Istanbul, Turkey – An Iraqi Chaldean priest kidnapped 12 days ago in Baghdad was released yesterday, a church leader said.
Father Hani Abdel Ahad was released Sunday (June 17) at 1:30 p.m. in Baghdad, Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni told Compass from Baghdad today.
The bishop declined to comment on whether the church had paid a ransom but confirmed that the motive for the priest’s kidnapping was a mix of religious and financial considerations.
“They asked for money because we are Christians and we must pay jizya [a tax on non-Muslims living under Islamic rule],” Warduni said. In recent months Islamist gangs have begun to demand this religious tax of Christian residents in certain Baghdad neighborhoods, forcing them to leave the area if they are unable to pay.
“Because we don’t give them [jizya], they kidnap and ask for money from the church,” Warduni said. He said that Ahad’s kidnappers had referred to jizya during telephone negotiations with Warduni for the priest’s release.
The bishop said that Baghdad’s summer heat and constantly being blindfolded had been especially hard on Ahad, but he declined to elaborate on the priest’s physical condition. He said that Ahad has been able to talk about his experience in captivity and was doing well emotionally.
“He needs some [medical] examinations, because 11 days under the treatment of those people…” Warduni trailed off, declining to go into further detail. “But in general he is good.”
Ahad was kidnapped on June 6 along with four young men from his Divine Wisdom parish in Baghdad’s Suleikh neighborhood. The young men were helping the priest move several personal belongings and were on their way to the smaller of the city’s two Chaldean seminaries when their truck was stopped. Unknown assailants abducted all five Christians.
The seminary had been closed for about 10 months due to rising violence in Baghdad, including two bomb attacks on the institution, a former school staff member told Compass.
“Suleikh is part of a Sunni area, and the people who kidnapped him were Sunni,” one priest told Compass. “We got so scared about this because you know the Sunni don’t ask about money, they just directly kill people, like what happened in Mosul.”
Only three days before Ahad’s kidnapping, a Chaldean priest and three deacons in Mosul had been forced from their car and gunned down after being told to convert to Islam.
But despite fears of a quick execution, the four young men kidnapped with Ahad were released the following day (June 7) after a ransom had been paid for their release, one church source told Compass.
Another church source said that the kidnappers had initially demanded half a million U.S. dollars for Ahad’s release, which the church was unable to pay. That figure had already been negotiated down to a fraction of the original by the middle of last week, the source said.
By that time, church leaders told Compass they felt hopeful that Ahad would be released. On Tuesday (June 12), several priests were able to speak by telephone with Ahad to ascertain that he was alive.
“They asked him about the date of his ordination and some other dates, to make sure that [they were speaking with Ahad],” one source said.
Referring to Christians around the globe who had been praying for Ahad’s release, Warduni said, “Thank them very much Their prayers and all of our prayers were good for him. They sustained him and allowed him to live these days in hope.”
Islamic Reasoning
Iraqi Christian website Ankawa.com reported yesterday that Muslim militia bombed a Christian home in Baghdad’s Amariya suburb because a family refused to pay jizya.
Though Ahad’s captors used the religious pretext of jizya to justify the kidnapping, Warduni said that it was impossible to reason with them using Islamic theology.
“We told them, ‘The Quran says we are brothers in creation because our Lord created all of us,’” Warduni told Compass. “‘Also, we read in the Quran that there is no obligation [compulsion] in religion. You have your religion and I have my religion.’”
But the bishop said that Ahad’s captors had scoffed at his reasoning. “You are pagans because you worship Christ,” the kidnappers told Warduni. “You are outside the faith.”
“Still, it’s a matter of money,” said one priest who has been involved in negotiations for the release of other kidnapped priests. “You start the business going [by paying ransom], and you feel that it’s an immoral act. You feel like you are participating in the violence, because you are maintaining the whole process.”
The priest said that his greatest struggle was knowing that if he did not pay for a kidnapped person’s release, he might cause his or her death.
“It’s all part of the game – once you pay, you expect that there will be another one kidnapped,” he said.
Ahad is the seventh Chaldean priest known to have been kidnapped within the past year. Warduni has negotiated for the release of several of the seven. Asked if he was worried that another clergyman would be kidnapped soon, or that he himself might be targeted, his answer highlighted the uncertainty facing Christians in Iraq.
“We leave everything in the hands of the Lord, because we believe that he loves us and also we cannot explain why we are in this situation,” Warduni said. “I hope there will be no more like this.”