US Amends Funding Bill to Aid Iraq’s Christian Minority

The U.S. House of Representatives has amended a funding bill in order to raise awareness of the plight of Christians in post-war Iraq.

The amendment to the Foreign Relations Authorisation Act urges the Bush administration to join the United States Agency for International Development and to commit funding to the welfare, education and resettlement of Iraq’s Christians, a minority in the mainly Muslim country.

Rep. Anna Eshoo of the District of California, who sponsored the amendment, said: “If a fully functioning and sustainable democracy is to emerge in Iraq, the basic rights and needs of all minority groups must be safeguarded.”

She commented on the 80,000 Iraqi Christians who have left Iraq since the end of Sadam Hussein’s reign, saying “This ongoing exodus is deeply disturbing, and unless action is taken now to address the pressing needs of these indigenous Christians, we may well witness the complete loss of the Iraqi indigenous Christian community.”

The increase in funding for Iraqi Christians comes at a time of increased international concern over protection of religious freedom in the new Iraqi constitution, which may be based on Islamic law or Shari’a.

The President of Iraq Jalal Talabani has promised “Human rights and individual liberties, including religious freedom, will be at the heart of the new Iraq.”