Religious Persecution Unjustly Weighed

The Iraqi Islamic Party, the Sunni-led group that includes Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, yesterday called for the U.S. to administer “the severest of punishments” to an American staff sergeant who used the Quran for target practice. The party said it reacted “with deep resentment and indignation” at news of the soldier’s actions, which the party called a “blatant assault on the sanctities of Muslims all over the world.”

While ICC condemns the use of any holy book in such a manner, we are sickened at the failure of the Iraqi Islamic Party–and other Iraqi Islamic groups–to react with equal amounts of “resentment and indignation” at reports of Christian persecution. We can only assume from their actions–or lack thereof–that they place more importance on insults to their religion and assaults on their sanctities than they place on the physical assaults and horrors Iraqi Christians face daily. This shows nothing less than a callous disregard for human life.

Since the start of the war, hundreds of thousands of Christians have fled the country. Though they make up only 3 percent of the population, Christians make up more than half the refuges who flee in fear for their lives. And that fear is legitimate. In the last two months alone, the Christian community suffered the abduction and murder of Paulos Faraj Rahho, archbishop of Mosul ’s Chaldean community, and the murder of Youssef Adel, an Assyrian Orthodox priest.

These two incidents were high-profile enough to make news headlines, but hundreds–if not thousands–of Christians face the same danger each and every day of their lives. They face kidnapping, harassment and violent attacks–including the destruction of churches–at the hands of Islamic groups that want to rid the country of non-Muslims. One report described the situation in Iraq as a “campaign of genocide [being] carried out under the noses of Iraq and U.S. forces.”

It is time for the Iraqi community and the Iraqi government to stand up and speak out against the horrors that Iraqi Muslim extremists are committing in the name of Allah. It is time for the government to start placing more importance on life–and more importance on protecting Iraqi Christians and religious minorities–and less importance on punishing people who insult their religion. Until that happens, it will be very difficult for non-Muslims to accept that the Iraqi government promotes a religion of peace and tolerance. Instead, non-Muslims will–rightly or wrongly–view Islam as a religion that protects its own while ignoring the plight of others.