ASIA/IRAQ - Chaldean Patriarch: the selective reception of migrants based on religion announced by Trump is "a trap for Christians"

Monday, 30 January 2017 geopolitics religious minorities discrimination migrants oriental churches middle east

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IRAQ

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Baghdad (Agenzia Fides) - The option foreshadowed by US President Donald Trump to maintain a "fast track" open for Christian refugees to enter the US, while the doors are closed to citizens of seven countries with a Muslim majority, is "a trap for Christians in the Middle East". This was underlined by Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako, Primate of the Eastern Catholic Church. "Every reception policy that discriminates the persecuted and suffering on religious grounds", explains Patriarch Louis Raphael "ultimately harms the Christians of the East, because among other things provides arguments to all propaganda and prejudice that attack native Christian communities of the Middle East as 'foreign bodies', groups supported and defended by Western powers. These discriminating choices", adds the Primate of the Chaldean Church "create and feed tensions with our Muslim fellow citizens. Those who seek help do not need to be divided according to religious labels. And we do not want privileges. This is what the Gospel teaches, and what Pope Francis pointed out, who welcomed refugees in Rome who fled from the Middle East, both Christians and Muslims without distinction". (GV) (Agenzia Fides 30/01/2017)