Scottish Catholic Observer

‘Twice bombs have gone off in front of me, once in my car, once in my church,” Fr Douglas Bazi (above) told me. “I was shot with an AK 47 in the leg and I was kidnapped by Al Qaeda for nine days.”

Given that litany the priest was surprisingly positive in his outlook when I met him ahead of the launch of the latest ACN report in Aberdeen.

Yet this native of Baghdad, Iraq, was visiting relatives nine years ago when his car was stopped in a road block on the highway and he was abducted by Shia militants.

“Their reasoning was that if you attack the shepherd, the sheep will disperse,” he said. “I was kidnapped for nine days but it seemed so much longer than that. The memories are etched in my brain and will never leave me. I was convinced they were going to kill me.”

He explained that during the day he was ‘a spiritual advisor to my kidnappers.’

“They used to ask me about how to deal with their wives, and the same person at night used to beat me,” he said. “And the day after, they would ask for forgiveness. And during my time when I was captured in the chains, the ten chain links were all that I could use to pray the Rosary.”

“They broke my teeth with a hammer, and I had no water for five days. Now I must have water next to my bed whenever I sleep.”

The torture campaign was both mental and physical.

“One of them asked me what will I do to seek revenge,” he said “I told him revenge was not in my dictionary. I said, no we will have lunch together but if your hand is still dipped in blood you have to go to court.”

Fr Bazi’s message for Scots is simple. “We are facing genocide,” he said. “In years to come will you tell your children stories of us, a people who are gone? Or will we tell our children stories of you? Who saved us.”

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—This story ran in full in the October 23 print edition of the SCO, available in parishes.