Many Americans died to free Iraq — but some Iraqis are not yet free.
On November 12, the very day the U.S. joined the military coalition Operation Free Sinjar against ISIS, Iraq enacted a law that will further victimize religious minorities, who have already endured horrific atrocities as the victims of ISIS genocide.
The National Card law’s Article 26 states: “Children shall follow the religion of a parent converted to Islam.” This applies to children if their mother marries a Muslim man or if either parent converts to Islam.
Leaders representing the Assyrian, Yezidi, Mandean, Kakai, and Bahai religions suggested this logical addition: “Minors will keep their current religion until the completion of 18 years of age; then they have the right to choose their religion.” These religious leaders walked out of Parliament in protest after Article 26 was passed without their change, 137 to 51.
This new law imposes an extra burden on Yezidi and Christian girls and women who were forced to “marry” their ISIS captors and became pregnant. Are we going to allow them to be victimized yet again by requiring their children to adopt a religion that is not their own?
Even if parents basically ignore the law and raise their child in their faith, upon turning 18 these young adults will have to deal with the fact that their religion is officially listed as Islam. If they attempt to change that listing, they will be accused of apostasy and be subject to persecution or worse.
But objectionable though this is, why should the United States be obligated to intervene?
Article II of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted in 1948, defines genocide as follows:
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Forcing a Yezidi or Christian woman to raise her child as a Muslim is “forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” The Iraqi government is continuing the genocide started by ISIS. The United States and the international community cannot stand by quietly and allow this to continue.
#share#With the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum having just announced its finding that the violence by ISIS fits the definition of genocide, there are whispers that the U.S. government is about to make the same declaration. If that is the case, then we have an even greater responsibility to protect vulnerable religious minorities from further exploitation — whether at the hands of a terrorist organization or of their own government.
It is interesting that Article 26 is taken entirely from a clause in the 1972 Iraqi Constitution. Furthermore, it contradicts parts of the current constitution, notably Article 37, which says, “the State shall guarantee the protection of the individual from political and religious coercion.”
While there has been virtually no international press coverage of this new law, there is outrage throughout Iraq. Protests in Baghdad and Erbil have included Muslims who believe in religious freedom.
Leaders of religious minorities are currently considering different options and will likely call on Parliament to repeal the new act. They have signaled that they may appeal to the United Nations Human Rights Council, but that is more symbolic and likely won’t change their circumstances.
Iraqi religious minorities will continue to be victimized unless we stand with them and demand religious freedom.
Iraqi religious minorities will continue to be victimized unless we stand with them and demand religious freedom. We sacrificed the precious lives of many young Americans to secure their freedom; let’s demand that all Iraqis enjoy that freedom.
With Sinjar now liberated, I believe that the Yezidis will one day be able to go back and rebuild their community, although with much grieving for all they have lost. I pray for the day that Christians can go back to Mosul to do the same. When they do, I want them to be able to raise their children with true religious freedom. Let’s not stay silent. Demand that the Iraqi government repeal Article 26.