By East County MagazineMiriam Raftery
President Donald Trump’s
sweeping order restricting refugees from
predominantly Muslim countries from entering
the U.S. has been greeted with optimism by
some in San Diego’s Chaldean Christian
community, since Trump has stated on a
Christian broadcasting station that he would
give priority to persecuted Christians,
after a tougher vetting process is
implemented.
Mark Arabo, president of the Minority
Humanitarian Foundation in San Diego, voices
hope that the order could help save lives of
Christians facing death at the hands of ISIS
in the Middle East. An estimated 400,000
Iraqi Christians have fled Iraq and another
80,000 have been killed or tortured, some by
crucifixion and beheadings.
Some have suggested Trump's order could
be unconstitutioal for discriminating
against Muslims.
Arabo, while hopeful to get help for
persecuted Christians, also expressed a wish
for the order to be expanded to protect
other people persecuted by ISIS, regardless
of their faiths.
Trump's order bars all refugees from 11
mostly Muslim nations, including Iraq, for
120 days. But Trump, in an interview with
Christian Broadcasting Network Friday, said
he wants to help Christians fleeing ISIS.
Asked he he would prioritize persecuted
Christians from the Middle East for
admission as refugees, he responded, “Yes.”
Trump said it has been harder for Christians
persecuted and risking slaughter by ISIS to
gain entry to the U.S. than for Muslims,
which he called “very, very unfair…So we are
going to help them.”
“We applaud this shift in policy towards
the persecution of Christians in the Middle
East,” Arabo says. “The Trump Administration
seems to be recognizing the mass toll that
has been taking place on the minority
Christian population in the Middle East over
the years. For us to end this genocide, we
needed to expedite processing for the
religious minorities of the Middle East.”
He adds, that the MHF believes that
“humanity is a bipartisan issue.”
The Minority Humanitarian Foundation has
been a vocal advocate for streamlining
processing for religious minorities since
the rise of ISIS and was successful in
getting former Secretary of State John Kerry
to acknowledge a “genocide” taking place.
Trump’s decision comes on the heels of years
of advocacy from MHF, and the entirety of
the Chaldean Christian community in San
Diego.
In recent years, thousansd of Iraqi
Christians in El Cajon have held rallies and
prayer vigils, pleading for help to save
their relatives and friends. Prominent
leaders of multiple faiths as well as Mayor
Bill Wells have joined local Chaldeans in a
prayer vigil. Local Chaldean church members
have raised money to help displaced refugees
and newly arrived refugee families. Though
not everyone supports bringing more refugees
to East County, where resources have been
stretched thin, some hold out hope that they
may finally be reunited with family members
now in refugee camps or elsewhere.
In an exclusive interview with East
County Magazine, Arabo voiced hope that
Chaldean Christians--and all victims of ISIS
facing religious persecution--could be
spared from the ban on refugees from 11
nations imposed by Trump’s executive order
issued Friday.
He called on the President to take bold
action next.
“In 1975, President Ford airlifted
150,000 Vietnamese during the fall of
Saigon. In the 1990s, President Clinton
stopped ethnic cleansing by saving innocent
Muslims in Bosnia. Now is a moment for
President Trump to be very presidential and
be inspired by Presidents Ford and Clinton
to rescue persecuted people regardless of
whether they are Christian, Muslim or Yazidi….We’re
hoping for a glimmer of light amid the
whirlwind,” he said of Trump’s flurry of
actions that have sent shockwaves around the
world.
Arabo concludes, “This is a moment to
leave the campaign rhetoric and polarization
of words and actions, and really be a
president for all Americans.”