By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (BosNewsLife)– Hungary has urged the European Union and NATO military alliance to help protect the Christian minority in Iraq as hundreds of thousands of believers are fleeing Islamic State militants.
In a letter, monitored by BosNewsLife Wednesday, August 13, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán asked EU President Herman Van Rompuy “to intervene to protect” Christians in Iraq.
“The Hungarian government is deeply concerned about the brutal violence that threatens the very existence of Iraq’s Christian community,” Orbán wrote in his letter to Van Rompuy, who leads the European Council.
He asked Van Rompuy to include Iraqi Christians on the agenda of the European Council’s next meeting at the end of August.
Orbán’s center-right government also proposed that the situation of Christians in Iraq should be discussed during a NATO meeting this week.
DELIVERING AID
Besides launching a diplomatic initiative, the Hungarian Foreign Ministry will also deliver aid to Iraq, in cooperation with the United States, said Hungarian State Secretary Péter Szijjártó.
It comes amid concern about the ‘Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) group, whose fighters reportedly overran Iraq’s biggest Christian towns Qaraqosh, as well as the Christian towns Tilkaif and Al Kwair in Nineveh Province.
The ISIL published video footage of executions, while militants were also seen pulling down church crosses and burning manuscripts, as part of their self declared campaign to establish a strict Islamic state in areas of Iraq and Syria.
“At least 200,000 Christians are now thought to be fleeing towards the Iraqi Kurdistan region,” aid group Barnabas Fund told BosNewsLife last week.
MORE PERSECUTION
Other religious minorities in Iraq are also suffering, including tens of thousands of members of the Yezidi minority stranded on Mount Sinjar, where many have died, prompting U.S. President Barack Obama to order air strikes.
Hungary, a former Communist country where devoted Christians were persecuted in the past, has made clear it wants to promote religious freedom around the world.
However Orbán’s efforts have been overshadowed by international criticism over his perceived autocratic style and controversial legislation that the EU and United States say threaten the independence of churches, media, courts and central bank.
Orbán’s rightist Fidesz party, which has a two-thirds majority in Parliament, denies wrongdoing saying Hungarian laws are not much different than those in other, Western, nations.
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(BosNewsLife (2004-2014) is the first truly independent news agency covering persecuted Christians. It has been ‘Breaking the News for Compassionate Professionals’ since May 2004).
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