Christians of Iraq in danger

Raymond George -California
 The Iraqi Christian community is mourning the deaths of their loved ones after the deadly attack at Our Lady of Salvation Syriac Catholic Church in Baghdad where two young priests and 48 worshipers were massacred and wounding 75 people while praying during the Sunday Mass followed by a coordinated anti-Christian attacks in the past few days killing several people.
Our people, the Christians in Iraq and other parts of the Middle East, are being targeted simply because they are Christians. The survivors of the church siege in Baghdad mentioned that the militants called them ‘infidels’ during the siege and the statements on jihadi Islamic websites are saying that Christians are ‘legitimate targets’. We condemn this violence which is designed to terrorize the whole population and drive the Christians out of their country.
In the past several years since the 2003 invasion of Iraq our brothers and sisters are bleeding day after day. Since the change in the whole political map in which the Iraqi people were promised freedom and prosperity, the defenseless Christian community is left abandoned and unprotected easy target for gangs and fanatic anti-Christian groups.
Beside loosing its basic right of freedom of worship the Christians are being persecuted and forced to emigrate and leave their jobs and property and the country.
It is very clear that the terrorists and the groups behind them want to drive the Christain people out and they are succeeding.Today the Christian population is dwindling to an alarming figure of approxiamtely half million compared to over 1.5 millions in early 2000.
These kind of persecutions and attacks against Christians ( Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriac, Armeanians ) are happening in an alarming scale because they are a minority and they have no protection for themselves and the government doesn’t seem capable of providing security for them as the country is in chaos.

Despite several proclamations, the Iraqi government does nothing to stop this wave of violence that overwhelms the entire population in general but more specifically the Christian people. For generations our people living in Iraq have been and continue to be peace loving citizens without any political interest nor influenced by foreign governments’ agenda to meddle in the local government affairs.
It is very important to mention that the US government by having invaded Iraq in 2003, have the moral and human responsibility to protect those who were put at risk because of the war. The United States government must not abandon it’s responsibilities to defend the defenseless Christian people the original inhabitant of Iraq.
Today the international community and more specifically the United States has the moral obligation not only not to abandon the defenseless Christian minority but to defend them in every possible way.
We appeal for swift action from the international community especially from the US government in Washington to exert maximum pressure on the Iraqi government to provide the highest level of protection to our churches and the neighborhoods where our people reside. The Iraqi government officials and members of parliament are enjoying an extensive security, protection and body guards and live in a special protected “Green Zone” area while the citizens lack the basic level of safety and protection.
We call upon all our activists and political organizations and human rights advocates and all churches’ leaders to form a united voice to reach the United Nations and the United States government to formulate a resolution to stop the discrimination of Christians of Iraq, protect and safeguard their interests and national rights