Iraqi Christians who backed the candidacy of Donald Trump have become disillusioned with his presidency since his executive order barred Iraqis, along with citizens of six other Muslim-majority countries, from entering the US.
Many Iraqi minorities supported Trump because of his anti-Islamic State rhetoric.
The Assyrian Church of the East’s Fr. Emanuel Youkhana, in the Iraqi Kurdistan city of Dohuk, lamented that Assyrians, who represent many of Iraq’s Christians, “live [with] this illusion of a saviour” because of traumatic persecution over the last century.
He rejected the idea that the ban is Islamophobic and accused some Western nations of being “naïve” in their efforts to address Islamist-linked terrorism.
However, he said he did not believe Western nations should welcome large numbers of Iraqi Christians. Failing to enable Christians to live in Iraq would amount to “completing the unfinished mission of IS,” he said.