Urges leaders worldwide to speak out against violence directed toward all people of faith
LOUISVILLE—On behalf of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), I write to add our voice to the pleas for an end to the violence in the city of Mosul in northern Iraq.
The violence has resulted in the recent brutal killing of many Christians and the flight, according to the Assyrian International News Agency, of hundreds of Christians who left the city on February 24, 2010, in search of shelter from the prospect of death at the hands of Muslim extremists.
Chaldean Bishop Emil Shimoun Nona expressed the fear the Mosul could be “emptied completely of Christians.”
We are well aware of the struggle in the region between the Kurdish population and the Iraqi Arabs who control the city. It appears to some analysts that this violence is intended to create turmoil prior to the pending election on March 7, 2010. The violence has included attacks on Muslim houses of worship, as well as Christian houses of worship.
We join with Pope Benedict XVI and church leaders worldwide in expressing our solidarity with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in his efforts to bring an end to the violence in Mosul and the region. We urge leaders of the United States and the community of nations to speak out against all such violence directed toward people of faith, and especially against Christians who constitute such a fragile but crucial minority in the region.
Ask elected officials in Washington to work to protect the Christians of Iraq.