The head of Iraq's Christian community has denounced American evangelical missionaries in his country for what he said were attempts to convert poor Muslims by flashing money and smart cars.

Patriarch Emmanuel Delly, head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, said on Thursday that many Protestant activists had come to Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and set up what he called "boutiques" to attract converts.

Delly said Iraq did not need missionaries as its Christian churches dated back long before Protestantism. As for trying to convert Muslims, he said: "You can't even talk about that here." 

Christians make up 3% of Iraq's 26 million mostly Muslim population, the largest group being the 600,000 Chaldeans who are Eastern rite Catholics linked to the Vatican.

Saying the evangelicals were not real missionaries, Delly said they attracted poor youths with displays of money and taking them "out riding in cars to have fun".

"Then they take photos and send them here, to Germany, to the United States and say 'look how many Muslims have become Christian'," he said.

The patriarch declined to say if the missionaries were a challenge for his church or if US authorities supported them.

Trying to convert Muslims

The idea of converting Muslims has gained some support among US evangelicals since the September 11 attacks, but foreigners who evangelise in Islamic countries must keep very low profiles.

Some were active in Iraq in the first year after Saddam Hussein's overthrow, but deteriorating security since then probably means many have left, Baghdad residents say.

Many Muslim countries consider Christian missionaries as part of a Western campaign against Islam and punish both the preacher and the apostate Muslim severely. Unnamed Iraqi groups killed at least five evangelical missionaries last year.

Delly had no overall figures for these missions but said he knew of 14 evangelical houses in one central Baghdad neighbourhood alone.

"I don't know where their money comes from," he added.

The patriarch, who vigorously opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq and met French President Jacques Chirac - who also opposed it - on Wednesday, declined to comment on Washington's policy there or whether he had contacts with US authorities.

"Frankly, I try to avoid meeting them as much as possible," he said. "They are the occupiers. The occupied don't want to be occupied. That's human nature."

‘Iraq's Constitution should Not only Be Based on Quran’

Also the patriarch said Thursday that Iraq's future constitution should not solely be based on the Quran, despite the country's overwhelming Muslim majority.

"Ninety-five percent of the Iraqi people are Muslims. The government should be Islamic but the Quran cannot be the sole source for the constitution," Delly told a press conference in Paris.

Delly said he had discussed Iraq's future constitution with the Shiite cleric in the country, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, not mentioning the Sunni clerics.

The Chaldean patriarch said Sistani had told him he "did not want a government that was only for Shiites or Muslims in general", adding that new Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari "says the same thing".

Iraq's parliament has just set up a committee to draft the constitution by a deadline of August 15.

The constitution must "offer religious freedom to all in Iraq, but also personal liberties," Delly said.

PHOTO CAPTION

French President Jacques Chirac (R) meets with the patriarch of the Catholic Chaldean Church Emmanuel III Delly at the Elysee Palace in Paris May 16, 2005. (REUTERS)