[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 13 (Thursday, January 22, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H477-H478]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IRAQI CHRISTIANS FACE EXTINCTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, ``The Christian owner of a car repair shop was 
killed execution-style in Mosul, police said Saturday, raising concerns 
about the possibility of new attacks against religious minorities in 
the northern city.'' This chilling excerpt was taken from a recent AP 
story, which went on to say that the attack ``followed a pattern of 
violence and intimidation that sent thousands of Christians fleeing 
from their homes in Mosul this fall.''
  This is not the first time that we have seen targeted killings. We 
need to look no farther than the 2008 kidnap and murder of Archbishop 
Rahho of Mosul, an Assyrian Christian of the Chaldean Church, or 
Youssef Adel, an Assyrian Christian priest who was fatally shot in a 
drive-by attack in April of 2008.
  These high-profile killings are indicative of wider-scale persecution 
and fear experienced by this suffering community. The numbers tell the 
story.
  According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, 
Iraqi's Christian population has fallen from as many as 1.4 million in 
2003 to between 500,000 and 700,000 at present. The report says that, 
``While Christians and other religious minorities represent only 
approximately 3 percent of the pre-2003 Iraqi population, they 
constitute approximately 15 percent and 20 percent of registered Iraqi 
refugees in Jordan and Syria respectively, and Christians account for 
35 and 64 percent, respectively, of all registered Iraqi refugees in 
Lebanon and Turkey.'' What we are witnessing here is the tragic 
extinction of an age-old faith community.
  The patriarch Abraham came from a city in Iraq called Ur. Isaac's 
bride, Rebekah, came from northwest Iraq. Jacob spent 20 years in Iraq, 
and his sons, the 12 tribes of Israel, were born in northwest Iraq. A 
remarkable spiritual revival as told in the book of Jonah occurred in 
Nineveh. And the events of the book of Esther took place in Iraq, as 
did the accounts of Daniel in the Lion's Den.
  For months, I unsuccessfully urged the Bush administration to develop 
a comprehensive policy to address the unique plight of Iraq's 
struggling ethno-religious minorities, specifically the Christian 
community. We have pressed for one person in the embassy to work on 
these. The Religious Freedom Commission has also asked for things like 
this, but now we are seeing that the creation and filling of this 
position must be, must be, among Secretary Clinton's first priorities.
  In July of 2008, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Migration & 
Refugee Services said this about the minority religious community: 
``These groups, whose home has been what is now Iraq for many 
centuries, are literally being obliterated, not because they are 
fleeing generalized violence but because they are specifically and 
viciously victimized by Islamic extremists and, in some cases, common 
criminals.''
  These minority communities face marginalization or even extinction. 
U.S. policy must reflect the unique political and security reality of 
these minority communities. I urge Members of

[[Page H478]]

Congress, and I want to compliment Congresswoman Eshoo from California 
who has been very active on this, but other members, to weigh in with 
the newly confirmed secretary and ask her to take dramatic action to 
save the Iraqi Christians.
  An article in Christianity Today by Philip Jenkins described what is 
happening in Iraq this way: ``What we are seeing then is the death of 
one of the world's greatest Christian enterprises.''
  Just this week a delegation of Chaldean bishops urgently appealed to 
Pope Benedict XVI for the church to create a strategy to prevent 
Christians from leaving the region. I urge people of faith to stand, 
and I urge Members of Congress to press the secretary to appoint one 
person to deal with this issue.
  And, lastly, I say where, where; oh where, oh where is the church? Oh 
where, oh where is the Christian church in the West when the Christians 
in Iraq are being slaughtered?

                      [From the Associated Press]

                Christian Killed in Northern Iraqi City

                         (By Sameer N. Yacoub)

       Baghdad.--The Christian owner of a car repair shop was 
     killed execution-style in Mosul, police said Saturday, 
     raising concern about the possibility of new attacks against 
     the religious minority in the northern Iraqi city.
       The body of the 36-year-old man, who was shot in the head, 
     was found Thursday, according to police and hospital 
     officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they 
     were not authorized to talk to the media.
       Another Christian man, an engineer in the city's water 
     department, was kidnapped in early January but was released 
     four days later after his family paid a $50,000 ransom.
       Nobody claimed responsibility for the killing or the 
     kidnapping, but they followed a pattern of violence and 
     intimidation that sent thousands of Christians fleeing from 
     their homes in Mosul in the fall.
       Bassem Balu, an official with the Democratic Assyrian 
     Movement, sought to maintain calm, saying the motives for 
     this week's killing were not yet known. The movement is the 
     largest Christian party.
       ``For the time being, I do not think that this will slow 
     the return of the Christians to Mosul,'' he said. ``I hope 
     that this murder won't signal the start of a new campaign 
     against the Christians in Mosul.''
       Some Mosul residents have filtered back since the fall 
     exodus, but others remain with relatives in the safer 
     countryside or have sought refuge in neighboring Syria 
     despite government pledges of financial support and 
     protection.
       Reflecting the continued fear, Christian candidates running 
     for the Jan. 31 provincial elections have not been 
     campaigning in Mosul but were limiting their activities to 
     Christian areas outside the city.
       Saad Tanyous, one of the candidates seeking a seat on the 
     provincial council, said Christians were not even putting 
     posters on the walls in Mosul.
       Christians have frequently been targeted amid the fierce 
     sectarian fighting that broke out after the 2003 U.S.-led 
     invasion, although the attacks have ebbed with a sharp drop 
     in overall violence.
       Churches, priests and businesses of the generally 
     prosperous, well-educated community have been attacked by 
     militants who denounce Christians as pro-American 
     ``crusaders.''
       In an exodus which began after the 1991 Gulf War and 
     escalated dramatically after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, 
     Iraq has lost more than half its Christian population of some 
     1 million.
       The body of Paulos Rahho, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop 
     of Mosul, also was found in March following his abduction by 
     gunmen after a Mass.
       Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, remains one of the 
     most dangerous cities in Iraq despite security gains.
       Gunmen also killed two Iraqi soldiers on a foot patrol in 
     the city Saturday afternoon, police said.
       Tensions have been rising ahead of the provincial 
     elections, which are aimed at more equitably distributing 
     power and stemming support for the insurgency.
       Haider al-Ibadi, a Shiite lawmaker from Prime Minister 
     Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa party, condemned Friday's 
     assassination of candidate Hashim al-Husseini south of 
     Baghdad.
       ``This crime should not go unpunished and we call upon 
     security forces to chase the killers as soon as possible and 
     put them on trial,'' he said, calling for stepped-up 
     protection for candidates.

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