Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from New York for yielding the time. While the majority of Iraqis are Muslim, there are many communities of religious and ethnic minorities whose history in Iraq goes back thousands of years. This includes Chaldeans, Syriacs, Assyrians, and other Christians, as well as Sabian Mandeans and Yazidis. Since 2003, approximately 2\1/2\ million refugees and asylum seekers have fled Iraq, and millions more have become displaced, forced to flee their homes and neighborhoods because of sectarian violence. In fact, there were approximately 1\1/2\ million Christians in Iraq in 2003, and today there is less than half of that amount. Many of these Iraqis would like nothing more than to return home. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, in 2008, approximately 221,000 Iraqis returned to their home village or neighborhood in Iraq and the vast majority settled into areas where members of their own religious community controlled the neighborhood or local government. Unfortunately, Iraqi religious minorities do not have militia or tribal structures to defend themselves, and they do not receive adequate protection from the police or security forces. Not only does this make the possibility of return nearly impossible for Iraqi religious minorities, it also leaves them particularly vulnerable to violence.…”