, PopeFrancis response to his critics ( link above) had a fewpointers to offer as to why PM Jacinda Ardern has cancelledher weekly interview with Newstalks Mike Hosking.Francis made a useful distinction between criticism made ingood faith, and criticism made from a fixed position thathas no interest in dialogue :

Criticism is acomponent in construction, and if your criticism is unjust,be prepared to receive a response, and get into dialogue,and arrive to the right conclusion. This is the dynamic oftrue criticism. The [other] kind of] criticism instead..Is like throwing the stone and then hiding your hand. Thisis not beneficial, it is no help. It helps small cliques,who do not want to hear the response to their criticism.Instead, fair criticism. Is open to a response. This isconstructive.[But] to criticize without wanting to hear aresponse and without getting into dialogue is not to havethe [general] good at heart, it is chasing after a fixedidea.

Chasing after fixed ideas. Serving ideasheld by small cliques. Criticising without wanting to hearthe response. Yep, all of that sounds like Mike Hosking. Hisweekly browbeating of Ardern like his previousbootlicking of John Key has had nothing to do withdialogue, or with journalism. Journalism is about talkingtruth to power, not talking nonstop about the power of yourown truths. There was no social benefit in having Hoskinguse his audience with the PM to expound on his ownideological fixations, as if by some god-given right. Weall, Ardern included, have better things to do.

One of the great forces in traditionalPersian music the singer Mohammed Reza Shajarian died in October 2020 at the age of 80. A supporter of the2009 Green Revolution, Shajarian earned the wrath of themullahs for doing so, but was protected to some extent bythe reverence with which he was publicly regarded. HeresShajarian in 2013, recorded during one of those typicallyintimate 15 minute Tiny Desk Concerts for NPR.

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Gordon Campbell On The Pope's Visit To Iraq | Scoop News - Scoop.co.nz

Situation Overview

In 2020, the numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) returning to their area of origin (AoO) or being re-displaced for a second time increased, coupled with persisting challenges in relation to lack of services, infrastructure, social cohesion and - in some cases - security in areas of origin. The need to better understand the sustainability of returns, conditions for the (re)integration of IDPs and returnees, and the impact of their presence on access to services and social cohesion has been identified in the context of humanitarian and development planning. Ongoing planning around the closure of IDP camps, often within short time-frames, have also impacted these dynamics.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM)s Emergency Displacement Tracking recorded that over 8,100 households returned to non-camp locations across Iraq between 31 October and 31 December 2020, 6% of which were recorded in Kirkuk Governorate. Daquq District witnessed 1% of the returns in the governorate.

Markaz Daquq Sub-district

Markaz Daquq is a sub-district of Daquq District, located in the central area of Kirkuk Governorate. Kirkuk Governorate is one of the disputed territories between the Federal Government of Iraq (GoI) and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) which might affect the regions reconstruction and the re-establishment of services, as well as the return of essential government workers to the area.

In the summer of 2014, the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) undertook military activities in the district of Daquq, resulting in the displacement of over 23,000 individuals as reported by KIs. ISIL was dislodged from Daquq District in 2017 by the Iraqi armed forces and their allies. As of May 2020, ISIL operations were still recorded in Kirkuk Governorate villages, however this trend is decreasing overall. The IOM returns index suggests that populations in Markaz Daquq are still concerned about the re-emergence of ISIL activities. At the time of data collection, an estimated total of 2,748 households originally from Markaz Daquq remain displaced elsewhere as reported by KIs.

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Rapid Assessment on Returns and Durable Solutions, Markaz Daquq Sub-district - Daquq District - Kirkuk Governorate, Iraq, December 2020 - Iraq -...

By Sangar Khaleel and Jane Arraf

ERBIL, Iraq A rocket attack on the airport in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil on Monday killed a civilian contractor with the American-led military coalition and wounded six others, including a U.S. service member, according to a coalition spokesman.

Several other rockets landed in residential areas of the city, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, including one close to the Chinese Consulate.

The attack, rare in the normally peaceful Kurdish city, raised tensions already heightened by threats of Iran-backed militias on American targets in Iraq. It was not clear who carried it out, but previous attacks have been attributed to militias funded and directed by Iran.

Iran has made clear that it intends to retaliate further for the American drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020 that killed a top Iranian general, Qassim Suleimani, and a senior Iraqi security official. Days after that strike, the Iranian government launched missile attacks against U.S. forces at the Ain al Assad air base in Iraqs Anbar Province, wounding more than 100 troops.

On Monday, minutes after the rocket attack on Erbil, the Kurdish regional government called on residents to stay indoors and the international airport canceled departing and arriving flights.

The United States military has drawn down the number of its troops in Iraq to under 2,500 and has pulled out of several bases there over the past two years. It says Iraq no longer needs the help it did in the past to fight the Islamic State, though American officials have acknowledged that militia attacks also factored into the decision to move troops to bases more easily defended.

The military side of Erbils airport is one of three remaining bases with a significant number of U.S. troops. It was not clear whether anti-rocket defense systems installed at the base were activated by Mondays attack.

The coalition did not reveal the nationality of the civilian contractor who was killed. The Kurdish ministry of health said three civilians were wounded in Mondays attack.

Kurdish counterterrorism forces said they had found the vehicle the rockets were launched from but did not say where it was discovered.

A little-known group known as Awliya al Dam (Guardian of the Blood) brigades claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had launched the rockets in revenge for the deaths of the martyred leaders. The group claimed responsibility last August for two bombings targeting U.S. contractor convoys carrying military equipment.

In Washington, a White House spokesman said President Biden had been briefed on the attack in Erbil, but offered no other comment or details.

Masrour Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdish Region of Iraq, said he had spoken with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken about cooperating to find those responsible for the attack. Mr. Blinken later condemned the attack.

We are outraged by todays rocket attack in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, he said in a statement Monday evening, adding that in speaking with the Kurdish prime minister, he had pledged U.S. support for all efforts to investigate and hold accountable those responsible.

Michael Knights, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that the size and scope of the rocket attack on Erbil was unusually large, and that it had most likely been intended to maim or kill American contractors or service members, or their Kurdish allies.

This is a test of the new Biden administration to see what they can get away with, Mr. Knights said in a telephone interview.

Iraqi leaders have traveled to Tehran to try to persuade Iran to call off attacks, saying conflict between Washington and Tehran left Iraq dangerously in the middle. The embassy in Baghdad continues to operate with the ambassador and a small number of key staff.

Sangar Khaleel reported from Erbil, Iraq, and Jane Arraf from Amman, Jordan. Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.

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Rocket Attack in Iraq Kills a U.S. Military Contractor ...