Iraqi Christians in Jeopardy Again
October 26, 2017
The first Christians to return to their ancestral homes in the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq have once again been pushed away by violence, this time between Kurdish Peshmerga militias and Baghdad’s government forces.
The fighting resumed Tuesday in response to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s push for independence. Nearly 1,000 Christian families, who had just returned to the town of Telsqof, were warned by an Iraqi government official they had just hours to evacuate prior to the resumption of armed conflict.
The Hungarian government supplied $2 million to aid in the town’s reconstruction. It was liberated from ISIS this past summer.
At the time of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the start of the Second Gulf War, there were 1.5 million Christians living in relative peace with their neighbors in northern Iraq. Today, there is estimated to be less than 200,000 remaining.
John X, the patriarch of the ancient Christian church in Antioch, said there cannot be a Middle East without a Christian presence:
“We cannot ignore the fact that, without the Christians in the Middle East, there is no Middle East … The church is the beacon of truth in this educated world. We will continue to witness to that truth even if we are hanged on the cross.”
Vice President Mike Pence, who spoke at the same event as John X, said the Trump administration will circumvent United Nations relief organizations to ensure Iraqi Christians and Yazidi minorities are protected.
TruNews copy
Leave a Reply