More than 1,000 Christians gathered on Parliament Hill on Sept. 6 to protest the violent aggression against Christians and other faith minorities in northern Iraq. Their aim was also to demonstrate solidarity with the hundreds of thousands who have been driven from their homes, forced to pay protection money, or killed. Iraqi Christians, who have lived in the region for 2,000 years, once numbered more than a million. But in the last decade their numbers have dropped to fewer than 150,000, with many of them now refugees living in the open air in Syria.
Speakers at the two-hour rally included Ottawa’s Catholic Archbishop, a Protestant minister, a well-known Jewish rabbi (in a written remark), a Muslim Imam, a member of Parliament, and spokespersons for aid groups that are active in the Middle East. All were united in condemning the actions of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) as barbaric and anti-God and all cited the dictum common to their faiths “do to others as you want them to do to you.” In addition to listening to speeches and signing petitions, those assembled sang hymns and said prayers in the shadow of the Peace Tower.
Rabbi Reuven Bulka encouraged Christians by noting that the Jewish people had suffered from genocide attempts for 2,000 years but still exist. “Never give up, never give in,” he declared. Imam Zijad Delic termed ISIS an anti-Islam organization that refuses to accept that the world has changed since medieval times. Rev. Anthony Bailey reminded Christians that love, not force, must be used to improve the situation.
Archbishop Terrence Prendergast and MP Paul Dewar, who had just returned from the region, both called for immediate material aid for the refugees and also for the immigration system to act swiftly to offer refuge to the victims of this violence.
