Editorial

A Neighbor’s Safe Haven

Posted

It was a bleak summer for Christians in Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and one of the earliest Christian communities in the Middle East.

In late June, Mosul was overrun by forces of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, and its Christians were given a stark choice: Convert to Islam or be beheaded.

Not surprisingly, most of the city’s thousands of remaining Christians chose to flee their ancient homeland—leaving homes and possessions behind and taking refuge with family members or friends in less troubled parts of the world, if they could.

For those without such options, however, the small, neighboring country of Jordan—with just one-third the population of Iraq—stepped up.

As it has done so many times before during periods of crisis in the Middle East, Jordan, led by King Abdullah II, opened its borders to some 4,000 Iraqi Christians from Mosul for at least one year, offering them safe haven and a chance to catch their breath, so to speak, and regroup.

And for that, the world should be immensely grateful to Jordan, a majority-Muslim country that respects and protects its peace-seeking neighbors when they need help, even if it means adding to the 620,000 Syrian refugees and 30,000 other Iraqis already being sheltered within its borders.

Crucial to the Jordanian effort in Christians’ behalf, however, is the involvement of Caritas, the international Catholic humanitarian organization, and the Christian churches of Jordan. Caritas has been in Jordan for years helping poor Jordanians, displaced Palestinians and others in need.

Both Caritas and the churches pledged to provide for the refugees’ basic needs, and members of Jordan’s small Christian community mobilized to assist in finding shelter—including rooms rented from local people or doubling up with other refugee families in apartments. Churches have provided sanctuary too, opening up parish halls to shelter about 500 people.

Marwan Al Husayni of Jordan’s Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies said in early October that his group was also working alongside Catholic institutions to try to help the Iraqi Christians “live in peace in the current stage until their future is determined.”

He called the Islamic State events “acts of terror.”

“We are trying to show them what is the real Islam, the Jordanian example of coexistence, interfaith harmony and humanity,” the Muslim leader said.

Still, many of the Christian refugees believe it will be difficult to return to Mosul, the center of Northern Iraq’s Christian heartland for more than 1,600 years, and they’re working toward attaining official status as refugees. That would make it easier for them to leave the region completely and resettle in another part of the world.

Pope Francis, meanwhile, has assured the beleaguered Christians that the Church is united in its “desire for peace and stability in the Middle East and the desire to promote the resolution of conflicts through dialogue, reconciliation and political efforts,” and he has offered the Christian communities “the most help possible to support their presence in the region.”

As hundreds of thousands of Christians have been forced to flee because of increased violence, “we cannot resign ourselves to imagining a Middle East without Christians, who for 2,000 years have been professing the name of Jesus,” the pope said Oct. 20.

We can’t imagine such a circumstance either, and we call on all persons of good will to support efforts to reverse this tragic course.