Solidarity with the Persecuted Church has told you about the difficulties facing Christians as they at long last begin to return to their homes in Iraq after the scourge of ISIS. The radical Islamists of ISIS took particular efforts to destroy and desecrate Christian villages…ransacking homes and businesses and despoiling churches.
Now, as weary Christians try to rebuild their lives, rebuild their plundered homes and restore their precious places of worship, they face an extra layer of difficulty: property rights.
In America we take property rights for granted. We buy it, we own it. No one can summarily take it away from us. It is that simple. Property rights are so basic, so much a part of the American fabric of life and rule of law that we seldom, if ever, even think about them.
Not so in Iraq. Especially for Christians. This most basic right doesn’t exist in Iraq. So, the Christians, driven out of their village by ISIS, can try to return only to find that it has been given by one government agency or interest greoup, to their friends, allies, or a more favored religious group.
Imagine, for a moment, that you went on vacation and returned to find your home had been occupied, permanently, by someone else, more favored by the local government, or Uncle Sam. This happens, is happening, right now to Iraqi Christians…people who have already suffered beyond our imagination.
What’s to be done? As hard as SPC is working to help Christians in Iraq rebuild their lives, this is an issue that needs fixing at the highest levels. The U.S. and its powerful allies need to, must, work to influence the positive forces within the Iraqi Government to address this most basic right. The importance of this issue must be focused on at the United Nations.
Solidarity with the Persecuted Church will be researching, studying and working to make the public, and our public officials, aware of this new crisis Christians are facing. Together, as we shine a bright light on this problem, we can encourage the change that is needed. Please, help us establish this most basic right for our sisters and brothers in faith in Iraq.
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