VIDEO: Iraqi Christian Refugee: “The U.S. Has Primary Responsibility to Help Us”
Yohanna Towaya, who lost all his livelihood after ISIS invaded his home town, says Christians and Yazidis prayed for Trump to win the U.S. election and have high hopes he can lead the way in saving them from this crisis.
The United Nations and world governments have “done nothing” to help Iraq’s Christians, but the country's Catholics and other Christians have high hopes that President Trump will be a “savior” of Iraq's vulnerable minorities.
That’s according to Yohanna Towaya, a Syriac Catholic refugee from Qaraqosh, until recently Iraq’s largest Christian city.
A grandfather and wealthy farmer who lost all his livelihood after ISIS invaded Qaraqosh in August 2014, Towaya shares many of the refugees' concerns and observations in this March 20 interview with the Register in Erbil where he lives as an internally displaced person (IDP).
He discusses the lawlessness now present in the towns, why refugees see the U.S. as having primary responsibility among nations to help, and why Iraq's Christians want protection not just for their lives, but also for their rich Christian heritage.
- Keywords:
- christians
- iraq
- isis
- refugees
- yazidis
Edward Pentin Edward Pentin is the Register’s Senior Contributor and EWTN News Vatican Analyst. He began reporting on the Pope and the Vatican with Vatican Radio before moving on to become the Rome correspondent for EWTN's National Catholic Register. He has also reported on the Holy See and the Catholic Church for a number of other publications including Newsweek, Newsmax, Zenit, The Catholic Herald, and The Holy Land Review, a Franciscan publication specializing in the Church and the Middle East. Edward is the author of The Next Pope: The Leading Cardinal Candidates (Sophia Institute Press, 2020) and The Rigging of a Vatican Synod? An Investigation into Alleged Manipulation at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family (Ignatius Press, 2015). Follow him on Twitter at @edwardpentin.
