Obama in 2007: Iraq's Christians Need 'Urgent' US Response
As a U.S. senator and candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2007, Barack Obama wrote to the secretary of state urging U.S. action on behalf of persecuted Christians in Iraq.
But now that he is in the White House, Obama has ignored calls for the administration to take steps to protect those Christians.
Obama's letter, addressed to Condoleezza Rice and dated Sept. 11, 2007, asserted that Iraq's Christians "appear to be targeted by Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish militants," and said the situation requires "an urgent response."
Christians and their churches came under attack in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. But the situation has worsened recently with the rise of the Islamic State (formerly ISIS), which has seized control of large portions of the two nations.
The group captured the city of Mosul in June, and ordered Christians who had not yet fled to convert to Islam, pay a tax, or be killed. Those who did flee had to leave behind most of their possessions.
"The impossible ultimatum from the merciless Islamists has forced those who had tried to stay in Mosul after it was taken over last month to flee," said Patrick Sookhdeo, international director of the Barnabas Fund, which supports minority Christians in Muslim countries.
"The militants took everything from them, leaving them destitute."
Despite many years of persecution of Christians in Iraq, "the Obama administration repeatedly has ignored recommendations by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent statutory body, for Iraq to be designated a 'country of particular concern' (CPC) for religious freedom violations," CNS News reported.
A CPC designation empowers the administration to impose sanctions or take other measures to "generate improved behavior from governments which either themselves violate citizens' religious freedom, or allow others to do so," according to CNS.
The USCIRF has also raised concerns about persecution of other Iraqi religious minorities.
President Obama, then, might reread his 2007 letter, which stated in part: "The severe violations of religious freedom faced by members of these indigenous communities, and their potential extinction from their ancient homeland, is deeply alarming in light of our mission to bring freedom to the Iraqi people. "These crises demand an urgent response from our government."
