Iraqi Christians' Dilemma: Go or Stay and Fight

Fadwa Rabban stayed in Baghdad after the 2003 U.S. invasion, and after her husband died in 2005. She stayed after a nearby blast blew out the windows of her home, and after friends and relatives left as Christians like herself increasingly became the target of Islamic militants. One Sunday in 2010, she went to church for a morning service with her son and daughter. That evening, the church was attacked by Islamic militants, leaving 58 dead.

"After that, I couldn't stay," said Ms. Rabban, 49 years old. In late 2012, she finally moved to Michigan with her children, joining a growing contingent of Iraqi Christians, known as Chaldeans or Assyrians, fleeing an intensifying campaign against religious minorities in Iraq.

As America again gears up for deeper military involvement in the Middle East, many Chaldeans are engaged in a fateful debate: Either get as many people out of Iraq as possible to safe havens, such as the United States, or stay and fight, possibly with U.S. help.

Iraq's minority groups, including Christians, are more vocally pressing the Iraqi central government to set up militias to protect from Islamic militants. The militias would be part of a U.S.-backed plan for a national guard, but has met with resistance from Iraq's government which fears militias may further destabilize the fragile country.

[...]

... "The priests and bishops told us, 'Please don't leave, this is our country.' They are right we should be there," said Ms. Rabban, who now lives in western Michigan. "But what can we do when someone comes to threaten you? When someone comes to kill you?"

Some Iraqis are asking Mark Arabo, a Chaldean-

American activist, for help. 

Stuart Palley for The Wall Street Journal

Ms. Rabban and many other Iraqis are turning to Mark Arabo, an Chaldean-American activist in San Diego, for help getting relatives out of Iraq.

Mr. Arabo, the 31-year-old head of a local grocers' association in the area's Iraqi immigrant hub, is working with the Chaldean Catholic Bishop in San Diego to collect names of Iraqis trying to flee. So far, the list has 70,000 names, he says. Ms. Rabban's brother, Luay, is number 1,271. But Mr. Arabo and others say they are dismayed by the lack of support for emigration from religious leaders back home.

"My biggest obstacle is our Patriarch in Iraq," Mr. Arabo said.

The Chaldean Catholic Patriarch, Louis Raphael Sako, "does not think emigration is the solution," said Bishop Emeritus Ibrahim N. Ibrahim, the Patriarch's representative in the U.S. "We don't want to empty the Middle East of Christians."

Instead, the Patriarch and some Iraqi Christians in the U.S. support sending or creating an armed security force to forge a safe haven for religious minorities within Iraq. ...

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