Hakim, the head of the National Wisdom Movement, said during Rudaw’s Bestoon Talk program on May 9 that he had told several foreign diplomats that one of the incentives for Iraq’s Christians to leave the country is European countries’ easy migration policies for them.
“I personally spoke with many ambassadors and told them that I understand their good intentions when they open the doors of their countries to the Christians and tell them ‘Go ahead. We will give you immigration.’ This is not how you should help them,” Hakim said.
He added that the migration of each Christian from Iraq is a “loss” for the country.
“These incentives and opportunities provided in European and other countries, along with difficult circumstances in the country, prompted many to move,” he noted, referring to years of insecurity in Iraq after the Islamic State (ISIS) seized swathes of Iraqi territory in 2014.
Iraq’s Christian community has been devastated in the past two decades. Following the US-led invasion in 2003, sectarian warfare prompted followers of Iraq’s multiple Christian denominations to flee, and attacks by ISIS in 2014 hit minority communities especially hard.
Fewer than 300,000 Christians remain in Iraq today, according to data obtained by Rudaw English from Erbil's Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Matti Warda in 2022.
Basra province was once home to a significant Christian minority, with over 7,000 families calling it home. That number has significantly dwindled to 350, according to data from the Basra Churches Council.
“There is no doubt that the difficult security conditions that occurred in Iraq and some extremist ideas and wrong behaviors here or there all contributed, as did the opportunities available to the Christian component outside Iraq,” Hakim said.
He feared that many Christians who leave the country might only return as tourists in the future because they will establish a new life in Western countries.
“The Christian component and all other components represent a qualitative addition to the Iraqi bouquet of roses. Therefore, I am not one of those who agree with the term religious minorities, and when we talk to citizens belonging to religions and nationalities, the talk here is not about number, but rather about type and qualitative addition, and every component is a rose,” the Shiite cleric said.
“Today, Iraqi Christians are our bridge to the Christian world,” he stressed.
