Iraqi Christians plot course for self-determination

 Christians in Iraq, who trace their faith to the biblically recorded Pentecost and who have refused to be dislodged in the face of Islamic attacks and Mongol hordes over the centuries, are hammering out a course for future worship, and it includes a plan for a Christian province.
Delegates from Iraq's 16 predominantly Christian political parties and groups have hammered out an agreement to form the province on the Nineveh plains in Northern Iraq.
Delegates gathered in the Kurdish provincial capital city of Erbil and unanimously voted to petition the Iraqi government to approve the request for a self-governing Christian territory in the land Iraqi Christians say was the first predominantly Christian nation.
Assyrian Alliance spokesman Ken Joseph says that many people didn't believe formation of a Christian province was possible.
"The best thing the Christians can do to help the Christians in Iraq is to give them an economic basis in order to survive. The have the culture, but they don't have the infrastructure to deliver their products to the market,"
Some analysts have stated that the situation for Christians in Iraq is worse since the American-led operation to remove Saddam Hussein. The Assyrian Alliance spokesman Ken Joseph says that's not true.
"I was there under Saddam Hussein. I was there when we brought in the first relief to cross the border following liberation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Life under Saddam was an absolute nightmare – a horror," Joseph observed.