A church in Baghdad which dates back to the 1920s is threatened with demolition by the Iraqi government to make way for a shopping mall, a local official has warned.
“The demolishing of a church is similar to aggression on the history of Iraq and its indigenous people,” Farhan Qasim, a member of the Baghdad Provincial Council, told Rudaw.
The Chaldean Catholic Church of Divine Wisdom was built in 1929 by British architect James Mollison Wilson during the British Mandate for Mesopotamia and is located on the border between a Sunni district of the city and a rival Shiite area.
“It is a civilizational and historical site and a reflection of the idea of a multicolored Iraqi society and all the sides must respect it,” Qasim said. “Demolishing it and building a mall for investment on the land is the continuation of a plot to demolish many historical and heritage sites in the past in which their locations were eventually turned into landfills.”
He lashed out at his fellow council members, accusing them of “internal political rivalries.”
“These rivalries must be put aside and those attempting to demolish it must be stopped from doing so,” Qasim said. Christian activists have taken to social media to demand the demolition be scrapped.
Earlier last week dozens of Christians and Muslims jointly staged a protest demanding the Baghdad authorities annul the decision.
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