A woman and her children attend an Easter ceremony in Saint John's Church (Mar Yohanna) in the nearly deserted predominantly Christian Iraqi town of Qaraqosh on April 16, 2017, near Mosul, Iraq. | Carl Court/Getty Images
Ishtartv.com
- christianpost.com
By Susan Korah, TUESDAY,
JUNE 23, 2020
It was the summer of 2014 and on
June 10, after four days of fighting, Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, had
fallen to ISIS (Islamic state) terrorists. Unfurling black flags across the
city, the invaders ran amok, killing, torturing, and enslaving thousands of
Christians, Yazidis, and other minority faith groups, desecrating churches, and
toppling statues and crosses.
On July 2, in a chilling act of
hatred, the extremists painted the first letter of the Arabic word ‘Nazarene’
(Christian) on the doors and businesses of Mosul’s Christian inhabitants,
marking them as targets for their cruelty.
Thousands of Christians, Yazidis,
and others fled in shell-shocked, panic-stricken terror. The international
Organization for Migration reported the number of those who left as 500,000,
which included 200,000 Christians and 200,000 Yazidis.
The world was slow to wake up to
this unfolding genocide, says Nuri Kino, a Syriac Christian journalist and
activist based in Södertälje, Sweden, who had been one of the first to
alert the world of the gravity of the situation. He had warned through his
reports, of the impending catastrophe, but neither the UN for the U.S. did
anything to avert it.
That day, Kino gathered a group
of concerned volunteers and coordinated a social media blitz, sending 15,000
emails to key people around the world: major news outlets, lawmakers,
politicians (including Canadians), UN officials and NGOs. They attached reports
and proof of the unfolding genocide in Iraq.
“Our message was that nobody
could claim they were unaware of the situation,” he says. “It was a crisis that
demanded immediate action, and if the world did not come to the aid of these
persecuted people, they were complicit in the persecution.”
Echoes of the same message
resounded across the world in the weeks that followed, as activists —
independently or in concert with A Demand for Action, the international
advocacy organization that Kino founded — gathered for peaceful protests in
major cities.
On September 6, an estimated
crowd of 2000, many with the letter ‘N’ (for Nazarene or Christian) in Arabic
pinned to their lapels, assembled in front of Ottawa's Parliament Hill to
heighten public awareness of the unfolding tragedy in Iraq, and to appeal to
the Canadian government and public for help.
“We put this together in three
weeks,” Keith Bell, one of the organizers told Convivium. “My wife Anne
and two other couples — close friends of ours and devout Catholics like
ourselves — were discussing the situation of Christians, and other faith
minorities of the Middle East, and decided that the best way to make a
difference was to hold a demonstration.”
He added that the Archdiocese of
Ottawa, and Archbishop Terrence Prendergast “came through with flying colors”
when approached for support, and even paid for the required insurance.
“I think all people of faith were
devastated by the Islamic state attacks on Christians,” said Carl Hétu,
National Director of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, discussing his
memories of the event in an interview with Convivium.
“In one sense, it mobilized not
only Christians of Latin and Eastern rites but all other religions who had
representatives at the rally to say ‘no’ to persecution, ‘no’ to violence,
‘yes’ to respect, ‘yes’ to peace.”
“Attending the rally and helping
with some organizational details was the least I could do,” said Rabea Allos, a
Baghdad-born Iraqi Christian activist who had traveled all the way from Toronto
to Ottawa for the rally.
“What we are facing today is not
persecution, but genocide,” Father Niaz Toma, keynote speaker at the rally,
said six years ago.
An immigrant from Iraq himself,
Father Toma, who was the pastor of St. Thomas Chaldean Church in Hamilton at
the time, pleaded eloquently for Canadian help and support for Assyrian,
Chaldean and Syriac Christians, as well as for Yazidis and other Middle Eastern
minorities.
“If Canada wants to be a beacon
of hope to all humanity, the Canadian government and people can do more to
restore the dignity of our people,” he said.
Six years have passed since these
grassroots protests and desperate cries for help drew the world’s attention to
the debacle in Mosul.
In reply to
a Convivium question on what difference, if any, the flurry of civil
society activism has made, Kino said that with relentless and sustained
campaigning, his organization has had a hand in getting the European Union and
the U.S. to recognize the genocide officially.
“We were able to get
international media coverage of the issue, and also convinced some countries
(such as the U.S.) to send aid directly to these genocide survivors (rather
than through UN channels),” he added.
Canadian activists, by contrast,
expressed disappointment at their government’s lackluster
response, particularly during the past five years.
A motion introduced by Rona
Ambrose, then leader of the Opposition, in June 2016 to declare ISIS atrocities
against Christians and other Middle Eastern minorities a genocide was defeated
by the Liberal government.
“The Canadian government did not
take the issue seriously for political reasons,” said Allos. “The government
refused to declare what happened to Iraqi Christians by ISIS a genocide. Iraqi
Christians are the indigenous people of Iraq, and since Canada signed the
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in
2016, the government is obligated to protect indigenous people not only in
Canada but worldwide.”
Six years later, the help is
still desperately needed, because Middle Eastern Christians, Yazidis and other
persecuted groups are in dire straits, despite the defeat of ISIS by U.S.-led
troops in 2017.
“Iraq is currently facing several
crises simultaneously, including high unemployment, sectoral division and
corruption,” said Carl Hétu. He added that the collapse of oil prices and the
COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated these problems.
Another major threat hanging over
the heads of these Christians and other minorities is the ever-present shadow
of ISIS.
“ISIS may be gone, but the ideology
of ISIS remains strong and the identities of current and former ISIS members
remains masked,” said Claire Evans, regional manager for the International
Christian Concern, a Washington-based NGO.
“This, of course, is a concern
for Christians,” Evans explained. “But the more immediate threat facing Iraqi
and Syrian Christians are the Islamic ideologies of foreign governments. In
Iraq, that means Iranian expansion into Christian areas to promote Shia Islam.
In Syria, that means Turkish expansion into Christian areas in order to
re-establish the territory of the (former) Ottoman Empire.
“Because of these factors,
Christian families are leaving Iraq each month, going mainly to Lebanon and
Jordan,” Carl Hétu said. “They could be stranded for years before they
can find a home in Canada, Europe or other parts. They won’t go back to Iraq.
With the Covid-19 crisis they might be there for years to come, living
in limbo.”
Those who have fled to Lebanon
and Jordan are still struggling for survival in harsh conditions. With no work
permits and no chances of building a safe, stable life for themselves, they are
dependent, for their basic needs on NGOs such as the Catholic Near Eastern
Welfare Association and A Demand for Action, which help them with food, housing
and healthcare.
Accepting more refugees into
Canada is not the only solution to their problems, says Allos, when asked what
the Canadian government can do to help displaced people caught in the quagmire
of Middle Eastern politics.
“Canada can help in efforts to
rebuild the Christian villages and help to get the internally displaced
refugees to their homes,” he suggested.” It is financially more viable to help
refugees to return to their homelands and help them build their lives in their
native land rather than relocate them to Canada or other countries.”
The road back home, however,
looks long and rough for most people whose world was shaken to its very
foundations when they lost everything — families, homes, livelihoods and more,
to the terrorist invasion.
“They fled from terrorists and
genocide. Now they are trapped in lockdown, without food and water, because of
the corona virus,” says Kino of the refugees that A Demand for Action helps in
Lebanon.
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