Canada offers sanctuary to Christian victims of ethnic cleansing in Iraq
Continuing jihadist attacks on Iraq's dwindling Christian population have renewed fears that the Muslim-majority country is being ethnically cleansed of the followers of Jesus Christ. The Canadian government is responding by offering sanctuary to tens of thousands of Iraqi refugees.
On the last day of October 2010 about 120 worshippers in central Baghdad gathered for an evening service at Our Lady of Salvation, a Syriac Orthodox church, which is loosely affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church.
Islamic militants, armed with guns and explosives, burst into the cathedral, taking the congregation hostage. According to published reports, the terrorists immediately executed two priests.
By the time Iraqi security forces stormed the church, the militants had already started killing parishioners. When police entered the building, the jihadists detonated their explosives. When it was all over, 70 people, including children, were dead. Another 75 were wounded.
The attack on Our Lady of Salvation was the single-worst incident of anti-Christian violence in Iraq since 2003.
The Islamic State of Iraq, which claims to be associated with the al Qaeda terror network, took responsibility for the carnage.
Tragically, the targeting of Christians has been all too common in Iraq since 2004, when sectarian violence erupted in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion the previous year.
“The Government of Canada continues to be concerned about the plight of minorities in Iraq," says Melissa Lantsman, director of communications for Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon. “Iraqi minorities, including the Christian community, are especially vulnerable to, and have been targeted by violence and discrimination," she says.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent human rights body established by Congress, has documented religiously-motivated violence against Iraq's religious minorities, including the country's ancient Christian communities.
The commission's 2010 annual report criticizes the Iraqi government for failing to adequately investigate ongoing attacks and for allowing the perpetrators to act with impunity. In addition, the commission slams the central government for not doing enough to secure minority neighbourhoods.
“Canada raises this issue [of minority rights] with the Government of Iraq at every appropriate opportunity," says Lantsman.
The violence, perpetrated by militants from Sunni, Shiite and sometimes Kurdish Islamic sects, has devastated the Christian population.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom estimates that Iraq's Christian population was 1.4 million people in 2003. It says there are only 500,000 Christians left in the country today.
Carl Hetu, national secretary of CNEWA Canada, a papal humanitarian agency that serves Christians in the Middle East, paints an even darker demographic picture, estimating Iraq's current Christian population to be between 300,000 and 450,000.
Many Christians have fled to Jordan and Syria, which offers a measure of protection for religious minorities. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom claims that most of the refugees will never return to Iraq.
CNEWA works with Catholic nuns and Christian refugee committees in Jordan and Syria, to provide aid to displaced Iraqis. And every time there is a spike in violence in Iraq, says Hetu, the ranks of refugees swell.
The Islamic State of Iraq has vowed to drive all Christians from the Middle East. In an apparent attempt to make good on that threat, the jihadists launched a series of deadly attacks on Christian shops and homes in central Baghdad on November 10. The terrorist group claimed responsibility for roadside bombs and mortar fire that killed six people and wounded dozens.
The exiled Syriac Orthodox archbishop, Athanasius Dawood, who now resides in Britain, has advised all Christians to flee the “premeditated ethnic cleansing" in Iraq.
During an October news conference held in Toronto, Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, said Canada can and should “do more to help the victims of persecution and ethnic cleansing."
To that end, he announced the extension of an Iraqi resettlement program. Canada had previously committed to welcoming approximately 12,000 Iraqi refugees between 2009 and 2011. By extending the program to the end of 2013, Canada will take in an additional 8,600 refugees. This means that Canada is committed to resettling approximately 20,600 Iraqi refugees, many of whom are Christians.
Hetu offers high praise for Kenney, who has traveled across Canada and to the Middle East to meet with Iraqi refugees.
In May of 2010, Kenney went to Damascus, Syria. According to a transcript of the minister's October news conference, he met a Christian man there whose business had been bombed by militants. The former Baghdad resident lost a leg in the explosion.
“And as I listened to his story, I saw his two beautiful children looking up hopeless and forlorn and his wife who was weeping," Kenney recalled.
“And I thought to myself that we in Canada can help that family. We can help that family and thousands of others to have a new beginning," he said.
Approximately two-thirds of Iraqi refugees being resettled in Canada are being channelled through privately sponsored federal refugees programs. Sponsors include community organizations and faith groups. Yet there is still an urgent need for more sponsors, Kenney says.
Hetu agrees the need is great. He estimates there are approximately 210,000 Iraqi Christian refugees living in “limbo" in Jordan and Syria.
But what of the Christians who remain in Iraq?
If something good could come of the siege at Our Lady of Salvation, says Hetu, “it would be to rally the moderate Muslims and Christians together in Iraq, to once and for all say no to that violence."
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