Despite Christian genocide, more Muslims than Christians allowed entry to US

Christians in the Middle East are the victims of the worst religious persecution on earth, and are not even safe in UN-sponsored refugee camps. That's because the UN’s failure to make refugee camps safe is allowing intolerant Sunni Muslims — who share a creed with ISIS — to violently “cleanse” such camps of Christians.

According to British media, a terrorist defector asserted that militants enter UN camps to assassinate and kidnap Christians. In addition, an American Christian aid group reported that the UN camps are “dangerous” places where ISIS, militias and gangs traffic in women and threaten men who refuse to swear allegiance to the caliphate. Such intimidation is also reportedly evident in migrant camps in Europe, leading the German police union to recommend separate shelters for Christian and Muslim migrant groups.

Sadly, most of these helpless, unarmed Christian survivors of ISIS’s murder squads cannot even reach the “first safe” countries outside the Middle East that could welcome them, and instead live in windblown tents and unheated metal storage containers in places like Mt. Sinjar, just miles away from ISIS-controlled territory.

All this makes it particularly revolting, especially following the Paris and San Bernardino terrorist attacks -- that President Obama insists on giving priority welcome to Syrian Muslim immigrants over Christian refugees.

In fact, though more than a million Christians were driven at gunpoint from Iraq following the US's abrupt withdrawal from that country, the Obama administration is detaining Iraqi Christians at ICE detention centers - and refuses to let an Iraqi nun even visit America – while it is explicitly excluding Christians from lists of known victims of ISIS’s genocide.

The numbers make Obama’s actions even worse. Though 10 percent of Syria is Christian, on Obama’s watch, only about 2.5% of refugees that have been granted entry to America since Syria’s civil war broke out have been Christian. Put more numerically, at last count, Obama has welcomed 2098 Muslim refugees into America, and only 53 Syrian Christian refugees.

Even worse, since the Paris attacks alone, Obama has allowed 236 Sunni Muslim refugees to the US, and only one Syrian Christian. This is despite the fact that Syrian Christians in the Middle East— unlike their Muslim compatriots —have nowhere in the Middle East they can go to be wholly free of persecution.

Today’s persecuted Christians have been targeted for death, sexual assault, slavery, displacement, cultural eradication and forced conversion by ISIS. But the US government’s response has been to show the Christian refugees about as much respect as ISIS shows them.

Not only do Obama’s actions expose us to blatant threats of terrorism here in America, he exhibits an astonishing lack of compassion that can only be described as diabolical. On what grounds can anyone possibly defend what he is doing?

----

For information on how you can help endangered and displaced Christians, please see below for a list of non-profit organizations sending aid to Middle Eastern Christians and advocating on their behalf:

Helpiraq.org. Assists in the funding and development of several projects geared toward helping the displaced Christians and other minorities of Iraq.

The Iraqi Christian Relief Council helps Christians from Iraq, Syria and other parts of the Middle East. Founded by Juliana Taimaroozy, it exists to support and protect the indigenous people of Iraq, the Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs), by providing emergency humanitarian aid, prayer support, advocacy and education. ICRC has helped thousands of displaced Christians throughout Iraq with food, shelter and medicine. Today, ICRC tirelessly promotes the cause of Assyrian Christians throughout the world. Current projects include a drive to provide electric heaters, cooking oil and modest Christmas presents to the abandoned Christians of Iraq and Syria.

·    Samaritan’s Purse is a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. Over 3.2 million Iraqis have been displaced since January 2014 — the majority were forced to flee in the wake of ISIS advances. Many escaped with little but the clothes on their backs. As ISIS fighters remain in control of large swaths of their country, families are seeking refuge in tent camps and unfinished buildings, relying on the generosity and hospitality of local Christian hosts and international support. Samaritan’s Purse staff in northern Iraq have been helping these suffering families for over a year by supplying food, shelter, clean water, winter clothes, and more. It also supports local ministry partners throughout the region as they provide physical relief in Jesus’ Name.

·    Aid to the Church in Need was born out of the ashes of World War II in 1947 when a young Norbertine priest named Father Werenfried van Straaten — whose name means “Warrior for Peace” — set out to meet the material and spiritual needs of homeless and dispossessed victims of the war. Since 2008, in the Middle East, ACN has worked to counter the persecution and killing of Catholics (especially clergy and nuns) by Islamic fundamentalists, and is reaching out to the millions of displaced persons in Iraq, and other countries in the region.

·    The Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, was founded by Anglican Canon Andrew White, who was dubbed by media the “Vicar of Baghdad” for his years of courageous service as a pastor and leader to the besieged Christians of that city. In just one of its projects, the Foundation has helped turn a former British military base into a new home for internally displaced Iraqi Christians. Tents that were once used by the British Army at Camp Bastian in Afghanistan will now provide winter shelter for approximately 600 Iraqi men, women and children, many of whom were forced to flee their homes by Islamic State militants. It is estimated that approximately 200,000 Iraqi Christians fled their homes last summer, escaping to the relative safety of north east Iraq. However, the vast majority have no proper shelter, regular food, or access to medical care. FRRME’s team on the ground, led by Dr Sarah Ahmed, has been providing vital relief for many of these people. The new camp, which is near Semele in the Dohuk region of Iraq, has been named ‘Sawra Village’ (Sawra means ‘Hope’ in Assyrian) and will comprise of 26 heated tents, three diesel generators, washing machines, showers, toilets, and a tent which will be used as a church.