An Archbishop serving in Iraqi Kurdistan took British church leaders to task for “political correctness” in failing to speak out against Muslim extremism that has driven Christianity “close to extinction” in his nation.
“Friends, we may be facing our end in the land of our ancestors, ”The Most Rev. Bashar Warda, Archbishop of Irbil, said in an address in London. “We acknowledge this. In our end, the entire world faces a moment of truth.
“Will a peaceful and innocent people be allowed to be persecuted and eliminated because of their faith? And, for the sake of not wanting to speak the truth to the persecutors, will the world be complicit in our elimination?”
During his speech, Warda noted that Iraq’s Christian population is down to just 250,000 from 1.5 million—an 83 percent drop—at the time of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the BBC reported.
Warda also warned that those still living in the region are subject to escalating persecution.
“Christianity in Iraq, one of the oldest churches, if not the oldest church in the world, is perilously close to extinction,” he said. “Those of us who remain must be ready to face martyrdom.”
Earlier this year, coalition forces rooted the last remaining terrorist stronghold from Iraq, effectively dismantling the Islamic State, but in its wake remain neighborhood after neighborhood of…
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