AFPD Chairman and CEO Audey Arabo, community activists Afaf Konja and Sam Yono, Chaldean Bishop Frank Kalabat, Bishop Sarhad Jammo among others stand with United Nations Deputy Security-General H.E. Jan Eliasson at the UN headquarters in New York.

DETROIT — A delegation of American Iraqi Christians has been meeting with federal and United Nations officials to encourage humanitarian intervention to protect religious minorities in Iraq from “Islamic State” militants.

The “Islamic State”, a religious extremist organization, formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), has taken over large swathes of lands in eastern Syria and northern Iraq and threatened the existence of religious minorities, mainly Christians and Yazidis. The militant group also views Shi’a Muslims as infidels and does not tolerate dissent from Sunnis in the territories it controls. 

The rise of the “Islamic State” in Iraq prompted  U.S. air strikes against the group. The U.S. Air Force also dropped aid packages to Yazidi families trapped on Mount Sinjar.

Sam Yono, the former chairman of the Chaldean Federation, said the delegation, which includes prominent Iraqi Christians from Michigan, has met with National Security Advisor Susan Rice, White House officials, Speaker of the House John Boehner, several senators and U.S. representatives and UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson.

The diplomatic mission also met representatives from 12 different countries to lobby for an international coalition to come to Iraq’s aid. 

“Many of the officials we spoke to were out of touch with what’s happening in Iraq,” Yono said. “The president had a hard time making a decision to intervene, but many of his advisors were sympathetic and supportive.”

Yono described the attacks on minorities in Iraq as a “holocaust” and urged the United Nations to act to stop the bloodshed. 

“I believe help is coming, especially after the beheading of journalist James Foley,” he said. “The world will hit hard against ISIS.”

The lobbying efforts are being organized by Iraqi Christian individuals and backed by the Chaldean Church. 

“We are just a group of individuals trying to help our  suffering brothers and sisters in Iraq,” said Auday Arabo, the CEO of the Associated Food and Petroleum Dealers.

He said the delegation requested safe passage, safe haven and protected areas for religious minorities under attack by the militants. 

“There is a moral obligation to find options for those who want to leave and an opportunity to live for those who want to stay,” he said.

Arabo added that the lobbying efforts have come to fruitfulness, as the White House put out a press release denouncing “the Islamic State’s” crimes after the delegation’s first meeting with federal officials on July 31.

The mission is mostly concerned with the humanitarian situation, not politics, according to Arabo.

“We are looking at the human face of the situation,” he said. “Every day people are dying. We need to solve that first. We all agree that there must be action, intervention to stop this genocide. People can’t be slaughtered in the name of any religion. The God we all believe in does not allow murder. We need to stop the war crimes.”

Both Yono and Arabo said the militant group is an enemy of all Iraqis, not only Christians.

“We are all in this together,” Yono said.

Arabo echoed his comments, describing the Islamic State as a threat to the entire world. “They have slaughtered members of the Muslim community who opposed them,” he said.

Arabo said the 2003 American invasion of Iraq has contributed “directly or indirectly” to the misery of Iraqis, which puts a greater responsibility on the United States to act against the “Islamic State.”

“We don’t know why the U.S. waited so long to intervene,” he said. “Lack of action in Syria, even after 170,000 people were killed, helped ISIS grow. The plight of Iraqi Christians predates ISIS. There were 1.5 million Christians in Iraq before the invasion. Now there are less than 400,000.” 

However, Dr. Hisham Al-Tawil, an Iraqi American art history professor at Henry Ford College, said American intervention cannot solve Iraq’s crisis. According to Al-Tawil, the only way to defeat the “Islamic State” is to restore the Iraqi national identity.

Arabo said that the U.S. Army is bombing certain “Islamic State” military installments, but doesn’t think that’s the solution.

“Iraq is divided with sectarianism and militias,” he told The Arab American News. “Historically speaking, Iraqis always lived together with their differences. The only way to get out of that crisis is to bring back that harmony. Then, intruders, like ISIS, will automatically go away.”

Al-Tawil blamed the division of the Iraqi people, which he said led to the rise of the “Islamic State”, on the U.S. invasion in 2003. He explained that after the invasion, Iraq entered a cycle of revenge between its components. 

“Status quo that Americans left allowed ISIS to dominate northern Iraq,” he said. “The invasion gave power to Shi’a in an unbalanced way. Sunnis felt disadvantaged. They felt they could support anyone who comes to their rescue. The Iraqi government needs to gain back the trust of the Sunni community, not isolate it. As long as sectarianism exists, the crisis will continue. The solution comes from within Iraq. Iraqis have to put their differences aside and be one people loyal to one country, one flag. Then, they can defeat ISIS.” 

Al-Tawil added that the dismissal of the Iraqi army after the invasion left tens of thousands of Iraqis in the north unemployed and disgruntled, which deepened the division of the country and compromised its security.

He said the war in Iraq is not a religious one, although “Islamic State” militants are “slick” in using Islamic symbols. He said the militants’ main enemies are Muslim Shi’a, and they have killed Sunnis who disagree with them.

Al-Tawil questioned the motives of the recent U.S. air strikes, which U.S. officials say are to prevent genocide against religious minorities.

“As far as the American intervention, it is for a reason, he said. “When ISIS started to threaten Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan, they jumped in to protect Kurdistan, not Iraq. Erbil was under the range of ISIS fire. If Erbil had fallen or became under danger, it would affect the whole political picture. If ISIS militants get to Erbil, they’d be close to oil in Kirkuk. ISIS knows what it’s doing. It is selling oil at as much as half the international price. If the U.S. were serious about getting rid of ISIS, it would put boots on the ground and go door to door in Mosul to uproot them.”