• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Iraqi archbishop hopes Trump will aid persecuted Christians

Feb 10, 2017 6:04 pm By Christine Douglass-Williams

The Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Erbil, Bashar Warda, has commended President Trump’s concern for persecuted Christians:

the fact that an American administration seems to know that there are Christians and other religious minorities here who need help is something I find heartening. I hope this means that we will no longer be excluded from U.S. government and UN aid, which our people desperately need.

In an exclusive interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Trump recently pledged to give persecuted Christians priority as refugees. Trump also stated:

They’ve been horribly treated. Do you know if you were a Christian in Syria it was impossible, at least very tough to get into the United States?

There are those within the Christian ranks however, who fear the backlash of rage from Muslims if Christians are helped; there are also those who seem unmoved by the longstanding plight of persecuted Christians because they are gripped by moral relativism. Archbishop Louis Sako of Iraq, who is the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon, is an example of this phenomenon. He slammed Trump’s intention to help the persecuted Church, calling Trump’s concern about Christians “discriminating”:

These discriminating choices create and feed tensions with our Muslim fellow citizens. Those who seek help do not need to be divided according to religious labels.

Aiming to aid Christians has nothing to do with “religious label”; it has everything to do with ignoring the plight of the Christian that has worsened so severely since the war in Syria began. Christians have been beaten and bullied out of refugee camps by Muslims, and have faced sickening abuses within the Islamic State, with little hope of escape. But now that Trump has vowed to help Christians, he is getting slammed by the likes of Sako.

Bishop Laszlo Kiss-Rigo of southern Hungary, who once called the Pope wrong in stating that Catholics had a “moral duty” to help the hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees streaming into Europe, stated of Muslim refugees:

They’re not refugees. This is an invasion….They come here with cries of ‘Allahu Akbar.’ They want to take over….Europe is being overwhelmed by non-believers posing as refugees who pose a serious threat to the continent’s Christian, universal values.

“Iraqi archbishop hopeful Trump will aid Christians”, by Perry Chiaramonte, Fox News, February 8, 2017:

The Archbishop for the Christian community in Iraq hopes President Trump and will help minority religious groups in the region.

Bashar Warda, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Erbil in Iraq, said as long as Trump’s executive order includes special preferences for all victims of ISIS, it can be a positive for Christians in the region, whose plight Trump has been sympathetic to.

“I would personally prefer that our people stay here in their ancient homeland, but I also understand that many have lost hope,” Archbishop Warda said to Fox News. “They have suffered too much and want to leave. It is not my place to force them to stay.

“That said, the fact that an American administration seems to know that there are Christians and other religious minorities here who need help is something I find heartening. I hope this means that we will no longer be excluded from U.S. government and UN aid, which our people desperately need.”

Warda, a key figure in the beleaguered Iraqi Christian community, has been vocal in the past about the lack of assistance from the U.S. government to Christians and other minorities in the region. Now, he hopes the current administration in Washington has started a helpful dialogue.

“How is it possible that a community suffered genocide, that has seen its numbers decline by more than 8 in 10 in a little over a decade, [receives] nothing at all from the American government that is funding countless humanitarian projects for internally displaced persons in this country?” he said.

The Nineveh Plain region, also known as the Plain of Mosul, has been the ancestral homeland of Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac Christians, Yazidis and other minorities — all of whom were under attack from ISIS since the terror group rose in 2014. These ethnic and religious minority groups were driven from the Plain when the Islamic State attempted to establish their caliphate.

The Christian population in Iraq alone has plummeted from 1.5 million in 2003 to current estimates of 275,000 and could be gone for good within five years if no action is taken, according to a November 2015 report from international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need. The dwindling numbers are due to genocide, refugees fleeing to other countries, internal displacement and others who either hide or disavow their faith.

It has been estimated that a dozen Christian families flee Iraq each day. Christians who have managed to escape ISIS have fled to places like Europe and Lebanon, while members of the faith also are under increasing pressure in Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations.

“Here at home, the words ‘We help everyone’ sound noble, but they have too often become shorthand for actually not helping the religious minority communities at all because when aid goes only to the big camps,’ Andrew Walther, of the Knights of Columbus, told Fox News. “The minority groups aren’t typically at those camps because they are targeted for violence by extremist groups there.”

The organization has performed philanthropic services in the region and successfully lobbied to get the State Department to classify the situation in the region as genocide…..

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Featured, immigration, Muslim persecution of Christians, Syria Tagged With: Archbishop Bashar Warda, Christian refugees


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Comments

  1. Angemon says

    Feb 10, 2017 at 6:23 pm

    They’ve been horribly treated. Do you know if you were a Christian in Syria it was impossible, at least very tough to get into the United States?

    Of course – if Syrian Christians were allowed to go to the US, Assad could no longer claim he’s “protecting” Christians. After all, he would be “protecting” them so well that they would run to the US at the first chance they got…

  2. Christianblood says

    Feb 10, 2017 at 6:45 pm

    Donald Trump would definitely like to help Christians in the ME but the liberal establishment in America who hate Christians and Christianity will not allow him to do so!

    • no_one says

      Feb 10, 2017 at 8:18 pm

      There are very few Christian refugees in the US during Obama administration. They are treated horribly both in the US and Europe.

      • Angemon says

        Feb 11, 2017 at 1:14 pm

        And speaking of cognitive dissonance, do you have something against Christians? Would you have more of them on countries that you claim to treat them horribly?

    • Angemon says

      Feb 11, 2017 at 1:12 pm

      Love the cognitive dissonance here – Donald Trump is both the establishment and fighting the establishment. C’mon, is that the best propaganda you have?

  3. marina says

    Feb 10, 2017 at 6:46 pm

    Pope Francis do you hear that? Shame on you for not speaking for the Christians

    • Alex says

      Feb 11, 2017 at 4:15 am

      There is a job waiting for you, start converting those people that’s the only way to salvation.

  4. Christianblood says

    Feb 10, 2017 at 7:11 pm

    Marina

    Pope Francis’ Catholic church in America is bringing 100.000 muslims to America each year.
    Check out below:

    https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2015/10/11/us-conference-of-catholic-bishops-want-100000-syrians-admitted-to-us-this-year/

    On the other hand, these same muslims are murdering 100.000 Christians each year in the islamic world. Check it out below:

    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/06/02/vatican-spokesman-claims-100000-christians-killed-annually-because-faith.html

    Compare & Contrast.

    • Angemon says

      Feb 11, 2017 at 1:15 pm

      “these same muslims are murdering 100.000 Christians each year in the islamic world.”

      That’s not what the article says, is it? Unless, of course, you want to argue that the islamic world is the whole world.

  5. gravenimage says

    Feb 10, 2017 at 7:38 pm

    Iraqi archbishop hopes Trump will aid persecuted Christians
    ………………………..

    If Trump has his way, he will:

    “Trump says Syrian Christian refugees will be given priority”

    https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/01/trump-says-syrian-christian-refugees-will-be-given-priority

  6. frederick King says

    Feb 11, 2017 at 2:33 am

    It’s funny, so many muslim “refugees”, most of them just financial migrants. The ones that are fleeing violence requesting asylum are just the loosing group of different muslim sects killing each other. This war has been gong for over 1300 years, and will continue. These people must learn to stop killing for very trivial reasons, such as different interpretations of which of muhammads relatives should be in charge. On the other hand, non-Muslims , even in “moderate Muslim” countries are nothing more than second class, and not really considered citizens. These non muslims risk death, robbery, rape, slavery, out right genocide at the hands of “true” muslims. These non muslims, such as the sect being killed off by ISIS, with children being taken and converted, the girls are sold as slaves are granted no special status for being truly killed off.

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • Infidel on Iranian Kurdistan: Muslim brothers behead their sister in honor killing over her romantic relationship
  • gravenimage on Israel At A Crossroads?
  • Infidel on Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, France and UAE conduct joint military exercises amid rising Turkish threat
  • iconoclast123 on India: Police make first arrest for ‘love jihad’ under new law
  • gravenimage on Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, France and UAE conduct joint military exercises amid rising Turkish threat

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.