Kerry Declares "Genocide" By ISIS Against Religious Minorities

Since 2014, local Iraqi Chaldean leaders have been speaking out and urging the U.S. to take action to halt what they termed “genocide” committed by ISIS against religious minorities including Christians, Yezidis, and others. On Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry made a formal declaration that ISIS (also known as ISIL or Daesh) has committed genocide against religious minorities in the Middle East

Read More →

Iraqi Christian Leader Mark Arabo Praises US For Condemning ISIS Atrocities as 'Genocide': 'It's Proof God Answers Prayers'

In a move many Christian groups are calling a "victory," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday declared that the Islamic State terrorist group is committing genocide against Christians and other ancient minority groups in the Middle East. "My purpose in appearing before you today is to assert that in my judgement, Daesh [Arabic acronym for IS] is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control, including Yazidis, Christians and Shia Muslims," Kerry said during a press conference.

Read More →

The Local Side of the Refugee Crisis

I vividly remember the cold. The weather would drop dramatically without notice. I was constantly shivering, lifting my shoulders towards my ears and looking down at my knees, trying to block the wind from my face. The refugees would kindly smile and offer me some tea. With steam rising from the cup, they looked at me intrigued. In broken English, they often asked: Why are you here? I just smiled back. I couldn’t begin to respond, especially when I didn’t really know the answer myself. It was December 2015. I would have a month to figure it out.

Read More →

Iraq's Christians frustrated by US debate over 'genocide'

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday said members of the Islamic State militant group have committed genocide against Christians and other ancient minority groups in the Middle East, though the classification is unlikely to change U.S. policy. Christians; Yezidis, a Kurdish-speaking people who live largely in northern Iraq; and Shia Muslims have fallen victim to ISIS or “Daesh” persecution since militants began seizing control of Syria and Iraq in 2014, Kerry declared.

Read More →

Iraq's Christians frustrated by US debate over 'genocide'

Iraq’s beleaguered Christian community is frustrated and confused by the seemingly semantic debate taking place in Washington, where the Obama administration is trying to determine if their plight adds up to genocide. The U.S. is believed to be close to a decision on whether the atrocities ISIS has committed against Christians and other religious minorities amount to the legally loaded term.

Read More →

San Diego Resident Running 'Underground Railroad' to Help Iraqi Refugees Fleeing ISIS

A San Diego-area nonprofit running an "underground railroad" is trying to save "as many people as possible" from turmoil in Iraq by finding them refuge in Southern California, and it has tens of thousands of Christian Iraqis on its waiting list. Mark Arabo, a first generation Iraqi-American born and raised east of San Diego, founded the Minority Humanitarian Foundation (MHF) in 2014 after he grew tired of waiting for a response from Washington officials to the crisis created by Islamic State militants, he told NBC7 in San Diego.

Read More →

Passages: Former First Lady Nancy Reagan, 94, Remembered by California Leaders

Former First Lady Nancy Reagan, one of the most influential presidential wives in modern times, passed away today at age 94 of congestive heart failure. The actress who often said her life “didn’t begin until I met Ronnie” served as mentor and advisor, taking an active role in the White House when her husband, Ronald Reagan, was president. She also served as First Lady of California when Ronald Reagan was Governor.

Read More →

Credit card fees are speech ...at least until an appeals court says otherwise

It’s late 2014. A young man takes his girlfriend to a Mission Valley yogurt shop. After he decks out a medium cup of vanilla tart with all manner of toppings and his girl opts for a little crumbled graham cracker on her mango sorbet, the couple gets whacked at the counter by a buck-fifty surcharge because they paid with a credit card. That’s in addition to the $7 for froyo.

Read More →

San Diego nonprofit runs 'underground railroad' for Iraqi refugees

We have a lot of work to do. I would like thank all of our supporters. But I would like to respond to those that may oppose our stance on how to save Christianity: who are we to tell a child they must be a martyr? Who are we decide the fate of a mother left to rot in a refugee camp. We must save them, and we must save Christianity. Join Minority Humanitarian Foundation to follow our journey, and create change for the better in middle east and in our own homes.

Read More →

‘Underground railroad’ helping Iraqi refugees in California

A Southern California nonprofit is running an “underground railroad” to assist Chaldean Catholics fleeing the turmoil in Iraq, its founder says. Mark Arabo, a first-generation Iraqi-American, founded the Minority Humanitarian Foundation out of impatience with Washington’s inability to deal with the crisis created by Islamic State militants, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Saturday.

Read More →

Iraqi Christians held for months by ICE after crossing Mexican border in asylum bid

Just a few miles from the U.S.-Mexican border, the descendants of one of the oldest Christian communities in the world wait to be delivered from purgatory -- and live in fear of being returned to hell.Just a few miles from the U.S.-Mexican border, the descendants of one of the oldest Christian communities in the world wait to be delivered from purgatory -- and live in fear of being returned to hell.

Read More →

Protests over detention of Iraqi Christian refugees in San Diego

Members of the Chaldean Catholic community in San Diego have been protesting the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detention of 27 Iraqi Christians at a privately-run detention facility since February. The refugees, who have fled from the Islamic State, have been detained as the US government processes their asylum requests. All of the refugees have family members in San Diego, according to the protestors' spokesman, Mark Arabo.

Read More →

Illegal food carts threatening business, health

The owners of several local San Diego markets claim more illegal food vendors are popping up, and their target customers are school kids.

Read More →

Don’t Criticize Arabo, Get Behind Him

As the first Chaldean Christian to hold public office in the United States, I can say that the current crises we face in both El Cajon and throughout the Middle East are not new challenges to our people. For generations we have been plagued by persecution, by non-inclusiveness and by an identity crisis that resonates today.

Read More →

Local Iraqi-American Christians hopeful White House will save Christians being persecuted by ISIS

Thousands of displaced Iraqis, many of them Christians, are running from ISIS as the Islamic extremist terror group eyes Baghdad. Here in San Diego growing frustration for the many Iraqi-Americans with family there, praying the White House will take action before ISIS wipes them out.

Read More →

Local Iraqi-American Christians hopeful White House will save Christians being persecuted by ISIS

Thousands of displaced Iraqis, many of them Christians, are running from ISIS as the Islamic extremist terror group eyes Baghdad. Here in San Diego growing frustration for the many Iraqi-Americans with family there, praying the White House will take action before ISIS wipes them out.

Read More →

Faith turns Christians into terrorist targets

The number of Christians in Iraq has plummeted -- from 1.5 million some 20 years ago to some 300,000 today, according to estimates from CAPNI, the largest Christian relief organization in northern Iraq. ISIS isn't the only reason for this drop, but it certainly is a big one. The militant group has been brazen in its onslaught in Iraq as well as Syria, with Christians among its targets.

Read More →

Local Chaldean Leader Produces List of 70000 People Wanting to be Rescued

Mark Arabo has been meeting with members of Congress and the administration since ISIS began capturing and killing people in march of last year. But on his latest trip to Washington, just last week, he brought something with him he hopes will be a game-changer. "It has been my best tool I could have in Washington," Arabo said. He was referring to a large binder, a binder full of names.

Read More →

Members of San Diego Jewish community gather for Holocaust Commemoration

As they paid their respects to the 6 million Jews who were killed, they included the plight of Christians being massacred, slaughtered and terrorized by groups like ISIS in the Middle East and other parts of the world who want religious freedom. Local Iraqi Christian Leader Mark Arabo has made numerous trips to the White to help get persecuted Christians out of Iraq before they are murdered.

Read More →

Resurrecting Christianity in the Middle East

Easter for Christians throughout the world is a time to celebrate the salvation of Jesus and those who follow in his teachings. Oftentimes though, in celebration of triumph, we forget those unable to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Christians of the Middle East continue to be plagued by the threat of their own extermination by ISIS. The genocide of religious minorities within Iraq and Syria persists with widespread killings, beheadings, mass abductions, targeted displacements and a vile attempt to wipe out the history of an ancient people.

Read More →

San Diego Chaldean Leader Pushes For Iraq, Syria Refugee Bill

Two San Diego County congressmen introduced a bill in Congress this week to make it easier for religious minorities in Iraq and Syria to apply for U.S. refugee status. The bipartisan bill, Protecting Religious Minorities Persecuted by ISIS Act, would allow those whose lives are threatened by the self-proclaimed Islamic State terror group to apply directly to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program with a stamp of priority. It was introduced by Reps. Duncan Hunter and Juan Vargas.

Read More →

San Diego Chaldean Leader Pushes For Iraq, Syria Refugee Bill

Two San Diego County congressmen introduced a bill in Congress this week to make it easier for religious minorities in Iraq and Syria to apply for U.S. refugee status. The bipartisan bill, Protecting Religious Minorities Persecuted by ISIS Act, would allow those whose lives are threatened by the self-proclaimed Islamic State terror group to apply directly to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program with a stamp of priority. It was introduced by Reps. Duncan Hunter and Juan Vargas.

Read More →

The Real War on Christianity Iraq Syria Islamic State

Last August, President Barack Obama signed off on legislation creating a special envoy charged with aiding the ancient Christian communities and other beleaguered religious minorities being targeted by the Islamic State. The bill was a modest one — the new position was given a budget of just $1 million — and the White House quietly announced the signing in a late-afternoon press release that lumped it in with an array of other low-profile legislation. Neither Obama nor any prominent lawmakers made any explicit public reference to the bill.

Read More →

Militants Claim Beheading of 21 Coptic Christians

A video purporting to show the mass beheading of Coptic Christian hostages was released Sunday by militants in Libya affiliated with the Islamic State. The killings raise the possibility that the Islamic militant group — which controls about a third of Syria and Iraq in a self-declared caliphate — has established a direct affiliate less than 500 miles from the southern tip of Italy. One of the militants in the video makes direct reference to that possibility, saying the group now plans to “conquer Rome.”

Read More →

Pope rules Chaldean Catholic priest can stay in San Diego

The future of three local Chaldean priests and seven others in the western United States is once again in limbo. Last October, the priests were ordered by the Chaldean patriarch of Iraq to return to Iraq. Then last week Pope Francis stepped in and suspended that order. But this weekend, a shocking new order from the Chaldean patriarch. "At first we thought it was a joke," said local Chaldean leader Mark Arabo. But it was no joke. In an interview with a Rome-based Catholic news agency, Patriarch Raphael Luis Sako said the survival of the church in Iraq is at stake because of the threat from ISIS. Sako said that if a future exists for the Chaldean church, priests must return to serve the people.

Read More →

Planned Target a hard lesson for South Park

SAN DIEGO - In a landmark decision, Pope Francis has ruled that a priest who is part of the San Diego Iraqi Christian community will not have to return to Iraq. The Pope this week overturned a decree that would have sent Father Noel Gorgis of the St. Peters Chaldean Church in El Cajon back to Iraq.

Read More →

Help for Religious Minorities in Iraq Remains Urgent

The horrific persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq continues. Tens of thousands have been forced from their homes by the merciless Islamic State in northern Iraq. Untold numbers of Christian and Yazidi women have been enslaved or raped, men simply killed. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi issued a Christmas Eve message urging Christians to stay, but there are few places in Iraq where they are safe. On Christmas, the churches of Baghdad were said to be largely empty.

Read More →

SD Leaders Want Body Cameras for All Police

As demonstrations raged across the nation over a New York grand jury’s decision not to indict a white New York police officer over a chokehold maneuver that killed a black man during an arrest, San Diego leaders are looking to propose new legislation in Washington, D.C. that would require all officers to wear body cameras.

Read More →

Local Leaders Headed to Washington DC to Demand Congress Mandate Body Cameras for All Police Nationwide

Protests were staged around the country Thursday evening after the grand jury's decision not to charge a New York police officer who used a choke hold on a man, a move that killed the man. Here in San Diego, local leaders are coming together to demand one big change they said will build trust between police and minority communities - that police wear body cameras. Thursday's biggest protests were in New York City, where thousands streamed onto the Brooklyn Bridge, shutting down traffic in one direction for a time. And details from Officer Daniel Panteleo's testimony before the grand jury are now coming to light. Panteleo admitted he heard Eric Garner saying he couldn't breathe.

Read More →

Voices in the Immigration Debate

Not all of the people affected by President Barack Obama’s executive order are from countries south of the border. For 12 years, Nesreen Daud, 45, an immigrant from Iraq, has found herself in the kind of frightening situation that people who are immigrating either know too well or constantly fear: a paperwork discrepancy dashed her hopes of legal residency. The mistake, a wording error by an attorney, happened when she and her family entered the United States. As a result, she and her husband were denied green cards, switching them from the side of the millions of lawful residents to the side of the millions living here illegally, she said. Read More →

Local Chaldean Family Says They are Relieved at President Obama's Action on Immigration

One local Chaldean family is breathing a giant sigh of relief after hearing President Obama's speech Thursday. San Diego 6 introduced you to Nesreen Daud and her family last week. Nesreen was facing deportation to Iraq ... until now. Daud and her family walked into the office of local Chaldean leader Mark Arabo last week pleading for help. Daud had received a final judgement from a federal judge ordering her to be deported three days before Christmas. On Thursday night, the family gathered in Arabo's office to watch Obama's speech.

Read More →

Obama to announce immigration plans Thursday

WASHINGTON - Republicans have said it's a move that will poison his relations with the new Congress -- but President Barack Obama is going to go ahead Thursday and announce the steps he will take to protect millions of immigrants who are illegally in the country from deportation.

Read More →

Iraqi Christians' Dilemma: Stay or Go?

The head of Iraq’s Catholic church has suspended nine American priests for leaving their posts in Iraq and is demanding they return to the battle-torn country, according to officials with the San Diego diocese that employs the priests. The order to return from Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako last month comes as the Iraqi Catholic community, known as Chaldeans, faces an existential crisis in Iraq.

Read More →

Priests Who Fled Iraq Suspended; San Diegans Appeal to Vatican

Just 14 priests serve the tens of thousands of Chaldean Catholics who have emigrated from Iraq to the western United States. A church leader in Iraq has suspended seven of those priests, including the Rev. Noel Gorgis in El Cajon. Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako, the head of the church, wants the Iraqi-American priests who fled violence in Iraq to return home or leave the church. San Diego County Chaldeans oppose that and say they will appeal to the Vatican to stop it.

Read More →

Iraqi Christians' Dilemma: Stay or Go?

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...

Read More →

Interrupting genocide, step by step

They went to Washington with high hopes: Persuade lawmakers to help save the persecuted minorities who have been turned out of their homes or suffered far worse fates at the hands of ISIS insurgents. Now an interfaith delegation, led by San Diego’s Chaldean bishop Sarhad Jammo, Chaldean refugee advocate Mark Arabo, and a New York rabbi, is regrouping after the House failed to pass legislation this session to provide assistance.

Read More →

Congressmen pressing for ISIS plan, refugee aid

Trying to save persecuted Iraqis, one name at a time

The difference between a tragedy and a statistic? “Hundreds of thousands of people displaced by ISIS” is a statistic. The story behind the statistic is one lives lost, people pushed out of their homes.

Over the past three weeks, Mark Arabo, an advocate for Iraqi Christians, has sought and assembled names and desperate pleas for help from an estimated 10,000 Iraqi families who have been displaced by ISIS militants. Counting children, Arabo roughly estimated he has about 60,000 names or individual claims of displacement and persecution.

Read More →

North Park assaults prompt more street lights

NORTH PARK — A string of attacks on women in the North Park area has prompted city officials to add more street lighting in the area.

City Council President Todd Gloria showed off two new lights installed at the corners of a community tennis court at Lincoln Avenue and Idaho Street Friday, and said 23 non-working lights were being fixed. “We are doing absolutely everything we can to catch the suspect and ensure public safety,” Gloria told reporters while standing near the tennis courts.

Read More →

Christian Iraqi Leader Mark Arabo Hopes America Saves Persecuted Refugees From ISIS

The day the statue of Saddam Hussein was torn down in Baghdad’s Firdos Square in April 2003 — a day that was the basis for some of the most iconic and debated images of the war in Iraq — Sam, an Iraqi Christian who had a job at a barber shop just down the street from all of the action, skipped work.

“I saw everything with my eyes. I was there,” he said. Like many Iraqis, he saw promise in the falling statue, and initially things were more or less OK. Even with the church bombings, the ransom kidnappings, the faith-based killings, the sectarian fighting between Shiite and Sunni militias, and the...

Read More →

Christian Iraqi Leader Mark Arabo Hopes America Saves Persecuted Refugees From ISIS

Mark Arabo, a Christian Iraqi-American man living in San Diego, is urging the US government to help save Iraqi Christians and other religious outcasts being persecuted and massacred during the ISIS genocidal campaign in the Middle East.

"Our nation is one specially positioned to be viewed as a failure for foreign inaction, and "imperialist" for our willingness to act. I tend to view our foreign role as a nation of great power, blessed with a moral obligation to enact change on a global scale," said Arabo said in a testimonial he released on his blog earlier this month.

Read More →

Iraqi American leader in San Diego calls for rescue of Christians

A leader in the Iraqi community in eastern San Diego County is redoubling his efforts to rescue Iraqi Christians and other religious minorities facing slaughter by Sunni militants of the Islamic State.

Mark Arabo had earlier petitioned the White House to take military action to stop the militants from killing Christians and others as they attempt to form a caliphate in Syria and northern Iraq.

Watch More →

Who Will Stand Up for the Christians?

Efforts to fast-track Iraqi Christian refugees for resettlement in San Diego County and elsewhere in the United States are expected to pick up steam when Congress reconvenes early next month. Local Chaldean Catholics are working with the office of Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, on legislation that is expected to have the backing of the county’s four other House members.

Read More →

Inside the Asylum Process That Could Bring More Iraqis to San Diego County

San Diego County is home to about 80,000 Iraqis and it could begin to see more. Eight weeks ago, El Cajon’s Mark Arabo began hearing from the local Chaldean community that their relatives back home in Iraq were being displaced or violently killed by Islamic State, or ISIS, militants. The extremist group is targeting religious minorities, including Chaldean Catholics, in a brutal offensive aimed at establishing a Muslim state across Syria and Iraq. Arabo, a member of the Chaldean Church and president of a local group that represents predominantly immigrant convenience store owners, wants Iraqi minorities airlifted from the country and set on a quick path to asylum.

Read More →

Chaldeans Demonstrate in CA Over ISIS Call For Un Intervention

Hundreds of Chaldeans came out Tuesday night in El Cajon, California in an organized demonstration advocating for the United Nations, United States, and other countries to intervene in Iraq over actions of the terrorist group ISIS.

Part of the evening’s events included a “Peace Walk” that ended at El Cajon’s Centennial Plaza, where speakers took the stage to address the crowd. Two of those involved spoke with Breitbart News after the event concluded.

Read More →

Local Iraqi Christians walk to end genocide in Iraq

EL CAJON, Calif. - Hundreds of local Iraqi Christians took part in a peace walk in El Cajon on Tuesday to end the genocide in Iraq. The walk was led by local Chaldean leader Mark Arabo, an advocate for fellow Iraqi Christians being persecuted by Islamic State militants. It went from St. Michael Chaldean Church to the El Cajon Centennial Plaza.

Watch More →

Who Will Stand Up for the Christians?

WHY is the world silent while Christians are being slaughtered in the Middle East and Africa? In Europe and in the United States, we have witnessed demonstrations over the tragic deaths of Palestinians who have been used as human shields by Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls Gaza. The United Nations has held inquiries and focuses its anger on Israel for defending itself against that same terrorist organization. But the barbarous slaughter of thousands upon thousands of Christians is met with relative indifference.

Read More →

Local Chaldean leader reacts to Obama announcement on airstrikes in Iraq

SAN DIEGO - A local Chaldean leader who led a coalition during talks with the White House described the hope and tears of joy the San Diego Chaldean community shed when President Barack Obama announced the U.S. would be willing to launch airstrikes to protect threatened communities in Iraq.

Watch More →

Iraqi community leader praises Obama for action against Sunni militants

A leader in eastern San Diego County's large Iraqi community immediately hailed President Obama's decision to order a humanitarian mission to support the endangered members of the Yazidi religious minority and to authorize airstrikes if Islamic militants threaten Americans and others in the Kurdish capital of Irbil in northern Iraq.

"This is a step in the right direction for our global community," said Mark Arabo. "We commend President Obama for referring to this massacre as a targeted genocide."

Watch More →

S.D. Chaldean to Visit D.C., Urge Drone Strikes in Iraq

A San Diego business leader who sounded the alarm over the persecution of Christians in northern Iraq will travel to Washington this week to meet with top administration officials and ask for targeted drone strikes against ISIS — the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Mark Arabo, CEO of the Neighborhood Market Association, will lead a coalition of people who represent Chaldean Catholics in the Middle East. Arabo is scheduled to meet with National Security Adviser Susan Rice and possibly with Secretary of State John Kerry.

Read More →

Chirstian Persecution in Iraq Felt Here

Separate the undesirables. Spray paint a symbol on their houses. Steal their homes, money and jewelry. Desecrate their holy places. Send them away. Execute the uncooperative.

These scenes may evoke Nazi Germany. In fact, they’re happening in Northern Iraq, according to news reports, images on the Internet, and testimony from displaced Iraqis communicating with relatives in San Diego. Militant extremists affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an al-Qaeda splinter group, have executed or banished Christians who haven’t already fled the region.

The group’s goal is to institute a large and powerful strict Islamic state run by a caliph. In June, the group seized two northern Iraqi cities, Mosul and Tikrit, and began instituting restrictions against the region’s Christians, known as Chaldeans. First they were persecuted, and ultimately they were told to depart or convert.

Read More →

San Diego's Chaldean Community Pushes for Asylum for Iraqi Christians

EL CAJON (CBS 8) - Hundreds of Iraqi-American Christians and their supporters packed the El Cajon Civic Center Friday evening, calling for an end to the brutal violence and merciless oppression that Iraqi Christians are now facing in their homeland.

"Our very community has been rocked to its core," said Chaldean-American leader Mark Arabo, who is also national spokesman of the organization 'Ending Genocide in Iraq'. "Christianity itself faces death throughout Iraq."

Read More →