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April 4, 2008
Christians fleeing Iraq; few entering U.S.
Soberly, a native son fights their cases in immigration court
There have been long histories of discrimination in the United States against gays and Jews and other non-heterosexual WASPs, and I don't think it is too difficult for Americans to imagine gays in Iraq and Jews in Baghdad living under the hammer. But Christians?
Just like in the Palestinian territories, Christians in Iraq continue to see their situation get worse. The LA Times touches on their plight in a Column One about Robert DeKelaita, an Iraqi-born attorney handling asylum cases in American immigration court.
Repressed under Saddam Hussein, Iraq's Christian population has been decimated since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Muslim extremists have murdered priests and burned churches and Christian-owned shops and homes. Priests in Iraq estimate that fewer than 500,000 Christians remain, about a third of the number as before 2003.
On March 13, the body of the archbishop of Mosul, Paulos Faraj Rahho, was recovered, two weeks after he was kidnapped while leaving Mass. The slaying prompted Iraqi Christians to consider worshiping in secret; church services have also been attacked. Christian leaders say some Christians have been abducted and killed after refusing to convert to Islam.
"No group was happier than Christians when Saddam fell," DeKelaita said. "But no group is more disappointed with the way things played out."
Anguished over mistreatment of Iraqi Christian family members and strangers, DeKelaita long ago decided to dedicate his law practice to defending them. He is among a handful of immigration lawyers nationwide who specialize in representing Iraqi Christians, though he represents other clients.
"I know their pain; I feel it," he said of Iraqi Christians. "These are my people. I don't even have to ask them what they've been through."
Each Christian released from federal custody is a blessing, he said. But for the most part, "I deal in misery, unfortunately."
Frankly, I've never understood why we don't take more Iraqi refugees in. I mean, we unleashed this hornet's nest when we deposed that despot Saddam. Seems like we should take care of those endangered by the aftermath, whether because they are ethnic minorities or because they've decided to work for the U.S. military or contractors. An assistant secretary of State gave this explanation to USA Today:
The United States has been unable to accept more Iraqis in part because of the time needed for background checks, which have become more stringent since 9/11.
To me it seems like a moral imperative that 10 years from now we will look back on critically, just like our response to Saddam while he was cleansing the Kurds.
Last fall, I put the question of what the U.S. should do to Bruce Einhorn, a recently retired immigration judge who is the "house Bolshevik" at Pepperdine, handled the L.A. 8 case and wrote an article about the refugees called "Freed to Flee."
"I find it appalling that having perhaps inadvertantly caused the refugee crisis in Iraq we have essentially pretended it doesn't exist. Clearly we overthrew a vicious, genocidal brute in Saddam Hussein. On the other hand, our occupation of Iraq after his overthrow has been a complete fiasco. Whatever terrorist organizations that didn't exist in Iraq do now, largely in resistance to us. And ordinary citizens are running for their lives," Einhorn told me.
"If the United States intervenes in a nation's affairs, ostensibly to restore or create human rights for the population, then it seems to me our government has assumed the burden of protecting those who become the targets of persecution as an inadvertent result of our involvement."
This article was cross-posted at The God Blog.
Comments
Thanks for drawing attention to this.
Not much in the way of compassionate christianity is being shown to the 3 million people who have been displaced by our activities in Iraq.
I suppose it's easier to embrace slogans like "we've got to fight them over there...so we don't have to fight them over here" and "as they stand up...we'll stand down", than think about the consequences of our actions.
Where are the evangelical leaders calling for help for these people?
Posted By: JohnW | April 7, 2008 11:08 AM
Yet another item the administration did not consider before invading Iraq.
Posted By: Jim | April 7, 2008 1:41 PM
Brad Greenberg writes: "There have been long histories of discrimination in the United States against gays and Jews and other non-heterosexual WASPs, and I don't think it is too difficult for Americans to imagine gays in Iraq and Jews in Baghdad living under the hammer. But Christians?"
Boy, are YOU naive! Whom do you think those Moslems are targeting when they say they want the whole world converted to the religion of Mohammed? They have always said, if they cannot convert you, they will kill you. Historically, that's what has happened, and it's happening now. For those who say it is only the "fundamentalist" Islamists who are doing the persecuting and killing, I say, they are "fundamentalists" because they are more or less strictly following what the Koran says, and there sure seem to be a lot of them!
Posted By: Gorobei | April 8, 2008 7:11 AM
It's not how its always been Iraq is the birth place of christianity and civilization for that matter specificly northern Iraq it pre-dates anything in europe or america by a long shot infact europe didnt not adopt christianity until 300 years after the middle-east much of the middle-east was converted to islam when the islamic armies fended off the persians for a very long time chistians and Islamist lived in piece until some foolish euopean volunteer army called the french army invaded the middle-east you might of heard of it it was called the crusade this christian volunteer army raped pillaged and destroyed everything in its path after that christians all over the middle east were persecuted for being christian even though they died in the crusade along with the islamist its funny that europeans began the religious troubles in the middle east and developed the hatred of christians its been that way ever since. All I can say is remember that muhammed was married to Khadija she was a christian and her uncle was a bishop. they should let the masses of illiterate Islamist know that. Maybe then we can stop paying for the Idiocy of a powerhungry foolish bishop that lived hundreds of years ago.
Posted By: CardinalSyn | April 21, 2008 9:36 PM
Advice for the Christians? Perhaps the Christians need to align themselves with the Kurds of the north since the Kurds are moderate and have their own constitution. It's been a horrible time for anyone in Iraq.
The history of the Jews in Iraq is important to review. At one point in the early 20th century they made up almost a quarter of the population in Bagdad.---Remember that the jews arrived as exiles---taken from their Sumarria and Jerusalem by Assyrians, then Chaldeans, all before 550 b.c.e. Many jews stayed there. They were denationalized in 1950-51 due to feas of Zionism. However, there are about 8 jews still there.
Posted By: Krista | June 30, 2008 3:36 PM
As an evangelical Christian myself, I have basically had it with many Christian leaders using the evengelical pulpit as a propaganda stage for the American right-wing. As far as I know, Dobson, Richard Land, and other leaders in the Evangelical Christian media have been silent on the issue of the brutal mistreatment of Christians in the aftermath of the U.S. military invasion of Iraq. The reason is obvious....They were all on board with the Bush Administration when we went in. To present any side of the story that might call into question whether they were right in their judgement when they supported the invasion would hurt their credibility. If the Evangelical leaders launch an honest investigation concerning this issue and still come to an honest conviction that the invasion was the right thing to do, then so be it. But to ignore it altogether is indefensible. Conservative Christian media needs to clean up its own backyard before its spokesmen complain about bias in the secular media.
Posted By: robert | August 3, 2009 12:25 PM