Development

Chaldean bishop’s stance favoring Christian refugees sparks response

“Last month, Bishop Francis Kalabat, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church for Michigan, testified in front of a U.S. House subcommittee, where he panned the Obama administration for ignoring the suffering of Christian refugees displaced by war in Syria and Iraq, proclaiming that the U.S. should prioritize its refugee programs by focusing on resettling Christians.”

“The remarks have left some local Muslim leaders unsettled, causing another road bump in what some perceive to be a shaky relationship between the Muslim and Chaldean community in metro Detroit over the last year.”

According to Kalabat, the U.S. should do more to protect and resettle Christian refugees.

“There are countless Christian villages in Syria that have been taken over by ISIS and have encountered genocide,” Kalabat said. “And the Obama administration refuses to recognize their plight. … I say, shame on you.”

He went on to argue that since Christians in the Middle East have not been involved in any of terrorist activities, they should be granted easy access to the U.S.

“Christians have not been part of any terrorist activity, but instead have been the targets of terrorist activities,” he said. “And now they are being looked at as possible terrorists. This is simply unfair.”

As for what to do with innocent Muslim refugees, Kalabat suggested that perhaps they should just resettle in other Middle Eastern countries.

“Here’s my point, where is the best place for a Muslim-Syrian refugee to settle?” he asked. “Kuwait or Germany? Saudi Arabia or Canada? Qatar or America? My point (is) it is much easier for an Arab refugee to start over in a country where the language is the same, the culture is similar and the official religion of that country is the same.”

http://english.ankawa.com/?p=16397

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3 replies »

  1. Bishop Francis Kalabat is a truth teller. This is Christianity´s last stand. The largely forgotten destruction of the tiny St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church on 9/11 when the Twin Towers fell was a powerful sign to the world that Eastern Christianity is first victim to and bears the lion share of persecution from Islam. Now Islam is waging asymmetric warfare worldwide. Western World could we please wake up and ponder history and the Gospel to help our Christian brothers and sisters in the Middle East through a sensible refugee resettlement process. Bishop Kalabat offers the only sensible resettlement policy outline.

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