Comments from the ground to President Obama’s UN speech
The President of the United States of America on the 24th of September addressed the UN General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York where he highlighted the need to degrade and destroy IS (Islamic State) and similar terrorist organizations.
Directly after the speech I called Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac leaders and refugees in Syria and Iraq. Below, after quotes from the Presidents speech, are comments in italics from people on the ground, from those who are suffering from the ethno-religious cleansing of Iraq and Syria.
“The brutality of terrorists in Syria and Iraq forces us to look into the heart of darkness.”
If anyone understands that darkness, it is the non-Muslims who have lived in Muslim dominated countries. You will never truly understand this, unless you grew up in a Muslim dominated country.
“And we have not confronted forcefully enough the intolerance, sectarianism, and hopelessness that feeds violent extremism in many parts of the globe.”
Thank you Mr President, we really appreciate your help but help us help you. Train and arm the thousands of men of Mosul and the Nineveh Plains in Iraq who have enlisted to protect their ancient homelands by creating an Assyrian unit within the Iraqi army or proposed National Guard.
“For America, the choice is clear. We choose hope over fear. We see the future not as something out of our control, but as something we can shape for the better through concerted and collective effort. We reject fatalism or cynicism when it comes to human affairs; we choose to work for the world as it should be, as our children deserve it to be.”
Assyrians and others that have fled their homes are grateful for USA’s initiative. Please help them realize a prosperous future, shaped through concerted and collective effort. Give them weapons, training and press the Iraqi government to give them their right from the national budget so they can make the Presidents vision a reality. As our Patriarch’s made it clear to the President, they do not care to live on food stamps in Detroit or wash dishes in Sweden. They want to live in the lands they have called home for millennia. As President Obama himself stated, “we cannot allow these communities to be driven from their ancient homelands”
“There is much that must be done to meet the tests of this moment. But today I’d like to focus on two defining questions at the root of many of our challenges– whether the nations here today will be able to renew the purpose of the UN’s founding; and whether we will come together to reject the cancer of violent extremism.”
The UN and USA need to work together to create a safe haven for the minorities of the Nineveh Plains in Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of inhabitants had to flee the cruel violence of IS (Islamic State) and the only sustainable solution is to safely repatriate them to their homes by sending international troops to arm and train the indigenous people of Iraq. The same is true for Syria.
“One hundred years ago, a World War claimed the lives of many millions, proving that with the terrible power of modern weaponry, the cause of an empire leads to the graveyard. It would take another World War to roll back the forces of fascism and racial supremacy, and from this, United Nations need to ensure that no nation can subjugate its neighbours and claim their territory. We believe that right makes might – that bigger nations should not be able to bully smaller ones; that people should be able to choose their own future.”
The genocide against Christians (Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontic Greeks) and Yazidis took place in the Otoman Empire in the shadow of World War I. It is estimated that 2 million people lost their lives to the swords of Jihad (holy war against non-Muslims). Today, they face the same atrocities, the same genocide. They welcome the UN to stop the genocide this time before it’s too late, because now nobody can claim they didn’t know, not you Mr President, and not the members of the UN Security Council. Let Assyrians, Yazidis, and other minorities be able to choose their own future.
“But as we look to the future, one issue risks a cycle of conflict that could derail such progress: and that is the cancer of violent extremism that has ravaged so many parts of the Muslim world.”
This cancer haunts the conscience of every non-Muslim who grew up in a Muslim dominated country, and so it has been for a century. It is eating them up because no matter where they are in the world, even in US, they are reminded of it by their own experience and trauma or by the news they receive from their former homelands.
“With access to technology that allows small groups to do great harm, they have embraced a nightmarish vision that would divide the world into adherents and infidels – killing as many innocent civilians as possible; and employing the most brutal methods to intimidate people within their communities.”
Everyone who has heard your speech and belongs to the above indigenous people are relieved that you have recognized their pain and the blood they have shed for centuries for being seen as trespassers in their own ancestral lands.
“At the same time, we have reaffirmed that the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. Islam teaches peace. Muslims the world over aspire to live with dignity and a sense of justice. And when it comes to America and Islam, there is no us and them – there is only us, because millions of Muslim Americans are part of the fabric of our country.”
Assyrians, other non-Muslims and moderate Muslims are not at war with Islam. They are simply born different and are therefore often viewed as the enemy. Muslims in USA should all condemn the massacres against the people that are suffering this genocide. Show the world that we stand together, united, against ethno-religious cleansing no matter where in the world it takes place.
“This is not simply a matter of words. Collectively, we must take concrete steps to address the danger posed by religiously motivated fanatics, and the trends that fuel their recruitment.”
The recruitment in Iraq, for example, came directly after the fall of Saddam Hussein. For a decade now, Assyrians have been beheaded in front of cameras, for ten years now their women have been kidnapped and raped and their children slaughtered. Why was it so easy to recruit young men to behead and rape others? That’s the question that must be answered to be able to stop more from joining the extremists.
“As an international community, we must meet this challenge with a focus on four areas. First, the terrorist group known as ISIL must be degraded, and ultimately destroyed. This group has terrorized all who they have come across in Iraq and Syria. Mothers, sisters and daughters have been subjected to rape as a weapon of war. Innocent children have been gunned down. Bodies have been dumped in mass graves. Religious minorities have been starved to death. In the most horrific crimes imaginable, innocent human beings have been beheaded, with videos of the atrocity distributed to shock the conscience of the world.”
At last, after hundreds of reports, a man with power, the President of the United States of America, is uttering these words. This has given millions of people hope. The religious and ethnic minorities have been suffering (and are still suffering) from these atrocities for too long. It has to end now and they have to be able to return to their homes safely. If the Nineveh Plains in Iraq (where nearly all Assyrians and other minorities have been forced to flee) is not liberated, IS will take it as an endorsement that they can continue to perpetrate this genocide uncontested.
“No God condones this terror. No grievance justifies these actions. There can be no reasoning – no negotiation – with this brand of evil. The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force. So the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death.”
It is imperative that the minorities be a part of this broad coalition. Pluralism is the very heart and soul of the Iraqi state, and we cannot fail these communities who have been a part of the fabric of the Middle East since the beginning of civilisation.
“In this effort, we do not act alone. Nor do we intend to send U.S. troops to occupy foreign lands. Instead, we will support Iraqis and Syrians fighting to reclaim their communities. We will use our military might in a campaign of air strikes to roll back ISIL. We will train and equip forces fighting against these terrorists on the ground.”
These forces must also contain Christians, such as Assyrians, other non-Muslims minorities including Yazidis and Druze, in addition to other Muslim minorities like Shabaks and Turkomens.
“For we will not succumb to threats; and we will demonstrate that the future belongs to those who build – not those who destroy.”
Assyrians gave the world civilization, and continue to give by being among the elite of society as historians, archaeologists, architects, scientists, engineers, doctors, professors. Should they not be among those who are allowed to build?
“Nowhere is this more necessary than Syria. Together with our partners, America is training and equipping the Syrian opposition to be a counterweight to the terrorists of ISIL and the brutality of the Assad regime. But the only lasting solution to Syria’s civil war is political; an inclusive political transition that responds to the legitimate aspirations of all Syrian citizens, regardless of ethnicity or creed.”
Which opposition? Do not repeat the same mistakes of the past in supporting the former “allies”, who became the al-Nusra brigade and IS. Help train and arm moderate Christians and other minorities who seek freedom from oppression and extermination. Let the people of Syria rid themselves of the occupiers – many, if not most, of the IS members are non-Syrian – and then let Syrians decide their own future.
“Where women are full participants in a country’s politics or economy, societies are more likely to succeed. That’s why we support the participation of women in parliaments and in peace processes; in schools and the economy.”
And that’s why women must be secured a future without oppression and without constitutions that makes them second class citizens. This is a culture that must change. Assyrian and Yazidi women are currently subject to torture and rape by IS militants, as spoils of war. Sex Jihad. These women need to be rescued. Women need to be given the opportunity to succeed in political movements. Those opportunities are greatly diminishing under the current conditions in Iraq and Syria.
