Etota
My second speech in Brussels Conference which addressed the different challenges of our people in Nineveh Plains. It was hosted in the European Parliament building in Brussels on 28-30 June 2017.
This second speech addressed the background of the situation and the most critical issued to deal with it.
Both of my speeches were not written texts. The following text s written based on the audio record of my speech. Therefore, you may find improper grammar or text structure mistakes.
Good afternoon,
First of all, let me be clear from the beginning, I’m not speaking on behalf or for the Assyrian Church of the East but I’m speaking as a clergy in the church.
Here I’m not representing the church but I’m clergy of the church.
Whereas we all share the same ambition and hope that Daesh (ISIS) will be the last suffering chapter in our countries, but I guess we all agree that it is not the first chapter, we hope it will be the last but surly it is not the first,
We have Sayfo, we have Semele, we have Sorya we have Anfal.
So, to be able having Daesh or ISIS the last chapter in these centuries of persecution, we need to be realistic and recognize some issues.
First of all, let me recall as Iraqi. Iraq after 1958 is not Iraq before 1958, Iraq after 1968 was not Iraq before 1968, Iraq after 2003 was not and is not Iraq before 2003; Now we should be in the same position that Iraq post-Daesh should not be Iraq before Daesh.
So, to achieve that, we need to deal with the environment, constitutional environment, curricula environment, cultural environment, social environment that created and hosted Daesh.
Daesh is not a cyber creation, Daesh didn’t came for the moon or from Mars. They are form there and they were existing before this appearance as in military form in summer 2014.
So, we need to study and analyze transparently and honestly.
One of the biggest problems of our communities is that we don’t have critical thinking; always we introduce ourselves as a holly people and that the devil is coming from outside.
No. Sorry sir, the devil is inside, in our society, in our constitution, in our curriculum.
Daesh is the creation and the outcome of the Iraqi constitution.
Iraqi constitution is not a constitution of a citizenship state, Iraqi constitution is giving super status for a certain religion, and consequently of that we are considered the second class as “Dhimis”.
Dhimitute status for us, is in the constitution, regardless how it’s shaped.
But this is the real meaning for the Iraqi constitution
The curriculum; do you ever know we in Iraq, we have 4 different non-Muslim minorities who do exist in Iraq before the Islamic and Arabic invasion came to Iraq. I’m referring to Jewish, Mandaeans, Yazidis and of course Christians; but do you ever know that the Iraqi child attend the primary school and graduate the high school, university and become a minister or a member of Parliament and in all his school curriculum there is no single paragraph, I’m not speaking chapters, referring to those four; So no wonder that Mr. Al- Maliki, by that time Prime Minister, referred to us in an official statement as “The Christians diaspora الجالية المسيحية”, at that time I replied to him in a an article issued in a newspaper in Baghdad “ Sir, if we are diaspora in Iraq then where is our homeland?”
Then we need to review the hatred speech which we touch in every Friday sermon and in every Islamic mosque or entity. Of course, now we are sharing this global village, the universe became a global village. We are sharing all the same technology, the same economy almost, but we are not sharing the same values.
We need to have plan to prevent the hatred speech. It is the responsibility of the state. I am referring to the Iraqi state, to prevent the hatred speech.
Then; to come with this nice statements, for example “The terror has no religion”; Sorry Sir, yes maybe terror has no religion in terms of the victims of terror, but in my country at least, and in Syria at least, the implementer of terror have religion; The terror implemented in my country have religion, no Yazidi, no Mandean, no Kakaie, no Christian have implanted any terror action and will not.
So, we need to invest, and this is my call upon my Muslim partners, Muslim neighbors, they are part of my life, I love them, I like them, I would like my children to grow up with them, as children sharing the same schools: please, please fight for your religion, free it from this terrorist attacks, you are the Islamic religion over 1 billion population make it free from this terror and violence.
You are and we are all the citizens of this global village.
We need to live together; nice statements are not enough.
The final point, then I will conclude, and I know I’m under the time pressure, is that, again it goes to this nice statement which doesn’t help me , doesn’t help my people: “Yes you are suffering as all Iraqis are suffering”;
Sorry Sir, for me the issue is about death or life, I’m in the last minute, you can’t compare what happened to the Christians Chaldean, Assyrian, Syraic, with what is going on in Basrah or in Nasiriyah or Anbar or elsewhere; first we are not part of this civil sectarian war; second, the outcome of what we are suffering is endangering our existence,
I will end by the statement that we are needed for Iraq and Middle East more than any time before, for 2 thousand years we have been added value for the countries there, we have been bridges between all and for all; now we are needed more, almost all are building walls, we can build bridges, almost all are preaching hatred speech, we can preach peace and love.
This what we did through 2000 years.
It is our mission by God and we don’t want to escape it; We want to keep committed to do it.
Lastly, I need to give one more example: What we know now and we call for it Islamic Christian or Christian Islamic dialogue or debate, do you ever know that this started before 9 centuries in Baghdad!
It was started by that time by my Patriarch Timothy the Great, and his partner was the Caliphate Al-Mahdi!
All over Iraq there are schools dedicated to Al-Mahdi, but no single school is dedicated to Timothy the Great.
So, we are plugged out of the memory of people in the constitution, in the curriculum, in the media; Daesh is practicing in violence and in actions what is been practiced in the constitution and in curriculum.
Thank you!