The Kurds
by Diana ColbyThe Iraqi group struggling to build a government out of the recent elections is facing some ghosts from the past in the form of a major, oppressed minority group. The Kurds are now the kingmakers and dealbreakers in Iraq. Although this feature has previously run on urbana.org, it is a very helpful piece for understanding what's at stake.
Dr. Diana Colby is a social scientist who has lived and worked in several Muslim countries. She is privileged to count several Kurdish believers among her friends.
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There are about 25 million Kurds in the world, give or take a few million. Their homeland, called "Kurdistan," spans four countries: Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria. They speak a language that is related to Persian, and have traditionally lived in the Taurus and Zagros mountains and nearby plains. For centuries they have been mainly farmers and sheepherders, although as a result of modernization, most Kurds are now urban-dwellers. Although the Kurds qualify as an "unreached people" because the percentage of believers among them is low, God is nevertheless doing some exciting things among them. We'll get to that, but first, a bit of history:
Kurdish History
With the exception of Iranian Kurdistan, Kurdistan was part of the Ottoman Empire until World War I. When the Western winners of the war carved its territories into separate countries during the 1920s, the Kurds were the largest ethnic group living in the former Ottoman lands to be partitioned. Since then, many Kurds have dreamed of re-unification and independence for the Kurdish people.
The Kurdish people became famous to the outside world in 1991, when TV broadcasts showed nearly three million of them fleeing Saddam Hussein's army during the Gulf War. For weeks they suffered in the mud and freezing conditions, without adequate water, food, and shelter. After they returned to their homes with protection from the US Army, the Allies set up air patrols to protect them from Iraqi government forces. These patrols lasted for over a decade while Iraqi Kurds set up their own regional government, a remarkable achievement given the Kurds' tortured political history.
The Kurds' history has been characterized by suffering on a grand scale, and often. While history records numerous pogroms and massacres dating back centuries, the 20th century was by far the worst. Kurds in Iran are repressed by the government and suffered disproportionately during the Iran-Iraq war. In Syria, thousands of Kurds do not have citizenship, and virtually all are marginalized economically and prohibited from promoting their culture and language. Use of the Kurdish language is banned in schools and publications. In Turkey, the government has cracked down brutally on Kurds, especially since the 1980s, when an organized Kurdish resistance movement began its violent campaign for a separate Kurdish state. Thousands have been killed, and thousands more have fled west to Istanbul or Europe. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein's government attempted genocide against the Kurds in the 1980s, dropping poison gas on them from the air. It victimized many more in untold ways. Kurds were certainly not its only victims, but they suffered intensely under Saddam's regime.
The suffering and political instability in their homeland has caused many Kurds to migrate elsewhere, mainly to Europe but also to Australia and the United States. The population of Kurds abroad now numbers at least one million.
Faith and History
Evidence suggests the Kurds' closest predecessors were the Medes, the people mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments. Medes are mentioned ten times in the Old Testament, often alongside their neighbors, the Persians. They were politically and militarily important. Some Medes are mentioned in Acts as being present at Pentecost in Jerusalem. They are listed as one of the peoples who heard the disciples, through the power of the Holy Spirit, speaking in their own language.
Median believers were likely some of the very first Christians. While the jury is out on how much connection can be drawn with confidence between the Kurds and the Medes, history reveals that by the fifth century, the majority of the people living in the area today known as Kurdistan became Christians through Nestorius and his followers. Nestorius was a controversial figure, and was condemned by church authorities in Constantinople for his insistence that the nature of the incarnate Christ was simultaneously human and divine. Despite these troubles, he and the many missionaries he inspired were the first people to take the Gospel across Asia. The Kurds can therefore be said to have Christian roots.
In the seventh century, however, Islam came to the region through the Arab conquests. Most Kurds converted. Today, the majority of Kurdish people are still Muslims. A minority are Yezidis, who follow a secretive syncretistic faith that includes elements of Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam. Until the formation of the state of Israel in 1948 and the years shortly following, a Jewish minority, sometimes called "Kurdish Jews" or "Jewish Kurds" also lived in the area. They spoke Syriac, a tongue close to Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. There are no longer any self-professing Jews left in Kurdistan.
The Contemporary Christian Presence among the Kurds
Despite the prominence of Islam in Kurdistan, today there are still thousands of Christians there who trace their descent through many centuries of church history, a fact of which they are proud. They include Chaldean Catholics, Assyrian Orthodox (known as "Nestorians" until the late 19th century), Syrian Orthodox, and Armenian. They comprise less than 10% of the population. Like the Jews who formerly lived in the area, they speak Syriac (neo-Aramaic) as their mother tongue. Most also speak Kurdish and/or Arabic. In most cases they do not refer to themselves as ethnically Kurdish, except perhaps if talking to an outsider who does not understand the complexities of local ethnic identities, or for political purposes. Nevertheless, the term "Kurdish Christians," when it is occasionally used, most often refers to people from these groups.
Like the Kurds among whom they live, these historically Christian groups have suffered from political violence. The 20th century was particularly bloody for them as well. The Armenian genocide around the time of WWI is the most famous, but in addition there have been many other incidents of violence and massacres. In the late 19th century Christians began to migrate to the West. This, combined with violence, political marginalization and a lower birth rate than the surrounding Muslim population, have resulted in a great decline in their numbers.
Their numbers are further kept low because of their stance toward evangelism: most Christians from the historic Christian communities do not share their faith with non-Christians, so their churches do not typically grow through conversions. There are several reasons for this. Probably the most important reason is a fear of persecution by the majority Muslim population, which includes Kurds. The threat of persecution is backed up by the law in some places, especially Iran. A member of the local Christian community who encouraged a Muslim to convert would also be in danger. Thus Christian leaders have discouraged, and even prohibited, in the name of political and societal stability, Christians from sharing their faith with Muslims. In addition, many members of the historically Christian communities are nominal in belief, and thus do not share their faith with non-Christian Kurds.
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Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
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