Support the Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act (S. 1651)

With more than 2 million Iraqis having fled their country and another 2 million displaced within, the feeling of insecurity and instability there is pervasive.  Whether Sunni or Shi`ite Muslim, or Christian, Iraq’s population of 27 million yearns for the day when calm and peace will prevail.  The Christian population of Iraq, numbering about 1 million in 2003, is an ecumenical community—Catholics are the most numerous comprising roughly two-thirds of the Christian population, but there are also significant Orthodox communities (the Syrian and Armenian Orthodox are the largest), and a small Protestant presence that includes the five-congregation Presbyterian Church of Iraq.  Feeling the same desperation all Iraqis are experiencing, Christians, like others, seek a more hospitable circumstance. They have been leaving at staggering rates. 

Sectarian strife of this degree is a new phenomenon in Iraq, emerging and building over the past four years.  Iraqi Christians and Muslims had enjoyed good relations until this most recent episode in the country’s long history.  While communal conflict has riddled Iraq and affected everyone, the Iraqi Christian population has been a target in part for its assumed association with the West—particularly the United States—and the military campaign it waged which has been a main cause of the instability of the country.