Iraqi Bishop – Where Were Leftist Protesters When Christians Were Being Slaughtered?

They were at home, smokin’ bud and enjoying some internet porn, silly.  Leftist concern for others stops where their political convictions end. If you don’t advance their political agenda, they couldn’t care less for you or your suffering. Christians are the hated enemy, not part of their coalition of the damaged.  Thus, the Christians of Iraq and Syria (among many other places) could go suck an egg for all leftists care.  No political advantage, no protests for you!

I guess I should do a quick reset before I jump into the block quote – President Trump executed a very narrow and temporary ban against muslims from certain terrorist-supporting/afflicted countries last weekend.  The left has gone nuts over this supposed tyrannical and wholly racially motivated ban on all muslims, simply because Trump is Racist McHitler.  As the Iraqi Archbishop              notes, however, these same leftists seemed a lot less, ah…….energized…….when it was simply Christians being slaughtered in their thousands, rather than a few hundred muslims potentially inconvenienced by having their travel plans delayed.  Ah…….priorities.  The Left always has them:

The Catholic Archbishop of Erbil has denounced the hypocrisy of those protesting President Trump’s recent executive order on immigration, wondering aloud where all of the demonstrators were when Islamic State fighters were slaughtering Christians and other minorities in the Middle East.

In an interview with the online journal Crux, Archbishop Bashar Warda said that from his perspective in Iraq, he couldn’t help but ask “why all of these protesters were not protesting in the streets when ISIS came to kill Christians and Yazidis and other minority groups.”

Warda also criticized the policies of the Obama administration, which offered no financial assistance to displaced Christians in Islamic State territory and instead favored Syrian Muslims when it came to accepting refugees into the United States.

“They were not protesting when the tens of thousands of displaced Christians my archdiocese has cared for since 2014 received no financial assistance from the U.S. government or the U.N.,” he said. “There were no protests when Syrian Christians were only let in at a rate that was 20 times less than the percentage of their population in Syria.”

“I do not understand why some Americans are now upset that the many minority communities that faced a horrible genocide will finally get a degree of priority in some manner,” Warda added. [Great point. Under Obama, persecuted Christians found it virtually impossible to obtain a visa to come to the US.  Only a tiny fraction of “refugees” from Iraq and Syria have been Christian, in spite of the fact that Christians made up 15-20% of the pre-war Syrian population and have been the most targeted people in this terrible conflict.  Fortunately, Trump seems to be finally giving them the priority they deserve.  That’s what happens when you have a nominally Christian president versus a muslim one.]

The archbishop also suggested that the inconvenience posed by a three-month moratorium on visas is nothing compared to the suffering of minorities in Iraq and Syria during the past several years, and yet no one seemed to think that was worthy of a protest.

“Most Americans have no concept of what it was like to live as a Yazidi or Christian or other minority as ISIS invaded,” he said. “Our people had the option to flee, to convert, or to be killed, and many were killed in the most brutal ways imaginable.”

“But there were none of these protests then of ISIS’s religious test,” he said. [Of course not!  Muslims are perceived by leftists as part of their political coalition, whereas Christians are, as I stated above, the hated and despised enemy that must be crushed at all costs.  They didn’t protest because not only did they not care, but probably thought the Christians had it coming (speculative, but quite probably true).]

In his lengthy interview, Warda underscored the hypocrisy of protesters who are willing to side with Muslims but won’t lift a finger to aid Christians facing genocide in the Middle East.

“Our people lost everything because of their faith—they were targeted for their faith, just like the Yazidis and others too,” he said. “Now these protesters are saying that religion should not matter at all, even though someone was persecuted for their faith, even though persecution based on religion is one of the grounds for refugee status in the UN treaty on refugees.”

“From here I have to say, it is really unbelievable,” he said. [That’s the Western Left, as unbelievable as it is despicable.  How was last night in Manhattan near NYU, by the way?]

Warda also blasted the careless journalists who have called the order a “Muslim ban,” noting that this label is not only false but also dangerous to Christians and other minorities living in lands dominated by Islamic terrorists.

“All those who cry out that this is a ‘Muslim Ban,’” Warda said, should understand clearly that they are hurting Christians and “putting us at greater risk.”

“Here in Iraq we Christians cannot afford to throw out words carelessly as the media in the West can do,” he added. “I would ask those in the media who use every issue to stir up division to think about this.”

“For the media these things become an issue of ratings, but for us the danger is real,” he said. [Not just ratings – also advancing their dearly held religious-political agenda]

The Archbishop said “it is very hard for me to understand why comfortable people in the West think those who are struggling to survive against genocide, and whose communities are at extreme risk of disappearing completely, should not get some special consideration.”

Everyone possessed of any sense and decency agrees.  I pray God many of those Christians suffering horrible atrocities as a direct result of deliberate (and disastrous)US policy decisions by the preceding administration can finally obtain some redress from our nation, which put them into this nightmare situation to a large degree in the first place.  It may be too little and too late, but it’s better than the status quo.

Laudits to Archbishop Warda for having the wherewithal to tell it like it is, at least on this particular matter.  May God give him strength to better proclaim the Truth of Jesus Christ and the plight of his people as time moves on.

PS – So, I work with an Iraqi Christian.  His name is David.  He has led a most remarkable life.  He was a graduate student in mechanical engineering when the US invaded in 2003.  He very much wanted Saddam gone and was glad for the initial US intervention.  He served as an interpreter in combat operations with US forces (mostly Marines) in some of the most horrific fighting in Iraq.  He was at Fallujah in 2004 and 2007.  It was there that the jihadis identified him and he had to flee.  So he – get this – walked out of Iraq, across hundreds of miles of barren desert, to Jordanian refugee camp.  From there, he somehow wound up in eastern Ukraine.  There he met his wife and obtained a visa to come to the US.  He then joined the US Army and went back to Iraq for two tours.  He got his citizenship and US degree in 2015 and has been working at our company ever since.

Did David vote for Trump?  Yes.  Does he hate Obama?  Yes.  Does he think Obama more or less permitted/encouraged the destruction of his country?  Yes.  Does he support the “travel ban?”  Yes.  Does he think muslims are fundamentally incompatible with Western civilization?  Hell yes.  He was fortunately able to get his family here last year.  They are all Christian.  He knows many Christians still in Iraq.  He is very happy that they may now have a much better chance of escaping the hell that Iraq has become.  He is an Orthodox from the Nineveh plain outside Mosul.  Good guy.