26/04/2020

IRAQ: Bethnahrin Patriotic Union demands KRG to call MP Kawa Adbulqadir to account and take appropriate legal measures

ANKAWA ܥܲܢܟܵܒ̣ܵܐ, Iraq – The Bethnahrin Patriotic Union today issued a statement denouncing the words of insult against Christians by the deputy head of the New Generation political party and member of parliament in the Kurdish Region in Iraq Kawa Abdulqadir. Mr. Abdulqadir had expressed his dissatisfaction over the fact that authorities in the Kurdish Region in Iraq demand the same strict adherence to the measures over COVID-19 from mosques as they do from churches.

The deputy head said that government agencies should not equate the majority Muslim houses of worship to the minority Christian houses of worship as this might hurt the feelings of the Muslim majority. The Bethnahrin Patriotic Union in it’s press statement said:

********** PRESS STATEMENT **********

“The statement made by parliamentarian Kawa Abdulqadir is not strange to us. Such statements which insult our Christian belief come up every so often from Iraqi politicians and officials. They are the product of a mentality based on discrimination and the lack of love for nation and inclusiveness.

Such attacks on Christians and their belief are part of a hostile agenda on our indigenous people, even though our people has lived on these lands for thousands of years and helped built the cities of our country of Iraq and has not stopped doing so. This hostile agenda has been going on since the establishment of the country of Iraq in 1921, for which also thousands of Christians gave their lives.

And until the current day we give our lives for Iraq. In the Kurdish Region of Iraq the blood of our Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian martyrs mixed with the blood of martyrs of the other Iraqi peoples. Without this blood of these martyrs, parliamentarian Kawa Abdulqadir would never have been a member of parliament of the Kurdish Region in Iraq.

This attack on Christians is racist and chauvinistic. When Kawa Abdulqar asked why the responsible authorities attach the same value to churches as they do to mosques regarding the corona-measures, Abdulqadir disrespected the laws of the Region, betrayed the dignified position he holds and overturned Law 15, 2015 .

We are very concerned. There is an undermining party among our society. We demand from the parliament and the government of the Kurdish Region in Iraq to call Kawa Adbudlqadir to account and take appropriate measures according to the laws of the Region. We also demand from the authorities to take appropriate measures in all three region of the Kurdish Region in Iraq that such insults will not be accepted and done.