Chaldean Patriarch Warns Iraq of ‘Historic Catastrophe’ as ISIS Pressures Mosul Christians

Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako has urged Iraq to turn away from its current course, warning that the new policies of Islamist jihadists threaten Christian-Muslim coexistence. In a July 17 message, which he described as “urgent,” Patriarch Sako said that if the direction “continue[s] to be pursued, Iraq will come face to face with human, civil, and historic catastrophe.” He spoke of Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon as his title and called for peace and co-existence “in a spirit of human brotherhood.”

He directly addressed Iraqis, asking them “to reconsider and reflect upon the strategy they have adopted” and demanding that they “respect innocent and weaponless people of all nationalities, religions, and sects” (Psalm 82:3).

The message came weeks after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant occupied the northern city of Mosul and began forcing the city’s remaining Christians out. On July 18, ISIS issued an ultimatum to Mosul’s Christians: convert to Islam, pay the jizya, or be killed. The cross atop the city’s Syriac Orthodox cathedral was removed, and thousands of Christians have fled the city in recent days. The source reports that ISIS controls much of the Sunni areas of northern and western Iraq, as well as cities along the Euphrates River in northwest Syria, and that group members have threatened both Christians and Shia Muslims.

Patriarch Sako called on Christians to “endure the time of trial and pray until the storm will be over.” He said the group’s control of Mosul and its proclamation of an Islamic state have had profound negative effects on the Christian population. He said that, given the ultimatum, “the only alternative (for Christians) is to abandon the city and their houses with only the clothes they are wearing, taking nothing else.” According to the patriarch, under ISIS’s imposition of sharia law, houses left behind are “instantly confiscated” as property of the Islamic state. He also said the Arabic letter “nun,” standing for “Nazarene” or “Christian,” has been written on Christians’ homes in the city, and that the letter “ra,” standing for “Rejecter,” has been written on the walls of Shiite homes.

The patriarch described the new law code as “powerful” and said it has been interpreted to require religion-based forms of identification. He said this categorization affects many Muslims and contravenes Islamic injunctions against compulsion in religion. “The Holy Quran has ordered believers to respect the innocent and has never called them to seize the belongings, the possessions, the properties of others by force,” he said.

Patriarch Sako said that Christians and Muslims in Iraq have had a “fraternal life” up to now. “How much the Christians have shared here in our East specifically from the beginnings of Islam,” he said. “They shared every sweet and bitter circumstance of life. Christian and Muslim blood has been mixed as it was shed in the defense of their rights and lands. Together they built a civilization, cities, and a heritage. It is truly unjust now to treat Christians by rejecting them and throwing them away, considering them as nothing.”

He warned that legally enforced discrimination eliminates the possibility of religious coexistence between majorities and minorities, and he noted that this would be “very harmful” to Muslims as well. He extended God’s peace and mercy “to all who have a living conscience in Iraq and all the world,” to moderate Muslims, to “all who have a concern that Iraq should remain a country for all his Children,” and to “all protectors of the dignity of human beings and of religion.”

Patriarch Sako called on the region’s Christians “to act with reason and prudence and to consider and to plan everything in the best way possible.” He urged them to “understand what is planned for this region, to practice solidarity in love, to examine the realities together and so be able together to find the paths to build trust in themselves and in their neighbors,” and to stay close to their own church.

Source: Read the original report