While it has little impact on the Trump Administration, it’s interesting to hear that Iraqi minority Christian religious groups are beginning to lose faith in him, as reported by Sam Kimball for AL Monitor:
Some 12 miles north of al-Qosh, in the Iraqi Kurdistan city of Dahuk, Father Emanuel Youkhana, an Assyrian priest, explained the logic behind many Iraqi Christians’ support for Trump’s candidacy.
“My grandfather survived the [Ottoman] genocide of Assyrians in 1915, in which hundreds of thousands died,” said Youkhana. “My father survived the massacre of Simele [in Iraq] in 1933. Now 100 years later, people like me and my community are trying to survive IS.”
A history of persecution from Ottoman times to the present and the recent wave of violence across Iraq have made local Christians desperate for anyone who appears to have the power to help them. “So of course [the Assyrians] will live this illusion of a savior,” Youkhana said bitterly.
He dismissed the idea that Trump’s executive order is Islamophobic, claiming that Western countries have been hamstrung in their efforts to combat terrorism because of political correctness. “There is naive thinking among Western countries, who are trying to beautify this thing called Islamic terror,” he said. “But in my country, Islamic terrorism has a name.”
Despite the current situation, Youkhana believes that Christians should be helped to stay in Iraq. Facilitating their resettlement elsewhere, he said, would be aiding the sectarian project of extremist militants, who wish to see the country emptied of minority religious groups.
Trump’s preoccupation with domestic affairs is no service to folks in other countries hoping for help from his Administration, and I suppose those who oppose him domestically – which is more than half the United States – are not doing them any short-term favors, either. But it’s hard to prioritize foreign countries when your own country, a bulwark of freedom, is at risk from within in the eyes of so many American citizens. I hope the best for them, as we all try to get through this life, but I fear for the worst. Trump’s few opportunities in the foreign policy arena haven’t been encouraging in any case.
