Driven from Their Homes, Iraqi Christians Losing Hope

An Assyrian bishop says Iraqi Christians in exile are enduring desperation. 

 

Mar Awa Royel, a bishop of the Assyrian Church of the East says, "What I saw as a bishop and as a pastor was a great loss of hope."

Royel told a conference at Georgetown University that two years after being driven from their homeland by the Islamic State, Christians and Yezidi communities "are still in survival mode. And that's not a good thing."

 

He said, "What impresses me and the churches working on the ground is the human aspect of this; that there is no respect for human life."

Some Assyrian Christians have lived in cities such as Mosul, Iraq, for more than a thousand years. Mosul is still under the control of ISIS.  Even if the region were to be liberated, ISIS attacks have left Christian communities in ruins.

 

Many of the refugees are living in Kurdistan. Father Behnam Benoka, founder of Mart-Shmoni charitable clinic and the Humanitarian Nineveh Relief Organization, told the conference  "there is still an urgent need for food. Many (refugee) families have no work and their supplies are running out. Even if someone gets a job in Kurdistan they often won't get paid."

 

David Saperstein, US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, told the conference that the first step to restore stability in the region is to destroy ISIS.  Others advocated for armed, self-governed spaces within Iraq to protect Christians and other minorities, and to allow refugees to return home.