According to reports from Iraq originating on Radio Sawa and passed on by Omar at Iraq the Model, the people and government of Kurdistan are setting an example of religious tolerance that is in sharp contrast to the recent story of a man faced with the death penalty for converting to Christianity in Afghanistan.

According to reports from Radio Sawa and confirmed in a recent statement by General Georges Sada, there have been substantial numbers of Kurds converting or reverting to Christianity since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Sada himself was born an Assyrian Christian and converted to Islam during the reign of Saddam and later converted back to Christianity, a pattern that many seem to have followed.

Kurdistan has a history of religious diversity, with a fairly large Christian minority, but unlike Iran and Syria, which have gone to great lengths to purge their religious minorities, Kurds are embracing theirs. They even openly tolerate the Yezidis and Zoroastrians, who have been heavily persecuted elsewhere in the region.

Rather than condemning these conversions, Muslim Kurdish Prime Minister Nejervan Barzani commented "I'd rather see a Muslim become Christian than to see him become a radical Muslim," a uniquely enlightened viewpoint in these times and in that part of the world where extremism and intolerance often seem to be out of control. This is yet another reminder that there is at least one third of the cobbled-together nation of Iraq which seems to have its head screwed on straight and isn't being torn apart by factionalism and fanaticism.