Iraqi Christians Lose Faith in Trump

• Posted In : News
• 0 : comment

Many Iraqi minorities, Christians in particular, supported Donald Trump in his fight for the presidency, especially with his promises to put an end to ISIS and to make those suffering from genocide a priority. However, Trump’s recent executive order that banned immigration for 90 days from seven countries, including Iraq, has left many Iraqis wondering where Trump’s priorities lie.

Al-Monitor sat down with Iraqi Christians to find out their thoughts on the executive order. Rabie Patros Younis, a deacon and Christian community activist in al-Qosh, said: “To be honest, Iraq used to be full of Christians. After 2003, we Christians started to get the idea that we have no place in the region,” referring to the violence that hit religious minorities especially hard after the 2003 US-led invasion.

Younis continued on to say: “We’ve been waiting for someone to come change our reality. Since 2003, it’s only gotten worse… Trump was against extremism. Obama spoke against it, but in eight years, things only got worse. So Trump said he would change that.”

According to al-Monitor, many Iraqi Christians are questioning their support for Trump because the immigration ban leaves Christians in Iraq with one less place to seek out for safety.

“It was just hope. If we feel the situation changing for the better, then we can say, ‘Trump is the right person for the job.’ We’re waiting. Right now we don’t have trust in anybody.”

For another al-Qosh resident, Yosef Qasyanon, Trump’s executive order blocked his departure from Iraq just as he was about to join his family in the US. Qasyanon told al-Monitor: “I went through the visa process! I was hoping to go to America. The process was under the [Special Immigrant Visas for Iraqis] program. But everything has stopped now because of that order.”

Al-Monitor reported:

Qasyanon said that communities were becoming more ethnically segregated, noting that these days he only feels comfortable among fellow Christians from al-Qosh. Threats from jihadist groups like IS, tensions with neighbors, and land seizures in areas under Kurdish control have all contributed to the continuing sense of insecurity among his community.

Although Qasyanon appeared to approve of Trump’s aggressive attitude, his disappointment with Trump’s ban runs deep. “Trump makes things happen,” Qasyanon said, noting that Trump was keeping his promise to push through certain policies during his first days in office. “I had an application, I did an interview, and I had a visa. This isn’t just a ban on Muslims. This is a ban on everyone.”

Qasyanon was resigned when asked whether he would try to appeal his case for travel. He said there was nothing else to do except wait for a change in policy.

As for the Christian community across northern Iraq, Qasyanon remarked that their numbers were dropping precipitously on the Nineveh plain. “You know, we shrank from one and a half million in Iraq to no more than 300,000 now,” he asserted. “It was security that pushed them to go, despite the fact that they had houses, salaries, enough money to put in the bank.”

Qasyanon added, “If the security situation improved, the [Christians] would stay. But ever since Daesh [IS] came, everything has changed.”

To read the rest of the article, click here.

While the Islamic State has been run out of the Nineveh Plain but Kurdish forces and Christian militia forces, these displaced Christians are returning to their homes to find their homes destroyed, churches vandalized and their personal items damaged or stolen.

There is a huge need for disposable diapers in these camps. The inability to wash reusable diapers, or old clothes used as diapers, had led to outbreaks of diseases and illness in children and families in the camps.When ISIS took control of the Nineveh Plain in 2014, Christians were given an ultimatum: convert to Islam, pay a tax, or die by the sword. Many Christians fled their homes taking absolutely nothing with them.

They were forced to leave behind the luxuries they had known and live in basements of abandoned buildings or modified storage containers that aren’t equipped to keep warm during the winter.

The Diapers for Refugees program started when William J. Murray, chairman of Religious Freedom Coalition, met with RFC’s Iraqi ministry partner and asked what the refugees were in most need of. The ministry partner explained how desperately mothers needed diapers for their families. In March of 2016, the Diapers for Refugees program made its first delivery of 160,000 diapers to displaced Christian families. In December 2016, the Diapers for Refugees program reached our goal of delivering 640,000 high quality disposable diapers to Christian families in need. 

For every donation given in February, you will receive a free Nun pin as a gift. Thank you for your support. 

To find out more about the Diapers for Refugees program, click here.

December 2016 Delivery

• Posted In : News
• 0 : comment

Two children pose with diapers given to their family.

In December, the Diapers for Refugees program delivered 160,000 more high-quality disposable diapers to the Ashti 2 refugee camp in Ankawa, Iraq. This marked the final delivery for 2016.

Earlier in 2016, the Diapers for Refugee program set a goal of delivering 640,000 diapers to Christian refugee families that have been ignored by the Islamic-run charities in the Middle East. Through your donations, the program successfully reached its goal.

In each delivery for March, June, September and December, 160,000 high quality diapers were distributed to Iraqi Christian refugee families, for a grand total of 6400,000. Disposable diapers are necessary because of the lack of facilities to clean cloth diapers in the camps. With prayer and help from Christians in the United States the program will continue in 2017.

While the Islamic State has been run out of the Nineveh Plain but Kurdish forces and Christian militia forces, these displaced Christians are returning to their homes to find their homes destroyed, churches vandalized and their personal items damaged or stolen.

William J. Murray stands outside a building in Qaraqosh that had been destroyed by IS militants.

When ISIS took control of the Nineveh Plain in 2014, Christians were given an ultimatum: convert to Islam, pay a tax, or die by the sword. Many Christians fled their homes taking absolutely nothing with them. They were forced to leave behind the luxuries they had known and live in basements of abandoned buildings or modified storage containers that aren’t equipped to keep warm during the winter.

There is a huge need for disposable diapers in these camps. The inability to wash reusable diapers, or old clothes used as diapers, had led to outbreaks of diseases and illness in children and families in the camps.

The Diapers for Refugees program started when William J. Murray, chairman of Religious Freedom Coalition, met with RFC’s Iraqi ministry partner and asked what the refugees were in most need of. The ministry partner explained how desperately mothers needed diapers for their families. In March of 2016, the Diapers for Refugees program made its first delivery of 160,000 diapers to displaced Christian families.

To find out more about the Diapers for Refugees program, click here.

Looking Ahead

• Posted In : News
• 0 : comment

Christians face greater oppression today than under Saddam Hussain. Christian families in areas of Iraq controlled by the Islamic State were forced to flee their homes with infants in their arms and unable to take anything of value with them. These Christians who fled the Nineveh Plain and Mosul have little hope of returning in the near future and need our help. 

While gifts of food and donated clothes are often adequate, the need for diapers has been largely unmet. Some mothers have used donated clothing in place of cloth diapers due to the extreme need. However, the lack of clean water and soap to wash these diapers has led to outbreaks of disease in babies and their families.

The first truckload of diapers in March 2016 gave nearly 300 families a large supply of diapers. The second distribution that took place in June delivered a shipment of 160,000 diapers of different sizes at seven different locations.

The Diapers for Refugees program kicked off its third delivery of 2016 in September. This shipment of diapers was delivered to displaced Christian families in the Ankawa-Erbil area, where we have several distribution sites. Just like the previous deliveries, the diapers were distributed to those with the greatest need. This month’s shipment was delayed due to Dhū al-Ḥijja, a Muslim holiday, causing a delay in the delivery. 

Our goal is to provide high quality disposable diapers to over 300 Christian refugee families every three months in areas where cloth diapers cannot be cleaned and reused.

Since the start of the program nine months ago, we have reached our goal of delivering 640,000 high quality diapers to displaced Christian families in the Middle East. Our 2017 commitment is another 640,000 diapers delivered to displaced Christian refugee families in Northern Iraq.

Currently the Diapers for Refugees program is delivering 160,000 diapers of five different sizes every three months although monthly deliveries are planned funds permitting. The cost of a single shipment is $18,000 or just 11 cents each. As the Diapers for Refugees program is aided at Christians who have been declared victims of genocide by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union. All funds must be privately raised as officially the displaced Iraqi Christians are not considered refugees as long as they still reside in Iraq, even though they have been forced from their homes, have no jobs, and entire families live in single rooms or in tents.

The diaper program has been very uplifting because we are literally changing lives with the program. Babies who were in pain with rashes and open sores, or who had no diapers at all, can now play and sleep in clean safe diapers. The mothers know other Christians care about their families. We would like nothing better than to continue the Diapers for Refugees program and expand it to more displaced Christian families in Iraq. Learn how you can help.

Diapers For Refugees – Update 5-20-16

• Posted In : News
• 0 : comment

We have scheduled the next delivery of diapers in Iraq for June. Right now I can’t release the exact date, as we are still negotiating price and security issues with the supplier. Your prayers are needed. Prices are very volatile in a war time situation. Prices can vary a great deal just based on which roads are open. If a truck that normally takes a two-hour direct route has to travel five or six hours out of the way and have a guard on board, the price can change. If a warehouse cannot be restocked, that causes a change in price as well.

The first week of May the Kurdish forces and allied Christian militias held the line against Islamic State, but the defense was penetrated north of Mosul. Some Islamic State fighters were able to get about 100 miles inside Erbil Province but not into the city. An American special forces fighter, a Navy Seal, was killed in the fighting. If the Islamic State had been able to hold the road they captured, the route for our diaper shipment from Dohuk would be cut off.

The Navy Seal killed was Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Charles Keating IV. This was his third tour of duty in Iraq, and that alone is an indicator of how thin American forces are. President Obama uses Special Warfare fighters where major land forces should be operating. Our men were outnumbered almost ten to one and still managed to kill over 100 of the Islamic State fighters. The shame of Keating’s death is that money from Saudi Arabia and weapons from the United States birthed the ISIL, or Islamic State, to start with.

Please pray for protection of the people of Erbil, and that the road from Dohuk to Erbil is not cut off by the Islamic State again.

Virtually all aid supplied to displaced Christians in Iraq is furnished by Christian groups, while aid from secular organizations goes primarily to Muslims.

William J. Murray, Chairman

Diapers For Refugees – Update 4-22-16

• Posted In : News
• 0 : comment

There are just some things people don’t talk about when it comes to personal sanitation. Diapers for example, are not mentioned much in American culture. Who wants to hear about the dirty diapers of someone else’s kid? In the Middle East diapers are never mentioned, which is why the great need for them among Christian refugee families has been overlooked for so many years.

This is what I found out after learning of the need and investigating further. Mothers are using what are essentially rags for their babies. Anything from cut up old sheets and shirts, to the rags that are sold to polish cars. These are not the absorbent cloth diapers that are made for the purpose, so they often leak. Most of these makeshift diapers are washed out by hand in cold water, many times without any soap. Having a place to dry them can also be a difficult issue.

My first response was to try and supply cloth diapers until the realization hit me that in most cases there was no way to properly wash out the cloth diapers, and children would still get bad rashes and perhaps illness from them. In places where hot water is available we will furnish some cloth diapers, but for now the disposable type are most in need.

More than diapers: There are some other items that are also not talked about publicly but which I discovered are needed, such as women’s sanitary products. (Sorry men, but I just have to mention this.) These are expensive and needed. Also, there are some elderly and disabled people among the refugees, women in particular for some reason, who require adult diapers.

The Diapers for Refugees program is not yet mature. It took three years to build a network in three nations to provide thousands of children with a Christmas program and food for their families. Programs can’t be built overnight. Delivery and distribution has to be ironed out. Once a family is in this program we want to keep them in it until they can afford to buy diapers or the child no longer needs them. We just can’t pass them out willy-nilly. We have begun work on a specific Internet site for the program that will be available at www.Diapers4Refugees.org that will have reports and a photo gallery but that takes time to build as well.

William Murray
Chairman
Religious Freedom Coalition