Yousif and Alia Matty field questions from Town Crier reporters during a visit to Los Altos last week. The couple, who live in Kurdistan, said the north end of Iraq is approaching stability.

Yousif and Alia Matty visited Los Altos last week with messages of optimism from the heart of their native Iraq.

Yousif, a Christian in a Muslim country and pastor of his own Kurdistan Evangelical Church, doesn’t see an ongoing war in his strife-ridden country, as many Americans do. He said the war ended with the capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, currently facing trial for murdering thousands under his rule. He sees progress in his country, particularly where he lives in Kurdistan, to the north.

“What’s going on in the north with the Kurds is more stability,” he said during a visit with Alia to the Town Crier last week. “There’s more freedom - we can print anything we want. There’re a great many improvements in electricity, health care.”

The Mattys are responsible for some of this progress. In addition to his 1,000-member church, Yousif and Alia, his wife of 23 years, are building a center for women - a rarity in a nation where independence for women is not a given. Alia, a physicist and college professor herself, is leading efforts to build a Classical School of the Medes, where women can partake in everything from exercise and physical therapy to computer training.

“We need to reach out to the women,” she said. “They have no facilities.”

Yousif, a geologist by trade, was forced into Saddam’s army, where he served for 10 years.

“It’s not that you would choose to be a soldier,” he said of his military experience. “You just obey orders. I lost many of my friends.”

Yousif pointed out that in the Persian Gulf War, many Iraqi soldiers simply surrendered at the first sign of American forces. “They did not want to fight,” he said.

The minister has been a victim of numerous death threats for his role in converting Muslims to Christianity. He opened four bookstores, only to see them firebombed. But he continues, seemingly undeterred.

Christians, comprising only 3.3 percent of the population, are seen as enemies of Islam and supporters of the West. The country is approximately 60 percent Shi’ite Muslim and 36 percent Sunni Muslim.

He predicted Saddam “will not escape from this case” in the trial against him. But Yousif preferred the dictator remain in prison rather than be executed.

Noting that Saddam is still favored by some Sunni Muslims, Yousif offered, “If he were executed, he would be a hero. Twenty to 30 years in jail, he’ll be forgotten.”

Yousif supported the Bush administration’s assertion that American troops need to remain until military and political stability is established.

“Even the Sunni leaders don’t want the soldiers to leave,” he said, adding that the wave of terrorism at the hands of extremists needs to be stopped in Iraq. If not, Yousif told the Town Crier, “Fundamentalists are going to be knocking on your door.”

The Mattys visited the Los Altos area to meet with and enlist support from local churches. “We want to build a bridge to American churches,” Yousif said.

The couple’s efforts are supported by a number of Christian organizations worldwide.