"Christians said Mar Delly are persecuted in a country where everyone fights for their personal interests. They have always lived in Iraq and they have done all they could to contribute to its development, working with love and self-sacrifice along with the Muslim brothers, because they are, like them, the children of Iraq, not foreigners". The Patriarch spoke of "internal" persecution, that is, the "persecution by their own brothers who are driving them out of their homes and lands, and which all those who are in power and who have done nothing and are doing nothing to stop such a tragedy are responsible for", and an external one, which instead "affects the dignity of the Iraqi people, whose mosques, churches and institutions have been destroyed or occupied, with no respect for faith". In this respect, Mar Delly expressed his disapproval of the conversion of the Babel College in Baghdad into a US military base. For these reasons, he repeated that "the time has come to claim the rights that are owed to the Christians. Those who are in power and are aware of the sufferings of the Christian Iraqis should do something. Everyone must recognise that the Christians are the children of the land of Iraq and those who are in power have a duty to help them, put an end to their tragedy, must take action and not stay there, doing nothing and looking at what is happening under everyone’s eyes: the Christians threatened, driven out, killed".
