Iraq’s Christians Pray for Trump
1st November 2024
My visit to Iraq in 2016, right before the U.S. election which produced a Trump victory, was an enlightening experience. ISIS had driven out the Christian population of the region of the Nineveh Plain, where Jonah had preached, into Iraqi Kurdistan in 2014. The refugees were still in camps when I visited, as ISIS had not been defeated. The Christians in Nineveh—mainly Catholic and Orthodox Chaldeans and Syriacs—had lived there for 2,000 years, since disciples of Christ first brought the Christian faith to that land. These people were eager to return to their ancient home, even though it was later discovered that the radical Islamists had destroyed much of their specific culture, especially their churches and Christian imagery. Because of these catastrophes, the U.S. election was on everyone’s mind, even as they struggled to survive.
For the Christians in Iraq and Syria, there was one man they hoped would win: Donald Trump. I still remember a priest from Mosul in one of the camps. ISIS had used his Church as a torture centre: he repeated three times to me, “I love Drump.” They felt abandoned by the Obama administration, and believed that Trump would help them. Every time we asked who they prayed would be the next president, the answer was the same, and it was never Obama.